Club News Season 2017-2018

The Summer Blitz tourney was a run away success for Dave Cole, who is fast becoming a silverware horder like Matthew at the club, not that either must have any mantelpiece room left, another who must have mantelpiece issues is  Trevor Blower who won the honour of the posh Time Ladder cup achieving a startling number of defences in a hard fought competition.  incidentally Dave Siddall achieved a joint second place position with 4/6 in the extremely tough Leyland Congress Major(u170), I still havent given the averages results, which Matthew has won, they will preclude the Season. Also the Pairs competition was won by Matthew Mackenzie and Trevor Blower both regular winners.The Roll of honour almost finishes whats to be said about the last season it can be seen here ,

There were good results from ex Barrow players and current Barrow players in the Manchester Summer Congress 2018 Major(under 165) :Martin Gawne achieved a brilliant 3.5/5 i myself (Alan Llewellyn) got 3/5 having played a prodigy European under 12 bronze medallist and lost to him, in the last round when I fell for zugwang (the definition of zugwang is that having to move loses you the game) and Dave Siddall had a disappointed result for him as he was a strong favorite in finishing on 2.5/5-it has since writing this come to my attention that Dave withdrew from the event early so it was 2.5/4

Dates for PAIRS is monday 27th and AGM is wednesday 29th

There is an international rating system in chess and the following are the international ratings of Barrow players:-

A Blackburne Book Review (the 19th Century top Brit) has come to my attention please click here to see it

Also if your looking for a trainer and you have skype try international master alex battey, I have already improved a huge amount from studying with him, he gives quality self tutoring on skype using a board to analyse and he gives you work which he shows alot of effort to describe the mistakes your making in your analysis. I am not being paid to refer him i am doing so because he has helped me so much- email address is alex.e.battey@gmail.com he is expensive but his work effort is Herculean at getting you to improve.

Hello its approaching that time that people hide behind their settees and steal a look at the number on a certain website appertaining to their chess skill.  Yes you can tell my grade is heading south!!! LOL. Anyway the grades are out soon maybe on sunday 22nd July 2018 or monday 23rd July at a guess.  Keep looking at this link to the English Chess Federation grading website.

i include an email that was forwarded to me for your interest,

Hi Dave, Bill,

I have set up a Cumbria Chess Association League club page here: https://www.chess.com/club/cumbria-chess-association 

Anyone can create a free chess.com account and join.

Once we have enough members we can look towards creating Tournaments, Daily Matches, Vote Chess, Forums, Private Forums, Chat, and Live matches.

Have a look around and let me know what you think and we can progress from there.

Regards,

John Kelly

Going off the subject of the club for a moment I saw an article on the great unfinished tournament of Mannheim 1914.  The tournament stopped because war broke out during it and the darn tournament organiser had to go to mobilise his forces as an army reserve in the German Army.  It was held in Mannheim a provincial market town.

Mannheim in 1914	The playing hall for the tournament
The actual unfinished scoresheet	Aljechin more commonly known as Alekhine in english. He 'won'

As the main part of the chess season draws to an end, Matthew Mackenzie defeats George Horne in the final of the Knock-Out. In his run Matthew had to beat Dave Cole, Jim Woodburn and Tony Kirby in the Semi, then finally his defeat of George in the final must rank as one of the toughest titles for him in his many Knock-Out wins.  Frank Whalley is the Minor Champion with 7.5/13.

News has filtered through of Trevor Blower finishing high up in the Rhyl Congress Minor, with 3/5.

Well its over now, by drawing his game with Scott Bower, Dave Cole secures an unassailable position with 12.5/14, and even if Matthew Mackenzies final game is awarded to him he will finish on 12/14.  With the grades comming out in July, I am sure its the last thing on Daves mind but will he be in the 170s with his grade. 170s is almost candidate master level and a top club player level.

The club championship is still not over with Dave Cole almost champion with 12/13 points after a draw in the crucial match between the two top contenders, Dave and Matthew Mackenzie.  This leaves Matthew on 11/13 with one game to go for both players,   Matthew has to play Liam Yeats and win, and Dave has to play Scott Bower, and lose, or if that doesnt happen Dave is outright winner.  Dave will win now the Championship, but will it be shared with Matthew??

Here is a chess puzzle for you which will flummox your computer, White to move and draw, for the solution click here although i warn you its a rather complex complete solution.

As of the 25th of April 2018 the new league champions for this 2017-2018 season are the on going champions of a number of years, namely Barrow A with a team of Matthew Mackenzie, Dave Cole, Scott Bower, George Horne and Frank Whalley they managed to win the deciding match against Barrow B by a score of 3 - 1 and they only needed to lose by 1.5 - 2.5 or better.  Congratulations in such a tough league go to them.

