Team Three at Massey F (27th Oct)

The third team (Roy, James, Joe and Chris) played in the second round of the Divisional Cup at Massey Ferguson Social Club. Our worthy opponents were Coventry Chess, including nine year old Rajan who made Chris really work for her win. You can see this below - with apologies for losing the way in the notation at the end. (Click through to move 16 and see whether you can guess what happened next move.)

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[Event "Cov Divisional Cup, Div 3"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2009.10.27"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Rajan Parekh"]
[Black "Chris Pegler"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteELO "?"]
[BlackELO "?"]

%Created by Caissa's Web PGN Editor
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. d3 g6 5. Bxc6 bxc6 6. Nxe5 Qe7 7. Nf3 d5 8.
e5 Ng4 9. h3 Nxe5 10. Nxe5 Qxe5+ 11. Be3 d4 12. O-O dxe3 13. fxe3 Bd6 14. Rf4
Qxe3+ 15. Rf2 Bc5 16. Qe2 O-O {Ah yes. This would be castling instead of
taking the Queen on e2. WHAT a good idea!} 17. Qxe3 Bxe3 18. Nc3 Bxf2+ 19.
Kxf2 Rb8 20. b3 Rb4 21. a3 Rf4+ 22. Kg1 Bf5 23. Ne2 Rh4 24. a4 Re8 25. Ng3
Bxh3 {Kamikaze move but I had been obsessing about this one for some reason
...} 26. gxh3 Rxh3 27. Ne4 Rf3 28. Kg2 Rf5 29. b4 c5 {The notation is a bit
strange around here but the next move is bxc so this must be what
happened???} 30. bxc5 c6 31. Nd6 {A nice little fork from Rajan. But I have a
plan ...} 31... Re2+ 32. Kg1 Rd5 33. Ne4 Rxc2 34. Re1 g5 {About time to
develop pawns} 35. d4 Rf5 36. Ng3 Rd5 37. Nh5 {I can see a sneak attack coming
so I move the King} 37... Kf8 38. Rd1 g4 39. Nf6 h5 40. Nxd5 cxd5 41. Kf1 a5
42. Ke1 Ke7 43. Rd3 h4 44. Re3+ Kd7 45. Re5 g3 46. Rxd5+ Ke6 47. Re5+ Kf6 48.
Rh5 g2 49. Kd1 Rc4 50. Kd2 g1=Q {The notation gets even more strange after
this but Black mated at around move 56. If Rajan is reading this and sees some
strange moves that he did not recognise then let me know and I will amend.
Good enjoyable game. } 0-1

Sad to say this was our only win of the evening. James concluded his winning streak with his first loss this season - on time after a tough game. Thanks to Joe for organising us all and for transport. We will be back at the same location next Tuesday and hoping to do better.

second team 20 Oct v Uni 'C'

Even with the first board defaulted to Rugby we knew it would be difficult to gain a good result from the game, Simon Turner, John Hall and Jim McDonald all played well giving their opponents something to think about but positions and the lack of minor errors gave the Uni team the edge making the final resul 1-3.

Hail the heroes at Blogger (and heroines too!)

This is off the subject of chess for a moment so if you really can't stand computers of the internet look away ... (but then you probably would not be reading this message either :-)).

This morning the blog was not working. In fact all sorts of blogger blogs were not working for something like 30 minutes. It will happen from time to time. If it happens to you do not panic. The best thing to do is go away for a while and come back later when its fixed. The good thing about blogger is that it has a lot of people using it. So if you get a message that says its not working and giving you a code then putting this into a Google search will probably bring you to a solution or - as happened this morning - a whole mass of people with the same problem. Which at least tells you its not just you with problems. Check out this discussion if you want to see just how busy Blogger is when things go wrong - talk about work pressure ...

The problem was fixed within an hour. Bearing in mind that this is a free service and I suspect that the someones fixing it were working in the middle of the night that is impressive. So this service (these blogs) are hosted on a free service, but its an impressive one with some excellent customer care. Better by far than some of the other services I pay for.

Sue's first game: where did it all go wrong?

This game ended after two hours with my king trapped on h1 by a queen on h8 and a rook on f2 but my brain was scrambled by then so I'm not sure how it happened :-(

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[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2009.10.20"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Sue"]
[Black "Henry"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteELO "?"]
[BlackELO "?"]

