Club handicap results

11 players took part in the club handicap competition. The first four rounds used random pairings with the top four players then going through to the knockout phase.

The rules for the handicap were:

1. Grading difference of 1-10: lower-graded player has white, higher-graded player starts without their b7 pawn
2. Grading difference of 11-20: lower-graded player has white, higher-graded player starts without their b7 and c7 pawns
3. Grading difference of 21-30: lower-graded player has white, higher-graded player starts without their b8 knight
4. Grading difference of 31+: lower-graded player has white, higher-graded player starts without their a8 rook
5. Each player has 10 minutes on the clock

After the first four rounds Eldar Lachinov was the only player to win all his matches, and there were four players with a score of 3 out of 4 (Clive Bellinger, Mark Johnson, Ian Gooding and Javier Ruano Marco).

In the semi-finals, Mark beat Ian and Eldar beat Javier. In the final Eldar finished off the match with a queen sacrifice to beat Mark - so a victory for Azerbaijan.

 

ROUNDS 1 TO 4
WHITE	Result		BLACK	Handicap
Mark Johnson	1	0	Martin Harris	No rook on a8
Ed Goodman (82)	1	0	Nathan Barnes	No rook on a8
Phil Daley (124)	0	1	Javier Ruano Marco	No rook on a8
John Duff-Cole (91)	0	1	Eldar Lachinov	No rook on a8
Clive Bellinger (143)	1	0	Ian Gooding (167)	No knight on b8
Pete Smith (111)	1	0	BYE
Mark Johnson	1	0	Pete Smith (111)	No rook on a8
Ed Goodman (82)	0	1	Javier Ruano Marco	No rook on a8
Nathan Barnes	0	1	Eldar Lachinov	No handicap
John Duff-Cole (91)	½	½	Clive Bellinger (143)	No rook on a8
Martin Harris	0	1	Ian Gooding (167)	No rook on a8
Phil Daley (124)	1	0	BYE
Pete Smith (111)	1	0	Javier Ruano Marco	No rook on a8
Ed Goodman (82)	0	1	Phil Daley (124)	No rook on a8
John Duff-Cole (91)	0	1	Martin Harris	No knight on b8
Clive Bellinger (143)	½	½	Nathan Barnes	No pawn on b7
Mark Johnson	0	1	Eldar Lachinov	No rook on a8
Ian Gooding (167)	1	0	BYE
Phil Daley (124)	0	1	Ian Gooding (167)	No rook on a8
Pete Smith (111)	0	1	Clive Bellinger (143)	No rook on a8
Ed Goodman (82)	0	1	John Duff-Cole (91)	No pawn on b7
Mark Johnson	1	0	Nathan Barnes	No rook on a8
Martin Harris	0	1	Eldar Lachinov	No rook on a8
Javier Ruano Marco	1	0	BYE

 

STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 4
Pos	Player	Points
1st	Eldar Lachinov	4
2nd=	Ian Gooding (167)	3
	Clive Bellinger (143)	3
	Javier Ruano Marco	3
	Mark Johnson	3
6th=	Phil Daley (124)	2
	Pete Smith (111)	2
8th	John Duff-Cole (91)	1.5
9th=	Martin Harris	1
	Ed Goodman (82)	1
11th	Nathan Barnes	0.5

 

SEMI FINALS
WHITE	Result		BLACK	Handicap
Mark Johnson	1	0	Ian Gooding (167)	No rook on a8
Javier Ruano Marco	0	1	Eldar Lachinov	No handicap

 

FINAL
WHITE	Result		BLACK	Handicap
Mark Johnson	0	1	Eldar Lachinov	No rook on a8

Friendly match against the University

Earlier in the month there was a 7-board friendly match against the University of Essex - though with three of the University players being regulars for the Colchester team it did feel a bit like a Colchester vs Colchester match.

FIDE ratings (in italics) or ECF grades (in normal font) have been added where players have these.

Date: 04-Dec-2013
Friendly match
Brd	Col	COLCHESTER	Result		UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX	Col
1	w	Javier Ruano Marco (2159)	0	1	Dimitrios Kolomvas (1902)	b
2	b	Nathan Barnes	½	½	Aleksander Orava (1904)	w
3	w	Clive Bellinger (143)	0	1	Eldar Lachinov	b
4	b	Phil Daley (124)	0	1	Shakhrad Gajurov	w
5	w	Martin Harris	0	1	Jake Stones	b
6	b	Ed Goodman (82)	1	0	Denzel Gonzales	w
7	w	John King (26)	0	1	Marvin Teveldal	b
			1.5	5.5

NECL matches

The A team lost their match against a strong Chelmsford B team - but the C team won their matches against both Chelmsford C and Chelmsford D. The A team then returned to winning ways by beating Wethersfield 3-1.

