Somerset New Year Congress.

[pgn]
[Result “1-0″]
[Date “2020.01.12”]
[Round “Round 5″]
[Event “Minor Round 5″]
[White “Alan Fraser”]
[Black “Martyn Maber”]
[Site “Walton Park Hotel, Clevedon”]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cd4 4.Nd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bd3 Bg4 7.Be2 Be2 8.Qe2 e6 9.Bd2 Nb-d7 10.0-0 Be7
11.Nf3 e5 12.Ra-d1 0-0 13.Rf-e1 Rc8 14.Bc1 Qc7 15.Bg5 Rf-d8 16.Rd2 h6 17.Bh4 g5 18.Bg3 Qc4 19.Rd3 Rc5 20.Nf-d2 Qb4 21.Nd5 Nd5 Rd5 22. Nf8 23.h3 Qb2 24.Qh5 Kg7 25.h4 Ne6 26.Rb1 Qc2 27.Rb7 Rc7 28.Rb1 Rc5
29.Rb7 Rc7 30.Rb1 Rd-c8 31.Rb6 Nd4 32.Nf3 Ne6 33.Nh2 Qe4 34.Rd1 Nf4 35.Bf4 Qf4 36.Ng4 gh4 37.Rb3 Rc1
38.Ne3 Rd1 39.Qd1 Qg5 40.Rb1 f5 41.Nd5 f4 42.Ne7 Qe7 43.Qg4+[1-0][/pgn]

Somerset New Year Congress ‘Smothered Mate’.

[pgn]
[Result “0-1″]
[Date “2020-01-12″]
[Round “Somerset Congress”]
[Event “Major Round 4″]
[White “Grant Daly”]
[Black “Chris Greenaway”]
[Site “Walton Park Hotel, Clevedon”]

1.d4 f5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 e6 4.Nf3 Be7 5.c4 d6 6.Nc3 Na6 7.e3 0-0 8.0-0 c5 9.d5 e5 10.b3 e4 11.Ne1 Nd7 12.Bb2 Ne5 13.Qc2 Bf6 14.a4 Nc7 15.Bh1 Bd7 16.Ng2 Nf3 [0-1] [/pgn]

Bishops v Weston Knights

Happy New Year to one and all and especially to our gallant and brave team who ventured out last Thursday. David Graham lost a closely fought match with Malcolm Dinham having also lost to him in the previous match. Congratulations to Vic for once again beating Steve Miles, rated 30 points above him, Mike Ward drew and Chris Greenaway accepted his opponent’s offer of a draw to level the match at 2-2.

Afterwards he said he could have won, but we all say that don’t we? In this case though I think he could have. Anyway, I was pleased with a draw after our last outing to Weston ended in a 3-1 defeat against the Weston Bishops team  and a 1.5 to 2.5 defeat when the Weston Knights visited Taunton in September.

DG.

Knights v Wellington – 17th Dec 19

The Knights welcomed Wellington to St Michaels Church on the 17th December. Wellington brought a strong side as expected, but no Chris Barratt on board one unlike the previous week when they faced and lost to the Bishops who triumphed 2.5-1.5. They drafted in A.Walker a 140 player to play Arnold 126 grade (a bit un-expected to say the least). To the match Knights Arnold, Chris, Martyn, Stan. The first game to finish was Stan v Robert Harris board 4 a draw agreed in the middle game which seemed premature, but there were no Pawn breaks to be had no easy way to break through with out weakening ones position. This in turn put added pressure on the other boards
0.5-0.5
Chris board two was next to finish playing a much improved Alan Stonebridge had a battle on his hands. Alan with two passed Pawns versus Chris passed pawn in the end game a clear advantage for White un-expectedly offered a Draw, which Chris gladly accepted as he felt his position was lost, his reputation obviously goes before him. 1-1
Martyn next to finish Board 3 v John Jeremiah who played his unusual opening e4 b4 against Martyn’s Sicilian which triumphed in a previous encounter. White had the better of the opening Blacks defence held.
Momentum changed move 22 White missed a tactic Black sacrificing a Rook for the pair of Bishops, Whites attack nullified. 2-1.
Arnold board 1 v A.Walker played superbly White having no answers to Blacks attacking play. Move 14 Ng4 trapping Whites Black squared Bishop was missed by his opponent and was the turning point of the game. A piece and Pawn up there was only going to be one winner. With precise play Black won comfortably. 3-1.
Game on web site press Shift F keys to flip board to view game from Arnolds perspective.

