Chess News Season 2021-2022

The world championship has started again see here-note its rest day thursday 2nd December.

above are a great win for Russell Hayley vs the very strong Jim Woodburn(top) and a win for Martin Gawne vs myself(Alan Llewellyn).

The world championship has started see here-note its rest day mon 29th Novemember.

On the 24th (wednesday) November 2021 we had one game played a fabulous victory by Russell Hayley(as Black) over Jon Duffield who has been on form lately so the manner of the victory was unexpected. The game is analysed by Russell and myself(alan Llewellyn) below:-

These games below are rapidplay games played as friendlies on the 22nd Nov 2021 with only two of us there these gems didnt even get an audience of other players watching, they are an incredibly high level for darn near Blitz.

Magnus Carlsen will defend his world chess championship title against challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi in 2021. The match starts November 26th until December 15th, i will be covering the games on this site, i appologise, I will not be able to analyse club games in this period.

To see the current info and analysis on the World Championship match click here .

The table for the club championship [mid november]is out see here

Tonight, 17th November 2021(a wednesday), Frank Whalley as white drew with Russell Hayley, Frank missed two chances of a win but must have thought it wasnt his night to win, so agreed a draw. The game is below

Today (15th November 2021) Trevor Blower lost in the club championship vs Matthew Mackenzie(who was Black). The game was very tense but Matt very slowly and painstakingly gained an initiative. Both played well. The game is included on this site under this text.

This wednesday 10th November 2021, although we had 8 members, we only had one championship game between Frank Whalley and Martin Gawne which was a draw.  Martin had weak pawns but defended them well.

On monday 8th November 2021 two games were played, George Horne drew with Martin Gawne and Matthew Mackenzie as Black won well in his comfort zone with myself(Alan Llewellyn), both games were in the club chmpionship-our game is below, notice how few mistakes Matt makes.

On the 6th November 2021, the Barrow weekend team drew with Windermere, the team of Matthew Mackenzie, Kit Hopkins and Russell Hayley went 1.5-1.5 with Russell getting a win vs David Shaw and Matthew getting a draw vs the strong David Philips and Kit losing surprisingly against Colin Bragg

As the South Lakes Congress will be held in Barrow this coming year(3rd to 5th June 2022) I would expect all Barrow members to enter unless they have a 'my cat ate the homework' letter off the people responsible for them. An entry form can be found by clicking here.

George Horne continued his winning form with a draw (as Black)in a KO round 1 replay and then another replay win(George as White) vs Frank Whalley. Jon Duffield also continued his good recent form with a win vs Trevor Blower in theyre first round 1 KO game(Jon as Black) so George and Jon both go through to the second round.

Martin Gawne(the current club champion) started his deffence well with a win vs Russell Hayley who was white.

Above is the current positions from before the 3rd of November, they can be seen in the competitions results page(click on competitions in the bar then on the second image underneath the itinerary image, then go to link under results archive)

In the lightning we faced a tough group which Matthew won with an unbeaten 4/4 and I came second with 2.5/4

the games from the scarborough congress which I mentioned (ie just one of the best games each) are below

Three Barrow club players played in a top british weekend tournament in scarborough 2021, George Horne did best of the three of us with a creditable 3.5/5, Trevor Blower got his revenge against me blowing me away in the final game, pardon the pun to get a great score of 3/5.  I(Alan Llewellyn) was left on 2/5 and the competition was real tough.  Some of the strongest club players from the country entered. Watch this page for a game from each of us.

There was a good turn out at the club for wednesday(27th Oct 2021), there were seven of us. George Horne as white quickly drew with Frank Whalley in round 1 of the club KO and Matthew Paule played really well to push Jon Duffield, while I saw it, but I was told that Jon won in the end.

There was a game in the Club Championship today(25th Oct 2021), i have added the full analysed score to it below. Matthew Mackenzie beat Jon Duffield, Matt as white. With the addition of Kit Hopkins, Dave Cole, Jim Woodburn and Martin Gawne we have a very competitive Championship.

This is a position from Susan Polgars chess IQ test she has released-I am not sure if it gives you a score-I abandoned it after I thought it had an error in it.  I played 1 Rh8 here with a cunning intention-if 1...h8=Q 2 Rb8+ Ka2 3 Kc2?? i thought the only move to avoid mate was 3...Ka3 then 4 Ra8+ Kb4 5 Rxa1 is won what had i missed??? For answer highlight below:-

I missed 3...Qh1!! which simultaneously gets the Queen to safety and covers the a8 square- the answer was 1 Ra1!! Kxa1 2 Kc2 e5 3 d5 e4 4 d6 e3 5 d7 e2 6 d8=Q e1=Q 7 Qd4+ Qc3 8 Qxc3#

This is the position(above) from the game mentioned yesterday in the KO Round 1 between Russell Hayley and myself(Alan Llewellyn).  Russell has quite an attack going along the h-file, but here I calmly play 1...Rc2!! and after 2.Nxh7 I responded not 2...Nxh7 but 2...Ne4!!, when both Knights are in trouble, the game continued 3.Nf6+ Bxf6 4.Rh8+ Kf7 5.Rxa8 Rxd2+, the weakness of the a and b pawns for Russell is telling and he kinda fell on his sword after 6.Kf3?? Rxf2# and its checkmate.