Date: 03-Dec-2013
NECL Division 2
Brd	Col	WETHERSFIELD	Result		COLCHESTER A	Col
1	b	Stefaan Van Poucke (137)	1	0	Dimitrios Kolomvas (e160)	w
2	w	Bill Norman (127)	0	1	Eldar Lachinov (e155)	b
3	b	Sid MacDonald (75)	0	1	Nathan Barnes (e145)	w
4	w	Ronald Vallance (85)	0	1	Mike Wagstaff (142)	b
		(avg=106)	1	3	(avg=150)

 

 

Date: 28-Nov-2013
NECL Division 3
Brd	Col	CHELMSFORD D	Result		COLCHESTER C	Col
1	w	James House (115)	0	1	Pete Smith (111)	b
2	b	Angelo Cassar (105)	0	1	John Duff-Cole (91)	w
3	w	Alan Reynolds (99)	1	0	Ed Goodman (82)	b
4	b	Mario Cassar (87)	½	½	Jake Stones (e75)	w
		(avg=102)	1.5	2.5	(avg=90)

 

 

Date: 20-Nov-2013
NECL Division 3
Brd	Col	COLCHESTER C	Result		CHELMSFORD C	Col
1	w	Phil Daley (124)	0	1	John Constantine (115)	b
2	b	Martin Harris (e115)	1	0	John Porter (109)	w
3	w	Brian Remmer (116)	1	0	Mario Cassar (87)	b
4	b	Pete Smith (111)	1	0	Jagmohan Singh (37)	w
		(avg=117)	3	1	(avg=87)

 

 

Date: 20-Nov-2013
NECL Division 2
Brd	Col	COLCHESTER A	Result		CHELMSFORD B	Col
1	b	Ian Gooding (167)	0	1	Malcolm Bucknell (179)	w
2	w	Dimitrios Kolomvas (e160)	0	1	David Chandler (182)	b
3	b	Eldar Lachinov (e155)	1	0	Ed Porter (140)	w
4	w	Nathan Barnes (e145)	0	1	Peter Brander (119)	b
		(avg=157)	1	3	(avg=155)

Colchester v Chelmsford

This month there are no less than four matches between Colchester and Chelmsford. The C team have league matches against Chelmsford C and Chelmsford D; the A team have a league match against Chelmsford B and earlier this week had a knockout match against Chelmsford A. The A team narrowly lost to Chelmsford A (who won Division 1 last season).

Eldar Lachinov played his first game for Colchester, picking up a good win in a very sharp Modern Benoni - Mikenas Attack (8.e5). His analysis of the game can be found below.

Date: 13-Nov-2013
NECL Knockout: Round 2
Brd	Col	COLCHESTER A	Result		CHELMSFORD A	Col
1	w	Ian Gooding (167)	0	1	Russell White (196)	b
2	b	Dimitrios Kolomvas (e160)	½	½	Ivan Myall (185)	w
3	w	Eldar Lachinov (e155)	1	0	David Chandler (182)	b
4	b	Mike Wagstaff (142)	0	1	Malcolm Bucknell (179)	w
		(avg=156)	1.5	2.5	(avg=186)

Galleywood Knights v Colchester C

The C team narrowly lost their match against Galleywood Knights. They were out-graded on three of the four boards. The C team remain top of Division 3 but have played more games than the other teams in the league. Mark Johnson made his debut for the club with a draw against a higher-graded player.

Date: 06-Nov-2013
NECL League: Division 3
Brd	Col	GALLEYWOOD KNIGHTS	Result		COLCHESTER C	Col
1	b	Rory Coughlan (130)	1	0	Sam Glenn (118)	w
2	w	Pablo Garcia-Galan Ruiz (130)	1	0	Martin Harris (e115)	b
3	b	Michael Coughlan (110)	0	1	Pete Smith (111)	w
4	w	Ray Algar (110)	½	½	Mark Johnson (e71)	b
		(avg=120)	2.5	1.5	(avg=103)

October summary

The current top ten players in the club grand prix are:

		Points	Percentage
1st	Pete Smith	4	80
2nd	Brian Remmer	3	75
3rd=	Nathan Barnes	2.5	83
	Martin Harris	2.5	83
	Dimitrios Kolomvas	2.5	83
	Mike Wagstaff	2.5	83
7th=	Phil Daley	2	100
	Sam Glenn	2	50
9th=	Clive Bellinger	1.5	75
	Mark Johnson	1.5	50

Games played in the club championship, Tony Locke rapidplay and the NECL league/knockout count for points in the grand prix. Wins by default in NECL matches do count for points.

