On May day the 1st May 2023 (a monday), Matthew Mackenzie as white beat Dave Cole in the club championhip to pip Dave as Barrow Club Champion, a full table will follow.
Note should be made that i(Alan Llewellyn) got a win a draw and a loss for board 2 in the the nations chess league(Division 4), which helped my team(the Anglian Avengers 2) to survive the chop as many teams were going to get wiped out next season due to increases in hotel prices.
on the 26th of April (the wednesday) 2023, Jim Woodburn as black won against Jon Duffield in the Barrow club championship 22-23.
The games of the club are recorded as averages of results and for the season 22-23 they were as follows:-
| NAME | PLAYED | POINTS | % |
| Matthew Mackenzie | 6 | 4 1/2 | 75% |
| Frank Whalley | 8 | 5 | 63% |
| Russ Hayley | 11 | 6 1/2 | 59% |
| George Horne | 13 | 7 1/2 | 58% |
| Alan Llewellyn | 10 | 5 1/2 | 55% |
| Trevor Blower | 9 | 3 1/2 | 39% |
| Jon Duffield | 8 | 2 1/2 | 31% |
| Dave Cole | 7 | 1 | 14% |
| Ian Travers | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| T O`Malley | 2 | 0 | 0% |
The itenerary for the summer can be seen here-we are out of the chess season but the club still continues through the summer with its own competitions. The main competition being the Summer League which is a blitz competition over the whole of the summer held on every wednesday from May 10th to mid August. Best 8 totals on each night will count.
Ulverston A sent an extremely strong squad against the Barrow B team and duly won on all three boards. ie Barrow B 0-3 Ulverston A. The team for Barrow B was Trevor Blower on board 1, myself(Alan Llewellyn) on board 2 , and Jon Duffield on board 3.
In the club on monday 17th April 2023, Dave Cole(as black) defeated Trevor Blower in th club championship 22-23. Now Dave leads the competition by half a point with the deciding match between him and Matthew Mackenzie the only match to play. Defaults have been applied and Dave stands on 9/10 points and Matthew on 8.5/10.
Details of the Cumbria Individuals are that Trevor was joint champion on 4/5 but got the Keswick Knight as the heighest tie-break, a game against a strong junior in round 2 is included below:-
On the weekend of the 14th to the 16th April 2023 Trevor Blower was the only Barrow Club Member to play in the Cumbria Individual Championships, he was in th Minor and won it, I will give further details soon.
The Barrow Club Championship 2022-2023 table is below. Its between Dave Cole and Matthew Mackenzie for the club champion.
| POS | NAME | P | W | D | L | DEF | PTS |
| 1 | M MACKENZIE | 8 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6 ½ |
| 2 | F WHALLEY | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 5 ½ |
| =3 | A LLEWELLYN | 9 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 5 |
| =3 | D COLE | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| 5 | G HORNE | 8 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 ½ |
| =6 | T BLOWER | 8 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
| =6 | R HAYLEY | 8 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
| 8 | J DUFFIELD | 8 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 2 |
| =9 | T O`MALLEY | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| =9 | J WOODBURN | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| =9 | M PAULE | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 12 | I TRAVERS | 11 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 0 | ½ |
On the 12th April 2023, the Barrow A team of Dave Cole, George Horne and Frank Whalley lost 0.5-2.5 to Kendal A with George getting the only points with a draw. This was in the Cumbria Mid-Week League.
Jon Duffield has been an improving player in recent times, he has victories against some of the best at the club but a few mistakes here and there led to some bad results, but this season has seen a transformation -he not only beat me in the semi-final of the knock out a few weeks back but today on the 10th April 2023 he went much further in success by beating Matthew Mackenzie (matt had white) in the final of the club KO. The game will be below,
In the club championship Dave Cole really looks a strong contender for the club Championship winner needing to win a few remaining games to go past Matthew, who could end up in an annus arribis type of situation for him. Tonight (10th April) he beat with white, George Horne, no mean feat.
Sunday the 9th of April 2023 sees the start of the Chess World Championship between Ding Liren from China and Ian Nepomniachtchi originally from Russia but playing under a neutral flag due to restrictions. Nepo is the favourite but it should be close although Ding has been below his best form in recent years or he would be favourite. I will tell you the result when it happens after 14 rounds maxinum have been played and you might wonder what happened to MAgnus Carlsen, he wimped out saying he did not want to play to try and retain his World Champion status but he remains in the chess rankings as World number 1.
