Tag: Oxford City

Cumnor 1 v MCS and City 1 (FWS)

A win and a draw from Gareth and Mark respectively wasn’t enough to earn Cumnor any points last Thursday night when Magdalen College School came to town. In our previous fixture MCS ran out 6-0 winners so at least this result looks a little more respectable.

MCS are currently 2nd in the table battling it out with University 2 and Banbury 1 for the title. Their team contained may seasoned players and they did outgrade us on every board. Marc was out graded by 59 points and it was no coincidence that our 1.5 points came from our closest matched games. However, the difference was still 26 grading points for Gareth and 25 for Mark, so it is quite an achievement.

Cumnor 1 v MCS

Our following game was an away match against Oxford City 1 in the second round of the Frank Wood Shield. Last season Cumnor 1 took on Oxford City 1 in the same round and lost the match in an exciting game which you can read about here. City 1 went on to win the cup by beating Cowley 2 4-2 in the final and will be looking to win the cup again this year for the third time in a row.

TrophySo hoping for some “magic of the cup” 6 fearless Cumnor players went to the St. Margaret’s Institute on Polstead Road on Monday evening. Due to the handicap arrangement in the cup City needed to win by at least 4-2 to go through, anything less Cumnor would get into the third round and have a game against Cowley 1.

The match was closer than the result may appear. Daniel had a excellent result and then though I didn’t see the game Gareth who was sat nearby said Daniel created a passed pawn which won him the game. Both Simon and my games where close, Simon’s in particular was tight with some drawing lines. Gareth’s also had chances, when I went over to watch the game Gareth had 12 minutes to Christian’s 2 in a pretty complicated endgame but it was Christian created the most aggressive lines and Gareth went on to lose on time.

City 1 v Cumnor 1

The result means Cumnor 1’s dream of winning the cup will have to wait for next year when hopefully the draw might be a little kinder.

Frank Wood Shield Draw

The draw for the Frank Wood competition 2015/16 was made during the Cowley Blitz. Thanks to Dave Robson, Gerard O’Reilly and all who helped.

The draw is cascading as usual. The Round 1 ties (5 of them) are formally scheduled for the week Jan 04 – 08. But as Univ 2 are involved and will not be back this tie will need re-scheduling.
Trophy
1) University 2 v Cowley Workers 1
2) University 1 v bye
3) Witney 1 v bye
4) Wantage 1 v bye
5) Cowley 3 v Cowley 1
6) Banbury 1 v bye
7) City 1 v bye
8) Cumnor 1 v bye
9) Cowley 4 v Witney 4
10) Wantage 2 v bye
11) Banbury 2 v bye
12) City 2 v bye
13) Witney 3 v Cowley 2
14) MCSB/1 v bye
15) Didcot 1 v bye
16) City 3 v Witney 5

The draw means Cumnor 1 get a bye in round one and will play Oxford City 1 away before the 12th February, most likely on Monday 8th, in a repeat of the second round tie of last season (check out the match report for the game by clicking here). Oxford City 1 won the competition last season beating Cowley 2 in the final 4-2.

The winner of the tie will play one of Cowley 3, Cowley 1 or Banbury 1 away at the end of February.

Cumnor 2 v Witney 5 and City 4 (Abingdon Sch)

Junior Chess is well supported in Oxfordshire. Clubs with a strong Junior section include Cowley, Witney and ourselves along with the two School teams, Magdalen College School and Abingdon School.

Whenever we have a match in Division Four between Cowley or Witney, we give the juniors a chance to pit themselves against each other.

Thursday night presented one of these opportunities when we welcomed Witney 5 to Cumnor. The teams contained nine juniors out of the 12 players.

It was an unsuccessful evening for the Cumnor team, however it was a closer match than the 0.5-5.5 scoreline suggested.

Cumnor 2 v Witney 5

Monday evening saw Cumnor 2 head to Abingdon School who are currently in pole position at the top of the table. Cumnor 2 suffered a 5-1 defeat at the hands of the Abingdon Boys, with Mark’s win on Board 1 the sole highlight of an otherwise disappointing evening.