Is Dave Cole going to be the next stand alone club champion?  He already shares the title from last year with Matthew Mackenzie but this year he is in a commanding position having dropped only half a point in an extremely tough field standing on 11.5/12, the only person that can realistically catch him is Matthew on 9.5/11 with Jim Woodburn, George Horne and Scott Bower all with a mathematical chance of winning it but big outsiders needing results to strongly go their way. Their are two games to go for Dave, one of them is the titanic battle between Dave and Matthew.  Mention should go to Liam Yeats in his first tournament, he has already beaten Derrick Miller and Dave Martin and now he has gone on to beat the hugely experienced Trevor Blower. Mike Taylor will most probably be joining us as well next season and he will certainly be a strong contender for minor champion. Note-minor competition is not another name for junior-in the British chess scene a Minor competition is for ordinary club members as opposed to the Major competitions which are for strong club members.

In the final matches of the Southern Cumbria League, Barrow A are in control needing to get at least 1.5 board points out of the 4 boards, they would if they lost to Barrow B by the score 2.5 - 1.5, win the title on tiebreak on account they have won more matches than Kendal who are the only ones who can stop them.  I am not playing in the crunch game-I usually play board 2 or 3 but in due fairness to Kendal, we (Barrow B) have a stronger player than myself in possible reserve.  I am not playing because we had a league match the previous wednesday, then I went down to Nottingham Chess Congress (A four hour drive there, a saturday of 3 games, sunday of 2, then a four hour drive back sunday evening), i am still exhausted as of tuesday evening.  I didn't think I could possibly give it my best. Note- each proper rated game lasts about 2 hours.

In the club championship it is beginning to become a bit clearer but only a bit.  The title will go between either Dave Cole as favourite, or Jim Woodburn, Scott Bower, or Matthew Mackenzie with George Horne an outside bet and Chris Underhill can mathematically win it but despite some great results, such is the standard that he is almost certainly out of it. 

The Cumbria Weekday League is still going well for Barrow A but with a match in hand Barrow A are only 1 point in the lead over Kendal, so it will be decided when they play each other most probably, with the match infront putting the Barrow team in the driving seat.

George makes headlines again.  George Horne, probably as expected won his semi-final (in the club KO) against myself, after 4 draws between us.  This makes a tough final of George vs Matthew Mackenzie in the club KO match to decide the KO champion.  George has knocked out Matthew before but then lost in the final to Dave Cole, the only man in the club you would never feel confident in beating regardless of having beaten Matthew.

Blackpool and The Cumbria Championships came and went with only again George putting up a decent show at Blackpool where he got 3/5 in a ridiculously strong intermediate section, which was originally set up for average club players like myself to shine, but they made it under 160 grade limit so that stronger club players could win the spoils.  Blackpool must also be one of the strongest weekend tournaments on the circuit also, because the prize money attracts lots of cheats, who keep theyre rating low to enter lower tournaments and thus win a bag load of money.   George was helped, unwittingly, in the last round, by his opponent missing a 2 move forced mate then giving away a key piece in an almost comical series of moves which had to be seen to be believed.  I include the position below.

Barrow A have a 4 point lead, over Kendal, going into the end of the season.  The team of  Dave Cole, Scott Bowers, George Horne, Frank Whalley with a 'reserve' of Matthew Mackenzie brought into the team because it wasn't strong enough-sarcasm.  I actually think the team is strong enough to maybe win the weekend league, maybe they should give it a go, sometime.   It is Barrow As to lose now the mid week title.   Barrow B has been struggling but we will maybe avoid last place.

Chris Underhill now has tiny chances of winning the club championship, those with a serious chance are Dave Cole(favourite), Scott Bowers, Jim Woodburn, Matthew Mackenzie and George Horne.  Frank Whalley has done particularly well against the strong players and remains unbeaten by all of them, but he needed some wins, against the strongest, to stand a chance.

In the KO George Horne and myself(Alan Llewellyn) are still tied, after 4 draws,  for the chance to get beat by Matthew Mackenzie in the final.

