Chess News Season 2022-2023 Summer(23)

Myself(Alan Llewellyn) entered a top open tournament the Manchester Harry Lamb Memorial Open, on the wekend of the 1th aug 23 to 20th, which had 2 Grandmasters in Keith Arkell and Bogdan Lalic won by both of them. I finished above my seeding but not from any results i got as i recieved a 1 point bye but otherwise fro the other 4 games got an audi(0-0-0-0).

Picture from the Keith Arkell Grandmaster simultaneous from 5th August 23,

Keith Arkell(left) and Gary Sharkey the Maryport chess club organiser(right)	(above)group photo
George Horne(centre) with Keith Arkell (standing right)	Alan Llewellyn(foreground) plus George Horne(far right)
Furthest row Martin Gawne(middle) Dave Cole(right)	Dave Cole(nearest centre) and Keith Arkell(standing)
Russell Hayley(with an even position)	Most of the Barrow players are prominent here

On the 16th Aug 23, the only tournament to be decided at the club on one night, was played with 6 teams of two playing in the tournament called the Pairs. The teams finished on:-

So Harry Beck and myself won the pairs and for the roll of honour for season 22-23 and before click here. In the first monday in September the season 23-24 which goes until May 24, and all the winter competitions start then, including the club championships and knock out which are upto 3 hour nationally graded games and club games against other clubs in cumbria.

On the final summer League night(9/8/23) the Champion of the tournaments had already been decided ie Dave Cole, but after Russell Hayley finished top on the night with 6/7 and Harry Beck was runner up, with 5.5/7 that meant Harry Beck scored enough to be Minor Summer League Champion (Minor does not refer to age though i think Harry is about 18 only). Frank Whalley finished third on 5/7.

The full results are given below:-

Summer League from may 23 to aug 23(best 8 results-some may have had fewer results count if they didnt enter eight nights).

Note that Minor results may be incomplete, any inaccuracies please send an email to Dave Cole including any spelling mistakes(of names) on this site.

As promised here is Matin Gawnes draw versus Grandmaster Keith Arkell yesterday (5/8/23), as you can see Keith is outplayed by Martin, who is generous with the draw offer. See below:-

The simultaneous with famous Grandmaster Keith Arkell, took place in Maryport, in Cumbria on Saturday 5th August 2023, with Keith taking on 35 keen club chessplayers(most of them seasoned veterans. 2 won their games and Martin Gawne and myself(Alan Llewellyn) drew from barrow and 6 other cumbrian players drew. Of the people from Barrow that pushed him close, Russell Hayley, Dave Cole and George Horne were competitors there.

A game from the Simul is given below-my draw, note-the other Barrow draw will be given later.

On the 2nd August 2023, the penultimate Summer League game was held, and we have a winner already. Dave Cole has won it as he cannot be caught, he has passed my score and gone so far ahead of me, even mathematically its impossible to catch him up so Dave is the Summer League Champion.

On the night Dave scored 6/7 with Frank Whalley in second on 5/7 and George Horne and myself(Alan Llewellyn) in joint 3rd with 4.5/7 and the top 8 results scores are Dave 49.5/56, myself(Alan) 44.5/56, George 41/56 and Frank 38/56, note-i will give everyones final scores after the last round next week.

The above is a position from a puzzle, its level is fairly easy. White to mate in 2. for Answer click here:-
Answer:

Tonight on the 26th July 2023, the Summer League blitz saw Dave Cole win with 5.5/7, George Horne second with 5/7 and in joint third, saw a new member Harry Beck and myself (Alan Llewellyn) tie with 4.5/7

Overall with just 2 weeks to go I(Alan) still lead with 44.5/56, Dave the strong favourite is in second with 43.5/49, he still has 7 games to count(ie one night) in full whereas I am discounting my lowest score of 4.5/7. so i minus 4.5 from my score if i score more than 4.5, if i score less the points wont count. In third is George also discounting 4.5 with a score of 41/56 and Frank Whalley has 36.5/56.

