Broadstairs Chess Club fielded their strongest available team against Bridge in the Hargreaves Shield requiring just 1 point, the equivalent to 1 win on either of the 4 boards, to secure winning the Hargreaves for another consecutive year.

Early on the Broadstairs team had the advantage on 3 of the 4 games, and it came as no surprise that the first game to finish was on Board 1 when Manoj (Kent County Intermediate Champion) won his match and secured the necessary point. Having gained an early exchange advantage, he took it through to the end game. The other matches continued through to within minutes of the 11.00pm closing deadline.

The last game to finish was Paul Carfrae who eventually lost on time, something almost unheard of for Paul. An exchange up for 2 pawns, he appeared to have the advantage before an erroneous forcing move by Paul, whilst under time pressure resulted in his opponent converting a pawn into a Queen, before the flag went down on Paul’s clock and game.

Andrew Flood secured at least a match draw for Broadstairs in the second game to finish. A very close game went into the end game stage with white having a minor disadvantage of all even but having an isolated pawn. Black was able to attack and remove the pawn and then advance his own extra pawn to convert to a Queen and then mate his opponent.

Board 3 saw Broadstairs in a dominant position right the way through to the final moves of what seemed to be a certain won end game. A tired move and rare error by Dominic resulted in Gary Hilleard (ex Broadstairs) managing the greatest of escapes securing a match draw for Bridge. Gary not only avoided losing, which appeared 3 moves earlier to be an impossibility, he actually won the game . Such is chess

Bridge	2 – 2	Broadstairs
Peter Blundell 1698	0 – 1	Manor Nataragan 1780
Alan Evans 1680	1 – 0	Paul Carfrae 1683
Gary Hilleard 1623	1 – 0	Dominic Blundell 1630
Zach Stonier 1566	0 – 1	Andrew Flood 1593

The club returned for the New Year with a trio of exciting games in the Goodall Cup.

Current leader Manoj continued his excellent form with a brilliant tactical display against Andy, gaining a big advantage in the middle game before finding a superb tactic pushing his d pawn to the 7^th forcing a resignation. Tactics also flowed in the game between Trefor and Dominic. Dominic played too many pawn moves in the opening phase leaving his King open to an attack on the light squares. His only defence was to shed material which quickly led to a losing position. The 3^rd game was also a closely fought and exciting affair. Reg battled well and was the exchange up, but Paul had a couple of extra pawns and Reg’s King was open to attack. Paul too victory with a very nice combination

STEELE CUP Monday 29^th November 2021 match report by Andrew Flood.

The Bradstow Mill was brighter than normal with the Christmas lights shining brightly. With evenly matched teams, would the Folkestone team outshine Broadstairs?

The experienced, and well-travelled (Folkestone is a long way away) John Atherton playing white had the early advantage on board 1 outrating Paul Carfrae who was playing on board 1 in the absence of Chris Stampe. The match went to form with Paul Carfrae coming second against his experienced opponent.

Although Broadstairs were down 1-0, the other boards were looking good for Broadstairs. Dominic was playing a strong game against his opponent and had captured his opponents Queen and looking good for a win. It was a shock when Folkestone extended their winning margine.

Fredy was playing a good steady and strong game against his opponent, and it later transpired that he had a mate in 2 opportunity during the game. Again, his opponent turned the game around to register another Folkestone success.

The game on board 3 was a long hard battle with few pieces exchanged or taken in the first 2 hours of play. gradually Broadstairs got the upper hand going 1 pawn and then 2 pawns up. With time getting late and a win already secured by Folkestone, David Erwee resigned his difficult to defend position.

So, what could have been a 3 -1 win ended up as a 3-1 loss. Not quite a steal in the Steele Cup, but a deserved Folkestone win that could have gone either way.

Chess is a complicated game, a sport of course, a science and at its best a true art

Here is a puzzle that I first saw online, explained by the legendary Julian Hodgson

White to move and win!

After more exciting games, we see three players leading the chasing pack.

Arnaud, Chris and Dominic are all on 3 points and playing some great chess

Here are the latest results

Reg   0 – 1 Manoj

Paul V  1 – 0 David

Mike  1 – 0 Andy

Arnaud  1 – 0  Chris