Ralph Kerridge

The club is sad to have to report the passing last Wednesday of Ralph Kerridge who was a regular player for the club in the '70s and '80s.

Together with his wife Mary he did much for chess in Rugby, particularly at junior level. Probably their most notable achievement was to establish the Rugby Junior Chess Championships in about 1977 which continued without a break up to 2011.

They also started a junior chess club at Henry Hinde Junior School and eventually this moved to Rokeby Junior School before being reestablished (as Rugby Junior Chess Club) at the Rugby Workers Club.

Outside of local chess he and Mary did a great deal to help at the annual British Chess Federation chess championships (in late July) and when they retired from this work they received well deserved recognition by the Chess Federation.

Ralph had a warm and friendly personality and will be very much missed by all who knew him. The club passes on its condolences to Mary and the family.

Monday 16th July 2012 Study Game

Below is the game that we will be looking through on Monday. It has many features and I will be expecting answers to the questions that I have asked in the game notes. Chess games like this and others is why I like the game. This game is both entertaining and instructional so pay close attention. See you all on Monday.

Fancy some chess over the summer?

There will be an e2e4 Congress at Hinckley over the bank holiday weekend 24-27 August 2012. Full details available at www.e2e4.org.uk/hinckley/Aug2012/index.htm.

Just look at those tables - yearning for some chess action (although you may wish to bring an umberella as its a Bank Holiday) :-)

RCC player and his nice new trophy

Jamie Kearney has had a very good season both in and out of the League. To celebrate his strong performance as a newcomer to CDCL chess he won the newcomer's trophy. I believe that this is a new award and he may be the first winner. [Photo by S Turvey, CDCL Chair - taken at the AGM last week]

If you happen to be in the area?

The Sheffield Congress 2012 will take place at King Edward VII Upper School from Friday 29th June to Sunday 2st July. See http://www.sheffieldanddistrictchess.org.uk/congress2012 for contact and other information.

The Entry Form can be downloaded as a Word doc.
Sections: Open (inc Yorkshire Championship), Major (U171),

Intermediate (U146), Minor (U121)

Prize Money (all sections): 1st £200, 2nd £100, 3rd £60 + grading prizes

Best Game Prize: £25 (all sections)

Venue: King Edward VII Upper School (map)

Time Control: Each player has 40 moves in 1 h 40 then 20 mins to complete the game

Rd 1: 7.00pm Rd 2: 9.30am Rd 3 2.15pm Rd 4: 9.30am Rd 5 2.15pm

Entry Fee: £25 (£20 juniors)

Didn't the juniors do well?

Match report copied below from Phill's post into the Junior Chess Club blog (I was not there this time and it sounds like I missed the most exciting Megafinal yet for RJCC). Terrific stuff.

Delancey UK Schools Chess Challenge - Mega Final 2012

The club was well represented at the Delancey UK Chess Challenge Mega Final today with eight of our players making the trip to Arden School in Knowle. William Kendell played in the under 9 category, Leo Johnson and Julien Carrouche in the under 11 category, Kai Cockrell, Parth Joshi and Jamie Kearney were in the under 12 category and in the under 13 category the club was represented by Kieran Roberts and Jonathan Payne.


All players did their best against some tough opposition and William, Leo, Julien, Jamie and Jonathan all successfully qualified for the next round, the Giga Final, but even better than that, there were some results of particular note.
Congratulations to Parth, who had a high point gaining a draw against England player Ashwin Kalyana.


Congratulations to William, who only dropped half a point in the under 9 category, finishing in first place with 5.5 and gaining the title SUPREMO, a trophy, £25 prize money and a meal out at KFC, (this last part of the prize thanks to Dad Kendell!).
Congratulations to Leo, joint first in the under 11 category with 5 points, unlucky to miss out on the prize money and title only on a count back, but still awarded a trophy.
Congratulations to Jamie, winning a trophy after being unbeaten in the under 12 category and finishing second on 5 points after gaining four wins and having draws with England players Ashwin Kalyana and Aloysius Lip in the same category.
Congratulations to Jonathan, who swept the field away in the under 13 category, having a perfect score after 5 games, and only beaten by England player Aloysius in the final round. Jonathan gained the under 13 SUPREMO title, a trophy and £25 prize money.
Well done to all and best of luck to the Giga Final qualifiers.

Congrats to Jamie Kearney

Reading the Lawrence Sheriff newsletter (as I do) I have noticed that Jamie has now not only qualified for the England Juniors Squad, but also been called to play for them in Prague over the next half term. Well done Jamie!