Only a few games have been played in the club championship but the early leaders are: Eldar Lachinov (group 1), Pete Smith (group 2), Nathan Barnes (group 3) and Phil Daley/Brian Remmer (group 4).

In the NECL knockout Colchester A are through to round 2. In Division 2, Colchester A have won their only game and are in 3rd place in the table. In Division 3, Colchester C are top of the table with Colchester B in 2nd place.

Two league matches - two wins

The A team and the C team were both in action on Wednesday night. The A team's first league match of the season was a whitewashing of Brentwood C and an inexperienced C team beat Billericay C in a close match. The C team have overtaken the B team and are top of Division 3.

There are a number of new players for Colchester this season - Nathan Barnes played his second match for Colchester with Martin Harris, Rob Smith and Jake Stones all playing their first matches as Colchester players. Rob and Jake have never played league chess before.

Date: 30-Oct-2013
NECL League: Division 2
Brd	Col	COLCHESTER A	Result		BRENTWOOD C	Col
1	b	Ian Gooding (167)	1	0	Rod Johnson (152)	w
2	w	Dimitrios Kolomvas (e160)	1	0	Chris Darbon (148)	b
3	b	Nathan Barnes (e145)	1	0	Ben Smith (117)	w
4	w	Clive Bellinger (143)	1	0	Colin Ellis (86)	b
		(avg=154)	4	0	(avg=125)

 

Date: 30-Oct-2013
NECL League: Division 3
Brd	Col	COLCHESTER C	Result		BILLERICAY C	Col
1	b	Brian Remmer (116)	1	0	Ken Young (115)	w
2	w	Martin Harris (e115)	1	0	Charles Newman (109)	b
3	b	Rob Smith (e78)	½	½	Ian Fuller (93)	w
4	w	Jake Stones (e75)	0	1	Hugh Tanton (74)	b
		(avg=96)	2.5	1.5	(avg=97)

The position below is from the match on Board 3 of Colchester A v Brentwood C. White has just played 12.Re1, how can Black now obtain a winning advantage? Answer in the comments.

Clacton C v Colchester B

The B team picked up their first win of the season against Clacton C, moving them to the top of Division 3. The way the fixture list has fallen means that this is the last league match for the B team until January.

Date: 22-Oct-2013
NECL League: Division 3
Brd	Col	CLACTON C	Result		COLCHESTER B	Col
1	b	Melvin Steele (126)	0	1	Michael Wagstaff (142)	w
2	w	Andrew Todd (112)	0	1	Sam Glenn (118)	b
3	b	Nigel Lake (99)	0	1	Pete Smith (111)	w
4	w	Alan Story (63)	1	0	Ed Goodman (82)	b
		(avg=100)	1	3	(avg=113)

NECL Knockout Round 1

The first round of the NECL Knockout saw both Colchester teams drawn against Division 1 sides. Unfortunately, the B team had to default against Clacton A. The A Team were outgraded on every board against Brentwood B but managed to draw the match - winning on board count to go through to the next round.

Date: 15-Oct-2013
Knockout: Round 1
Brd	Col	BRENTWOOD B	Result		COLCHESTER A	Col
1	w	Aidan Corish (161)	½	½	Dimitrios Kolomvas (e160)	b
2	b	Rod Johnson (152)	½	½	Nathan Barnes (e145)	w
3	w	Robert Davies (145)	0	1	Michael Wagstaff (142)	b
4	b	Chris Darbon (148)	1	0	John Duff-Cole (91)	w
		(avg=151)	2	2	(avg=134)

Martin Harris wins Minor Section of 31st Bury St Edmunds Congress

Three Colchester players took part in the minor section of the 31st Bury St Edmunds Congress - John Duff-Cole, Martin Harris and Dave Wood.

Martin Harris, in his first chess tournament as a Colchester player, led throughout and finished joint 1st. Below is his win from the 3rd round - a game with a slightly farcical finish! Annotations (apart from the !s and ?s) are by Martin.

Colchester B v Colchester C

Here is the game played on Board 3 from the recent NECL match between Colchester B and Colchester C (Brian Remmer was White and Phil Daley was Black). This was the last match to finish - if Black hadn't won then the C team would have beaten the B team.