Cumnor 2 v City 4

Old-Abingdonian Richard was particularly disappointed with his loss playing for Cumnor on board six. Not only was he playing Black for the 12th (!) match in a row, but he also found himself taken down an unfamiliar variation of the Alekhine defence which saw him sent to an early bath.

Cumnor 2 play their final game of the season at home to Cowley 4 in April – a game that the boys from Abingdon would probably like us to win, as it will help them make the jump to Division 3.

Cumnor 1 v Oxford City 2 [Match Report]

Three weeks ago Cumnor 1 took on Oxford City 1 in the Frank Wood Shield; sadly we couldn’t perform the same heroics of our first round tie against Witney 1 and bowed out at the second round.

The game was a close match and it left a bitter taste in the mouth.

However, we had the chance for revenge on Thursday as Oxford City 2 came to Cumnor in the league. Again the match was close, but Cumnor had just enough to cross the line and won the match 3.5-2.5.

Cumnor 1 v City 2

Simon was the first to finish with a draw on the top board and Daniel continued his great run of form on the league with another win board two. Daniel now has 6.5 points from 7 games, a current league best of 92.86% (not counting players who have played two games or less). Down on board 5, Andrew lost his game to Simon King the result levelled the scores with 1.5 points each.

Liam's endgame - Two Rooks each, should be a draw?
Liam’s endgame – Two Rooks each, should be a draw?
Gareth won his game against Malcolm, the game was a little crazy and Gareth did well to steer it into a winning endgame. Mark had a tough match on board 6 but got the draw in an interesting position, 2 Knights v Bishop and Rook.

With at least a draw in the bag, Cumnor had 3 points to City’s 2, I had to only draw to get the win for the team. It took a little work, Rook and Pawn endgames are notoriously draw-ish but John had the more active pieces and an extra pawn. I had to battle hard to create some counter play while not getting mated. But with only a few minutes left on the clocks a draw was offered by John and (quickly) accepted by myself.

The match finished 3.5-2.5 and pushed us back in to the mid table. We have only 3 games left and while not fighting at either end of the table we look to pick up some more points starting with a visit to Wantage on St. Patrick’s day.

Cumnor 1 v Oxford City 1 FWS [Match Report]

The draw for the 2014/15 Frank Wood Shield (FWS) was not particularly kind for Cumnor 1. Our first game was against Witney 1, currently the Champions of the Oxfordshire Leagues and winners of the Sheild 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 and for the match report please click here.

Simon. Zoe and Liam playing on the top three boards while Daniel and Mark look on.
Simon. Zoe and Liam playing on the top three boards while Daniel and Mark look on.
At least it couldn’t get any harder we said, how wrong we could be. The next round was against Oxford City 1, they are second in the top division with an arguably stronger set of players than Witney 1 to call from! The best analogy I have, is getting Chelsea in the first round of the FA cup beating them only to be “rewarded” in the next round by playing Manchester City and sadly we don’t get the TV money.

Nevertheless the team was in a confident mood for the match which took place at Cumnor on Thursday evening. Again like the first round, we only needed to “lose” 2.5-3.5 to get through or another way of putting it was we only need a draw and 2 wins out of the 6 boards (or better).

The first game to finish was Daniel’s game. An early kingside attack by Sean Terry put Daniel’s King under some pressure and he had to resign. Gareth went an exchange down but his Knight was well placed when entering the endgame meaning Philip Hayward did not have enough to win and the draw was agreed. Phillip even said he thought Gareth was better!

Mark pulled off the first shock of the night as he set up astonishing Queen sac which Lief Dixon missed. Mark never got to sac the Queen as Leif resigned once he spotted it. The pressure was all of a sudden on Cumnor, 1 more point from the remaining 3 games would take us over the finish line and into the next round.

Could you win this position with only 24 seconds left?
Could you win this position with only 24 seconds left?
My (Liams) opponent spent a large chunk of his time in the early midgame, the result was by move 25, with much more of the game remaining than had past and just as Marks game finished, Christian only had 5 minutes left while I had 45 minutes. The seconds lapsed by and I had to decide whether I could play well enough to make him slip up in time trouble or keep him at bay until his clock fell. As the seconds ticked by he opened the game, promoted his Pawns into Queens and checkmated me with only 7 seconds left. It was something like out of a James Bond film!