You can read more about his acheivements on the English Chess Federation site, in the ECF forum and even on the Northants Junior Chess blog. Looking at these he not only qualified but did very well within a large group of U-12s. Perhaps the proud Dad would like to tell us more?

How to Counter-Attack!!

I'm putting up this game because I hope it is very instructive, short, has a nice finish and because Bob told me to do so!

This was played very recently and shows how to counter against premature attacks. I have added in a lot of comments to show my thinking process through the game. I always say if you have the right plan, then the right moves are easy to find.

Please press the 'flip' button twice as I am playing black and it puts the names the wrong way round.

Also at the end of some comments, I ask you the reader to guess the next move to see what you would do in that particular situation. Think of it as a practical puzzle and take just a minute on them. Enjoy.

Play Online Chess

[Event "K.O Cup"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2012.4.3"]
[Round "?"]
[White "John McCann"]
[Black "Nalin Kadodwala"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteELO "131"]
[BlackELO "161"]

%Created by Caissa's Web PGN Editor
%Orient=B
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 g6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Bg7 5. c3? {This is the first sign that
white doesn't know what he is doing and blindly strives to protect his knight
in the center. The downside is that he takes the c3 square away from his
queenside knight.} 5... Nc6 6. Bc4 Nf6 7. Nd2? {We see the problem of the
queenside knight again. White wants to protect his e4 pawn and by doing so
with his knight stops his queenside bishop from getting out. All of these
problems are connected with the pawn on c3. The best move for white instead
would have been 7 Nxc6 bxc6 8 e5.} 7... O-O 8. f4? {I really expected white to
castle here. It is clear he wants to attack but this is not going to succeed
because he has not got all his pieces into play. Black needs to counter attack
to punish white.} 8... d5! {It is clear to see that black is ahead in
development so aims to open up the center. 9 e5 is a mistake because of
9...Nxd4 10 exf6 Bxf6 11 cxd4 dxc4 12 Nxc4 Bxd4 winning a pawn, stopping white
from castling and gaining the bishop pair.} 9. exd5 {The only move as
explained on the previous move.} 9... Nxd4 {An important intermediate move so
white is left with a weak d4 pawn.} 10. cxd4 Nxd5 11. Nf3 {Played to defend
the d4 pawn. Note the knight has moved twice now and has only got to f3. White
is still yet to castle and it is black to move. This evaluation means that
black should aim to develop his pieces quickly.} 11... Be6 {Protecting the
knight so that the queen can go to b6. There is also some tactics based on the
unprotected bishop on c4. This explains whites next move.} 12. Bb3! {The best
move making sure the bishop is protected. But notice how white is still not
castled.} 12... Rc8 {Bringing the rook to the open file. It is easy to see
that the natural place for blacks rooks are d8 and c8. The open and semi-open
files.} 13. O-O! {White finally gets to castle. Black is very comfortable in
this position as he enjoys better development and better sqaures for his
pieces.} 13... Qb6 {Putting more pressure on d4. This can only be done because
the square in front of the pawn (d5) is under blacks control.} 14. Bxd5? {I
could not not believe this move when I saw it. White is thinking that the
knight is very annoying stopping his bishop on c1 from going to many good
squares, ie e3, but does not realise that the black bishop coming to d5 will
also be a good piece. Black now has the bishop pair.} 14... Bxd5 15. Ne5
{Threatning 16 Nd7 with a fork but there is a natural reply.} 15... Rfd8
{Putting the rook where it belongs and stopping the threat.} 16. Kh1? {White
is scared of the d4 pawn being pinned. I was planning on taking over the
center with 16...f6 and 17...e5. This would be good for black because he wants
to open up the position completly for the bishop pair. Open positions are
great for bishops. Blocked positions favor the knights. Now that white has
unpinned the d4 pawn, what move would you make as black? } 16... Be4! {The
best according to Fritz by a long way. Black creates multiple threats. The
obvious threat is to the d4 pawn. The not so obvious is penetration of the
rook to c2. the other threat is to b2 with the queen. Because of this last
threat white cannot move his queenside bishop.} 17. b3?? {White simply panics
in the face of so many threats. What would you play as black?} 17... Rc2 {The
pawn on d4 is doomed and black can take it whenever he wants so continues to
harrass white. The threat is now to g2.} 18. Rg1 {A horrible move to have to
make but the only move. Again I will ask the question as to what black should
play? HINT: Black should be looking to increase the pressure on g2.} 18...
Bxe5 {The knight on e5 was controling some useful white squares, namely c6 and
f3 so had to be eliminated. The opposite bishops here means that black is
almost playing a bishop up because whites bishop cannot help in the defence of
g2. Black also doesn't worry about losing his best king's defender because
will have no attack. Just look at the difference in activity between white's
and black's pieces.} 19. fxe5 {Forced.} 19... Qc6 {Increasing pressure against
g2.} 20. Qg4 {To protect g2. Qf1 was better but it is hard to play such
defensive and passive moves, especially with the queen.} 20... Rxd4 {The pawn
falls and also threatning 21...bxg2+ winning white's queen.} 21. Bf4 {The
bishop finally moves but it too late.} 21... Bxg2+ {White resign's as he loses
his queen anyway or gets checkmated. The analyses as to why is at the end of
this post. } 0-1

