Southend

Two Colchester Chess Club members took part in the Southend Congress over the Easter weekend - John Duff-Cole and Martin Harris. Martin finished on 1/5 in the Intermediate section and John on 2.5/5 in the Minor. Here is one of John's wins - the shortest game this year for a Colchester player?

Colchester C v Maldon C

With this narrow win over Maldon C, Colchester C are now guaranteed to finish in 3rd place in NECL Division 3 (behind the B team and Galleywood Knights). There is still one match remaining (against CRGS next week) - if the C team win they will have the same number of match points as the B team, but even a 4-0 win would not be enough to beat the B team's board points (the tiebreaker for teams on the same number of match points).

Date: 23-Apr-2014
NECL League: Division 3
Brd	Col	COLCHESTER C	Result		MALDON C	Col
1	b	Martin Harris (139)	½	½	Keith Cook (136)	w
2	w	Brian Remmer (109)	1	0	Doug Mothershaw (111)	b
3		John Duff-Cole (90)	1	0	Default
4	w	Jake Stones (e75)	0	1	Frank Sealey (102)	b
		(avg=103)	2.5	1.5	(avg=116)

Tony Locke Rapidplay - Results

The 2013/14 season Tony Locke Rapidplay was won by Eldar Lachinov with a score of 5/5. Below is the cross-table of the results.

	Name	Rd1	Rd2	Rd3	Rd4	Rd5	Score
1	Eldar Lachinov	+ 6	+ 3	+ 2	+ 4	+ 5	5
2	Nathan Barnes	+ 4	+ 7	- 1	+ 3	+ 6	4
3	Martin Harris	+ 5	- 1	+ 7	- 2	+ 8	3
4	Mark Johnson	- 2	+ 8	= 5	- 1	+ 7	2.5
5	Mohammud Jaufarally	- 3	+ 6	= 4	+ 8	- 1	2.5
6	Ed Goodman	- 1	- 5	+ 8	= 7	- 2	1.5
7	John Duff-Cole	+ 8	- 2	- 3	= 6	- 4	1.5
8	John King	- 7	- 4	- 6	- 5	- 3	0

 

Following the Tony Locke rapidplay, the current top ten players in the club grand prix are:

		Points	Percentage
1st	Eldar Lachinov	16.5	97
2nd	Nathan Barnes	15.5	78
3rd=	Peter Smith	10	73
	Martin Harris	10	56
5th=	Brian Remmer	8.5	77
	Mike Wagstaff	8.5	77
7th=	Phil Daley	7	70
	John Duff-Cole	7	50
	Mark Johnson	7	47
10th	Clive Bellinger	5.5	69

With only the knockout stages of the club championship and four NECL matches left (2 for the A team and 2 for the C team), there are only two players who can now win the club grand prix - but the competition for the other places is close.

Tony Locke Shield - Next Wednesday

Important notice

The Tony Locke Shield will take place on Wednesday 16th April (draw for 1st round will be made at 19:15). The event is open to all club members. It will be a five-round swiss with 15 minutes on the clock for each player.

NECL player of the year

As the end of the season approaches it is time for a look at the top players in the NECL so far this season - and Colchester players are doing well.

Currently in 1st place is Eldar Lachinov with a score of 7.5/8 (94%) - looking like he can't be caught. In 2nd place is Mike Wagstaff with a score of 7.5/9 (83%) and Pete Smith is in 3rd place with 6.5/8 (81%). Also in the top 20 are Nathan Barnes (13th), Clive Bellinger (16th=) and Phil Daley (16th=).

All figures are taken from the NECL website.

The resurgence of Colchester Chess Club this season is apparent when comparing this to last season when there were no Colchester players in the NECL top 30.

Tournament Results

Colchester players have been competing in a few tournaments recently. Eldar Lachinov came 2nd in the FIDE-rated Hendon Blitz competition (results not on the website yet) and also got a good result at the Norfolk Rapidplay. Martin Harris scored 50% in the FIDE-rated Major section e2e4 High Wycombe and followed this up with a 3/5 score in the Intermediate section of the St. Albans Congress.

With the (relatively) local Southend Congress taking place Easter weekend there will be more Colchester players in action soon.

Here is a miniature from the 4th round of the St. Albans Congress. Martin makes a mistake that loses material on move 13 but then gives a good demonstration of how, even when you have a lost position, making all your pieces have activity can cause significant problems for your opponent.

Club Championship Draw

The group stages of the club championship have now finished.

Group 1 was won by Eldar Lachinov, with Martin Harris taking the runners-up spot. In group 2, Pete Smith finished 1st and John Duff-Cole 2nd. Group 3 was won by Nathan Barnes and there was a 3-way tie for 2nd (Mark Johnson, John King, Dave Chatfield) - Mark Johnson progressing with the best tie-break. Group 4 had a tie for 1st place between Phil Daley and Brian Remmer - Brian edging the tie-break criteria.

The 1st round of the knockout will take place on Wednesday 7th May - players should toss a coin to determine who has the White pieces. In the result of a draw a second match should be played (must be completed by 21st May at the latest). Players who do not complete the match on the 7th will be defaulted - unless they have agreed an alternative date with their opponent. All players in the knockout will get further games (even those beaten in the first round) as there will be play-offs to determine placings.

Draw for main competition:

• Eldar Lachinov - Phil Daley
• Pete Smith - Mark Johnson
• Nathan Barnes - John Duff-Cole
• Brian Remmer - Martin Harris

Draw for plate competition:

• Clive Bellinger - Jake Stones
• Sam Glenn - Rob Smith
• Dave Chatfield - Dave Wood
• John King - Ed Goodman

CRGS match

The final match of the season for the B team was a 3-1 win over Colchester Royal Grammar School. The B team will have to wait to see if they will win the division, if Galleywood Knights win or draw their last match then the B team will finish second.

Date: 01-Apr-2014
NECL League: Division 3
Brd	Col	CRGS	Result		COLCHESTER B	Col
1	b	Gorak Rajesh (161)	½	½	Nathan Barnes (e145)	w
2	w	Jeremy Hadcock (140)	½	½	Martin Harris (139)	b
3	b	Shivan Harani (90)	0	1	Clive Bellinger (139)	w
4	w	Peter Harris (57)	0	1	Peter Smith (122)	b
		(avg=112)	1	3	(avg=136)