%Created by Caissa's Web PGN Editor
1. Nf3 d5 2. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 e6 4. O-O Bd6 5. d3 O-O 6. Nbd2 Nc6 7. c3 b5 8.
Qb3 a6 9. a4 Na5 10. Qc2 c6 11. b4 Nb7 12. e4 g6 13. e5 Be7 14. exf6 Bxf6 15.
Re1 d4 16. c4 c5 17. Rb1 e5 18. Ne4 bxc4 19. Qxc4 Re8 20. bxc5 Be6 21. Qb4
Ra7 22. Bh6 a5 0-1

Oct 20 First team

No glory for us last night losing 0.5 - 3.5 to Uni A !

Nalin should have won, Jonathan was slightly on top but fell away at the end, and Bob fell into the following rather clever trap. Only Martin came away with anything - a draw. Oh well wait till the away match!

Although this is a loss - its a neat game with a nice combination by White.

Play Online Chess

[Event "Cov League Div 1"]
[Site "Rugby A v University A"]
[Date "2009.10.20"]
[Round "?"]
[White "V. Vas"]
[Black "R. Wildig"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteELO "?"]
[BlackELO "?"]


1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 {This suggests a quiet game is in store ...} 3...
exd5 4. Nf3 Be7 5. Bd3 Nf6 6. O-O O-O 7. Bg5 Bg4 {Black also considered Nc6
here but the option of being able to choose between Nc6 and Nbd7 seemd more
attractive} 8. Nbd2 Re8 9. Re1 Nbd7 10. c3 Bh5 11. Qc2 Bg6 12. Bxg6 hxg6
13. Re2 {White has played very quietly but now the threats developing on the e file
mean that Black has to do something immediate to relieve the increasing
pressure. Ne4 doesnt seem to work so ..} 13... Bd6 14. Rae1 Rxe2 15. Rxe2
Qf8 16. Ne5 Nb6 17. Re3 Re8? {Not seeing the coming combination. Black was
hoping for either Rf3 Re6 or Ndf3 Ne4. The correct idea here looks like Nfd7
when Whites pieces have no targets and Black may be getting a slight
advantage.} 18. Bxf6! gxf6 19. Nxg6! {An excellent combination to which there
is no answer} 19... Rxe3 {Of course fxg6 Qxg6 is hopeless.} 20. Nxf8 Re1+ 21.
Nf1 Kxf8 22. Qd2 {White has Q+P for R+B but more importantly Blacks King is
exposed and his pieces are not coordinated. After a further 8 or 9 moves of
desperately trying to create Q side counterplay he resigned} 0-1

Advice please ...

I played a charming student last night who comprehensively slaughtered me. But it did have some interesting moments. I've put up here the position going into black's move 11. (This is something you can do in the PGN editor if you choose manual set up and clear the board and then set out the peices).

I played d6, a wasted move disregarding the threat of Ne5. Could I have done something more promising with this? Its the sort of position that I always seem to play badly ...

Play Online Chess

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Jonny Sherwood"]
[Black "Chris Pegler"]
[Result "*"]
[WhiteELO "?"]
[BlackELO "?"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "r1b2rk1/ppppqpbp/6p1/4P3/1n1n1P2/2NPN3/PPP3PP/R1BQKB1R w KQkq - 0 1"]

%Created by Caissa's Web PGN Editor

Leamington match 19/10/9

A lesson in chess for the whole Rugby team from our home match with the Daventry team.
1, Nigel Malka, 2, Simon Turner and 3, John Hall all lost

Nigel moved too quickly and didn't see the the danger till too late and this time it was position that he lost and 20 moves later he suffered for it.
Simon again made a move and didn'y see the danger to his queen,
John had the most even game and it was all down to a pawn ending, looked like a draw but a race offen doesn't end in a draw.

A good win according to Bob

This was played a week after a horrible loss, albeit against a very very strong player, so I felt like I needed confidence and most importantly a win. In this game black comes up with a lot of tactics but his general plan was not great. I apologise for the unusual opening but you will be surprised at what bad moves and plans decent players will come up with when faced with unexpected moves! Onto the game...

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[Event "Rugby A vs Uni B"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2009.10.13"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Nalin"]
[Black "David O'Neill"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteELO "152"]
[BlackELO "127"]