So a nice game with a win in 21 moves as black. This was only possible because white played some poor moves. White also had conflicting strategies such as not developing and trying to attack. Therefore his overall plan was not coherent.

Please note that the black attack worked because all of blacks pieces were contributing. Also, white had problems developing meaning he couldn't get his pieces out to defend. Just look at the rook on a1 that never moved for example compared to black's.

White resigns because of 22 Rxg2 Rxf4 (the queen can't capture the rook because of checkmate on g2) 23 Qg3 Rf3 24 Qg4 (24 Rxc2 Rf1 checkmate with double check) 24...Rff2 25 Rg1 Rxg2 26 Rxg2 Rc1+ followed by checkmate.

I hope you enjoyed this read and if you want me to do more of this or found this instructional then i will do more more regularly.

Nalin.

2011/12 LEAGUE RESULTS

I've just finished putting up the results so far and the League Results (headline scores) are in. Its been a challenging year and one where University of Warwick seems to be made up entirely of good chess players, so few surprises. Here you are - well done everyone.

DIVISION 1

TEAM	P	W	D	L	Pts.
UNIVERSITY A	12				21
NUNEATON A	12				16
COVENTRY A	12				13
UNIVERSITY B	12				11
RUGBY A	12				10
RUGBY B	12				8
NUNEATON B	12				5

DIVISION 2

TEAM	P	W	D	L	Pts.
UNIVERSITY E	14				25
COVENTRY B	14				19
COVENTRY C	14				14
COVENTRY D	14				14
NEWDIGATE	14				12
NUNEATON C	14				10
NUNEATON D	14				9
RUGBY C	14				9

Coventry C (For minus Against = 0), Coventry D (For minus Against = -2),
Nuneaton D (For minus Against = -8), Rugby C (For minus Against = -11)

DIVISION 3

TEAM	P	W	D	L	Pts.
UNIVERSITY C	12				19
UNIVERSITY D	12				17
COVENTRY F	12				12
RUGBY D	12				12
COVENTRY G	12				12
COVENTRY E	12				8
NUNEATON E	12				4

Coventry F (For minus Against = -1), Rugby D (For minus Against = -3),
Coventry G (For minus Against = -5)

Chris's game for the C team

The synpsosis of this game would be:

1. Dodgy start
2. Progress in the middle
3. Starting to look promising towards the end
4. What? How? She's done it again!!

Defeat dragged from the jaws of victory, as you will see. Note that some of the notation is a little dodgy but I think that the game went like this. If I Evans would let me know the last few moves I can put the whole show up.

Play Online Chess

[Event "CDCL Cov C v Rugby C"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2012.3.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "I Evans"]
[Black "C Pegler"]
[Result "*"]
[WhiteELO "115"]
[BlackELO "65"]

%Created by Caissa's Web PGN Editor
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 d5 3. cxd5 Qxd5 4. Nc3 Qa5 5. Bd2 Bd7 6. Ne4 Qa4 7. Nxf6+
gxf6 8. Qxa4 {There - Nicola would be proud of me :-) Queens swopped in no
time.} 8... Bxa4 9. b3 Bc6 10. e3 Nd7 11. f3 e5 12. Ne2 O-O-O 13. e4 b6 {A
long way around to a fiancetto ...} 14. d5 Bb7 15. Nc3 Bb4 16. Rc1 Nc5 17.
Nb5 a5 18. Bxb4 axb4 19. Na7+ Kd7 20. Bb5+ Ke7 21. O-O Kd6 22. Rfd1 Ra8 23.
Nc6 Rxa2 24. Nxb4 {Oops! Didn't see that coming ...} 24... Ra5 25. Bc6 Nxb3
26. Rc3 Nd4 27. Kf2 {My notation is awry here. I have Bcg which can't be right
so think it was this. } 27... Ba6 28. Nxa6 Rxa6 29. Ke3 Nxc6 30. dxc6+ Ke7
31. Rd7+ Ke6 32. Rxc7 Rd8 33. Rd3 Rxd3+ 34. Kxd3 Kd6 {I think that I have
finally quelled the advanced pawn threat! (Rhsy says don't get too proud of
myself - I probably just got lucky).} 35. Rxf7 Kxc6 36. Rxf6+ Kc5 37. Re6
Ra3+ 38. Kd2 b5 39. Rxe5+ Kc4 40. Rd5 b4 41. Rd8 Ra2+ 42. Ke3 b3 {My notation
comes awry here but from this promising position I ended doing a rook exchange
and losing my pawn. }