On the Thursday 6th April 2023, Barrow B visited Kendal A in the Cumbria Mid-Week League and we got hammered 3-0, our team being Trevor Blower on board 1, Myself(Alan Llewellyn) on board 2 and Jon Duffield on board 3. We all lost.
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| Martin Gawne -Past Barrow Club member at the South Wales International 2022(far left). |
The theory was Matthew Mackenzie needed to beat George Horne to win the Lightning Tournament, but George in the end did not succeed in winning more than one of his games and while he drew two, that wasnt enough to challenge Matthew , who duly got a clean sweep of games on the final night(a score of 4/4) to go from two points behind George to two points ahead, the table below shows the final results with the highlights being crossed off results note there is an error with matthews first result wrongly being crossed off. Only the best 4 results count, you see. I came third (Alan Llewellyn with a score of 2.5/4), my second place on the final night wasnt enough for me to catch up with George who along with Trevor Blower finished 3rd on the night with 2/4.
On Wednesday the 29th of March 2023, two games were played in the Club Chmpionship and both were drawn between George Horne vs Russell Hayley and Dave Cole vs myself(Alan Llewellyn).
Both games will be below but for now only Daves against me is below:-
Monday the 27th March 2023, there was a match between the Barrow A team (away) against Ulverston A. It was drawn at 1.5-1.5 with George Horne, Russell Hayley and Frank Whalley for Barrow A all drawing theyre games.
On Monday 20th March 2023, Matthew Mackenzie as white beat George Horne in the second of the Club Knock-Out Semi-Finals in what was a tense affair decided mainly by just one significant mistake by George, maybe George was too passive in the game but against Matthew its easy to be so. The game is below:- Note-Now the final of the KO has been decided and it will be Jon Duffield vs Matthew Mackenzie.
On Saturday 18th March 2023, the Barrow team played Maryport B, in the Cumbria Weekend League and we won 2.5-0.5, the team was Matthew Mackenzie, George Horne and Russell Hayley, and while George drew on board 2, the other two won. What this means is we may have a second place finish or third in the Weekend League this year recovering from a poor couple of results.
On Wednesday 15th March 2023, Jon duffield as white defeated myself(Alan Llewellyn) in the first of the semi-finals in the Barrow Club Knock-Out Cup. The other semi may be played on Monday, note-any perspctive new members must be aware we aren't in the dance hall room due to lack of members on a monday night. Anyways back to normal world here with the game played in the KO is below:-
On Monday 13th March 2023, a match was played between the two lowest teams in the mid-week league, our B team (ie Barrow B) vs Ulverston B, and the team of myself(on board 1, ie Alan Llewellyn),Trevor Blower(on board 2) and Jon Duffield(on board 3),we all won so the score was 3-0 to us.
On Saturday 11th March 2023, the Barrow team went to play Carlisle B at Kendal(mid-way venue), in the weekend League, we won 2.5-0.5, with Matthew Mackenzie winning on board 1, Russell Hayley drawing on board 2 and myself(Alan Llewellyn) winning a miniature on board 3 which is given below:-
In what must rank as one of the games of the season, on the 9th wednesday of March 2023, Frank Whalley managed (just! but he was in control for most of the game quite remarkably to be fair) , to defeat Trevor Blower in the Barrow Club Championship. Trevor threw the kitchen sink at Frank but Frank was undeterped and cotinued to attack Trevors king throughout, both players playing some great moves in booth attack and defence. The game is below:-
On Monday 6th March 2023, the penultimate Lightning League night saw a joit first on 3 points of George Horne and myself(Alan Llewellyn), with the other two competitors on the night, Jon Duffield and Trevor Blower getting 2 points, each, out of the maxinum of 4. In the overall (best 4 results count) standings george Horne is ahead with 13/16 with myself in second on 11.5/16, Matthew Mackenzie in third with 11/12 and Tevor Blowerin fourth on 8.5/16 with Jon Duffield on 6/16 in fifth. Matthew is still favourite to win it, as long as he turns up on the final night, as he has all his results count and he usually doesnt drop many points, it will be decided on the first monday of April which is the 3rd April.