%Created by Caissa's Web PGN Editor
1. f4 e5 2. fxe5 d6 3. exd6 Bxd6 {Black has played the so called 'From's
Gambit'. The idea is to develop quickly and create mate threats against white.
White does have to be careful, but if he avoids the tricks and traps, then
white should be a clear pawn up. At the moment black is threatning to win the
game immediately with 4:...Qh4+ 5:g3, Bxg3+ 6:hxg3,Qxg3 mate.} 4. Nf3
{Develops and stops the mate threat.} 4... Bg4 {Not the best move but renewing
the threat.} 5. e4 {A move which achievies a lot. It stops the threat, gains
space and develops.} 5... Nf6 6. d3 O-O?! {A move without a plan because now
black misses out on a potential kingside pawn storm.} 7. Be3 Re8 {Blacks
threat now is to play a knight to d5 as my e pawn is pinned.} 8. Nc3 {Controls
d5 AND DEVELOPS!} 8... c6 9. Qd2 {Importantly protecting the bishop and giving
myself options of castling queenside.} 9... Qa5 10. Be2 Nbd7 {After only 10
moves my opponent had taken 45 mins. Why? Because he cannot see anyway through
whites strong center.} 11. O-O {I could have castled long but this is best as
now black does not have an attack against my king. Notice that if i did indeed
go long then black does have an attack based on b5 and a pawnstorm.} 11...
Qh5 {Another threat directed towards h2} 12. Bf4 {Trying to get rid of his
'good' bishop and stopping his attack once and for all.} 12... Qc5+ {For what
it is worth Fritz doesn't mind this move but it does force white to play a
move he wants to play anyway AND achieves the bishop exchange.} 13. d4 Bxf4
14. Qxf4 Qh5 15. e5 Nd5 16. Nxd5 cxd5 17. h3 Bxf3?! {The bishop absolutely had
to go back to e6 to defend the weaknesses of d5 and f7. After this moves white
has a won game as the d5 pawn will also fall.} 18. Bxf3 Qg6 19. Bxd5 Re7 {to
defend f7 and hoping to bring the other rook to f8 to add more support to the
f7 square. At this point I notice a possible double attack on e7 and h7 by
pointing my queen on h4.} 20. Be4 {gaining a tempo by forcing the queen to
move while eyeing h7.} 20... Qe6 21. Bf5 {to gain time again kicking the queen
and forcing it away from defending the rook on e7.} 21... Qc6 22. Qh4 {The
aforementioned double attack only adds to blacks troubles.} 22... Ree8 {Played
so the king can escape via e7.} 23. Qxh7+ Kf8 24. Bg6! {Exploiting the
weakness of f7 and the pin along the f-file.} 24... f6 25. Qh8+ Ke7 26. Qxg7+
Ke6? {The other king move to d8 also obvious loses but allows a mate-in-one.}
27. Qf7# {Ironically it's black king that was more vunerable than whites.}
1-0

Tuesday 13th matches

A team, A good win from Nalin (but you just have to get these wins higher up the board order now!), I played poorly and lost , Martin Wilson looked to have a pretty good game early on, was a pawn up, but his opponent found som king side counterplay and the game was drawn.
Jonathon drew his match - I saw it as I left - cliff hanging stuff - and they agreed a draw due to mutual panic. They measured the amount of time left and Jonathon had 8 seconds left and his opponent 7 seconds.
great time handling guys !
Anyway - match result Rugby A 2 Uni B 2

B team ????
C team, I think we lost 1-3 but congratultions to James Mendes on keeping his 100% score !

New Coventry Chess Club site

New websites for local chess clubs are springing up all over. The CDCL flags up that Coventry Chess Club now has a new site.



The web address (URL) is http://coventrychessclub.yolasite.com/ if you want to check it out. They have a 'Trainng' section (links to chess quizzes). Perhaps something we could look into? Its possible to make some using the PGN editor (see Instructions link in RHS colum of this webspage).

You will see I am not mentioning my game last night ... which was unmentionable. :-(

Leamington League Team in Chipping Camden (8th Oct results)

Sorry I originally put this message in the comments section of a previous post.....


Leamington League Div3
Away vs Chipping Camden
08 Oct 09.

Rugby team: Jim MacDonald Roy Talbot and Joe Oswell

Rugby lost 2-1.

Thanks to Roy & Joe for turning-out as CCamden takes an hour+ to get there!!

Leamngton League (12th Oct)

Leamington League Div 3
Home to Kenilworth C
12 October

Rugby won 2.5 to 0.5. Simon Turner & Jim MacDonald won; John Hall drew. Simon's game finished at 22:30!

A steady start to the season, with 2 wins & 2 losses.

The third team

Still not sure of the result as I haven't been able to contact Joe.
But anyway it was at least a draw because although Raj was defaulted, James Mendes won on top and - absolutely brilliantly - in her first game in the league the provider of our new blog - Chris Pegler - won. Even though as she says it was against someone else relatively new, it's still a great achievement! So (although she is a bit shy over it) I thought we ought to put the game in our blog. After all Chris they won't come every week !

