Two days of chess training and a one-day Rapid-Play tournament for juniors over the age of 8 with ECF grades between 50 and 150 is to be hosted by Oxford Spires Academy on 18 – 20 August 2015. The coaches are Andrew Varney and David Zakarian.
Further details can be found on the registration form. Places for the coaching days are limited to 24 total, but there is more capacity for the tournament day. Priority will be given to Oxfordshire juniors registering by 20 July.
Most normal people are out enjoying the sun, on Holiday or head to a music festival.
Some clubs such as Oxford City close down between April and September however here at Cumnor we don’t stop, well except for August!
To keep us on our toes we have two internal tournaments are now in full swing. In the Players’ Cup it is tight, only half a point separate 2nd and 5th. Gareth currently sits at the top of the pile after his draw against Zoe however the rest of us are waiting to take advantage if / when he slips up.
In the Bill Laar Trophy, a lead pack has started to pull away Steve, Graham, Robin, David and Leo have created a little gap between themselves and the rest of the players. Steve has a tentative lead on the rest but again a single small slip could be fatal.
Next week three games have already been arranged, Zoe and Liam, Robin and Richard and Steve and Robert (colours to be decided on the night). With that line up it looks to be an exciting evening, a line-up to rival Glastonbury!
To see more information on our tournaments have a look here.
You can find the entry forms for the Witney Rapidplay here (separate junior and senior entry forms – please also note that there are two sections in the junior tournament) and for the third Witney Congress here.
If you are able to enter online, that makes the administration easier all round! – Mike Truran
The 2014-15 season saw Cumnor 1 compete in Oxford and District League 2 for a third year in a row. Our aim at the start of the season was to improve on last year’s record tally of 11 points and to carry on pushing the club forward.
We started the season with a game against Bicester 1, last season they finished bottom of the division so we expected an easy game but it was a close match which finished 3.5-2.5 to Cumnor. This was the only loss that Bicester 1 suffered on their way to the title. The result was followed by losses to MCS/B1 (2-4) and City 2 (1-5).
Wantage 1 were the next visitors to Cumnor at the end of November, the game was a little controversial (read more here) but we got the win in the end (4.5-1.5). As the season headed toward the Christmas break, we lost to the newly promoted Didcot 2 (3.5-2.5) and beat Cowley 3 (4-2). So at the halfway point we sat mid table with 3 wins and 3 losses.
The first round of the Frank Wood Shield (aka FWS, our version of the FA Cup if you will) took place in the first week of January. Our first game was against Witney 1, currently the Champions of the Oxfordshire Leagues and winners of the Shield twice in the last 3 years. However, we took them on and won!
Well, technically it was a draw but the FWS is a handicap competition and we only needed to “lose” 2.5-3.5 to get into the next round. It was a spectacular result we pulled off the shock of the season when we got a 3-3 draw and headed into the second round.
We took the euphoria of the result against Witney 1 into our next game which was against Bicester 1 away (3-3); we managed to get a draw against the top of the table team, a credible result. However, we where dropped back down to earth with a loss against MCS/B1 (4-2).
Nevertheless the team was in a confident mood for the match again like the first round, we only needed to “lose” 2.5-3.5 to get through. We had chances but it was just a little to much of an ask and we eventually bowed out (1.5-4.5), I am still have nightmares about my game.
Now concentrating back on the league, we beat City 2 (4-2) and Wantage 1 (2.5-3.5) during March. We even had the unenviable task of relegating Dicot 2 in the penultimate game of the season which we did with our best result of the season, 5-1 (4 wins and 2 draws).
For the second season in a row we finished with an away game against Cowley 3, last year it was a must win game for Cowley 3 in their fight for survival but this year it took on less importance with third place on offer for the victors. The match finished with a win for Cowley 3 (4-2) meaning we would finish 4th this season and with a higher point total than last of 13 points; 6 wins, 1 draw and 5 losses.
The season will restart in the autumn with Cumnor 1 remaining in the second division.
The final table can be found here.
