The fixtures for the 2016-17 season have now been released and can be found here.
Cumnor 2 kick off the season with a home match against Cowley Workers 2 next Thursday (13/10) while Cumnor 1 play their first game a week later (20/10) at home to Bicester 1.
Peter Hemmings who has been producing the fixtures for previous seasons has now stepped aside and Asif Hameed from Cowley has taken on the job.
The fixtures are subject to change.
On Monday 12 January, the fine fellows (and Ann) of Cumnor Chess Club’s second team made their way to the salubrious setting of Cowley Working Mens’ Club to battle with Cowley Workers 2.
Back in October, Cumnor 2 managed to beat Cowley Workers 2 by 3.5 points to 2.5. Would this be a case of Cowley Workers getting their revenge on their home turf?
Graham Cluley, on board 1, finished first against John Courouble who chose to play the lesser-known Owen’s Defence.
Meanwhile, on other boards, Richard Slade found himself in a tricky position early on which lead to a devastating attack on his kingside, and Steve Bennett rallied from an awkward position to a seemingly possibly winning position and then back to a draw again after some fine play by his quick-moving opponent who had barely used 15 minutes on his clock by the end of the match.
Ann and Robert’s games I didn’t see – but congratulations to Robert for winning, and commiserations to Ann.
Which leaves us with Marc Ives on board 3.
Both Marc and his opponent had pawns on F, G and H and a single rook. But Marc – who was White – was in a a stronger position with an additional passed pawn on the a file and – it had to be said – his rook was much better placed.
To the onlookers it appeared that Marc had a relatively easy win in the bag. Either his A pawn would promote, or Black would have to sacrifice his rook to stop it.
At the very least, Black was in trouble – and his clock was running out.
At this stage, the score for the match was tied at 2.5-2.5, so many eyes were turned to the board as it would decide the entire fixture.
Unfortunately (and I’m not telling tales behind his back as I think he’d be the first to admit it) Marc wasn’t entirely confident about how best to maximise his advantage. Sadly his A pawn was lost, and then Black’s pawns broke through Marc’s defences.
Suddenly, it looked like it was Black who would manage to promote a pawn – or at least win a piece in the scuffle that was about to occur. And that meant Black was *definitely* going to win.
In other words, Cowley Workers would win 3.5 – 2.5.
And then, it was suddenly all over. Despite Black’s seemingly certain victory, fate played its hand and his flag fell. Black had run out of time.
| Cowley Workers 2 | Cumnor 2 | ||
| 1 | Courouble, John (116) | 0-1 | Cluley, Graham (112) |
| 2 | Ilic, Stevo (110) | 0.5-0.5 | Bennett, Steven (110) |
| 3 | Matilal, Tamal (103) | 0-1 | Ives, Marc (97) |
| 4 | Collins, Lee (109) | 1-0 | Slade, Richard ( ) |
| 5 | Jackson, William J (88) | 0-1 | Steel, Robert (85) |
| 6 | Palienkiewicz, Pawel ( ) | 1-0. | Willan, Ann (33) |
| Match played on 12 Jan 2016. | 2.5-3.5 | ||
Cowley Workers couldn’t believe they had lost the match because they had messed up on the clock. Victory was ours. Huzzah! As Cowley Workers wrote on Twitter, they felt swindled…
@CumnorChessClub Swindle of the century!
— Cowley Workers Chess (@CowleyWorkers2) January 12, 2015
Better luck next time guys.
Congratulations to Cumnor 2 for a great win on Thursday evening, click here to see the result!
Cumnor 2 play again on Tuesday away to St. Claires, will they be able to keep the 100% winning start to the season going? Cumnor 1 start their season with a game against Magdalen College School on Thursday evening.
Zoe Varney is playing in the European Youth Championship 2014 in Georgia which starts next weekend. Andrew promises to keep us updated and we all wish her luck.
And finally, one last plug for the 2nd Witney Weekend Congress, being held at Cokethorpe School on 18-19 October. Find out how to enter and more information on the Witney Chess website.
Liam and Gareth have already put their names down in the U180 competition. I will let you know how well (or poorly) we do.
