Malcolm Clarke reports on the start of the 2019 Chandlers Ford Chess Club Summer Tournament, and the progress so far.

The Chandlers Ford chess summer tournament has now begun in earnest and 6 of the 9 first round matches have been played.

The number of entrants has increased from 16 last year to 19 this time round with Peter Przybycin, Rob Bird and James Lesniak are entering the competition for the first time and the first two named were amongst the first round winners,  Returning to the competition are Keven Lamb and former winner David Culliford.  Last season’s joint winner Sam Murphy who surprisingly lost his opening game last year made no mistake this time around, but fellow joint winner Manoj Chandar will not be playing this time around.

The Chandlers Ford chess club had an end of season curry which was attended by 19 people writes Malcolm Clarke.  At the event the summer tournament trophy was presented by John Kooner who donated the trophy to joint winners Sam Murphy and Manoj Chandar who will each hold the trophy for six months.  A presentation was also made to David Culliford who organised the evening.

Malcolm Clarke reports on our young players’ success in the Delancey Schools UK Chess Challenge, the world’s largest children’s chess tournament, plus his weekly roundup.

The Delancey Schools UK Chess Challenge saw the brother and sister combination of Manoj and Mansa Chandar both of whom play for Chandlers Ford qualify for the next stage.  Manoj scored five points of in his section which combined players in the under 13, under 14, under 15 and under 16 boys, while Mansa obtained five points out of six in the combined under 11, under 12, under 13 and under 14 girls.

Manoj’s best game in the Chess Challenge was his round 2 success when he got into a king and pawn ending a pawn up, but with both players having a passed pawn, with Manoj making sure that his passed pawn was protected and would be clear of the opponents king if it tried to attack his other king side pawns.  Mansa’s only defeat was at the hands of Melissa Hamilton from Portsmouth who is the eighth highest graded female player in the country for her age group.

Another Chandlers Ford player Keven Lamb won a prize for finishing second equal in the under 120 graded section at the Southend chess congress which was an excellent achievement as he was the 16th highest graded player out of the 22 in the section.  He went into the seventh and final round as the tournament leader, but was beaten by Nathan Weersing from Linton in Cambridgeshire.

Winchester C drew 2-2 with unbeaten champions Salisbury C in division 4 with Mike White and Graham Payne on the top two boards being their winners.  The result means they finish fourth in the final table being behind third placed Chandlers Ford B on game points.  Winchester D‘s match with Ringwood C was a bottom versus top encounter which they lost 2.5-1.5 with a win for Andrew Habbitts and a draw for Winchester.

Malcolm Clarke summarises the teams’ performances in the 2018-19 season.

All four Chandlers Ford teams in the Southampton League have now completed their league programme and all have recorded more losses than victories, but apart from Chandlers Ford C who finished bottom of division 4 all achieved mid-table positions.

However looking at the results during the season excluding the Robertson Cup and the two matches between the B and C teams where the latter achieved their only win of the season then the record against teams from Ringwood, Salisbury and Southampton University for all teams reads P19 W0 D3 L16 and against all other clubs reads P18 W10 D5 L3 and the A team also lost to Ringwood in the Robertson Cup. 

With the league season now over attention now switches to the club’s  Summer Tournament and knockout competition both of which have 19 entries.

As the current Chandler’s Ford Chess Club Ladder tournament reaches its last week, its organiser, Nobby George, explains how the Ladder Champion will be determined – in his own inimitable style.

Hi Ladder People. The End is Nigh, The Tension is High, The Ladders’ been Good, Just like I knew It would, At the end of next Tuesdays’ Club Night , Looking down the Ladder from a great Height, will be the Top Three , the rest of us look up and what do we See, Its’ TWO PEEs and A DEE. 

Player at No.Two will play Player at No.Three. The Winner will Play Player at No.One, The winner of that will be the Ladder Champion for 2019/20.  The Loser will be sent Home.

The Rules for the play off will be the same as the Ladder Rules with the exception that colours will be decided at the time of the games between both players, (with the normal one of each colour pawns in closed Hands).

If a Game ends with a draw then a replay with a change of colours will occur.

Malcolm Clarke reports on Chandlers Ford B’s victory over draw specialists Southampton D on Tuesday 16th April.

Chandlers Ford B ended the season with a 3-1 win against draw specialists Southampton D who had previously drawn six of their nine league matches including two draws with Chandlers Ford C and one with Chandlers Ford B.

The first game to finish was the board 4 encounter between Chandlers Ford’s Simon Kay and Southampton captain Terry Hutchins which finished all square, although Kay looked at one stage to have the best chance of obtaining a full point for Chandlers Ford.  For Hutchins the draw was something of a relief as Kay was the fourth Chandlers Ford player he had played against this season and he had lost the previous three games.

At the time that Kay’s game finished Nobby George’s opponent on board 3 seemed to be putting him under a degree of pressure, Sam Murphy had lost a rook in exchange for a minor piece, while Dick Meredith on board 1 had a level position against a higher graded player.

However George was able to mount a counter attack which exploited his opponent’s exposed king and this won him the game.  Murphy did well to deal with his material deficit and he managed to obtained a draw.  This just left Meredith’s game and he won a pawn and once he reached a position with only kings and pawns left on the board it was clear he would win, although his opponent eventually lost on time.

Winchester B beat Andover B 4.5-0.5 which was only their second league win of the season, with both successes coming against bottom of the table Andover with Pankaj Tomar. Robin Atkins, David Kinsler and Michael White being their winners.