If you can't read the game on screen the notation is in the comments below.

John Hall has offered the following analysis:

13 b6? Consider B2g or Bg7
17 a5? BxB+ KxB(King then can't castle) I could then move Kb8 (out of trouble)
21 Kd6 Suggests that this could be played as Move 20
24 Rb2! would be much better
29 Nxcg6? Suggests Rg8 instead to develp last peice, or Rb8 and push the b pawn down the board
34 Kd6 - b5! would have been better

Thanks John. I will try and do better next time and certainly read more on end game for next season.

Note the date of the CDCL AGM

Rugby C vs Coventry C - 28 Feb 2012

Match report courtesy of John Hall

1. John Hall 0.5- 0.5 Howard Jones
2. Malcolm Harding 1-0 S Manickam
3. Olushola Borisade 1- 0 Simon Weaver
4. Gareth Bailey 0- 1 Ian Evans

So we won the match 2.5 - 1.5

Game of the night was Malcolm's win against Saravana Manickam a fantastic attack. Mine was a careful closed King's Indian defence while Shola was last to finish with a nice careful controlled win over Simon Weaver. Here is Malcom's game
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Bxc6 dxc6 5. O-O Bg4 6. c3 Nf6 7. d3 Bd6 8. Bg5 Qd7 9. Nbd2 h6 10. Bh4 O-O-O 11. Qc2 Qe6 12. d4 g5 13. Bg3 Nh5 14. Bxe5 Bxe5 15. Nxe5 Nf4 16. f3 Bh5 17. Nb3 f6 18. Nc5 Qg8 19. Nxc6 bxc6 20. Qa4 Rd6 21. Qxa6 Kd8 22. e5 Re6 23. Rfe1 g4 24. Qb7 Nd5 25. exf6 1-0

Refinements to the ECF Grading database

COPIED FROM COVENTRY CHESS CLUB BLOG Mike Johnson has discovered that now on the ECF Grading Database, if you click on your "ref number" next to your name you now get a lot of very useful data on your chess playing career.
When you click on your ref no you have four tabs:- Profile, Standard Games, Rapid Games and Grade progress.

For example if you click on the "Standard Games" tab and select a year from the drop down menu you can see a list of your results for that particular year and if you scroll down to the bottom of the page it is even presented in a Pie chart format!
Click on the "Grade Progress" tab and you can see the progress (or lack of!!) of your grade in a graphical format since 1994.


Its well worth a look. Here is the link to RugbyChess Club members page:

http://www.ecfgrading.org.uk/?club=Rugby

Make sure that you note what the scale is when looking at progress.

Jamie's Game

Further to Bob's post, here is Jamie's game against Jason Smith.  One of Jamie's longest games with 80 moves. and in case the embedded board doesn't work, here is the PGN...
1. e4 g6 2. d4 Bg7 3. c4 d6 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. Nf3 O-O 6. Bf4 Nbd7 7. Be2 c5 8. d5 h6 9. Qd2 g5 10. Be3 Ng4 11. h4 f6 12. hxg5 fxg5 13. Nxg5 hxg5 14. Bxg4 Ne5 15. Be2 Qe8 16. Bxg5 Ng4 17. f3 Ne5 18. Bh6 Qg6 19. Bxg7 Qg3+ 20. Kd1 Qxg7 21. Qh6 Qxh6 22. Rxh6 Kg7 23. Rh2 Bd7 24. Kc2 Rh8 25. Rah1 Ng6 26. Rxh8 Nxh8 27. Nd1 a6 28. Kc3 b5 29. b3 b4+ 30. Kc2 a5 31. Nb2 a4 32. bxa4 Bxa4+ 33. Nxa4 Rxa4 34. Kb2 Ng6 35. Bd1 Ra3 36. Bb3 Nf4 37. g3 Nd3+ 38. Kc2 Ne5 39. Rf1 Kf6 40. Kd2 Ra8 41. g4 Rg8 42. f4 Nf7 43. e5+ Kg7 44. e6 Nd8 45. g5 Rh8 46. f5 Rf8 47. f6+ exf6 48. gxf6+ {should have gone e7 instead of gxf6+ for the pawn fork but missed it.} 48... Rxf6 49. Rxf6 Kxf6 50. Ke3 Nb7 51. Kd3 Nd8 52. Ke4 Nb7 53. Kf4 Na5 54. Kg4 Nb7 55. Kh5 Na5 56. Kh6 Nb7 57. Kh7 Na5 58. Kg8 Ke7 59. Kg7 Nb7 60. Kg6 Na5 61. Kf5 Nb7 62. Ke4 Na5 63. Kd3 Nb7 64. Kc2 Na5 65. Kb2 Nb7 66. a3 bxa3+ 67. Kxa3 Na5 68. Ba2 Nb7 69. Ka4 Nd8 70. Kb5 Nb7 71. Kb6 Nd8 72. Kc7 Nxe6+ 73. dxe6 Kxe6 74. Bb3 Ke7 75. Bd1 Ke6 76. Kc6 Ke7 77. Bg4 Kd8 78. Kxd6 Ke8 79. Kxc5 Kd8 80. Kd6 1-0