The season has now finished in Oxfordshire and here a list of the winners and losers –
Division 1
First Place – Witney 1
Last Place – Banbury 1
Best score – David Martins 12/12 100% University 1
Division 2
First Place – Bicester 1
Last Place – Didcot 2
Best score – Daniel Varney 7.5/8 93.75% Cumnor 1
Division 3
First Place – Uni 2
Last Place – Bicester 2
Best score – David Blackwell 6.5/8 81.25% Witney 3
Division 4
First Place – Cowley4
Last Place – St Claires
Best score – Martin Dalziel 8.5/9 94.44% Cowley 4
FWS
Final – City 1 v Cowley 2
Normally, the first place teams will be promoted while the last will be relegated however, the leagues are yet to be agreed for next season so this could change.
Cumnor 2’s final game of the season took place on Thursday night, when we welcomed Cowley 4 to the Old School. Cowley 4 were sitting top of the table and needed a win to guaranty the title and promotion to the third division.
Susana lost her game on the bottom board while Ross who was playing his first game for the team had a close game but also lost. David got a deserving draw against a Sara who is 30 grading points higher than himself.
Marc had a good position in his game but couldn’t make use of it and made an error in the endgame. Steve tried to get a draw but couldn’t and eventually lost. Mark had an interesting game but had to settle for a draw.
Cumnor 2 fought gallantly but Cowley 4 got the win they needed.
Congratulations to Cowley 4! After the match we invited the Cowley players down to the Bear and Ragged Staff for a celebratory drink which was enjoyed by both sets of players.
Cumnor 1 played the last match of the season on Monday, away to Cowley 3. Both teams were comfortably mid-table of Division Two, with only third place up for grabs for the winners. But the match was still a competitive contest on all six boards.
The first to finish was Steve who got a draw on the bottom board. Steve has gained quite a reputation in the club for drawing – maybe we should implement the FIDE “no more draws” rule which was announced on April 1st? :)
In my game, I had a poor position coming out of the opening which I never really recovered from and eventually lost the game.
Mark looked to be doing well on board 4. Going into the endgame he had three extra pawns – but Queen and Pawn endgames are notoriously difficult to win, and he had to draw out.
Andrew meanwhile had a challenging game against Oscar – a draw was offered by Andrew but rejected by Oscar, and Oscar eventually went on to win.
Simon played a junior on the top board called Arvin Hu. I knew Arvin was going to be a hard player to beat as he slipped his strawberry milk.
Impressively, Arvin managed to win against Simon, which shows he could have a great future ahead of him (Arvin that is, not Simon) and I don’t think anyone will fancy playing him in the coming years.
Graham had a game which he was winning right up until he entered the endgame. A time scramble commenced and Graham’s position started to look a little shaky.
Graham takes up the commentary:
“A little shaky? It was downright precarious. Black had two very advanced pawns which I really should have nobbled when I had the chance earlier in the game, but I was distracted by my own plans. Despite winning Black’s Queen I failed to halt the promotion of one of the pawns, and before I knew it… I was on the ropes, with only seconds remaining on the clock.”
“By now I had no time to find good moves. I was just looking for legal moves.”
“Black was seconds away from mating me – with no chance of me rescuing things. But it was obviously my lucky day. Black’s clock ran out, with mine only having 20 seconds remaining…”
“It felt a little grubby and embarrassing to claim a victory in such a situation, but hey…”
“I dedicate my game to Simon Terrington, who cajoled me into playing d4 for the first time ever in a competitive game.”
All those hours at the Bear and Ragged Staff playing Blitz must be paying off.
In the end we lost 4-2 which means Cowley 3 take third and we finish in forth. However, everything being considered we have had a good season and I will do a little write up once all the leagues have finished.
Check out the final table here.
In the last couple of weeks the world of Chess has been rocked by a number of cheating allegations. A complaint was made against Gaioz Nigalidze in the sixth round at the Dubai Open while he was playing Tigran Petrosian.
Petrosian became suspicious after noticing that Nigalidze was visiting the bathroom at regular intervals, headed to the same cubicle and staying for over ten minutes at a time. When the player returned from the toilet, officials discovered a smartphone hid in the bin.
Of course even with the amount of evidence we need to wait to see if he is found guilty before confirming he is cheating. Interestingly, The Telegraphy published an article about Smart Phone cheating on 21st March, this can be found here.
