Last night, the Cumnor 1 team played at home against Wantage 1.
Sadly the match ended on a sour note, and a dispute on the final game to finish needs to be assessed by an independent referee.
Nevertheless, I am happy to say that whatever the referee’s decision, Cumnor won the game by at least 3.5-1.5.
A full match report will be posted once everything is finalised.
Please note the following dates.
Our final evening in 2014 will be on Thursday 18th December.
Cumnor Chess Club shall re-open on Thursday 8th January 2015.
We have a long break this year due to New Years Day being on Thursday 1st January.
While Cumnor 2 played an away game against Cowley 5 (see the report here), the first team took on top of the table Bicester 1.
The match was close but Cumnor came out winners 3.5-2.5.
| Cumnor 1 | Bicester 1 | ||
| 1 | Terrington, Simon (173) | 1/2-1/2 | Matta, Francesca (-) |
| 2 | Glenn, Liam (147) | 1/2-1/2 | Marlow, Mike (161) |
| 3 | Varney, Andrew (147) | 1/2-1/2 | Hepworth, Nicholas J (142) |
| 4 | Varney, Zoe (149) | 1-0 | Morton, Iain (142) |
| 5 | Sayers, Mark (139) | 0-1 | Beckett, Richard (141) |
| 6 | Varney, Daniel (137) | 1-0 | Burcham, Anthony (123) |
| Match played on 30 Oct 2014. | 3.5-2.5 | ||
Liam and Nicholas (Andrew’s opponent), both offered draws within a minute of each other which after a quick look at the boards were accepted by both players.
Daniel’s game (which I would like to point out wasn’t the first to finish) looked to be heading towards a draw, four pawns and a knight each with the pawns creating barrier to stop the Kings getting in behind.
A moment of controversy happened when Tony thought he had gained a draw with a three fold repetition, however Daniel had triangulated his King which meant the King was not in check when the Knight came in nor was it the same position for the third time. This allowed Daniel to take a pawn and Tony resigned.
The last three games went down to the final few minutes…
Zoe won her game with an extra pawn and a nice tactic as the her opponents clock ticked down. Mark lost his Queenside pawns and had to sack a Rook for a pawn which was about to Queen.
Simon’s game was a great game which swung back and forth.
Francesca got a pawn on to the seventh rank but Simon managed to deflect one of its defenders to win it. The game looked to be heading towards a draw, both players with 4 pawns and Knight each until Simon ended up defending the position and he had to sack the knight for a pawn.
Simon’s King ran into the corner blocking the H pawn, which was the last pawn on the board, and managed to force a stalemate (King, Knight, pawn on 7th rank vs King) with only 15 seconds left on the clock.
The result still keeps Bicester top and puts Cumnor into 5th in this very open league, see the league here.
While Cumnor 1 played against Bicester 1 on Thursday (see the report here), Cumnor 2 had an away match against the new formed Cowley 5.
The Cumnor team won 3.5-2.5, and the result took them to the top of Division 4 which can be seen here.
| Cowley 5 | Cumnor 2 | ||
| 1 | Dalziel, Martin | 1/2-1/2 | Bennett, Steven |
| 2 | Burgess, John | 0-1 | Ives, Marc |
| 3 | Graham, Oliver | 1-0 | Sterrie, David |
| 4 | Burgess, Jasmine | 1-0 | Ives, Leonora |
| 5 | Pavlov, Boris | 0-1 | Willan, Ann |
| 6 | Pavlov, Lev | 0-1 | Bennett Anton, Susana |
| Match played on 30 Oct 2014. | 2.5-3.5 | ||
Well done Cumnor 2!
Going into round 6, at the foremost of Zoe Varney’s mind was the fact that she was the only one in the England team yet to win a game. Consequently she played a little rashly when her opponent was passive with the White pieces. In most tournaments, the rest day would come nearer to the half-way point rather than two thirds of the way through. So tiredness and lack of morale took their toll and she ended up losing.
On Sunday, Zoe was at least a lot more refreshed after a relaxing day away from chess. We avoided the blitz games on Sunday night; instead Zoe enjoyed some friendly games against a much higher rated team-mate, which were quite close and restored some of Zoe’s confidence.
It was just as well that Zoe was rested, because her round 7 game turned out to be the longest yet, lasting close to five hours. Playing White, she had a very small edge out of the opening, but after one inaccuracy suddenly Zoe found herself in a lost position. This time it was Zoe fighting for the draw!