Nice game Jamie !

The A team had some overdue success on Tuesday beating Nuneaton B by 3.5 to 0.5

Our B team lost to Nuneaton A by the same score however !

I am not sure how the C team ended but I do know that Jamie Kearney had another delightful looking win which had a piece for 2 pawn sacrifice early on! I hope Phil has the time to post it on this blog if he can !

Bob

Continuing my photos in chess series ...

Here is one which I took of Rajan Parekh, Coventry F Board 1 player (current Warwickshire age-related champ) who was playing at Rugby last night. He and Jim MacDonald agreed a draw just after this photo was taken.

In case you were wondering how the rest of Rugby D did, Nicola continued her winning steak with a win. I continued my own streak and lost. But to such a nice man (Clive Osman). Roy was still playing when I slunk out.

Results on CDCL site for January games so far ...

Just added the latest 3 games (KO Cup and 10 + 17 Jan) to the Coventry League blog - Link

There may (by looks of things) be some extra results due for the 10 Jan results.

Chris

Live blogging from University - just showing off here

Well Rugby D have all the gadgets :-) - which is just as well because Chris needs something to occupy her when she once again crashes and burns. But I thought that I would give you a snapshot of the action as it happens. Vs. University D Chris loses to a canny player Cerden Micher on board 3, following Joe Oswell's convincing win against David Noyvert.

Things are looking promising on Board 1 for Jim MacDonald against female player Mary Kairatkyzy (yes, yet more female players in the league now). Roy Talbot vs Jose Garcia looks like a close match but Jose has just refused a draw so its not _that_ close. Another match with everything to play for from Team D. Trying to load a sneaky picture of men at work ... no flash so as not to interrupt play.

Meanwhile the B team after one game (Martin Wilson vs. A Rysbagen) are still hard at play. Fingers crossed for everyone.

PS. Joe and Roy can recommend the local brew Duck Soup Ale, only brewed exclusively for the Warwick  Student Union.

KO Cup : Rug C vs Cov A 3-Jan-2012

It was always going to be a tough match for Rugby C against Coventry A in the KO cup and Coventry were victorious despite their 1.25 pt handicap, but Jamie very much enjoyed his match against Ed Goodwin (even though Fritz would have played differently). and in case the embedded game doesn't work here is the pgn
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 c5 4. d5 exd5 5. cxd5 d6 6. e4 Be7 7. f4 Nbd7 8.
Nf3 Nb6 9. Bb5+ Bd7 10. Be2 Bg4 11. O-O O-O 12. h3 Bxf3 13. Bxf3 Nbd7 14. e5
Ne8 15. Qe2 Qc7 16. e6 fxe6 17. dxe6 Nb6 18. Be3 Nf6 19. Rad1 Rad8 20. a4 a6
21. f5 Qb8 22. Bf4 Nc8 23. Rd2 Qc7 24. Rfd1 Ne8 25. Be4 h6 26. Qf3 b6 27. Qg3
Kh8 28. Nd5 Qa7 29. Qg6 Bf6 30. Nxf6 Nxf6 31. Bf3 Ne7 32. Qg3 Nxf5 33. Qe1
Rfe8 34. Bxd6 Nxd6 35. Rxd6 Rxd6 36. Rxd6 Qc7 37. Qd2 Kg8 38. Bc6 Re7 39. Bd7
Ne4 0-1