A. Walker 140 v A. Acibar 126.

[pgn]
[Result “0-1″]
[Date “17.12.2019”]
[Round “Division 3″]
[Event “Knights v Wellington”]
[White “A. Walker”]
[Black “A. Acibar”]
[Site “Taunton Chess”]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4 Be7 5.0-0 d6 6.c3 Bg4 7.Qb3 Bh5 8.d4 h6 9.Be3 a6 10.Nbd2 Nf6 11.Nh4 O-O
12.Nf5 b5 13.Bd3 Re8 14.f4 Ng4 15.fe5 de5 16.Nf3 Ne3 17.Ne3 ed4 18.cd4 Nd4 19.Nd4 Qd4 20.Kh1 Qe3
21.Ra-e1 Qd4 22.a3 Ra-d8 23.Bb1 Bd6 24.Ba2 Qe5 25.g3 Bg6 26.Rf2 Qd4 27.Rfe2 Re4 28.Rd1 Qe5 29.Re4 Qe4+
30.Kg1 Re8 31.Kf1 Qh1+ 32.Kf2 Qh2+ 33.Kf1 Bg3 34.Qf3 Bd3+ 35.Rd3 Re1# [/pgn]

John Jeremiah 109 v Martyn Maber 109

[pgn]
[Result”0-1″]
[Date “2016.12.17”]
[Round “Division 3″]
[Event “Knights v Wellington Board 3″]
[White “John Jeremiah”]
[Black “Martyn Maber”]
[Site “Taunton Chess Club”]

1.e4 c5 2.b4 cb4 3.d4 e6 4.c4 bc3 5.Nc3 a6 6.Qa4 Nf6 7.Nf3 Be7 8.Bb2 0-0 9.Bd3 d6 10.Qc2 Nc6
11.a3 e5 12.de5 de5 13.Rd1 Qa5 14.0-0 Bg4 15.Nd5 Bf3 16.gf3 h6 17.Ne7+ Ne7 18.Kh1 Ra-c8 19.Qe2 Ng6
20.Bc1 Nh5 21.f4 Nf4 22.Qg4 Rc1 23.Rc1 Nd3 24.Rb1 b5 25.Rb3 Nh-f4 26.Qh4 Qa4 27.Rc3 Qe4+ 28.f3 Qe2
29.Qg3 Qf1+ 30.Resigns[/pgn]

Nicky Bacon 154 v Martyn Maber 109. Somerset v Devon.

[pgn]
[Result “1/2 – 1/2″]
[Date “2019.12.07”]
[Round “County Match”]
[Event “Devon v Somerset”]
[White “Nicky Bacon”]
[Black “Martyn Maber”]
[Site “Bridgwater”]

1.e4 c5 2.b3 a6 3.Bb2 d6 4.f4 e6 5.Nf3 Nc6 6.Nc3 d5 7.e5 Nh6 8.d3 Nf5 9.Qd2 Be7 10.0-0-0 d4 11.Ne4 Ne3
12.Re1 Nb4 13.Re3 de3 14.Qe3 Na2+ 15.Kb1 Qa5 16.Nd6+ Bd6 17.ed6 Nc3+ 18.Kc1 Na2+ 19.Kb1 Nc3+ 20.Kc1 Na2+
21.Kb1 Nc3+ 22.Kc1 [draw]
[/pgn]

Bishops V Weston Bishops 7th November

Well, we got there eventually. There was a lot of traffic on the A370 into Weston; probably carnival traffic parking up for the next day we were told.

