Taunton Chess Club Rapid Tournament

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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.

Delancey UK Chess Challenge Mega Finals – Calling all Juniors

Delancey Logo_Gigafinal-3

Calling all Taunton Chess Club Junior Players.

When: 12th June 2022
Where: Taunton Pre School
Age: Aged 18 and younger (born after 31.08.2003)

The tournament is part of the Delancey UK chess challenge for juniors and covers all the UK. Mega finals are held in different areas of the country (Somerset being our local tournament), then those who are successful will proceed to the gigafinals, then the terafinals.

More information about the Delancey program can be found here: https://www.delanceyukschoolschesschallenge.com/enter-the-challenge/

Taunton Chess Club Juniors are eligible to enter the competition at the megafinal stage and we would like to encourage all of you to enter, if you are able, as it will be great experience for you all and even better if you continue on in the competition. The cost is £20 and to submit your entry please head over to the entry form at the following link:

https://www.delanceyukschoolschesschallenge.com/product/2022-somerset-megafinal/

If you do sign up to take part can you please drop an email to Sharon & Chris on the club email: tauntonchessclub@gmail.com to let us know you are going so we can gather together during the event and Chris will be on hand to walk through games, give advice and Sharon can bring cake and look after bags etc!

Hope you can make it.

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]

Frome Congress.

Please find below details of the next Frome Congress organised by the Frome Chess Club (with many helpers).  The annual Frome Congress is one of the most popular and friendly Congresses in the South-West, regularly attracting between 150 and 200 entrants.  The Selwood Academy venue has comfortable playing conditions. The restaurant, bookstall and analysis areas are separate from the playing areas and there is ample (free) car parking.  The Congress includes the Somerset Championships. The Open is FIDE-rated.

The organisers reserve the right to require additional mitigations against COVID-19, such as the compulsory wearing of face masks in the tournament hall.  The final decision will be made shortly before the start of the congress, based on the government regulations in force at the time.  Online entries and Congress leaflet/brochure will be made available as soon as possible.  Please bear with them while they make the final arrangements.

You may register your interest by emailing info@somersetchess.org. We will contact you when all the details are finalised.

The 31st FROME CHESS CONGRESS DETAILS:

May 13th – 15th 2022
Selwood Academy, Berkley Road, Frome, Somerset BA11 2EF

Selwood Academy

Selwood Academy – (photo by Brendan O’Gorman 2016)

Tournaments

Four 5-round Swiss tournaments with 4-hour playing sessions
Please note that all fees and prizes are subject to confirmation. No entries will be accepted at this time.

Section

Grade Limit

Entry Fee*

(not including any
applicable ECF fee
or Junior discount)

Prizes

Open
(FIDE-rated)
None £32 First = £200,  Second = £150, Third = £100
Denys Bonner trophy
Major Under 1950 £23 First = £150,  Second = £125, Third = £90
Leon York memorial trophy
Intermediate Under 1750 £23 First = £150,  Second = £125, Third = £90
Roy Hossell trophy
Minor Under 1500 £23 First = £150,  Second = £125, Third = £90
Cyril Chapman and Jean Mackereth (for ungraded players) trophies

* For late entries after 1st May add £3

ECF Fees

In the Open section there is no charge for Gold or Platinum ECF members.
Otherwise: FIDE registered players with a non-English affiliation £1.50. All other players £11

In all other sections there is no charge for Silver, Gold or Platinum ECF members. Otherwise £9

Junior Discount

There is a £5 discount for all Juniors under 18 on 1st September 2021.

Trophies and Cash Prizes

Somerset trophies are awarded to the highest placed Somerset player in each section.

Dependent on entry, there will be at least one grading prize in each section.
Team prize of £50 for genuine club teams of 4 players.
Except in the Open tournament, no ungraded player may win higher than the value of the third prize.

Playing Schedule

Friday 18.50 Opening
19.00 Round 1
Saturday 10.00 Round 2
15.00 Round 3
Sunday 10.00 Round 4
15.00 Round 5

Players will be defaulted if not present within 30 minutes of start of round.

Rate of Play

All Sections: 90 minutes plus 30 seconds per move from start of game.

Byes

A half-point bye may be claimed in any one of Rounds 1,2,3 or 4.

Bookstall

Bookstall and sets supplied by Chess Direct

Refreshments

We hope to provide hot and cold drinks and lunches on-site — to be confirmed.

Grading Information

The January 2022 ECF standardplay  grading list will be used to determine eligiblity for a section.
It is a condition of entry that all entrants agree that their results will be forwarded to the ECF for grading.

Conditions of Entry and Competition Rules

The full Conditions of Entry and Competition Rules are here.

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

 

 

Club Reopening

GREAT NEWS – We are reopening the club. Please see below for dates:
 -
Tues, 7th September 2021- current members only
Tues, 14th September 2021 – new starter members
 -
If you haven’t heard from us via email or FB messenger, please get in touch at tauntonchessclub@gmail.com and we can send you further information and some extra things we have put in place.
 -
Look forward to hearing from you!