During the US Chess Championship Wesley So, the World number 8, was forfeited by the arbiter for writing notes during his game against Varuzhan Akobian. So had been writing motivational messages to himself on his score sheet in earlier rounds and twice been warned not to by the arbiter. It is not believed that what he was writing down was anything which was going to give him an advantage.
It seems like the incident was caused, in part to some family issues he is currently having and he did come back to finish 3rd with 6.5/11.
In my opinion the two events are not similar as one was an intentional while the other was a mistake.
But cheating in Chess isn’t a new problem, in the 18th century “The Turk” took the world by storm. It was an automated Chess Player which beat many chess players and celebrities of the time including Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin. It appeared to work using clockwork but in fact had a human chess master hiding inside to operate the machine. It toured for over 50 years before it was exposed as a hoax.
Famously, Bobby Fischer publicly alleged that the Soviets had colluded to prevent any non-Soviet from winning the Candidates Tournament of 1962. He claimed that Petrosian (not the same person), Keres and Geller had pre-arranged to draw all their games. This claim does hold some validity as all 12 games between the 3 of them ended in a draw, often very early in the game. Still even now there is no proof that this collusion happened.
As technology has increased some players have found interesting ways to use it to their advantage. Reports of players receiving texts with the moves to play, tiny ear plugs with someone saying what to play and players using smart phones have all been noted and some players have been given lengthy bans and fines.
I don’t think this is common in most tournaments but players maybe more inclined to cheat where money is involved. The Oxford Leagues doesn’t have any prize money and even though we have had a couple of some unsavory moments, as far as I am aware no one was been found guilty of cheating.
With the only two games left a few things in division two of the Oxfordshire Chess League needs to be finalized.
Bicester 1 are heading back into division 1 after a two year absence, with Cumnor 1 being the only team to win against them this season. At the bottom, Didcot 2 look like they are heading for the drop but they would stay up if they win their last two remaining games. One game against Cumnor 1 and a relegation decider against City 2.
But before we get too ahead of ourselves Didcot 2 needed to beat us to have any chance heading into the City 2 game. The return fixture earlier in the season saw Didcot 2 win against Cumnor 1 but Didcot would need a monumental effort to get the wins they need to reach safety.
Daniel’s game was interesting for two reasons, the first being it only lasted 13 moves and less than 30 minutes, while most of us have barely sat down Daniel was getting up with a victory. This isn’t too unusual, Daniel is known to play quickly and is often the first to finish but I think this could be a new record! Secondly, the win takes his percentage score to 93.75% (with 7 wins and a draw from his 8 games) which is not only the highest in the club but the highest in the league! The Bernard C Wyatt Memorial trophy is awarded to the player who scores the highest percentage in the league who has played more than half the games and it looks like it has Daniels name on it this season.
Gareth was the next to finish, with a victory on board 4. I was playing on board one against Roger Thetford, our game was close, I did have some play against his Kingside and a past pawn however Roger closed it off and I had to accept a draw.
Andrew had an exciting game with many tactics yet had to settle for a draw. This meant Didcot’s faint hopes on staying up where ended. Mark picked up a win on board 6 and Zoe completed the rout with a clinical triumph in a Rook endgame.
The result means Cumnor 1 have reached 13 points which is a record for us in the second division and we still have a game in hand which is away to Cowley on Monday. Cumnor 1 will finish 3rd in the table (again a record) unless Cowley beat us 4-2 or better on Monday evening.
Check out the table here.
Question – Where would you find 80 Bishops and 41 Kings on a Saturday afternoon?
It was a close match but Oxfordshire won 10.5-9.5!
On the nine upper boards (1-9), the grading averages were Oxon 164.7 and Hants 178.8 — and we lost 3.5-5.5, the two wins by Will Burt and Clifford Marcus saving the day.
On the lower nine boards (11-19), the averages were Oxon 142.2 and Hants 144.6 — a trivial deficit, but a deficit nonetheless — yet here we won by the tremendous margin of 7-2, so many congratulations to the winners on
these boards.
My game was a very interesting match, I played Gillian only two weeks ago when I had a bit of a lucky victory. She plays an unusual Queens opening which I did look up and found a couple of improvements.
P.S the 41st King was of course Simon King who played on board 18!
![Cowley 3 v Cumnor 1 [Match Report]](https://cumnorchessclub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/rosehill_cowleycc.jpg)