Saturday 28 November 2009

Nalin's back with his usual sacrifices!

Thank you to all who were concerned about me being ill but I'm almost 100% better now so thank you. Also, I would like to add that anyone would be lucky to spend an hour with me so keep plugging away at John's puzzle lol! I found it amusing when we met up with bob and people in the merchant and bob was asking seriously if I was ok about the amount of comments being made against myself. Of course I had to reply that I was losing sleep over it and that I had been psycologically damaged!!!

On all 3 games the names are the wrong way round. To repeat, I was Black in all games.

Anyway, 3 games to go through including the sacrificial double piece win and a rather cunning queen trap. All 3 games are Dutch Defences where I am black. Enjoy...



The position at this point is very equal. Black's play is probably easier to play but that's about it. On to the exciting games now...



That was the queen trap and to finish is the ridiculously stupid double piece sac which shouldn't work, BUT DOES!!!!



Even if I lost this game, it was without doubt the most enjoyable high intensity match that I've played with a lot of people watching the game.

Feel free to post comments on any of the games and tell me how good I am LOL!!

And now its over to Nigel ...

From Nigel Malka here is a game from Rugby B. Nice to see something from them up here. From Nigel's comment elsewhere:

Rugby B Chess team on the 24 Nov were away to Nuneaton C and from previous years we knew it was going to be a difficult game for us to get a result. With 5 regular member John was rested. The first game to finish was Malcolm Harding on board 4, he only seemed to have sat down when he gave me a thumbs up and we were one up. Both Jim MDonald on board 3 and then Simon Turner on board 2 lost so with a very even game I felt we had lost the match. However with time against him a poor move allowed Nigel Malka to push home an advantage and our borad one got the win so it ended with a good draw for the team.

Note: Anyone who is interested in knowing how to do this - or even more advanced stuff - and who has some free time on the 30th Nov evening should check out Bob's recent email. Sue has set us up with four computers to try some things out and Sue and I will be on hand to answer all your blogging queries. Sorry for that interruption, back to the chess ...

Thursday 26 November 2009

Similar sort of start to James game

I don't seem to be able to get the players right here. Anyway O Cosham is White and R Wildig is Black !

Wednesday 25 November 2009

Game from 24th Nov

An interesting enough opening but a blunder cut short the rest of the game. I think John spotted a way for me to improve in the first few moves though. (Just realised I put the names the wrong way round, I'm playing Black.)

Nuneaton B (McConnell) v Rugby A (Cox), 24th November 2009

How did I miss my chance to checkmate? I need new glasses!

Monday 23 November 2009

Hi everyone I am hoping to do a weekly puzzle for our club - the winner gets to have an hour with our celebrity Nalin!

Thursday 19 November 2009

Interesting Chess Video ....

John spotted this on the coventry league site and it is a quite fascinating video about the way chess players think.

SOMEONE KEEP NALIN QUIET!!

Good night for us this week

The first team played well on Tuesday. Martin Wilson took advantage of some indifferent play by Dave Filer and won fairly quickly. I'm not sure Dave was exactly with it - early on after we started he came and sat down to continue playing against me at about move 10 !!!! Both I and my real opponent were a bit startled by this. I looked at Dave and said "Why are you sitting there?!" He got up in confusion. Oh well. I had a good start against Mark Page who has outplayed me a couple of times recently, so was pleased to have the edge. I would put the game on here but it contains an opening novelty which I want to use again and I don't want potential opponents seeing it. Anyway I offered a draw when I was still slightly better seeing that both Nalin and John Naylor were doing well. Nalin drew with Ed Goodwin - a good result against an experienced opponent and then John proceeded to outplay Dave Ireland - should see that tonight when we get to the Merchants!

So the C team drew - well done - I think Joe just missed out on a win, but I don't know what happened with the B team ???????

Wednesday 18 November 2009

London Chess Classic 2009, London Olympia, 8-15 December

Taken from The London Chess Classic 2009 website 'this will be the highest level tournament in London for 25 years and will be the first in a series of events designed to increase enthusiasm for chess in the UK and promote the game and its undoubted educational benefits in schools and communities. It is also our objective to bring the world championship to London in the Olympic year 2012.'

English grandmasters; Nigel Short, Michael Adams, Luke McShane and David Howell will be pitched against a world class field that includes a former world champion Vladimir Kramnik and 18 year old Magnus Carlsen ranked world number one (since 15 Nov). One of China's finest players; Ni Hua and the US Champion Hikaru Nakamura, complete the field. For more info read their profiles.