Fortunately she played very well from this point on, looking for counter-threats and being prepared to sacrifice material to maintain rook activity and cut off her opponent’s king. It is true that her opponent made some errors which let Zoe off the hook, but the game showed great resilience in the face of difficulties over the board. Another life lesson and another draw, but this time a great relief rather than a disappointment!
Pavel Asenov’s experience in round 6 was a lot more positive. In fact it was possibly one of those critical moments for him, as he had never had a losing run of four out five games before. Recovering from this took some mental strength. But he managed to pull himself together with clear preparation and a very well executed game plan in which he outplayed his opponent in the middle game.
Consequently Pavel was in a relaxed frame of mind for the rest day, enjoyed the blitz tournament in the evening, and was back in good shape for his round 7 game which he won confidently and convincingly.
Thursday evening saw Cumnor 1 play their first game of the season against MCS/B1 who were the team relegated from the first division last season.
It was a closely fought fight but Cumnor 1 ended up on the wrong side of the 4-2 score line.
| Cumnor 1 | MCS/B1 | ||
| 1 | Terrington, Simon (173) | 1/2-1/2 | D’Souza-Eva, Jon (186) |
| 2 | Glenn, Liam (147) | 0-1 | Moyse, Nigel (171) |
| 3 | Stevens, Gareth (147) | 0-1 | Harskin, Robin (167) |
| 4 | Sayers, Mark (139) | 1-0 | Cole, James (145) |
| 5 | Slade, Richard (-) | 0-1 | Cole, Graham (148) |
| 6 | Varney, Daniel (137) | 1/2-1/2 | Bush, Ian (128) |
| Match played on 16 Oct 2014. | 2-4 | ||
As I did for last season I will give you a quick summary of the games in the order they finished. As I was playing myself I can only give a summary on what I saw and the analysis at the pub after, if I make any mistakes or you think I didn’t get the ‘gist’ of your game please let me know.
Gareth suffered from ‘Chess Blindness’ early in his game, after calculating a deep variation which gave him a good position, he left his Queen en prise and resigned immediately after the move.
Daniel was the next to finish, with his usual quick play. He and Ian agreed a draw once they entered an endgame with rook and a bishop each.
Richard was playing his first game for Cumnor 1 after making his winning début earlier in the week against St. Claire’s in the second team.
Unluckily, he was unable to get anything from this game and lost to the much more experienced Graham Cole. Graham if you are reading this I do mean experienced in the nicest possible way!
Mark was playing James Cole on board four and produced a great King-side attack with a terrific tactic which caused gasps from the crowd, when he pinned James’s Bishop to his King and Queen and threatened a Queen takes pawn check! The attack won him the King-side pawns, and once the game entered the endgame James resigned.
My game was the penultimate game to finish and a play through of my game is below. The game was interesting, I think I had an advantage for most of it but in time trouble I missed a mate in 3, have a look and let me know your thoughts.
Simon on the top board played Jon D’Souza-Eva. In the endgame with a Rook and pawn Jon reached the Lucena position but was unable to get the win.
Both players were under time pressure and Simon managed to take the last pawn leaving each player with his Rook. A draw was quickly agreed at this point.
The end result was a 4-2 win to MCS/B1. Cumnor 1’s next game is in two weeks at home against Bicester 1, on the same night Cumnor 2 are playing away against Cowley 5.
The 2014 Witney Rapidplay was held on Sunday 28 September at The Batt School, Witney, with 3 sections: senior, Junior (Major) and Junior (Minor).
Players were given 30 minutes per game (15 mins per game in the Junior Minor section, in which two games per round with alternating colours were played).
8 Cumnor players took part:
Andrew Varney was also there with a book stall, along with some much needed advice in the analysis room. Liam Glenn and Gareth Stevens popped in during the day.
Susana, Frida and Daniel all received a medal and a certificate for their results, Andrew received a certificate for his work in Junior Chess and Steve received a certificate for captaining the Oxfordshire U125 Team.
Congratulations!
More information can be found on the Witney Chess Club site, which has also published further photos from the event.
With the nights drawing in and the trees starting to turn, we have some good news.
The club reopens on Thursday 4th September!
The Oxfordshire Leagues restarts in October with Cumnor 1 in div 2 and Cumnor 2 in div 4.
I am sure you have had a good summer and see you on Thursday.
The club is now closed throughout August and will reopen on the first Thursday in September, which is the 4th of September. The Oxfordshire Leagues then restart in October 2014 with Cumnor 1 in div 2 and Cumnor 2 in div 4.
Have a great summer!
Steve.
The new grades have been published by the ECF and can be found here .
Theses are the grades used until Jan 2015.
Check out your new grade!