Late news: Kendal actually lost theyre match vs Ulverston B, what that means is Barrow A cannot be caught by any team and are again the Champions of the Southern League as they have been every year since the League was set up in 2015. The team included Matthew Mackenzie, Dave Cole, George Horne, Frank Whalley and Chris Underhill and Scott Bower might have played a few games also.

On the night of 20th Oct 2021, in the club championship Jon Duffield beat Frank Whalley, Jon as white, playing apparently out of his skin. While in the Knock Out round 1, I(Alan Llewellyn) beat Russell Hayley, me as black, when Russell went for a slowish attack on the h7 pawn rather than consolidate his lead in development in the centre and i capitalised with a counter attack.

It was a day for the established players on monday 18th Oct 2021, as Matthew Mackenzie won as black against Russell Hayley  and George Horne won as white against me(Alan Llewellyn).  In my game George cunningly spots a mistake by me that is not at all obvious. See diagram below:-

 In the poition below, I am thinking do I play 1...c5 or not, I decide after 1...c5, 2 Nxc5 Bb5  white has only 3 c4?? when 3...dxc5 4 cxb5?? cxd4 and i am up. What did I miss(answer below diagram highlight).

I missed 1...c5?  2 Nxc5!! Bb5 3 Nd3!!

The update roll of honour from the last season is here

above are the averages(the scores in county team events for each team member), Matthew Mackenzie won it with some tough competition even though he plays board 1 when he plays. The averages pages in previous years is given here.  This can also be found on the county page by selecting county on the banner. 

On the 13th Oct 2021 Wednesday, in the only club championship game that night, I(Alan Llewellyn) beat (rather luckily) Jon Duffield with me as white.

Late news: Barrow A decimated a reasonably Ulverston B team, but will it be enough?? Matthew Mackenzie , George Horne and Frank Whalley all won, but Dave Cole was beaten by an old Barrow player Neil Foxcroft and although Barrow A are now 10 points ahead of theyre rivals for the title for the exstention to the 2019-2020 abondoned due to covid League South. It may not be enough as Kendal have two matches in hand and a possible 12 points, Barrow can only hope Ulverton A and B can get more than a few wins.

Tonight, the 11th Oct 2021 saw two games played in the club championship, Jon Duffield won as black against Trevor Blower after Trevor went a piece up for most of the game but he must have relaxed and thought hed won because he allowed Jon to checkmate him. And in the other game came the first win for White(all the games before this were wins for black, unusually) as Jim Woodburn ground out the win vs me(Alan Llewellyn). A position shown below is from the Woodburn-Llewellyn game tonight and white calmly plays 1 b3 and now the Queen is trapped after 1...Qa3 2 Bc1, so i resigned immediately after b3.

The start of a new season and the start of real physical chess, as opposed to online chess, has seen us start our campaign in the Weekend League, the Barrow team of Matthew Mackenzie, Kit Hopkins and Russell Hayley saw off a Penrith B team 3 - 0 playing in Kendal.

There was a match carried forward from the 2019-20 season, blighted by covid, tonight(6th Oct 2021). Barrow A drew with Kendal 3-3 with George Horne and Frank Whalley winning and Matthew Mackenzie and Dave Cole both losing.  I am not sure of the position Barrow A are in to regain their title but i think its tight with Kendal.

On the same day Russell Hayley as white lost to Trevor Blower in the club Championship.

The club knock-out is being arranged currently and Trevor says only players that come to the club will be entered due to the lack of show of players this season. So get yourselves down to the club pronto. 

Tonight Monday 4th Oct 2021, we only had three members at the lightning tournament first night, for those who didnt know it was on including new members its the first monday of the month from october til april 8 nights in all and the best 4 results count. you play a move every 10 seconds on the buzzer and if you dont move on time or make an illegal move your the squid game[ a reference to netflix series by that name], like I(Alan Llewellyn) was against Trevor Blower tonight. Trevor also beat Jon Duffield and Jon beat me so because of byes to make up the points, Trevor finnished, in first, on 4 points with Jon in second on 3.

Another day when only one match was played, the game in the Barrow Club Championship was between Jon Duffield and Jim Woodburn which Jim cleverly won a piece threatening checkmate,Jon was up against it then and a clever ending fron Jim secured the victory.  The replay of the game is above. A new member was there today, Joshua Sibborn who was at a strong level for someone just starting out.