There will be live commentary from Grandmasters and spectators will be able to play tournament or informal games all day. For more information visit the site.

Sounds impressive doesn't it?

Game from 17 Nov 09

A few mistakes by both players in this game. The highlight for me was near the end when my opponent started to get rattled by the level of noise in the pavilion. He decided to launch a piece of tissue at his teammate who was sitting in the corner, going over his game with John Naylor. Of course, Sod's law meant the tissue landed straight on John's head! Like a gentleman, John chose to ignore it, as I tried not to burst out laughing.







Saturday 14 November 2009

First team Tues 10 Nov

The first team didn't quite get the win it wanted on Tuesday, drawing 2-2 against Nuneaton A.
Things looked good when Nalin trapped Mark Proberts Queen to win Q+P for R+N and he made no mistake bringing home the win. John Naylor went a pawn ahead in his game with Maurice Staples and I found some good early pressure against Colin Green. Jonathoan Cox was level against v d Westhuizen. However I spent too long trying to get through in my game and I suddenly realised that Black was counterattacking and one slip and the game would be gone so I allowed a 3 fold repetition for a draw. John also couldn't quite get any further in his game drawing so we were 2-1 up. Jonathan ended up in a K+P endgame which should probably have been drawn but an unpleasant little tactic meant that his king had to to look after 2 well separated passed pawns while his opponents K had only to look after one, so he sadly lost.
No second team on Tuesday and I'm not sure how the thirds got on although I know Sue lost narrowly being the exchange down in the endgame. Thats the sort of game to learn from, Sue!

Thursday 12 November 2009

Latest news and Individual Competition info on CDCL site

Liam, the webmaster for the CDCL site has been busy and posted an October update telling you which team is in the lead in the league (not Rugby I'm afraid) and the Divisional Cup (Rugby A, wow!!!!) also giving links to local websites which include analysis of games. This blog (well done folks) gets special mention, as does a site by Coventry player Mike Donnelly which I was not previously aware of and have added to our side links.

If you are thinking of taking part in the CDCL individual competitions it might be worth checking out the recent changes to the Individual Competitions page too. Notably the shift of the Barry Ades Trophy grade range from 100 to 120 and below. The Barnacle (U-18s) may run this year, but there is some discussion on-going about who can enter - whether you have to be playing in the league or not. Deadline for entries is 24th November, so quite soon.

I can't say anything about the games this week because I wasn't there. But I understand Nalin had a good game. I look forward to seeing that one and others some time. Especially now that our site has been singled out for its analysis (hint).

Monday 9 November 2009

Game from 27 Oct match

Jonathon Cox also played Jim Dixon on 27 October and won quite quickly then by a similar K side attack to last weeks game.

Friday 6 November 2009

More games from 3rd November

Herewith a clinical display from John Naylor as he seizes on an unintentional early lapse by his opponent.



And a good win from Jonathan who beat the same opponent a week earlier.

Malcolm's game from 3rd Nov (Div 2)

Malcolm won on Tuesday (as Bob mentioned in his post), so check it out here (full details now included).

Thursday 5 November 2009

Matches Cov Chess 3 Nov

The first team did well with John Naylor winning convincingly, my game is given below - also a win and Jonathan had another quick win which we will try and get on the blog asap. Sadly Martin resigned when he lost a rook admitting that he had forgotten that Knights can move backwards !






The B team did well too, winning 2.5 1.5 also against Cov Chess. I saw Nigel and Malcolm won their games - not sure about where the half came from.

C team lost but it was good that James Mendes returned to his winning ways. Chris Pegler took her game down to an ending where she was the exchange down. This is the normal 'grind' of chess, Chris, so hope you didn't find it too difficult!

Sunday 1 November 2009

First team 27th Oct

Back after a few days hol and the first team clearly did better without me !
The results were
Coventry B Rugby

C Pickering 0 1 J Naylor
R Holmes 1/2 1/2 M A Wilson
J Dixon 0 1 J Cox
D Filer 0 1 N Kadodwala

1/2 3 1/2

We looked at the games the other night and they were all fairly straightforward apart from the second half of Nalins game! (Nalin - you don't have to surrender a couple of Bishops just because you've won a pawn - it doesn't work like that! Glad I wasn't aspectator !)
Oddly enough we are playing the same opponents at the same venue this week ...

Oddl