Walker Shield v Bridge (a)

Broadstairs  2½       Bridge  1½

1. Bob Cronin   (112) ½-½     Shahid Sahi (115)
2. Andy Flood   (111) 1-0      Stuart Honey (90)
3. Reg Pidduck  (106) 1-0      Ray Rennells (86)
4. Michael Doyle (89)  0-1      Ian Redmond  (78)

Reg Pidduck writes:

The fog had lifted and so were our spirits on the way home.

BOARD 3: KING SIDE ONSLAUGHT. Ray came out all guns blazing battering my king side preventing me from castling but in doing so lost a rook for nothing. It took me a further nine moves finally to castle safely queenside and begin to make my advantage tell and bit by bit wear him down.  1-0 to us

BOARD 2:  STEADY ANDY. When I finished my game I was just in time to see Andy take a knight which Stuart could not take back without being mated. With this advantage Andy played solid and swapped off queens and Stuart resigned. 2-0 to us

BOARD 1: GAME OF THE NIGHT. After two and a half hours eight major pieces were off the board but unusually no pawns. So the positions were locked and a draw agreed. This was a fine result for us as Shahid is a really top opponent at this level and Bob’s draw sealed the match for us. 2.5-1.5 to us

BOARD 4: NOT QUITE OUT OF TIME. As 11 o’ clock approached it was nip and tuck in Michael’s game. With Ian’s clock showing only four minutes to go, super sub Michael lost a piece for nothing and resigned.

A 2.5-1.5 win for Broadstairs.  We have now played two and won two in our defence of the Walker Shield. Well done team !

Millar Cup v Herne Bay (a)

Broadstairs     1½                Herne Bay     5½ 

1 David Faldon (175) 0-1         Bernie Kooiman  (185)
2 David Horton (167) ½-½         Gordon Botley (182)
3 Paul Carfrae (131) 0-1         Bob Pooley (155)
4 John Couzens (118) 1-0         Mick Micklethwaite (131)
5 Bob Cronin (112) 0-1         Alan Evans (118)
6 Andy Flood (111) 0-1         Paul Arnold (116)
7 Reg Pidduck (106) 0-1         Ronnie Melhuish (100)

David Faldon writes:

Our main success was that John on board 4 played a great game to defeat a strong opponent, one he’d always had a lot of grief from in the past. It was a smooth, positional win and John had the black pieces, too. Our only other positive result came from our hero with the black pieces: David H on board 2 produced a stern defensive performance to beat off a long, slow attack. All of the other games resulted in losses but in contrasting styles. David F on board 1 and Paul on board 3 both threw everything at their opponents but in both cases their opponents somehow managed to survive and then mop up once the attacks had petered out. The games on boards 5 to 7 were much calmer but with Bob, Andy and Reg on the defensive for long periods. Unfortunately, there were no survivors. Congratulations to Herne Bay on another hard-fought victory. This leaves us with one win from four Millar Cup matches with Bridge at home next on November 9th. What could possibly go wrong?

Game of the Week 2

The following game is a terrific example of David beating Goliath that happens all too infrequently but is terrific entertainment for the neutral when it does. Naturally, it is also hugely satisfying for the winner if not the loser but to his credit Ian was happy to analyse the game afterwards with Michael and other members of the club. Your correspondent, absent on this occasion, initially could not understand White’s 34th move and Black’s follow-up when the bishop on e1 was en prise. However, once the forced mate that both players had clearly seen but which had eluded this more casual observer then became apparent, it was hard to escape the conclusion that this was precisely why Michael had succeeded in doing something that others over many years had not.

White: Ian Hames (160)  Black: Michael Doyle (89) 

Goodall Cup 2015

Game of the Week 1

Some of you may be wondering what has happened to the boy wonder that is Wei Yi since we last reported on his ‘immortal game’ (see Game of the Week July 4).  On the other hand, you might not but you are going to get an update nevertheless.  In May he won the Chinese Chess Championship ahead of his rival and current world number eight, Ding Liren, and last month he again edged out Ding in the FIDE World Cup quarter-finals before losing to Peter Svidler in the semis. Featured here is Game 5 of that quarter-final which ended in a draw but is worth playing through for the brilliance of White’s 12th move which, unfortunately for the neutral and for Wei, Ding saw through. Thanks to Mick Croft who spotted this one.

White: Wei Yi (2737)  Black: Ding Liren (2780) 

Fide World Cup 2015

Millar Cup v Margate (h)

Broadstairs     5½                Margate     1½ 

1 David Faldon (175) 1-0         Peter McGill  (157)
2 David Horton (167) 1-0         Harry Sharples (156)
3 Bob Page (145) ½-½         Colin Gregory (114)
4 Paul Carfrae (131) 1-0         Leon Garfield (104)
5 John Couzens (118) 1-0         John Clarke (90)
6 Bob Cronin (112) 0-1         Roy Dawson (72)
7 Tom Lovegrove (92) 1-0         Don Richards (52)

David Faldon writes:

As usual we outgraded our local rivals by a considerable margin (the team’s average grades were 134 and 106) but also as usual Margate put up a great fight. They even took an early lead when something went spectacularly wrong with Bob C’s all-in attack with white on board 6. At that point most of the other games were pretty level so the fate of the match was in the balance. It wasn’t until about 9.30 that things turned in our favour. First, David H converted a nice position into a mating attack on board 2 and then Paul and John both took pawns in for touchdowns on boards 4 and 5 and suddenly we were 3-1 up. Tom on board 7 provided the most spectacular game of the evening – an early piece sacrifice for 2 pawns led to a long slow mating attack. 4-1. The final two games finished about 10.30 leaving us a precious few minutes to celebrate in the pub. To end, a question. Which board saw the game begin 1.e4 e6 2.d3 d5 3.Nd2 Nc6 4.Ngf3 g5? Answer – board 1, with David F to thank/blame for the outrageous/awful 4…g5. It seemed like a good idea at the time.