Category Archives: News

Club Championship 2022/23

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For the first time in recent history Crowthorne Chess Club is running a club championship. It is being run as an all-play-all with the nine rounds being played one game a month with a time rate of 80 minutes + 10 second increment for the game.

The table below shows the situation now that Round 1 has been completed.

JamesNickHarveyGeorgeAshtonHarrietZakMatRobertAlexTotal
James Barterxxx00
Nick Calvertxxx11
Harvey Duckersxxx11
George Green0xxx0
Ashton Grimmettxxx00
Harriet Haslehurst1xxx1
Zak Javellana-Jonesxxx11
Mat McKean0xxx0
Robert Page0xxx0
Alexander Waters1xxx1

https://ecflms.org.uk/lms/node/120712/elist

The championship is being hosted on the ECF LMS, and full details of the tournament and its progress can be seen by clicking the link under the table.

Many thanks to Robert for running the tournament.

Derek wins the Khyber Cup

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A belated write-up for our traditional summer tournament (the webmaster claims he was otherwise engaged in August), which was played on July 30th. Thanks to Jonathan for the details and photos.

The sun always shines on the Khyber Cup and we were fortunate enough, as so often, to be able to hold the event outdoors in ideal weather conditions, with a backdrop of one of the few lawns in the country still verdant green.

The Khyber chess this year produced more than the usual ups and downs, with some players riding high or unexpectedly low at lunchtime and undergoing a complete reversal of fortunes in the afternoon. To win the event though one needs to score well both before and after lunch, and this year the most consistent player was Derek, whose string of victories was only interrupted by a draw against Harvey, leaving Derek the clear winner a full point ahead of joint second place Ken and Zak. So Derek’s name will be engraved on the Khyber Cup trophy for the second year in a row, only the third player to achieve this distinction. Congratulations to Derek. Congratulations also to Zak, playing in his first ever OTB competition and finishing in an impressive joint second place on 3.5 points.

No wooden spoon this year, because we had none handy to give out, but the bottle of wine was awarded to Christine.

Thank you to John Upham for the loan of the tables and chairs. Thank you to everyone who played in this Crowthorne Chess Club institution, hope you all enjoyed yourselves, and hope to see you all again for next year’s Khyber Cup.

Winner Derek Johnson with the John Purkis Shield
The Players (minus Zak, the photographer)

Wednesday club nights suspended for the summer break

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We will be pausing the Wellington College Wednesday sessions from this week. The classroom was going to be unavailable anyway, and the bar closed from end-July, but with school holidays already started for many the junior club was exceptionally quiet this week, so we’ve brought forward our summer break. Pinewood will continue on Thursdays, and we will start back in Wellington from early September.

Click here for details of the Pinewood Centre venue

4NCL Final Round – Critical Game

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Crowthorne A’s final round match in the 4NCL Division 3 South against Cambridge University 2 was a potentially critical game for the entire season, given that a number of teams were bunched closely together so that a win would mean second place, and a loss would mean somewhere in mid-table.

Paul’s game, despite a rather quiet beginning, gradually became more and more complex and was the last game to finish, with the match score being on 2.5-2.5

Many thanks to Paul for providing comments to the game.
Click on any move for a popup board to appear.

Notwithstanding Paul’s final comment, his teammates thought that this was a well-played game (by both players) as some inaccuracies can be expected in such complicated positions.

4NCL Online Season 5 Review

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Thanks to all of you for playing. We had a squad of 10 players for 8 boards, but based on some availability comments I felt that we wouldn’t be able to fill both teams for all matches. But then, when an 11th player joined us and I discovered that 4NCL only allowed a squad of 8 per team I decided to enter a second team.

Crowthorne B has always been in the lowest division and has finished 58th/68, 59th/72, 43rd/56, 16th/28 (despite only playing in 5 of the 7 rounds). They scored 3 wins this time!

Click to see larger image
Click to see larger image

4NCL Online Round 6 results

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The Crowthorne teams had varying results in round 6 in the 4NCL Online season, played on April 5. The A Team lost 4-0, despite marginally out-rating their opponents, but the B Team drew 2-2.

This leaves the A team in 6th place out of 8 in Division 2, and the B Team is in 13th place out of 28 in Division 5.

Full results and tables etc can be found on the 4NCL web site.

Christmas Speed Handicap Results

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We finally held the thirty fourth Crowthorne Christmas speed handicap tournament last night (Saturday 2nd April) shortly before Easter, having postponed the event on its original date, shortly before Christmas, due to Covid restrictions. Nonetheless, a number of people thoughtfully entered into the spirit of the occasion by wearing their Christmas jumpers, and Scott even appeared in his legendary snowman onesie. Attendance was roughly half that of the previous over the board tournament in 2019, but that didn’t make the chess any more refined: the same extraordinary twists and turns of fate occurred on the boards as ever.

The winners of the two groups were Scott and Daniel and, appropriately perhaps, they were also the two finalists. Daniel reached the final beating Harriet in the semis after a hard-fought game in which he ingeniously sacrificed a queen to reach an advantageous bishop and pawn ending, converting it to a win through precise and careful technique. Scott had a somewhat quicker semi-final win against Mark (Cross) in a choppy tactical melee typical of the speed handicap.

In the final Scott played the opening which has given him so much success this season, the Black Lion defence albeit move in advance as white, and it delivered the goods for him again. Daniel’s king came under pressure along files and diagonals, leading to Scott delivering an on-the-board checkmate.

Congratulations to Scott for his first Speed Handicap win and fine performance all evening. Daniel’s turn will surely come.

At the other end of the field of achievements, Christine deprived Colin (Purdon) of the wooden spoon and bottle of wine. Thank you to her and to all who attended.

Christine Receives the coveted Wooden Spoon (plus consolation prize) from Club Secretary, Jonathan Welton
Congratulations to this year’s Christmas Handicap winner, Scott Leadbetter!

Many thanks to Jonathan for organising another enjoyable Christmas Handicap.

Tactics in the Benoni

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In a recent match against Basingstoke, Derek played the Benoni defence, and both players conspired to create a tactical melee.
(Click on a move below to open a board window.)

Both players navigating through the complications very well.