Arnold had kindly agreed to be our top board and he was evenly matched with Ollie Isaac. David (100) was playing Malcolm Dinham (106) so fairly even there too. Both Mike Ward and Vic were outgraded by 20 points or so (against John Parsons and A Keen) but I was quietly confident. Last year we came away with a victory against similar grades.

David finished first; an absolute disaster. How can anyone allow an h7 mate after 17 moves. Well you’re just going to have to guess because I’m too embarrassed to put the game up on the website.

Mike succumbed to a mass of pawns (and pieces) bearing down on his King which had nowhere to go but into danger.

Vic looked to have a reasonable chance and his opponent’s King was well exposed, but after Queens were exchanged he was playing with 2 Rooks against 2 Rooks and a Knight. And then that nasty Knight was threatening to fork Rooks and the King and he bravely capitulated.

Arnold finished last and it was an evenly and fiercely fought contest. It eventually came down to a Rook and pawn ending, an isolated white pawn on a5 which black had to defend with his Rook allowing Arnold to win a pawn on the other side of the board and leaving him, eventually, with King and Pawn against King. No slipping up and allowing a stalemate and Black resigned. Well played, Arnold.

A disappointing 3-1 loss. Damp squibs and other firework metaphors are wholly inappropriate. Hope springs eternal though, so we’re back in December against Wellington.

 

David v Ernie Fields

[pgn]
[Event “Taunton Bishops v Wells”]
[Site “Taunton”]
[Date “2019.10.29”]
[Round “NA”]
[White “David Graham”]
[Black “Ernie Fields”]
[Result “Draw”]
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Bf4 Bg7 5.Nf3 O-O 6.Qc2 Bf5 7.Qb3 b6 8.Ne5 dxc4 9.
Qxc4 Be6 10.Qd3 Bf5 11.e4 Bc8 12.Be2 Ba6 13.Qd2 Bxe2 14.Kxe2 Nh5 15.Rhd1 Bxe5
16.Bxe5 Nc6 17.Bg3 Nxg3+ 18.hxg3 Qd7 19.Rh1 Qxd4 20.Qh6 Qg7 21.Qxg7+ Kxg7 22.
Nb5 Rac8 23.Rac1 a6 24.Rxc6 axb5 25.Rhc1 Rfd8 26.Rxc7 Rxc7 27.Rxc7 Ra8 28.a3
e6 29.Rb7 Ra4 30.f3 b4 31.Rxb6 bxa3 32.bxa3 Rxa3 33.Rb2 Ra1 34.f4 Ra3 35.Kf2
h5 36.Re2 {Draw agreed} *
[/pgn]

Bishops v Wells

Wells had postponed our original scheduled meeting as they had a few players off sick. They emailed me details of their likely team but when they turned up on Tuesday last the composition of their team was different. Conspiracy theorists suspected an attempt to make us field a weaker team but I had already decided on the team anyway. I innocently believed their excuse.

A full house at the club with a new junior meant that we started a little late as I had to call for silence.

Off we went. I think Mike Ward finished first, falling to a Knight smothered mate in the corner. Surely he’s old  and ugly enough not to fall prey to that sort of checkmate, I hear you say. Sadly no. 0-1.

Phil finished next and lost reasonably quickly. His believable excuse was that he had been having exhaust problems on his car and was thinking more about the return journey to Minehead than the really important matter at hand. 0-2.

David was next to finish playing White. His queen got chased round a bit, his King got out of position and didn’t castle. Queens were exchanged, and rooks, and pawns. With 4 pawns and a rook each left, a draw was agreed. Well done David for not losing on time this week. 1/2 – 2 1/2.

Jerry, playing black and I think he said an advanced French, seemed to be a bit cramped but with Rooks bearing down on the King side with White’s King well advanced. After the King retreated to safety neither player seemed to be able to or want to risk making a breakthrough and potentially weakening their position so a draw was agreed. 1-3.

A fair result but a bit disappointing. I think we could have done better. Maybe next time.