2023/24 Somerset Chess League Fixtures

Div 2 West Div 3 West
Taunton v Wellington Tues 3rd Oct
Sedgemoor v Taunton Mon 16th Oct
Taunton v Weston Tues 31st Oct Sedgemoor v Taunton Mon 30th Oct
Taunton v Wellington Tues 7th Nov
Glastonbury v Taunton Mon 13th Nov
Taunton v Wells Tues 28th Nov
Yeovil v Taunton Wed 6th Dec
Taunton v Weston Tues 12th Dec
Taunton v Yeovil Tues 9th Jan 2024
Wellington v Taunton Wed 24th Jan
Taunton v Sedgemoor ** Tues 30th Jan 2024
Taunton v Sedgemoor Tues 6th Feb
Taunton v Yeovil Tues 13th Feb
Weston v Taunton Thurs 22nd Feb
Wellington v Taunton Wed 28th Feb
Taunton v Glastonbury Tues 5th Mar
Yeovil v Taunton Wed 20th Mar
Weston v Taunton Thurs 28th Mar
Wells v Taunton Thurs 11th Apr
** may need re-arranging because of KO cup semi-finals

Somerset Knockout Competition

Yeovil v Taunton Wed 22nd Nov
CUP SEMI FINALS                                                   Week of 29 Jan 2024

First 2022/23 Match

The first match of the 2022/23 season on Tuesday 11th Oct starred the Taunton Knights against visitors Yeovil.

The gradings suggested that Taunton would win 2 ½ to 1 ½ but you will have to read on to discover the actual result.

Ioannis on Board 1 unexpectedly lost following a slight miscalculation (blunder?), whilst Richard on Board 2 duly won against his lower graded opponent. Even though you outrank your opponent you still have to play well to win. Well done, Richard.

On Board 4 Mike Ward was easily beaten by an opponent who outgraded him quite significantly so no real shame in losing that one Mike.

On Board 3, Phil who was playing with the Black pieces made a poor start but recovered to finish in an end game with a Rook and Bishop versus White’s Rook.

At one point there seemed to be loads of pawns but the next time I looked they had all gone. I thought this was going to be a draw and we would lose but he played very well and his opponent resigned before an inevitable mate.

2-2 was the final result. Well done everyone. It is great to be back playing OTB matches against other clubs.

And good luck to our Bishops who visit Weston Super Mare on Thursday.

Beware decommissioned oil rigs!

2022/2023 – Division 3 Fixtures / Results

Click here to download a copy of the fixtures for yourselves.
Click  (awaiting link) to see Somerset League Division 3 results so far.

BISHOPS TEAM FIXTURES:

(Captain – David Graham)

DATE DAY HOME AWAY RESULT
13 Oct 22 Thurs Weston-S-M v Taunton Bishops  1½ – 2½
25 Oct 22 Tues Taunton Bishops v Sedgemoor match postponed
08 Nov 22 Tues Taunton Knights v Taunton Bishops  ½ – 3½
23 Nov 22 Wed Wellington v Taunton Bishops  2 – 2
07 Dec 22 Wed Yeovil v Taunton Bishops  1½ – 2½
09 Jan 23 Mon Sedgemoor v Taunton Bishops  1½ – 2½
24 Jan 23 Tues Taunton Bishops v Weston-S-M  2½ – 1½
07 Feb 23 Tues Taunton Bishops v Yeovil
21 Feb 23 Tues Taunton Bishops v Taunton Knights
07 Mar 23 Wed Taunton Bishops v Wellington

KNIGHTS TEAM FIXTURES:

(Captain – Chris Greenaway)

DATE DAY HOME AWAY RESULT
11 Oct 22 Tues Taunton Knights v Yeovil  2 – 2
26 Oct 22 Wed Wellington v Taunton Knights 1½ – 2½
08 Nov 22 Tues Taunton Knights v Taunton Bishops  ½ – 3½
22 Nov 22 Tues Taunton Knights v Weston-S-M  1 – 3
05 Dec 22 Mon Sedgemoor v Taunton Knights  1 – 3
10 Jan 23 Tues Taunton Knights v Wellington  1 – 3
25 Jan 23 Wed Yeovil v Taunton Knights  
07 Feb 23 Tues Taunton Knights v Sedgemoor
21 Feb 23 Tues Taunton Bishops v Taunton Knights
09 Mar 23 Thurs Weston-S-M v Taunton Knights

Taunton Chess Club Rapid Tournament

Image

Tuesday 3rd May was the first session of the inaugural Taunton Chess Club Rapid Tournament.  The tournament is being played over two weeks, with the final night on the 10th May.

It was really encouraging to see so many players even if not all were fully enjoying the time limit of 15 minutes for each player.  There was plenty of room for blunders and missed opportunities with some players excelling.

Make sure you come to the club on Tuesday 10th May for the deciding 4 rounds.
There will be prizes!

A big thank you to Chris Greenaway for organising the tournament.

Friendly Matches

We have played two friendly matches recently, one against Sedgemoor and one against Wellington.

When we visited Sedgemoor last, we suffered an ignominious defeat 5 1/2 to 1/2.

When they came to us on the 5th April we beat them 5-0. Perhaps it was our posh wooden match sets that unnerved them, or maybe we just played better.

