Thursday, 25 June 2015

Issues raised at the AGM

Post from Clive

Below is a brief summary of salient some of the issues that were raised at the AGM

Treasurer’s Report

Phil Daley presented the financial reports for the year. The accounts reflected a surplus of £8.

The fee levels were discussed for the forthcoming year they would be:

  • Full members (gainful employment)£30
  • Students,Senior Citizens & Unemployed £20
  • Family membership £30
  • Juniors £10
  • Casual £2 per night

All members are responsible for their own ECF membership

PD requested the club recognise Dave Chatfield as Assistant Treasurer, this was seconded by Nathan Barnes, all in favour.

NECL

The number of teams to enter in NECL league next year are to remain at 4. The number of teams to enter in NECL knockout next year was agreed at 3.

NECL Player of the Year

This has been won by a Colchester player for the 2nd year in a row (Eldar Lachinov last year) – this year Alex Orava is player of the year with 7.5/8 (mostly on top board for the B team). A small trophy to be presented to Alex. Of the top 6 in the player of the year listings, 5 are Colchester players

Appointing more match captains

Matt Stemp and Michael Wagstaff offered their services as match captains.

Election of Officers

Roger Sharman stated there were no new applicants for any committee position, and that the existing Officers were prepared to stand again. The following Officers were therefore elected un-opposed:

  • Chairman: Roger Sharman
  • General Secretary: Clive Bellinger
  • Treasurer: Phil Daley
  • Match Secretary: John Duff-Cole
  • Tournament Secretary: Nathan Barnes

Match Nights

Setting-up for match nights.  There have been occasions when NB has been the only person setting-up boards and tables - if he arrived early then he has no problems with this but he does have a bit of an issue with not being helped when other people are there.  Non-drivers who play in matches should be responsible to arrive at 19:00 to set up for the match.

Organised Coaching sessions

It was discussed that it may be possible to arrange an organised coaching sessions from a strong player. It was agreed that Clive, Nathan, and Matthew would look into the possibility.

Player of the Year Award

It was agreed the club would present a Player of the Year award. Nominations were to go to the Secretary prior to next year’s AGM, the Committee would then decide on the winner.

Tuesday, 23 June 2015

Club championship quarter-finals

The club championship quarter-finals have been completed, while there have been numerous upsets prior to this round this time the games were all won by the higher-graded player.

 

QUARTER-FINAL
Nathan Barnes1 v 0Simon Denney
Phil Daley1 v 0John Duff-Cole
Ed Goodman0 v 1Martin Harris
Mark Johnson0 v 1Brian Remmer

 

These results mean that Brian Remmer will win the Club Shield for best result by an U120 graded player (unless he wins the Club Championship which will mean a 4-way play-off between Simon, John, Ed and Mark will be needed). The draw for the semi-finals is:

 

SEMI-FINAL
Nathan Barnes v Phil Daley
Martin Harris v Brian Remmer

Sunday, 21 June 2015

DITO 2

The previous post in this occasional series was an example of forgetting opening preparation, today is an example of playing your normal line without paying sufficient attention to the move order being used by your opponent and is taken from the same tournament.

When playing the first game in your first tournament for nearly two decades it always helps if your opponent has a DITO...

Lines where Black plays an early ...d5 in the Symmetrical English are quite common as instead of trying to maintain symmetry Black tries to grab the initiative. 1.c4 c5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.g3 d5 leads to a fairly common position:

There are numerous possibilities after this e.g. 5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.Bg2 Nc7 is the Rubinstein System, a complex line often seen in grandmaster play.

Today's DITO shows an example of ...d5 being played too early in a Symmetrical English, taken from Barnes, N (ECF:146) - Burrows, J (ECF:164)(2014).

2.g3 is the 4th most common move in response to 1...c5; Nc3, Nf3 and d4 are the more frequently seen alternatives. The game continued in a normal manner 2...Nc6 3.Bg2 Nf6 4.Nc3

However, 4...d5? just throws a pawn away. The difference from the line shown at the top of the post is that White has played Bg2 instead of Nf3 and so d5 is attacked three times and only protected twice. Black has not noticed the move order difference and has lost a pawn. It is going to get worse though...

Black still hasn't noticed that the knight is not on f3 and played 5...Nxd5??

White is a piece up after just six moves and the rest (should be) simple.

Monday, 8 June 2015

Colchester D: season round-up

Colchester D finished the season in 5th place in Division 3. They won 5 matches, drew 1 and lost 3 (despite being out-graded in 8 of their 9 matches).

 

The player statistics (by board) are:

 

Board 1 (Total 1.5/9)
Pete Smith0.5/4
Simon Denney1/3
Mo Jaufarally0/1
Ed Goodman0/1

 

Board 2 (Total 4.5/9)
Simon Denney1/1
Brian Remmer0/1
Mo Jaufarally2/2
John Duff-Cole0.5/2
Ed Goodman1/3

 

Board 3 (Total 6.5/9)
John Duff-Cole1/1
Ed Goodman3/4
Mark Johnson2.5/4

 

Board 4 (Total 5/9)
Mo Jaufarally1/1
Denzel Gonzales0.5/2
Shazia Jaufarally1/3
Mark Johnson2.5/3

Wednesday, 3 June 2015

Colchester C: season round-up

Colchester C finished the season with a 3-1 win against Billericay B and a 3.5-0.5 loss against Brentwood C. The team were in with a a chance of winning the league up to the last match but, in a very close division ended up finishing 4th - if the first match of the season (against Colchester D) had gone as expected then they probably would have won the division.

Date: Apr-2015
NECL Division 3
 
Brd Col BILLERICAY B Result COLCHESTER C Col
1 b Dale Bailey (133) 0 1 Martin Harris (121) w
2 w Chris Van Veen (113) ½ ½ Simon Denney (114) b
3 b Ken Young (112) ½ ½ John Duff-Cole (87) w
4 w Charles Newman (105) 0 1 Mark Johnson (71) b
(avg=115) 1 3 (avg=98)

 

Date: Apr-2015
NECL Division 3
 
Brd Col BRENTWOOD C Result COLCHESTER C Col
1 b Robert Davies (130) ½ ½ Mike Wagstaff (148) w
2 w Timothy Weaver (127) 1 0 Martin Harris (121) b
3 b Chris Phillips (105) 1 0 Mohammud Jaufarally (99) w
4 w David D'Cruz (100) 1 0 Mark Johnson (71) b
(avg=115) 3.5 0.5 (avg=109)

 

Nine league matches were played by the C team, with five wins, two draws and two losses. The player statistics (by board) are:

 

Board 1 (Total 5.5/9)
Mike Wagstaff0.5/1
Clive Bellinger2/3
Phil Daley1/1
Martin Harris1.5/3
Pete Smith0.5/1

 

Board 2 (Total 6/9)
Martin Harris2.5/4
Pete Smith2/3
Simon Denney1.5/2

 

Board 3 (Total 5.5/9)
Martin Harris0/1
Simon Denney3/3
Brian Remmer1/2
Mohammud Jaufarally1/2
John Duff-Cole0.5/1

 

Board 4 (Total 5/9)
Brian Remmer1/2
John Duff-Cole2/3
Denzel Gonzales1/1
Shazia Jaufarally0/1
Mark Johnson1/2