Walker Shield v Margate (a)

                                           Broadstairs  2½         Margate  1½ 

1 Reg Pidduck (107) ½-½    John Clarke (104)
2 Bob Cronin (104) 1-0    Leon Garfield (100)
3 Michael Doyle (81) 1-0    Roy McAloney (83)
4 Michael Jenkinson (80) 0-1    James Maskell (74)

Reg Pidduck writes:

BOARD 4.   STEADY JAMES .  James Maskell was first to finish with a solid performance against our higher graded Michael Jenkinson. 1-0 down

BOARD 3. A CAPTAIN’S INNINGS. Our new Walker captain started with a win. Michael takes up the story. “Being unfamiliar with the Scandinavian Defence as I was, I still gained a rook for nothing but in doing so got my Queen trapped. Finally escaping, I won with a Bishop and Knight threatening mate. 1-1

BOARD 1. SECOND TIME IN A WEEK. John Clarke and I had also played each other on Monday in the Hargreaves Shield but I could not repeat my win this time as John kept me at bay from my better position. Down to a rook and three pawns each, the game was decided a draw. 1.5-1.5

BOARD 2. YET AGAIN BOB. Our Bob Cronin always seems to come up with the goods in our close matches. Going into the endgame, he was a Knight up but still had a determined Leon to contend with. He finally got a passed pawn and won the game and the match for Broadstairs. 2.5- 1.5

A first win for our new captain and I hope there are many more.

Hargreaves Shield v Margate (h)

                                                Broadstairs  3         Margate  1 

1 Bob Page (135) 1-0    Colin Gregory (122)
2 Paul Carfrae (133) 1-0    Clive Le Baigue (118)
3 Reg Pidduck (107) 1-0    John Clarke (104)
4 Andy Flood (106) 0-1    Leon Garfield (100)

Bob Page writes:

This was our first win of the new campaign and a fairly comfortable one, too. Margate arrived fresh from a 4-0 victory over Folkestone but they were outgraded on every board in this match and it did not take long for the home team to get into their stride. First to finish was Paul on board 2. Keen to atone for his defeat last week, he took the game to Clive in typical Carfrae fashion and as pieces flew off the board, Black had no answer and resigned after 17 moves.  Reg was also soon on top against John and won a piece early on, converting it to a straightforward win soon after. The other two games took a little longer. On board 1 Colin unnecessarily gave away a central pawn and then another. He held on for 57 moves but the result was never really in doubt. 3-0 to Broadstairs and it looked like being a whitewash as Andy was two pawns ahead in the battle of the southpaws on board 4. One mistake was all it took, however: one minute his bishop was on the board and then it was gone! Andy fought on but the game was Leon’s and the match finally finished at about 10.30. So a win and a draw from the first two matches and suddenly the Bridge result last week does not seem too disappointing.

Hargreaves Shield v Bridge (a)

                                            Broadstairs  2         Bridge  2 

1 Bob Page (135) 1-0    Bill Tracey (125)
2 Paul Carfrae (133) 0-1    Tim Spencer (121)
3 Reg Pidduck (107) 0-1     Peter Blundell (120)
4 Andy Flood (106) 1-0     Graeme Boxall (99)

Andy Flood writes:

Following the closest possible finish last year, a strong Broadstairs Hargreaves team began their 2017/18 campaign against a strong and stable Bridge team. With Reg on board 3 substituting for John Couzens who was on holiday again, there were a few changes to the team order. Bob Page returned on board 1 after a couple of years’ sabbatical from Hargreaves Shield duties and Paul Carfrae also returned on board 2 with Andrew Flood on board 4. Bob got off to a flying start on 1, winning in no time at all, to the extent that he was able to sample the delights of the local ale house, watch the football, and still get back in plenty of time to see the other games finish. On board 4 Graeme Boxall had the slight edge early on with White but some solid counter play by Andy saw him beating Graeme by queening his extra pawn in a K + P endgame.

At 2–0 up all was looking good for Broadstairs to secure maximum points by getting something from one of the remaining boards but whilst draws were offered, none was accepted with Bridge determined to play on and get a result. After three hours Paul found that his opponent had trapped one of his pieces and with the exchange down Paul’s position quickly crumbled and the game was over by 10.30 so all was on the last game. The match was close but Reg’s position was slightly weaker than Peter Blundell’s (his higher graded opponent) and Reg had little time left on the clock for his remaining moves. With Peter playing strongly, it was close to 11.00 when the game ended with Reg losing on time in a lost position, and so the match ended 2 – 2. A solid enough start to the season with some well fought games of chess played.

Swindle of the Week

        Fortunately Black took his defeat well

You may have noticed that our roving reporter, Rook van Zugzwang, has been keeping a low profile recently. A glance at the following game may go some way to explain why. It may be a little unfair to describe it as a swindle but players of average ability may wonder how White managed to win especially after Black’s thirteenth move appeared to show that Mr van Zugzwang is well-named. However, the pendulum soon swung the other way and for the last twenty moves it was clearly White on top. 41.Kg8 would have been a better move than the one played but by then Black was lost. As it is not clear who was more embarrassed, White at winning or Black at losing, names have been changed to protect the guilty.

White: Rook van Zugzwang     Black: René en Passant

Broadstairs Club Championship 2017/18

Armageddon!

Regular visitors to this site may have noticed we have been unusually quiet about the FIDE World Cup currently taking place in Tbilisi and which is finally approaching its denouement. It’s not for a lack of interest, more a lack of time. So what have we missed? Well, there was ‘shortsgate’ right at the start – if you are still in the dark, try Googling ‘shorts’ and ‘chess world cup’ and it should lead you somewhere – then there was the swift elimination of most of the top English players, Carlsen (who, had he won, may have had to play against himself to challenge for the world title), Caruana and, much to the chagrin of this correspondent, Wei Yi. With a total prize fund of $1.6m with $120,000 for the winner and 128 of the best players in the world taking part, there were still enough of the big guns left, however, to maintain interest and so far as this site is concerned, we are championing another of our Chinese friends, Ding Liren, especially as he was the underdog in the semi-finals where he played Wesley So while Maxim Vachier Lagrave played Lev Aronian in the other game.

The format for the competition was two classical games and if the scores were then level, the players then played two 25-minute + 10-second increment rapid games, then two 10+10 games, then two 5+3 and, finally, Armageddon, where White has 5 minutes to Black’s 4 but a draw qualifies Black for the next round.  The semi-finals were hard-fought and the Liren-So match went to the second 10-minute game although the first of those was the decisive one.

White: Wesley So  (2792)     Black: Ding Liren (2771)

FIDE World Cup 2017

And so Ding Liren is in the final! The other semi-final went to the wire. After two classical games, two 25-minute games, two 10-minute games and two 5-minute games MVL and Aronian could not be separated and so we were faced with the chess equivalent of a penalty shoot-out: Armageddon! MVL apparently won the toss and chose Black which meant he only had to draw. Aronian had the extra minute but had to win.

White: Lev Aronian  (2802)     Black: Maxim Vachier Lagrave (2804)

FIDE World Cup 2017 semi-final 

MVL had his chances and the computer had him ahead at one point but it is Lev Aronian who will play Ding Liren in the final and who would bet against an Aronian win? Is he the best player in the world now? Time will tell.