Play Online Chess

[Event "Rugby C v Nuneaton"]
[Site "Div 3 Cup"]
[Date "2009.10.6"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Chris P"]
[Black "Andrew M"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteELO "?"]
[BlackELO "?"]

%Created by Caissa's Web PGN Editor
1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. g3 Bg4 4. Bg2 Nf6 5. Ne5 Qd6 6. Nxg4 Nxg4 7. Bf4 {Now
feeling a little vulnerable so attacking bishop} 7... Qf6 {He shifts position
to attach bishop and pawn but both are fortunately defended. } 8. O-O Qxd4
{If I take his queen he will take back with knight and have a pawn and threat
next time. } 9. Nc3 {Let's move a knight instead and head for c7} 9... e6
{Defends d5 pawn and opens up path for bishop.} 10. Nb5 {I continue with my
plan and also threaten his queen} 10... Qxd1 {So he initiates a swop} 11.
Raxd1 O-O-O {And castles. Which foils my optimistic plan. I then develop an
alternative plan which I have not thought through. } 12. Bxc7 {If I take c7
then he cannot take back with King so I should be able to take Rook next
go?} 12... Rd7 {Hm. Perhaps there was something wrong with that plan?} 13.
Bf4 Bc5 {Hm. How much trouble will Knight and Bishop attacking f2 cause? }
14. e4 {I have half an idea here but not sure what it is yet. Something about
a Rook exchange?} 14... Nxf2 {My mental maths goes 3+3 trade for a Rook (5) =
good. } 15. Rxf2 Bxf2+ 16. Kxf2 dxe4 {Not sure what was on his mind. Except
perhaps my undefended Rook? But now I've moved the King I won't be in check
if he takes it. And I have a plan to make sure that he can't take it yet
anyhow ...} 17. Nd6+ Kd8 {Avoiding discovered check (and me taking undefended
Rook if he moved to b8} 18. Nxf7+ {But it hardly helps because I've now
forked King and Rook. } 18... Kc8 19. Rxd7 {Might as well swop Rooks now. }
19... Kxd7 20. Nxh8 Ke7 {His King is still game for a fight but the game is
going my way. } 21. Bxe4 {And this is more luck that judgement.} 21... Kf8
{Trying to block in Knight} 22. Bxh7 {Foiled. Black resigns.} 1-0

Second team games

The first week (Sept 29th) the B team did brilliantly against Newdigate winning 3.5 - 0.5
Nigel drew, Simon Turner, John Hall and Jim McDonald all won !

Obviously they they don't want to scare the opposition too much at the moment so last night they eased up by losing 1-3.
I'm not sure if this is double bluff or not because it was against Newdigate again !!!!!

Nigel drew, John Hall lost, Jim McDonald drew, and Pradip Shah (after starting well) lost.

First matches of the season

As you all know we had our first matches of the season last night (Well not quite - Nigels team couldn't wait and had to start last week !).
I don't yet know the results for the B and C teams but the A team managed a draw - Jonathon and Martin both drawing and (sadly) Nalin losing. Anyway to keep things level I managed to squeeze out a win in the following game.

Play Online Chess

[Event "Rugby v Cov Chess A"]
[Site "Div 1 Cup"]
[Date "2009.10.6"]
[Round "?"]
[White "D. Ireland"]
[Black "R. Wildig"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteELO "?"]
[BlackELO "?"]

%Created by Caissa's Web PGN Editor
1. e4 e6 2. c4 d5 3. cxd5 exd5 4. exd5 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nxd5 6. Bc4 Nxc3 7. bxc3
Qf6 8. Nf3 Bd6 9. Qe2+ Qe7 10. Qxe7+ Bxe7 11. O-O O-O 12. Ne5 Nd7 13. f4 Nxe5
14. fxe5 Be6 15. Bb3 c5 16. Ba3 Rfe8 17. Bxe6 fxe6 18. Rad1 Rad8 19. d4 cxd4
20. Bxe7 Rxe7 21. Rxd4 Rxd4 22. cxd4 Rc7 23. Rb1 b6 24. Rb2 Kf7 25. Kf2 Rc3
26. Rd2 Ke7 27. h3 Ra3 28. Ke2 Kd7 29. Rc2 Rg3 30. Ke1 Rd3 31. Rf2 Ke7 32.
Rd2 Rxd2 33. Kxd2 Kd7 34. Kc3 Kc6 35. Kc4 a6 36. g3 g6 37. g4 {The game post
mortem decided that although this was a mistake it didn't affect the outcome
of the game} 37... g5 38. a3 h6 39. Kc3 Kd5 40. Kd3 b5 41. Kc3 a5 0-1