Above is a video of some analysis I did on Chessbase 16, I wanted to look at the line 1 d4 Nf6 2 Bf4 c6 3 Nf3 Ne4 4 e3?! g5!!(a trap intending Qa5+ winning a piece) 5 Be5 f6 which, I thought, fell to 6 Nxg5?? threatening Qh5 checkmate but the computer spotted a way out.   namely the way out is 6...Nxg5!! 7 Qh5+ Nf7  now White is lost and Bc4 can be met by d5

There was only one game tonight in the club championship, between George Horne, who won as Black against Jon Duffield despite an awsome attack by Jon. The game is given below.

Again the pace of the club championship is painfully slow, with just one game detailed below between Russell Hayley as white fell for a trick against me(Alan Llewellyn) in the London System-he came back valiantly but just had a terribly difficult endgame to play

The only serious game tonight(15th Sept 2021) was Matthew P----, a junior who played brilliantly to give Russell Hayley a bit of a scare. It was in the club championship and eventually Russells greater experience shone through... the game is below

Sorry for blowing my own trumpt a little, but here is the only game played on Monday 13th (September 2021) between Trevor Blower and myself(Alan Llewellyn). trevor plays well for many moves then falls for what is called a cheapo[a threat which is easily avoided and on a good day would see a mile off]

The AGM notes from the meeting last week for the years 2019-21 can be seen here-and note it covers two years due to the missing AGM due to covid of August 2020.

Due to circumstances beyond our control there Is a change of venue for the 24th South Lakes Congress on the 3/5 June next year. The new venue Is the Forum, Barrow In Furness , Cumbria. It Is a town centre location with numerous accessible and reasonably priced accommodation. Please ask If you wish to be removed from this e-mail list

 T R Blower SLC Organiser

The itinerary for this seasons Lightening Tournament is here and the colours for the club championship are here 

The AGM is over and everything decided for next season, so the competitions start for next season, there were two new members at the AGM, Russel Hayley and Oliver Campbell and I think they have both signed up for the competitions proper, the main ones being the club championship and the knock-out as well as lightening league and the county games for the club teams.  I am waiting for the details of colours for club championship and lightening dates itinerary, from Trevor Blower.

Don't forget its the AGM on wednesday, (8th September 2021), on Monday 6th September there was nothing on just 10 minute blitz friendlies but there were only 4 of us, and one came late, Jon Duffield in particular was playing strongly although he kept losing on time. Below is an example of his play, he was white against me(Alan Llewellyn) and he spotted my next move rather brilliantly-  I was threatening 1...Bh6!! 2 Qxh6 Qxf2+ 3 Kh1 Qf1+! 4 Rxf1 Rxf1 checkmate, rather calmly Jon played 1 Bc4!! I didnt spot the tactic was no longer on and played 1...Bh6?? 2 Qxh6 Qxf2+ 3 Kh1 and i have nothing as now the f1 square is doubly defended. 

The archived results for the KO for season 2019-2020 have been added, see the archive page or the pdf of those results.

The Pairs night was a bit disapointing,  I didnt play but there were only 4 competitiors, Frank Whalley also turned up but because I make a point of not playing, he didnt have anyone for his teammate. So George Horne and Jon Duffield in one team played Trevor Blower and Matthew Paule in the other, George and Jon ended up champions. 

The Pairs Tournament is tonight(01/09/2021)-a one off event where the players split into assigned pairs and points are added up between the pair.

The AGMs page has the minutes from 2019 see here and the AGM for the covid era is the 8th Sept 2021. note-it will start around 7:30pm

On the final night of the Summer League 2020-2021 everything was decided as Kit Hopkins did turn up and Dave Cole didnt, Kit needed 5.5 pts to win outright and got them without even drawing a game ie he got 7/7 on the night, while Frank Whalley and myself(Alan Llewellyn) both finished on 5/7, what this did to the final, best 8 results, was Kit Hopkins is the new Summer League champion with 47.5 congratulations to him, Dave Cole came second with 45.5, I came third with 43, Frank Whalley came fourth with 41.  All were tough opponents and scored well on occasion, namely Trevor Blower, Jon Duffield and Matthew Paule, our youngest member.  George Horne left it too late to make a mark, but did get a draw vs Kit, that was Kits only loss of  a perfect score except against Dave, in the competition. Kits last game, is included below, Note/although it wasnt the decisive moment, he had already won the competition, in the penultimate game, which he needed to drawa and he won.

The county AGM saw the beginnings of the new season with the Cumbria League starting up again for this new season, the Leagues will now have 3 man teams for this season.  The AGM also saw the establishment of sponsorship for a Cumbrian chess team in the Four Nations Chess League, the national UK chess league. Kit Hopkins, Matthew Mackenzie and myself(Alan Llewellyn) are all possible team members from the Barrow club.