Mixed news for the favourite Matthew Mackenzie in the club competitions- he from accounts got away with a losing position, ending up winning against Tony Kirby in the Semi-Final of the Knock-Out, that sets up a final with either me or George, as, in the other semi-final myself (alan Llewellyn) and George Horne played out a rather lame draw both afraid to risk an attack, no pieces or pawns were lost in the 'battle'. But in the Club Chmpionship Matthews chances took a severe knock when he was defeated by a resurgent Chris Underhill in what he admited was a slump of form, but he more than made up for that with a deserved defeat of last years joint champion. For Club Championship positions here. Dave Cole must be favourite now I know he won't like me saying it, incase it puts the kybers on him but with 9/9 and Matthew on 6.5/8 he is certainly in the driving seat. Jim on 7.5/8 is also a good outside bet but there are still any number that can still win it. It would be quicker to list the ones that can't win it than the ones who can but I myself am out of it at least for this year finishing with my poorest ever performance in points from my highest level ever of chess. ????

In the club championship Trevor Blower gave Matthew Mackenzie a fright by threatening to win a piece, it only seemed to spur him on in their game though as it led to Matthew sacrificing a Queen soundly threatening mate and it ended up with Matthew not Trevor going a piece up.

here is the key position (ie the large board below) Black is threatening to win the Bishop on h6 with g5 uncovering and trapping the Bishop and there is no escape but white is actually ahead in the position because he has more immediate threats. One of them is a sound Queen sacrifice which could lead to checkmate. The moves are the combination and it continued a few moves later.

:

In the Club Knock-Out, it is a choice between (Matthew Mackenzie or Jim Woodburn-yet to play) and (Tony Kirby or Brian Parkinson), George Horne and myself Alan Llewellyn in the semis, who plays who has yet to be decided but I am expecting the winner of Matthew and Jim as I think I have no chance realistically. Note-I made a correction to this as I thought erronerously Tony had beaten Brian.

In the leagues we have been knocked out of the Whitaker Cup , ie both teams are out. But in the mid-week league we are doing great with both teams doing well but Barrow A doing exceptionally well, the team of Matthew Mackenzie, Dave Cole, Scott Bower, George Horne and Frank Whalley, in grading order.

A screenshot from a Letelier vs Fischer game, Fischer has just sacrificed his queen with Q(c7)xf4 and of course after 24.Kxf4 comes Bh6#(ie mate). But the moves added after 23...Qxf4 were added by me to explain why Letelier resigned immediately and were made because I was a bit confused as to why he did resign there. The position looks bad to me and maybe the reputation of Bobby and the shock of the sacrifice had an effect. Generally the play was very naive by Letelier.

A success for Trevor Blower in the Foundation Section of Scarborough Congress 2017  with 4/5 and a joint 4th place and veteran prize for the section.

Here is a bit of general news that probably shouldn't be here[in club news] but is because I have no-where else to put it is this:-

I was going through a game posted on the 'welsh discussion and analysis of chess games' Facebook page and after analysing the game I found no mistakes at all. Now the Welsh player in the game said he found the moves over the board to get a draw in the British Championships Major/Open Section against a croatian of 2100 approx. rating in FIDE. Now on closer analysis of the game I found that not only the opening idea had been played before which was 1 e4 e5 2 Nc3 Bc5 3 Na4!? Bxf2+!! as far back as Steinitz but that the complete game had been played numerous times exactly from start to finish ( a remarkable 29 times in the database).

The games are given here between the one given by the Welsh player was black, Ivekovic vs Bullen and the indentical game Mamedov vs Aleksandrov which is the most famous example of the game. incidentally Alex Bullen has had a draw in a proper game with Keith Arkell so he may not be lying when he said he found it over the board, he can obviously play a bit. 

The end of the season sees the Time Ladder and the Pairs culminate. Trevor Blowers coronation for the Time Ladder is assured with 8 defences to 5 of Tony Kirby, and one club night to go with Trevor on the top, and Matthew Mackenzie(3/3) and Derrick Miller(2/3) blew away the competition in the Pairs.

The Summer Blitz tournament (called the summer league) went to the wire, with the overall winner only decided on the very last game of the very last night. George Horne, having led for all but the last two games of the tournament (note-which lasts the entire summer of 7 games times 13 different nights), George could not stop the Dave Cole steamroller and Dave squeaked clear with half a point lead. The minor summer league was very narrowly won by myself (Alan Llewellyn), with Trevor Blower hot on my tail.

The Barrow Club Championship Individual results 2016-2017

Breaking news!!!:Barrow A win the Mid Week Cumbria League for the Third Time running on 32.5pts. With Barrow B in second  on 31.5pts.

Two bits of new news- first Barrow A are looking very likely to win the mid-week league, I think only a 3 - 1 result to Barrow B, from the last match, can stop them, the team is made up of Dave Cole, Martin Gawne, Scott Bower, George Horne, Frank Whalley and Derick Miller: the table with one match to go between Barrow A and Barrow B is below:- Note/ I should say Barrow B will be champions if they do win 3 - 1 I think.