The reason for this is the only the top eight nightly results count and Dave has been out scoring the rest of us so has a comparable score with only 7 nights out of the eight counting results.

Today 20th July 2023 is International Chess day, to celebrate i give the well known song 'One night in Bangkok' from 'Chess' the musical

On the 19th July 2023, the Summer League compertitio saw Dave Cole win on the night with 6/7, in joint second George Horne, Jon Duffield and I(Alan Llewellyn) all three with 5/7.

The overall scores are myself(Alan) on 44/56, George on 40/56, Dave on 38/42, Frank Whalley on 36.5/56 and Jon on 34/56 with three weeks to go.

Here is a position below with answer included be aware from a puzzle which me and Trevor couldnt find the solution to, after about an hour trying. Its white to move and mate in three. A hint is black intends several defences like f4 undermining the defence of the rook or Nc7 or promoting the c pawn. Below that further is a game I (Alan Llewellyn) played with a new member at the club(Vance Sarson) who used to play serious chess about 50 years ago, he was in the 170s BCF then and has kept up with computer games, to maintain his level. He was still a bit rusty in our game I presume as lowly me got the win.

chess jokes:-(i)I was playing chess with my friend and he said, "Let's make this interesting."
So we stopped playing chess.

(ii)When Spassky was asked, whether he preferred Chess or Sex...Spassky replied, "It very much depends on the position".

see chess jokes page in trivia for more...

On the 12th July 2023, the summer league saw Myself(Alan Llewellyn) winning on the night with 6.5/7 and George Horne was 2nd with 6/7.

Overall the position in the running total of 8 best results is 43/56 for me, 39/56 for George, 35.5/56 for Frank Whalley and 32/35 for Dave Cole. With 4 nights left Dave is still the favourite despite being 11 points behind me because his results count fully for 3 weeks.

The above is a book like position from a game I played on the internet chess club, it was a slow game, here i thought after 1...f4 2 Kxc6 f3 the two pawns would be unstoppable with the white king out of the game but what did i miss? for Answer click here:-
Answer:

On the 5th July 2023, the summer league blitz tounrmanet saw Russell Hayley and I(Alan Llewellyn) in joint first with 5/7 on the night and Jon Duffield and Frank Whalley joint third with 4.5/7. With the overall standings being myself first with 40/56 , George Horne second on 36.5/56, Frank Whalley in third with 34.5/56 and Dave Cole (still the favourite because he has full scores to count yet) still on 32/35.

White to mate in 2 moves-this is an easy one-(click here to see solution)
Solution:

A few events in the coming weeks in Cumbria and Lancashire:-

https://lancasterchessclub.co.uk/congress/20230804.html -Lancaster Chess Congress 4th August to 6th 2023

http://congress.org.uk/congress/280/home -Bolton Chess Congress 18th August to 20th 2023

On the 28th June 2023, the weekly summer league night saw Dave Cole win on the night with 6/7, George Horne finish second with 5.5/7 and I(Alan Llewellyn) finished third on 5/7. We were lucky to have two new members, Rob Roy and Mark Hadley join us and both scored, Rob got 1.5/7 and beat Dave and Mark got 1/7.

At the half way mark, the running totals saw myself(Alan) first on 38.5/56, George in second on 36/56 and joint third being Dave 32/35 and Frank Whalley on 32/56. And although I am first, Dave is clear favourite with 7 nights to go because only the top 8 results count so dave needs only 7/21 to pass me assuming i dont improve on my top 8 results. Basically he just needs to turn up twice more out of 7 possible nights to win it.