Especially well done to Louis Wainwright representing Taunton for the first time. A solid victory over Sedgemoor’s Ryan.

The result at Wellington was not as good. We lost 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 ; that is 1 loss and 3 draws.

Perhaps in current times though, results are less important than the opportunity to play over the board chess against unknown opponents.

Anyway thanks to all who took part. Niall, Ioannis, Chris, Stan, Richard, Arnold, Phil, Frey and Louis.

 

David Graham v Merlin Saunders

[pgn]
[Event “Club Championship”]
[Site “Taunton”]
[Date “2022/2/1″]
[Round “?”]
[White “David “]
[Black “Merlin”]
[Result “1-0″]
[ECO “D00″]
[Opening “Queen’s pawn, Mason Variation “]

1.d4 d5 2.Bf4 Nf6 3.e3 Bf5 4.Nf3 e6 5.Nbd2 Bd6 6.Bg3 O-O 7.Nb3 Ne4 8.Bxd6 Qxd6
9.Be2 Nd7 10.O-O c5 11.Nh4 Bg6 12.c3 c4 13.Nd2 Ndf6 14.f4 b5 15.Bf3 Nxd2 16.
Qxd2 Bd3 17.Rf2 Ne4 18.Bxe4 dxe4 19.g3 f5 20.Qd1 g6 21.Rg2 b4 22.Qd2 a5 23.g4
bxc3 24.bxc3 Qa3 25.gxf5 exf5 26.h3 Kf7 27.Kh2 Rg8 28.Rag1 Rab8 29.Qc1 Qxc1
30.Rxc1 Rb6 31.Rcg1 Rgb8 32.Nxf5 gxf5 33.Rg7+ Ke6 34.Rxh7 Rb2+ 35.Kh1 Rb1 36.
h4 Rxg1+ 37.Kxg1 Rg8+ 38.Kf2 Kf6 39.Rh5 Rb8 40.Rg5 Rb2+ 41.Kg3 Rxa2 42.h5 Ra1
43.Kh2 Be2 44.h6 Rb1 {Bf3 wins} 45.h7 Rb8 46.Rg8 Rxg8 47.hxg8=Q Ke7 48.d5 Bh5
49.Qg5+ {Black Resigns} 1-0 [/pgn]

Match versus Sedgemoor 17th Nov

Ok. So this was our second friendly match. We had had to postpone the match twice owing to non-availability of players but finally agreed on a mutually convenient date and Sedgemoor were good enough to visit us.

Joshua Acibar, in his first match for the club. played, as usual, at lightning speed but unfortunately also lost at lightning speed.

Niall won a protracted and fairly close game thanks to a superior pawn count.

Richard won, fortuitously I thought, in a close game when his opponent, playing too quickly, was obliged to continue a move having touched his piece, a rook. Richard was able to fork the King and Rook leaving him a bishop up.

Fernando lost a close game agin showing the advantage of a superior number of pawns.

Arnold, playuing against a much higher rated player fought for and got a draw in a position I thought was lost. Well done Arno;d.

Mike’s game I didn’t see much of and he lost graciously.

Well done Sedgemoor. 3½ v 2½

Wellington Friendly

On Tuesday 12thOct Wellington came over with a 6 man team for a friendly match,there being no official league matches until at least Christmas. Taunton fortunately has a large enough area for us to accommodate a normal club night with a match. I’m curious as to why we continue to call these ‘friendly’ as I did not notice any lack of competetiveness, the last game not finishing until 10.30pm.

Kym, the Wellington Captain and I had tried to ensure a fairly evenly graded pairings, though as it turned out their No 1, Alex was considerably stronger than ours. To be fair Taunton’s top 3 players have not got an official ELO grading, so the placings were a bit arbitrary.

The results were as follows:

Alex Conway (Wellington) beat Richard Hailstone

John Jeremiah lost to Giannis Papaoikonomou

Robert Harris drew with Niall Homer

Ollie Sells lost to David Graham

Rupert Sells lost to Steve Smith

Eric Wall beat Nathanael Tretheway

Final result therefore was Wellington 2.5 – Taunton 3.5

I think most people enjoyed the ‘Over The Board’ experience, so we will be planning some more.

David Graham

 

 

Somerset Chess Congress ‘Missed Fork’

[pgn]
[Result “1-0″]
[Date “2020.01.11”]
[Round “Minor round 2″]
[Event “Somerset Chess Congress”]
[White “Martyn Maber 109″]
[Black “Colin Thompson 118″]
[Site “Walton Park Hotel, Clevedon”]

1.d4 e6 2.Bf4 f5 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 b6 5.Bd3 Bb7 6.Nb-d2 Nc6 7.c3 Ne7 8.h3 Ng6 9.Bh2 Be7 10.Qc2 0-0
11.0-0 Re8 12.Rf-e1 Bd6 13.Ne5 Nf8 14.Qb3 c5 15.Bf5 Bd5 16.c4 ef5 17.cd5 cd4 18.ed4 Qc7 19.Nc4 Be5
20.Ne5 d6 21.Rc1 Qb7 22.Nc6 Re1 23.Re1 Re8 24.Re8 Ne8 25.Qe3 Kf7 26.Nd8+ Resigns. [/pgn]