Thursday saw Cumnor 2 play their first game of the season at home to Cowley Workers 2.
Cumnor 2 had to ‘work’ hard for their 3.5 – 2.5 win against the Workers from Cowley.
See what I did there?
Here is the game that Cumnor’s Graham Cluley played against Tamal Matial on board 2, where White grabbed an early piece advantage but both sides exhibited some imprecision.
| Cumnor 2 | Cowley Workers 2 | ||
| 1 | Carr, Robin (124) | 1-0 | _default (-) |
| 2 | Cluley, Graham (112) | 1-0 | Matilal, Tamal (103) |
| 3 | Bennett, Steven (110) | 0-1 | Collins, Lee (109) |
| 4 | Ives, Marc (97) | 1/2-1/2 | Jackson, William J (88) |
| 5 | Steel, Robert (85) | 1-0 | Miller, David H |
| 6 | Sterrie, David (78) | 0-1 | Buckland, David (78) |
| Match played on 09 Oct 2014. | 3.5-2.5 | ||
A good start to the season for Cumnor 2!
Who wants to watch England v San Marino?
When Cumnor 2 are playing at home to Cowley Workers in their first game of the season!
Cumnor 2 finally managed to get its game against Cowley Workers 2 on Thursday evening.
You may recall that the match was originally scheduled to be played earlier this month, but had to be postponed due to a lack of players on the Cowley Workers side.
Unfortunately, Cowley Workers 2 still only managed to bring five players with them to last night’s rescheduled match – meaning they had defaulted one board from the beginning.
Robert and Graham finished their games first, both with wins and with oddly-similar mates involving both Bishops (see the final positions in the diagrams below).
Liam also got a win making it 4-0 to the Cumnor team playing at home.
Pako picked up an endgame draw but unfortunately Mike lost.
| Cumnor 2 | Cowley Workers 2 | ||
| 1 | Glenn, Liam (129) | 1 – 0 | Matilal, Tamal (128) |
| 2 | Alvarez, Francisco (118) | ½ – ½ | Cartwright, Paul (113) |
| 3 | Jones, Michael (117) | 0 – 1 | Miller, David H (91) |
| 4 | Cluley, Graham (118) | 1 – 0 | Buckland, Chris ( ) |
| 5 | Steel, Robert (89) | 1 – 0 | Joy, Nathan ( ) |
| 6 | Bennett, Steven (108) | 1 – 0 | _default_ (-) |
| Match played: 28 Mar 2013 | 4½ – 1½ | ||
Final board position for Graham Cluley (Cumnor 2) vs Chris Buckland (Cowley Workers 2):
Final board position for Nathan Joy (Cowley Workers 2) vs Robert Steel (Cumnor 2):
This Thursday (28th March), Cumnor 2 will be playing at home against Cowley Workers 2 in a match which was previously postponed because Cowley Workers 2 weren’t able to rustle up enough chess players.
It should be an interesting chess match – not least because Latin American legend Francisco “Pako” Alvarez (118) is lined up to do battle for Cumnor 2 against the very team that he used to play for!
Will Cowley Workers 2 know the Latin American legend’s weaknesses on the chessboard, or will they be awestruck by his opening manoeuvres? Only time will tell..
Cowley Workers 2 are currently at the bottom of the 4th division of the ODCL, with Cumnor 2 comfortably placed mid-table.
The clocks will start at 7:30pm.
This Thursday’s home match between Cumnor 2 and Cowley Workers 2 has been cancelled, as our friends at Cowley Workers have been unable to rustle up six players.
Although it would have been tempting to suggest that they pick up some random passers-by off the Cowley Road and use them on their lower boards, it wouldn’t have been entirely sporting.
So, the match will be rearranged for a later date.
Of course, this means that the Cumnor 2 players who were expecting a proper match will now be free to join the rest of us on Thursday at the Old School House in a regular “friendly” game, or play a round in our own in-house tournament – The Player’s Cup!
![Cumnor 2 snatches victory from Cowley Workers [Match Report]](https://cumnorchessclub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/swindle-logo.png){kind=logo}