Above is a position from my Summer League game on the 28th June 2023, vs George Horne, me as Black, I pick up my Queen to take back the knight on f6, which has just taken my knight on f6. Then i realised (too late) that after 1...Qxf6, 2 Bg5 trapped the Queen, but then i hit upon a flawed plan and because i had touched my Queen i had to move it and the game continued with 2...Bxf3!!, now i thought i had turned the tables because now i am attacking his queen and after 3 Qxf3?? there comes 3...Qxg5 and its me who is winning but no he played 3 Bxf6!! i had to reply 3...Bxd1 then he played 4 Bxg7!! and after 4...Rg8??(the rook was hanging) he played the brilliant 5 Be4!! Rxg7 6 Rxd1! saying quite rightly the rook is going no-where, to which i replied,'yes it is' and confidently played 6...Nc6?? to which George triumphantly said 'No it isnt' and added after taking the knight on c6 with the bishop 'its check', to which i had only one good move-i tumbled my King over in resignation.

Mark Hadley, the new member said theyre are many people at home playing chess online, who are daunted by the idea of the frightning concept of coming to a club and being the new guy, there. Understand this, though the club is far from a madhouse, i have suffered my own problems and I did end up in hospital for a period, but I can say this-no one at the club judged me and they were very supportive when it would have been easy for them to turn on me. My own experience of the club has been incredibly positive.

On the 21st June 2023, the wednesday weekly Summer League tournament was missing Dave Cole again but it did see the welcome return of Martin Gawne plus a new member Mark(I will tryand find out his last name), who unfortunately although he gave us all a tough game he didnt win any. Martin Gawne won with 5.5/7 while George Horne was in 2nd with 4.5/7 nd a three way tie for joint third saw Russell Hayley, Jon Duffield and I(Alan Llewellyn) on 4/7.

In the weekend of friday 16th June till sunday 18th June 2023, Trevor Blower entered a 4NCL Congress in Daventry in the under 1700 section and found it unusually tough for him. He got 1.5/5 and played a top indian youngster, but lost.

After the Knight takes both the g3 pawn and f4 pawn in a continuation of the Fischer-Taimonov World Championship Quarter Final Game 4 in 1971, I hit upon the following position above in my studies- surely its drawn(Fischer won the game famously) the King must surely in Gods name go to the e4 square and neither side can make progress but no the computer gives it as mate to white in 18 moves, the line goes 1.Kxe6!! and Black must play 1...Kxb6 at some point to avoid the following line 1...f3?! 2 Kd6!! f2?? 3 a8=Q+!! Kxa8 4 Kc7!! f1=Q 5 b7+ Ka7 5 b8=Q+ Ka6 6 Qb6#(ie checkmate). And the Black Queen is a hopeless observer.

On the 14th June 2023, Dave Cole was away working so George Horne took top spot with 6/7, in the summer league. I (Alan Llewellyn) was second on 5.5/7 while Jon Duffield and Trevor Blower were joint 3rd with 5/7.

On the 7th June 2023, Dave Cole went into the overall lead (with a first on the night) in the Summer League with 6.5/7 , Frank Whalley finished second with 6/10 and George Horne finished third with 4/7.

There will be a few games from various barrow members on this space in a few days time.

I (Alan Llewellyn) have just taken my opponents rook in my first game in the South Lakes Congress. It looks like I cannot be stopped from Queening my pawn with f8=Q promotion. But after thinking for several long minutes he didnt resign but instead played 1...Re1+ now if i play Kg2 then believe it or not Black wins with gxf3+ Kxf3 Kxg7 and i am totally lost so i knew this and played 2 Kh2!! he played 2...Re1+ 3 Kg3 and i thought he is about to resign but it is fatal to count a win before its over and here after he (Peter Harrington) played the amazing 3...Rg2+!!, if i reply Kxg2 then again gxf3+ Kxf3 Kxg7 wins for Black but my thoughts of blocking the rook on f3 from defending against the promoting of the pawn went out the window with the shock of Black sacrficing another rook. I played 4 Kf4?? and after 4...Kxg7 i was totally lost but managed to draw the position after a few lucky breaks but I thought did I miss something and looked on a computer afterwards only to find 4 kh4 was an overwhelming win instead of what should have been a loss

The sumaries of Barrow players results in the South Lakes Congress will be seen below:-(held on 2nd june til 4th june 2023)-note-it was the 25th anniversary competition.