And in the Barrow Club Knock-Out Competition, Matthew the favourite was knocked out by Dave Cole after a series of draws between them in one semi-final and in the other Martin Gawne beat Scott Bower, which means Martin Gawne will play Dave Cole in the final.

2017 Cumbria County Championships -George Horne(on Left) holding Higgins Castle and Trevor Blower(on Right) holding Keswick Knight after prize giving.

George Horne who was a previous County Major Champion won the ultimate county accolade of County Champion when he finished with 4/5 in the county championships :Major Section, held at Duddon Sports and Social Club, in Askam on the 24th to 26th of March 2017 (photo from event above -a link to the results). George met Jonathen Rashleigh in a tight last round decider in which a draw would have been enough for him. George wasn't in a drawing mood unlike what he is usually known for (he offers many draws) and he duly won the game and the title and the Higgins Castle Trophy.

Trevor Blower won the other section (the Minor-which in chess terms is mainly for adults not juniors although there was a British Ladies Under12 champion in that field) although he didn't meet the child star, he did beat Andy McAtear and Neil Foxcroft who are both extremely strong players and scored 4.5/5. He won the Keswick Knight Trophy.

In the Cumbria mid-week league: the Barrow A Team of Dave Cole, Martin Gawne, Frank Whalley, George Horne and Scott Bower have romped towards the 2016-2017 Cumbria title especially as they beat their nearest rival, Kendal 3.5-0.5 in January 2017.

In the Knock-Out Barrow Club Tournament 2016-2017 the pairings for the semi-final are                      (Jim Woodburn or Dave Cole) vs Matthew Mackenzie         and      Martin Gawne vs Scott Bower,

lets face it with such a tough group of players as that its anyones call of the five, who'll win it. 

Dave Cole is at it again helping the Barrow B team of him, Tony Kirby and Jon Duffield on the three board team, to victory in the inaugural Cumbria Team Rapidplay 2016. Both Dave and Jon finished with a board 1 and board 3 gold medal for board best performances. I myself (Alan Llewellyn) picked up the board 2 medal, but as a total sell out I was playing for an Ulverston team, which finished 3rd in he team standings.

Another Ulverston team got the team 2nd placings A link to the results on the Cumbria Chess Association site will be included when results are up.   

Breaking news: Dave Cole finished joint 1st in the Scarborough Chess Congress 2016 (Major u170) with 4/5 He deserves a medal!!!!!!

Club News Season 2015-2016

The internal club grades as worked out by martin are as follows for season 2016-2017:-

Jim Woodburn 152

Derek Miller 79

Ian Travers 70

Brian Parkinson 61

Dave Martin 33

It looks like Tony Kirby is going to take the ladder competition. congratulations go to him, I know it is hard work to win it -it is very competitive especially in recent years.

Barrow Club Championship 2015-2016 results

Club Averages for season 2015-2016

What could be the deciding result in the Barrow Club Championship happened on the 1st June 2016:- Matthew Mackenzie beat Dave Cole. For analysis of an important position see this link. 

Breaking news- Matthew Mackenzie and Martin Gawne tie for first and are joint Barrow Club Champions with 13.5 points.. Dave finished in 3rd.

NCCU CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS

So the seniors of the club [and Martin] won it for Barrow, the stipulation was that the average of of the four players be over 55 in age. I think it is clear by the results that George did indeed win the cup for Barrow.[joke]

Martin Gawne, achieved great series of results in the 4NCL playing for Manchester Manticores Division 3 North, he was undefeated with a score of two draws and one win.

Dave Cole, achieved a great score of 1.5/5 in the Gibraltar Challengers under 2250 section. 2250 FIDE is way into National Master territory 

A list of successes (by club members) is included for the season 2014-2016 in top weekend congresses:-

• Matthew Mackenzie:Cumbria County Championships 2016 Open Champion-Matthew is also the Barrow Club Knock-Out Champion 2016.
• Trevor Blower: Rhyl Congress 2015 Minor (veteran's prize) and Ayr Congress 2015 Minor Champion and Scarborough Congress 2015 Foundation (Runner-Up+veteran's prize).
• George Horne: Cumbria County Championships 2015 Major Champion.
• Frank Whalley: Cumbria County Championships 2015 Major (Runner-Up).
• Martin Gawne: Heywood Congress Intermediate (=grading prize).

Martin also has an internal grading list for non-ECF members.

Jim Woodburn	159
Derek Miller	89
Brian Parkinson	63
Dave Martin	45