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The above position is a chess problem that is next to impossible to solve without an engine, White to mate in 3, the solution is below(highlight to find the answer):- Answer: 1 Qf2 if 1...exf2 2 Bc1 exf3 3 Ba3# or 1...exf3 2 Qxe3+ Kd6 3 Bf4# or 1...Rxh6 2 Qb2 exf3 3 Qa3# or 1...g1=Q 2 Bxe3+ Kd6 3 Bc5# or 1...Kd6 2 Qg3+(2...Rxg3 3 Bxf8# or 2...Ke7 3 Qxc7#) Kc5 3 Bxe3# are the main solutions |
The current positions in the club championship are as follows below:-
realistically it is between Dave Cole and Matthew Mackenzie for the title with Frank Whalley still having a mathematical chance as well as George Horne, this is because many of the remaining games are likely to be defaulted with points shared around equally.
| POS | NAME | P | W | D | L | DEF | PTS |
| 1 | M MACKENZIE | 8 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6 ½ |
| =2 | A LLEWELLYN | 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 4 ½ |
| =2 | F WHALLEY | 7 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 ½ |
| =4 | T BLOWER | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
| =4 | G HORNE | 6 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| =6 | D COLE | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 ½ |
| =6 | R HAYLEY | 7 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 3 ½ |
| 8 | J DUFFIELD | 8 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 2 |
| =9 | T O`MALLEY | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| =9 | J WOODBURN | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| =9 | M PAULE | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 12 | I TRAVERS | 11 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 0 | ½ |
Going into the final stages of the Cumbria Leagues we are mid table in all except the barrow B team is fighting to remain off the bottom of the table for the mid-week League.
On the 27th February(monday) 2023, In the Club K.O. rnd 2, Matthew Mackenzie as Black won vs Dave Cole, its fair to say both players were off theyre top form, which is very high, but still both are very hard to beat, even off form, but Dave was the first to blunder but it was his Queen so Matthew won the struggle.
What that means is Matthew Mackenzie plays George Horne, and Jon Duffield plays myself (Alan Llewellyn) in the two semi-finals of the Club K.O.
On the 22nd February(wednesday) 2023, Dave Cole drew (as white) against Frank Whalley in a struggle which was to decide who was the main challenger to Matthew Mackenzie, as it was it was honours even. The game was in the Club Championship.
The game played by Dave Cole is below in his match(board 1 for Barrow A vs Ulverston B away) in the mid-week league on the 20th February.
On Monday 20th February 2023, two matches were played in the Cumbria Mid-Week League, Barrow A were away vs Ulverston B (Dave Cole [brd 1] and Frank Whalley [brd 3] won and George Horne drew[brd 2]). This left a good win for Barrow A of 2.5-0.5, also Barrow B were home vs Kendal B the result being 2-1 to Kendal B. I (Alan Llewellyn) got the only point with a win vs Emily Asquith. The game is below:- possible game of Dave Coles win to follow???
On wednesday 15th February 2023, George Horne (as white), defeated Trevor Blower, Trevor was up against it but when he dropped his Queen it was all over, in the club Championship. But miracles do happen in chess as Russell Hayley (as white) was a piece and two pawns up against me (Alan Llewellyn) at one stage and i still flooked a draw.
Back on the Blackpool Congress, another game from Congress is given below-a tight struggle between George Horne and Philip Walters, who is a Cumbrian player.(from the Intermediate)...
I mentioned the Blackpool Congress 2023, well the Barrow players had varying success, Trevor Blower did brilliantly in the Minor getting 10th place out of 80 competitors with 3.5/5. George Horne did well a step up in ability achieving 3/5 in the intermediate. And Dave Cole achieved 1.5/5 in the incredibly strong Major.
A game of Trevors, which twists and turns like a rollercoaster ride and has a surprising finale is given below from the 4th round of the Congress. Trevor was up against a talented junior.
The full report of the county match is here, with the full result being 8.5-3.5 in Manchesters favour, while Cumbria out rated the Manchester side, Manchester had a number of underrated players, namely a few juniors, one of the juniors Neil Foxcroft played and he was barely 10 years old(I am not sure of his age but am just guessing from height), his name was Edward Chu and he will probably be a strong player to watch out for in the future. Neil through hard work, skill and some luck got a draw, and I(Alan Llewellyn) and Gregg Millar also got draws, while Jonathan Rashleigh and Tim Lounds actually won.
The rest lost and they included some very strong Cumbrian players, so they must have been lucky or very strong for their ratings. Anyway a copy of the result sheet is below:-
On the weekend of 10th to 12th February 2023 the Blackpool Congress sees Dave Cole, Trevor Blower and George Horne take on the best in the north, in the Major, Minor, Intermediate Sections respectively. A full report to follow.
On 11th(Saturday) February 2023, The NCCU County Championships u1850 match between Cumbria and Greater Manchester saw us hammered once again by an underrated Manchester team, Neil Foxtcroft (an ex Barrow player now at Ulverston) and myself(Alan Llewellyn) were the only ones to get points, when we left(we got 2 draws, Neil was against a wiz kid junior and Neil played brilliantly to get a draw). It was 6-1, with 5 boards to play. A full report to follow. My game is below it was a tight battle, i went 2 pawns up but the position was still critical.