• Russell Hayley finished joint 2nd in the Minor I with 4/5 winning 87.50 pounds
• Jon Duffield also finished joint 2nd in the Minor II with 3.5/5 also winning 87.50 pounds
• Rob Roy was the top Cumbrian (without a top prize) player in the Minor II he scored 3/5, he won 50 pounds.
• George Horne was in the Intermediate and he scored 2.5/5
• Alan Llewellyn finished with 2.5/5 in the Minor I
• Leonardo Bosco(a new junior to the club) finished with 2.5/5 in the Minor II

Note to above Minor refers to ability not age.

On the 31st May 2023, the Summer League saw a tough battle with myself(Alan Llewellyn) finishing top with 6/7, with Dave Cole and Frank Whalley finishing in joint 2nd with 5.5/7.

The South Lakes Congress, a regional chess tournament, held in Barrow is on at the forum over the coming weekend(friday 2nd june 7pm til Sunday 4th June around 6 pm)

A list of International ratings from entering international tournaments is given above of Barrow and some Ulverston members, they are FIDE ratings , ie Federacion Internationale D'Echecs which is the recognised international chess federation. Note-Trevors rating is the same as his Scottish rating, the Scottish ratings and Fide ratings are more difficult to get high ratings with compared to the ecf which is the english national rating. My Welsh rating is similar to my english one.

The top players have titles you need a rating of 2100-2200 fide to get the now defunct candidate master title, 2200-2280 for a national master title which Britain doesnt have atm, 2350c for a FIDE Title, 2400-2450 for International Master title, 2500 upwards for grandmaster title, the world champion has 2780c and the World number 1 has 2856c the best computers are 3600c

Going up in scale a rough guide is this: poor hobby player 100-200,average hobby player 200-300, good hobby player 300-500, poor club player 500-700, reasonable club player 700-1200, average club player 1200-1600, top club player 1600-1800, club champion 1800-2100-note these are all fide ratings which i repeat are more difficult than ecf ratings and online ratings.

On the 24th May 2023 the Summer League saw Dave Cole win again with another perfect 7/7, Trevor Blower and George Horne finished joint 2nd with 4/7.

On the weekend of the 19th to the 21st May, club member, Trevor Blower travelled to Scotland to play in the Ayr Congress in the Minor Section, he did brilliantly well being the leader on 4/4 going into the final round but he made an error in the last round and finished 2nd on 4/5, similar to his last tournament.His greatest game of the weekend is given below:-

On wednesday the 17th May 2023, the summer tournament saw the winner from last year(and every year in living memory!!!) Dave Cole get 7/7 with in joint second George Horne and Frank Whalley with 4.5/7.

On the 10th May (wednesday) 2023, the Summer League tournaments started with myself(Alan Llewellyn) first on 7/7 pts, Frank Whalley and George Horne joint second on 4.5/7 , Trevor Blower and Jon Duffield joint 4th with 4/7 and new member Rob Roy on 3/7.

The Club KO Champion was Jon Duffield, the story of th KO this year is given below:-

Dave Martin RIP has died, i think he was an enthusastic member of the club who brought a lot of laughter to Barrow Chess Club. He was a great friend and I (Alan) personally played many games with him and talked about general Philosophy and Politics with him. He will be sadly missed by me and the club members.

The final positions in the club championship 2022-23 are below (note- the defaulted games included)

key:

The exciting decider between Matthew and Dave in the club Championship is annotated below by Matthew, who had to win in th game (and did) to win the club championship.

We have a new Chess World Chapion Ding Liren won it in a rapid play tie breaker

news from the end of the season:-

The win by Jim Woodburn as black over Jon Duffield detailed a week ago (26th April) is given below:-

on the 27th April (thursday last week) 2023, a match occured between Barrow A and Kendal A at kendal. The team consisted of Dave Cole, George Horne and Russell Hayley on boards 1 to 3 respectively. Dave and George both won and Russell drew for the team to win 2.5-0.5.