Draw for Club Championship

The draw for the group stages of the Club Championship has been made. Each player plays two games against the other players in their group. The top two from each group will go into the quarter-finals of the Club Championship, all other players will go into the knockout for the Club Plate.

The dates for the first round matches are:

09/10/13		No matches specified - play anyone from your group who is available for a match (will ease fixture congestion later in the season)
16/10/13		Player 1 (W) vs Player 4 (B); Player 2 (W) vs Player 3 (B)
06/11/13		Player 1 (W) vs Player 3 (B); Player 4 (W) vs Player 2 (B)
13/11/13		Player 2 (W) vs Player 1 (B); Player 3 (W) vs Player 4 (B)
27/11/13		Player 4 (W) vs Player 1 (B); Player 3 (W) vs Player 2 (B)
22/01/14		Player 3 (W) vs Player 1 (B); Player 2 (W) vs Player 4 (B)
05/02/14		Player 1 (W) vs Player 2 (B); Player 4 (W) vs Player 3 (B)

If a player is unable to play a match on the date allocated then it is their responsibility to arrange an alternative date with their allocated opponent. If this is not possible then the tournament director will decide on the result - default one of the players or, in exceptional circumstances, default both players.

All group matches in the club championship must be completed by Wednesday 2nd April.

 

Group 1	CB	SG	MH	NF	Total
Clive Bellinger	X				0
Samuel Glenn		X			0
Martin Harris			X		0
Nick Fadugba				X	0

 

Group 2	DK	PS	JD	EG	Total
Dimitrios Kolomvas	X				0
Peter Smith		X			0
John Duff-Cole			X		0
Ed Goodman				X	0

 

Group 3	NB	DC	MJ	JK	Total
Nathan Barnes	X				0
Dave Chatfield		X			0
Mark Johnson			X		0
John King				X	0

 

Group 4	PD	BR	JS	DW	Total
Phil Daley	X				0
Brian Remmer		X			0
Jake Stones			X		0
Dave Wood				X	0

 

First match of the season

The first match of the season this year was the Division 3 game between Colchester B and Colchester C. The final result was a draw - so both teams picked up their first point of the season.

Date: 02-Oct-2013
League: Division 3
Brd	Col	COLCHESTER B	Result		COLCHESTER C	Col
1	b	Michael Wagstaff (142)	½	½	Peter Smith (111)	w
2	w	Clive Bellinger (143)	½	½	Samuel Glenn (118)	b
3	b	Philip Daley (124)	1	0	Brian Remmer (116)	w
4	w	John Duff-Cole (91)	0	1	Ed Goodman (82)	b
		(avg=125)	2	2	(avg=106)

A list of all the fixtures can be found on the calendar page - the next matches are in the first round of the NECL knockout competition on Tuesday 15th October (the A team are away against Brentwood B and the B team are away against Clacton A).

Club Calendar

The calendar of events for the 2013/14 season is now available.

The first event is the Colchester B v Colchester C match on Wednesday 2nd October.

Essex Rapidplay

The North Essex Rapidplay Championship is being held at Writtle Chess Club on Saturday 21st September.  Anyone interested in playing should register as soon as possible - a copy of the entry form can be found here.

British Championship 2013

Adam Taylor is currently playing in the British Championship. The position below is taken from Adam's round seven game against Amy Hoare. The game has been fairly even but Adam (white) is looking for more than a draw. What was Adam's best option here to improve his winning chances?

Answer can be found in the comments for this post.

Later on in the same game, Adam's plan has been successful and he now has a winning position. There are several good moves to choose from in the diagram below - what move leads to the simplest win? Answer, again, in the comments.

Summer Quickplay Results

Ten players took part in the Summer Rapidplay (rules for the competition can be found here). The first round of matches all finished 2-0 with Clive, Nathan, Ed, Dave Chatfield and Juan beating Phil, Dave Wood, Pete, Roger and Mark respectively.

The second round of matches also all finished 2-0 meaning that going into the last round Dave C, Nathan and Juan were in the lead with 4 points each.

In the final round Dave C drew with Clive twice, Nathan beat Ed 2-0 (though had to rely on a swindle in the first game to avoid losing) and Phil picked up an excellent draw against our Spanish visitor (the highest rated player by a considerable margin), Juan.

The tournament used random pairings which did mean that some players had a considerably harder draw than others (Clive probably being the unluckiest) - final standings shown in the table below.

After the tournament Roger presented the winners of last season's club competitions with their trophies - Pete Smith won the Club Championship and Ed Goodman won the Club Shield.

