Rounds 3-4 of the over-the-board 4NCL have completed, with Crowthorne Chess Club’s two teams competing over the last two weekends. The B team played over 6-7 January and the A team on Jan 13-14.
Both teams won their Saturday matches, but then followed with losses on Sunday. This was particularly unfortunate for the A Team who came close to winning a couple of their games, but without quite managing to press their advantage for a win. Crowthorne A lost the match 2.5 – 3.5. To be fair, their opponents (Sussex Martlets) also came close to winning one or two of their other games, and after four rounds they lead the division with 4 wins out of 4.
Richard had a tremendously complicated game, with an “unclear” assessment being reasonable for most of the game. Then his opponent decided that his king was safer out of the centre, and he castled (on move 29!) into a strong attack. Neither player could see a forcing line for Richard (playing White), and the game soon ended in a repetition. At that point, Richard was playing on increment and got down to 1-2 seconds on a couple of occasions.
In the cold light of day, and with access to a strong engine, we can see that White did have a win available, although this was also missed by players and kibitzers alike in the post-mortem. The lines are quite pretty, though, so you may like to play through them.
Author Archives: crowword
Christmas Handicap Results
We held the annual Crowthorne Christmas Speed Handicap last Friday (15th December), in the Pinewood bar & café using the function room at the back, which proved to be a perfectly suitable room for us. We set a new record for attendance – 28 players, including seven juniors, two parents and two newcomers.
Given the number of players, we split into four for the group stage. The club’s strong established players did well, with Paul, Richard, Harvey and Robert winning their respective groups. This despite Paul, for example, having less than 5 minutes total playing time across all 6 games.
For the knockout stage we also introduced a novelty, a round of 16. The field was reduced to 3 juniors in the semi-finals, Matthew, David and Dylan, along with Hamid attending his first club competition. The final saw David and Dylan playing a fine and evenly balanced game, both playing with great maturity. David pushed for an attack, but Dylan gave no ground and after an even and well fought battle, it was Dylan who had the better time control and won the game, and with it the Harvey-Ironside Shield.
Congratulations to Dylan, and indeed to David too for doing so well.
We had two other “winners”, both earning themselves a bottle of wine: Scott for the most outrageous Christmas costume (the snowman onesie, slightly tighter fitting this year) and Michael for sportingly giving all the other players a chance.
Reminder – Christmas Handicap on Friday and chess this week
This (13th December) is the last Wednesday this term in the Monro Pavilion for juniors and matches. We resume again on Wednesday 10th January.
We thought three consecutive nights of chess would be a bit much, so there is no Pinewood social chess meeting this Thursday. We should be ok to meet again next Thursday, 21st Dec before taking a break over the Christmas/new year period.
Christmas Handicap is on Friday, doors open 7:00, rules read-out 7:30, play start about 7:45.
Jonathan sent an email yesterday to people who are down as playing. If you didn’t receive it, but you expect to be playing, please let Jonathan know ASAP.
4NCL Online season 8 summary
Season 8 of the Online 4NCL Tournament has finished and we finished 7th out of 32 teams in Division 5. We were helped by 4 defaults by our opponents, but, we did share the games a round the squad rather than always pick the strongest team.
More details can be found at the 4NCL Web Site
No meeting on Wednesday 29th
On Wednesday 29th November we will not have access to the Monro Pavilion. This is the last Wednesday we don’t have access to the building this season (i.e. until the summer holidays). We will be meeting there again as normal on Wednesday, 6th December.
OTB 4NCL Weekend 1
Both Crowthorne teams had solid starts in this season’s over-the-board 4NCL. Crowthorne A played its first weekend (Rounds 1&2) over Nov 11-12, and the B team played this weekend (18-19).
Crowthorne A drew their first match 3-3 against Poole Patzers and followed up with a good 4.5-1.5 win against Surbiton in round 2. This puts us near the top of Division 3 Knights, but obviously it’s early days yet.
Crowthorne B played the strong Guildford Young Guns team in round 1, and only lost 2-4 despite being outgraded on every board (by an average of 267 points). For a while, we were even leading the match, after a nice win by Scott (see below). This was followed up by a good 4-2 win against Iceni 2, despite again being outgraded (by an average of 120 points). A very good start for the B team against strong opposition, which leaves us mid-table in Division 4.
In Scott’s first round game, he had white in the position below. Black has just played Be7-d8, defending against White’s threat of Nb6. However, he overlooked a tactical shot which Scott played. Can you find it? Click the “?” to reveal the solution.
4NCL 2023/2024
The over-the-board 4NCL season is nearly upon us, with Crowthorne A playing its first two rounds this coming weekend (Nov 11-12) and the B team the weekend after that.
However, the on-line 4NCL team has already been active, having played five rounds in Season 8 of the competition.
Team Captain, George, has been rotating the players so that all the squad gets games. In the online event, teams have four players.
Results have been mixed, and Crowthorne are currently sitting mid-table in the league.
Results of the previous rounds:
Christmas Handicap 2023
Our annual Christmas Speed Handicap has been booked for Friday the 15th December. This is in the Pinewood Centre, like last year, but this year we have the rear function room booked, which will make it a little quieter and more private. A buffet will be provided. Jonathan has promised to send frequent reminders about this event, but for now perhaps you could note the date in your diaries.
For those unfamiliar with the Christmas Speed Handicap, all games last the same time (10 or 15 minutes, depending on the number of attendees) but the time allocated for each player is adjusted according to their strength to give each player an even chance of winning. The overall effect is that any player can win the whole event. Quickness of mind and hand are more important than a simple ECF rating.
Keith Richardson Memorial Tournament
On Saturday, September 30th, our friends at Camberley Chess Club held their annual Keith Richardson Memorial Rapidplay tournament. This year’s tournament was the first to be held at their new venue at the Heatherside Community Centre.
Keith Richardson was a member of Camberley Chess Club, who was very well liked and respected in the club and the local leagues he played in. He was also very well-known in the wider chess community as a correspondence Grandmaster. Camberley has held a memorial event annually (lockdown permitting) since his death in 2017.
This year’s tournament saw success for Crowthorne’s Richard Webb who won his second rapidplay tournament in a week (see Witney report).
Congragulations to Camberley for running a friendly and successful tournament. Full details of the event can be found here.
Success for Crowthorne Players at Witney Rapidplay
On Sunday (24th September) two Crowthorne players emerged as prize winners in the Witney Rapidplay. This is a very pleasant tournament, which is held in the excellent venue of Cokethorpe School in Oxfordshire.
FM Richard Webb won the Open, scoring 5.5 out of 6. Richard won in the final round against fellow Crowthorne member FM Ian Thompson.
Ashton Grimmett was also successful, with the best excess-of-rating performance in the Open, scoring 3 out of 6.
Well done to both!
Full results of the tournament can be found here.