Division 4 champions Salisbury C beat bottom of division Chandlers Ford C. Malcolm Clarke reports on the match, plus Winchester D and A teams’ results.

Chandlers Ford C‘s 3.5-0.5 defeat at the hands of division 4 champions Salisbury C meant they finish bottom of the table, but in fairness to their conscientious captain Keven Lamb he used the match to give games to players relatively new to the club or those who have not played very often in the season.  This resulted in the husband and wife combination of Steve and Rose Saunders who the previous week had played on the lower boards for the D team being elevated to the top two boards and Oscar Barnes who had only previously played a match counting solely for grading purposes also being selected.

Although they all lost Oscar gained valuable experience, Steve lasted 47 moves against the experienced Amanda Jones, and in terms of time Rose’s game lasted longer than Steve’s.  However it was James Lesniak who got the sole half point and he continued his promising start with the club.  Lesniak’s was the last to finish and it generated a lot of interest from those present, with at the end both him and his opponent receiving spontaneous applause from an enthused audience.

For the second successive week Winchester D took three players to an away match and were whitewashed, this time losing to Salisbury D.

Winchester A were missing board 2 Jon Barnes, but were otherwise at full strength, but they lost 3.5-1.5 to a Basingstoke team still in the running for the division 2 championship.  For Winchester Mike White coming into the side on board 5 drew his game, while Lukasz Piecha won on board 2.

Malcolm Clarke reports on the D and A team matches in League and Robertson Plate, plus stalwart player John Kooner recently turned 70.

Chandlers Ford D finished their league season as they started with a win, although none of their other league games were won.  However they are likely to finish third in a five team division.  In their 3-1 at Fareham captain Steve Dunleavy was unavailable, which meant that Rob Strachan took over the captaincy for the match and wins from Nobby George, Simon Kay and Steve Saunders winning their games and Rose Saunders winning a game counting for grading purposes.

In the Robertson Plate Chandlers Ford A team replayed their semi final with Winchester, with Dick Meredith who captains the A team in cup games fielding the same four players in the original match which included a double default and Keven Lamb also came into the side.  However this time Winchester fielded a full strength A team and won the match 5-0 to earn a cup final away to Hamble.  Of the Chandlers Ford players against Winchester top board Graham Stuart held out the longest, but after a brave fight he eventually lost in a queen and pawn ending.

Winchester C were whitewashed by division 5 champions Ringwood C, while Chandlers Ford stalwart John Kooner who has played for the club in its’ different forms since the 1990’s recently celebrated his 70th birthday.

Malcolm Clarke reports on an extraordinary result, plus the C Team’s match at the University.

Chandlers Ford A drew 2.5-2.5 with Winchester B, a result that confirms that in division 3 Chandlers Ford will finish 4th and Winchester 5th, while Chandlers Ford C‘s 2-2 draw with University C means that they can only avoid finishing bottom of division 4 if they manage to catch Chandlers Ford B.

The A team’s match was the first drawn encounter in the 20 matches in which Malcolm Clarke has captained the side and in fact the games on all five boards were drawn.  First to finish was the game between Chandlers Ford’s Sam Murphy and Winchester’s Steve Kitley in which Murphy had an extra pawn in a queen and pawn ending, but with double pawns any advantage he had was negligible.

The games on the top three boards saw Chandlers Ford’s Dave Holmes, Phil Overton and Graham Stuart draw with Lukasz Marek Piecha, Bob Cleave and Robin Atkins respectively. All three games were pretty well kevel on material throughout, although not all of the games lacked winning opportunities.

However the most interesting game was on board 4 when Chandlers Ford’s David Culliford took on Winchester stalwart David Kinsler.  Kinsler mounted a strong king side attack and Culliford did well to keep him at bay.  When Culliford was able to counter attack he won a rook for a minor piece, but having done the hard work was not able to make this advantage tell and by the end the material was level.

The C team did well to draw at University with good wins by Don Creasey and James Lesniak on the bottom two boards.  Creassey beat the A team’s nemesis Mo Leily and Lesniak on his debut for the team having previously played for the D team also did well.

Malcolm Clarke reports on the Division 4 match on the 19th March, plus the D Team’s second encounter in 2 weeks with Ringwood C, plus Winchester’s League matches, in his weekly round-up.

Chandlers Ford B lost 3.5-0.5 to Salisbury C, a result that gives the Wiltshire club the division 4 title. Peter Przybycin obtained the only half point, and even he was material down when a draw was agreed, with him having sufficient compensation for his material deficit. 

The other games in the Salisbury match saw  Simon Kay’s opponent on board 4 sacrifice a rook for a minor piece to have a couple of united passed pawns which were enough to win the game.  Sam Murphy was a piece down going into the end game and his efforts to pick up pawns in compensation made him defensively vulnerable and his opponent was able to issue a threat of check mate which he could not escape from.  Dick Meredith lost on time, but his game saw both players have the initiative at different times and went right to the wire.

For the second successive week Chandlers Ford D played Ringwood C and this time they were whitewashed, but they gave a good account of themselves with Simon Kay, Nobby George and Rob Strachan all having good positions at one point.  Both teams made one change from the previous week with Simon Kay coming in for James Lesniak while Ringwood replaced their board 4 with a player good enough to play on board 1.

Winchester A did not have a good week.  They were whitewashed by division 2 title favourites Hamble B and were beaten 4.5-0.5 by Southampton C with captain Alan Dyos picking up their only half point.  Winchester C drew 2-2 with Southampton D with a win for Mike White and draws for Steve Kitley and Brian Jack, and David Green winning a game counting for grading purposes only.