 

Position	Name	NB	JH	DC	RS	CB	PD	EG	MJ	PS	DW	Total
1	Nathan Barnes							2.0		2.0	2.0	6.0
2	Juan Hernandez					2.0	1.5		2.0			5.5
3	Dave Chatfield				2.0	1.0			2.0			5.0
4	Roger Sharman			0.0						2.0	2.0	4.0
5	Clive Bellinger		0.0	1.0			2.0					3.0
6	Phil Daley		0.5			0.0		2.0				2.5
7=	Ed Goodman	0.0					0.0			2.0		2.0
7=	Mark Johnson		0.0	0.0							2.0	2.0
9=	Pete Smith	0.0			0.0			0.0				0.0
9=	Dave Wood	0.0			0.0				0.0			0.0

ECF Grades

The July 2013 ECF Grading List has been published. The grades for active Colchester players are:

Ref	Name	Sex	Age	Standard	Previous	Rapidplay	Previous
250046C	Bellinger, Clive	M		143D	143E
155695C	Daley, Philip	M		124D	124C
227455D	Duff-Cole, John A	M		91B	91B
292991A	Glenn, Samuel	M		118E
139627E	Gooding, Ian	M		167D	174C
256466L	Goodman, Ed	M		82D
286563E	King, John	M		26D	26E
213710A	Smith, Peter	M		111C	114B		117D
119459J	Sowerby, John G	M		103C	101C
272685D	Taylor, Adam C	M	15	190X	187X	194A	193X
282343D	Taylor, Nathalie	F			71D	67D	72D
276510L	Thrower, Adrian	M				67E	69E
275674C	Thrower, Ethan J	M	14			92A	87A
120924D	Wagstaff, Michael K	M		142E	142E
269649G	West, Graham	M		141E	141B
147307E	Williams, Stephen M	M		169E
290797F	Wood, David C	M		19A	19E	34X	35X

There are also a number of other Colchester players - like Dimitrios Kolomvas and Mark Johnson - who have played some graded games in the last season (but not enough to have a grade yet).

Summer Quickplay

There will be a quickplay competition on Wednesday July 31st - 15 minutes on the clock. All are welcome.

Pairings will be random with the first round pairings being made at 7:15. Two games will be played in each round (against the same opponent) - one with white and one with black. The aim is to have 3 rounds (6 games) with blitz games used to decide any ties.

New pages

Two new pages have been added to the site:

• Internal Competitions - this page gives information about the rules for the internal club competitions e.g. the club championship and the, new this year, club grand prix
• Club Honours - this page shows the winners of the main internal club competitions (since 2007)

NECL

The NECL season ended on a high note for the Colchester team with a 4-0 win against Witham B. Witham defaulted on board 2 and there were wins for Dimitrios, Ed and John.

Below is the finish from John Duff-Cole's game on board 4. White's opening play has been a little passive and Black takes advantage with a well-executed attack on White's kingside. White has just played 18.Kh7.

Graded games this season

The competitive season is now drawing to a close so it is time for a summary of the standard play graded games played at the club or in the NECL by Colchester Chess Club players.

		Played	Win	Draw	Lose	Grade
1	Dimitrios Kolomvas	7	4	1	2	156
2	Clive Bellinger	9	7	1	1	144
3	Michael Wagstaff	4	1	3	0	137
4	Peter Smith	15	10	1	4	125
5	Graham West	4	1	1	2	123
6	Samuel Glenn	10	4	1	5	117
7	Philip Daley	6	2	2	2	109
8	John Duff-Cole	12	6	1	5	104
9	Ed Goodman	15	6	3	6	104
10	Mark Johnson	6	2	0	4	71
11	David Wood	10	1	2	7	27
12	John King	7	1	1	5	24

Friendly match against University of Essex

Last Wednesday there was a 7-board friendly match against the University of Essex. Final score was 6-1 to Colchester, with the University's Dimitrios (also a regular player for the Colchester team) picking up the away team's win on Board 1.

Board	Colour	Name	Grade	Result	Name	Grade
1	B	Adam Taylor	187	0-1	Dimitrios Kolomvas	160
2	W	Clive Bellinger	142	1-0	Aron Donaldson	-
3	B	Nathan Barnes	-	1-0	Robert Smith	-
4	W	Phil Daley	124	1-0	Jake Stones	-
5	B	Ed Goodman	107	1-0	Sofiya Stoyanova	-
6	W	Peter Smith	114	1-0	Raluca Stroe	-
7	B	Alan Fairley	-	1-0	Theis Linde	-

Here is the game played on Board 3