On 8th (Wednesday) February 2023, George Horne(as white) beat Trevor Blower in the Knock-Out 2nd round. The eagle eyed amongst you will spot that Trevor has been knocked out before in the KO but he was reinstated due to double defaults in the first round. In the Club Championship Russell Hayley (as white) defeated Frank Whalley.
A Club Championship table from the beginning of the month is below:-
| POS | NAME | P | W | D | L | DEF | PTS |
| 1 | M MACKENZIE | 8 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6 ½ |
| =2 | T BLOWER | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| =2 | A LLEWELLYN | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
| =2 | F WHALLEY | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| =5 | G HORNE | 5 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| =5 | D COLE | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| =7 | J DUFFIELD | 8 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 2 |
| =7 | R HAYLEY | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 |
| =9 | T O`MALLEY | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| =9 | J WOODBURN | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| =9 | M PAULE | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 12 | I TRAVERS | 11 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 0 | ½ |
Frank Whalley's defeat of favourite to the Club Championship, is given below but I am sure Matthew will be still in the running,as very much Frank will be
The 6th February(Monday) 2023, saw the 5th Lightning Tourney of the season, and with 2 nights to go, George Horne has taken the lead with 12.5/16 with Matthew Mackenzie and myself(Alan Llewellyn) on 11/12 and 11/16 respectively. Unless there is a train strike on the remaining two nights , Matthew is still favourite as he has 4 games to count in the best 4 nights. On this night George won with 4/4 and I (Alan) came second with 3/4 and Trevor Blower finished third with 2/4
On the 4th February(Saturday) 2023, Barrow lost all chances of winning the Cumbria Weekend League going down 0.5-2.5 to a strong Penrith A team. When both Matthew Mackenzie and George Horne lose, you know they have met strong opponents, and when Russell Hayley can only manage a draw consulation so that we didnt get 3 duck eggs.
Note -Frank Whalleys victory over Matthew Mackenzie (in the Barrow Club Championship on the 25th January) will feature in the coming days, watch this space.
On 1st February (Wednesday) 2023, the return fixture Barrow A (Dave,George,Frank,Russell) vs Barrow B (Trevor,Alan,Jon,Ian)was played, and on paper it looked almost a forgone conclusion Barrow A would win easily, atleast going by the ratings. But the result ws still in doubt until the end, with Trevor Blower(board 1), as white getting a fabulous victory over Dave Cole, and Jon Duffield surprising , also as white(board 3) with a fine draw against the extremely solid Frank Whalley, but Barrow A were still very much in it still after Russell Hayley as white (board 4) managed to beat, Ian Travers. That left George Horne ,as white (board 2) to take advantage a pawn up, against myself(Alan Llewellyn), which he did with consumate ease. End result was 2.5-1.5 to Barrow A.
This is the report to the NCCU Cumbria vs Yorkshire u1850 County Match. It finished 10-2 to Yorkshire. The top boards almost held their own, but they were last to finish, and the match was already too far gone, by then. With only Alan Hiatt of Carlisle, able to get a draw in the bottom 8 boards. The eagle eyed will see George Horne(Barrow), who got a draw, was on board 4 not 5 as stated below. Some things to note are two significant players from the Yorkshire team, namely Maksym Kryshtafor and Vivien Webster. Maksym s a famous 8 year old from Ukraine who has won majors, and has got significance in the national press-he will be one to look out for in the future, and a top lady player who has won sectioned tournaments Vivien who made short work of Terry Tyson(Maryport), he lasted 20 minutes, making my 30 minutes look slightly less embaressing.
The 28th January and 29th 2023 saw two events-Barrow vs Carlisle A in the Cumbria Weekend League, which Barrow lost 2-1 and the NCCU u1850 county match between Cumbria and Yorkshire in which we got hammered full report to follow(George Horne also played on board 5 and got a draw) my game on board 10 of 12 is below which is a sad affair as i miss the move i intended to make all along , namely Nxe4 because i convinced myself i could only play it in conjunction with Bxc4 missing after Nxe4 Qxe4 Bf5 which is even...
On the 25th January (wednesday) 2023, There was a slightly surprising result in the Barrow Club Championship 22-23 in that Frank Whalley as white beat Matthew Mackenzie, Dave Cole also kept up his challenge as Black by beating Russell Hayley.
a game of Trevor Blowers from Harrogate is given below:-
On the weekend starting with the Friday 20th January 2023, to the Sunday 22nd January. Trevor Blower went to the Harrogate 4NCL Congress and finished on 3/5 (in the u1700 section).
On the same weekend, Saturday 21st January, Jon Duffield and I(Alan Llewellyn) entered the Minor and the Major respectively of the Lancaster Rapidplay, Jon got 2.5/5 in the Minor and I achieved 3/5 in the Major. A minature from a game is given below:-
On the 18th January 2023 (Wednesday), there were three games played in the club championship, they were Matthew Mackenzie(W) beat Russell Hayley, Myself(Alan Llewellyn-W) drew with Frank Whalley and Jon Duffield(W) lost vs Dave Cole.
For details of chess events coming up soon(spring/summer) in Cumbria and wider including the Cumbria Individual Championship and the South Lakes Congress, see the events page here.
On the 11th January 2023, two games were played in the Club Championship which were a draw between Frank Whalley and George Horne and in the other game Russell Hayley ,as white beat Ian Travers.
On monday 9th January 2023, there were three games played, two in the Club Championship, that was Russell Hayley as Black beating Jon Duffield, and George Horne as white drawing with Matthew Mackenzie, also there was a Knock-Out game, myself as white beating Ian Travers.
On 7th January 2023, a saturday, the Weekend League Match between Barrow and Maryport A was a 2.5-0.5 win to us. Maryport A were doing well in the League and were last years Champions of that League, there was some contravercy during the match when we were told they were playing a depleted team and it wasnt really the case, while we had depleted our team due to changing arrangements last minute agreed accordingly. Then during my game (I am Alan Llewellyn, on board 3) after a period were my opponent Greg Millar, had taken 20 minutes for a move but he was running out of time, i made a move while he was away from the board, when he returned to the board , i quite helpfully pointed out the move to him and he seemed to acknowledge it and went into what I thought was another deep think, only he hadnt realised I had made a move and didnt realise his time was running out fast, At our level you notice if someones made a move because you analyse the position in depth and dont need it pointing out usually. Anyway he suddenly realised his clock was running and thought he had let his time go but when i explained i had made my move he suddenly realised his mistake. Short on time due to the mistake and deep thinking earlier, he lost a difficult endgame. If that wasnt enough contravercy then with the score at 2-0 to us after Russell Hayley had played out of his skin to beat the extremely good Neil Jones on board 2, the lights went out when we lost power and George Horne on board 1 had to play by phone torchlight against Roger Hart, I have to admit I thought it was lost for George at one moment but George is difficult to beat and he got a draw.
On the first monday of the month, the Lightning is played (only over the season ie autumn winter and spring), and the first Lightning of 2023 saw Matthew Mackenzie, as usually is the case, win on the night with a score of 3.5/4. George Horne on 2.5/4 joint second with myself(Alan Llewellyn) also on 2.5/4. This was held on Monday 2nd January 2023 with the total league scores (over this season) Matthew M on 11 out of a possible 16(Matt has missed a week he hasnt droped 5 points-it goes on 4 best scores over the season), while George is on 10/16 and myself in third on 8/16(i have also missed a week) and Trevor Blower in fourth on 7.5/16.
| POS | NAME | P | W | D | L | DEF | PTS |
| 1 | M MACKENZIE | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| 2 | T BLOWER | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| 3 | A LLEWELLYN | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 ½ |
| =4 | G HORNE | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| =4 | F WHALLEY | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| =4 | J DUFFIELD | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 2 |
| =7 | T O`MALLEY | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| =7 | J WOODBURN | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| =7 | M PAULE | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| =7 | D COLE | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 11 | I TRAVERS | 10 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 0 | ½ |
| 12 | R HAYLEY | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Above is the latest table of the club Championship results from January 1st date (mid way through the tournament), Matthew Mackenzie looks favourite currently but Trevor Blower and Frank Whalley look early challengers to him, and George Horne and Dave Cole cant be counted out and Matthew Paule is doing well considering his youth, experience in chess counts for a lot.
below is a position from Artimiev vs Carlsen from the Rapidplay World Championships, Magnus Carlsen went on to win the event but after Nf6-Ne4 as black here can you see how Artimiev won this game (a rare error by Magnus!!!) . Answer below highlight to see:-
1 f4 Qf5 2 g4 and the knight is lost
Happy New Year, I hope all members and followers of this site had a good Christmas. The club closed on Boxing Day but when it opened Wednesday only 5 members went and there weren't any official games.