I will be honest I was concentrating on my game so much I did not see much of Simon’s and Zoe’s but both made their opponents work exceptionally hard so beat them.

CCC1 v City 1

The tie finished 1.5-4.5, a commendable result against such a strong team but sadly not enough to get us into the next round. Congratulations to City 1 as they are head into the next round with a game against Cowley 2 and I would not be surprised if the Sheild has City 1’s name on it come May.

As Simon summed it up best “Ahh well, that’s what makes sport great – there is no script. An interesting night and I learned a lot.”

A thanks goes to Sean Terry who took the pictures.

City 2 v Cumnor 1 [Match Report]

Cumnor 1 had a disappointing evening on Monday, losing to City 2 5-1.

Graham’s sole win for the was the highlight in a very frustrating match.

City 2 Cumnor 1
1 Terry, Sean ( ) 1-0 Terrington, Simon (173)
2 Dixon, Leif (160) 1-0 Glenn, Liam (147)
3 Smith, Roger A (150) 1-0 Varney, Andrew (147)
4 Godfrey, David (144) 1-0 Sayers, Mark (139)
5 Brindley, Malcolm (138) 0-1 Cluley, Graham (112)
6 Yates, John O (142) 1-0 Bennett, Steven (110)
Match played on 03 Nov 2014. 5-1

Going down to the wire…

We are into the last few weeks of the season, but there is still plenty to play for.

In Division 1, Witney 1 are the champions winning 11 games out of 11, while MCS/B1 are going to be relegated back to division 2.

At the top of division 2, Witney 2 and Didcot 1 have only one game between each other to settle the title, a shoot out!

A win or draw for Didcot 1 will mean they are Champions while a win for Witney 2 means they will receive the title.

Both have been at the top of the division for most of the season with a massive 9 points between Witney 2 in second and Cumnor 1 in third, the difference between third and last is 8 points.

At the wrong end of the table it’s gone down to one game. Cowley 3 play Cumnor 1 on Monday and any result for Cowley 3 will save them at the expense of Bicester 1.

In Division 3, is all done and dusted with Didcot 2 winning the title and Abingdon School being relegated with a game in hand.

Division 4 is an all-Witney affair, at the top is Witney 4 and at the bottom are Witney 5. Cumnor 2 currently sit 4th with 5 wins 2 draws and 5 losses.

The Frank Wood Shield, in the final is between Didcot 1 and Oxford City 1.

Oxford City 2 v Cumnor 1

Last night saw Cumnor 1 draw for the first time this season against Oxford City 2.

City 2 Cumnor 1
1 Lee, Anthony (178) 1/2-1/2 Terrington, Simon ( )
2 Smith, Roger A ( ) 0-1 Stevens, Gareth (142)
3 Biswas, Karl (149) 1/2-1/2 Varney, Andrew (145)
4 Yates, John O (145) 1-0 Glenn, Liam (141)
5 King, Simon E (139) 1/2-1/2 Jones, Michael (115)
6 Smith, Lucy K (119) 1/2-1/2 Bennett, Steven (109)
Match played: 3 March 2014 3-3

Steve and Mike were the first to finish getting draws against stronger opponents on the bottom two boards. Liam made a blunder in the opening, loosing a pawn and getting a bad position, he resigned soon after. Andrew drew against Karl Biswas and Gareth won on board 2. His opponent was low on time when Gareth checkmated him. Simon was in a very complicated position, with little time on both clocks him and Paul Lee played some entertaining Chess both missing better variations and it finished with a draw King v Rook Pawn and King. The evening was an fascinating match with some interesting characters. The result put us in to 3rd in the table which can be found here.

Cumnor 1 vs Oxford City 2 [Match Report]

Last Thursday saw Cumnor 1 gain their first league win of the season at home to Oxford City 2.

After suffering a couple of heavy losses in recent weeks, it was Cumnor’s turn to move up a gear and win handsomely.

Cumnor 1 City 2
1 Stevens, Gareth (149) 0 – 1 Smith, Roger A ( )
2 Varney, Andrew (146) 1 – 0 Biswas, Karl (147)
3 Glenn, Liam (140) 1 – 0 Yates, John O (142)
4 Varney, Daniel (133) 1 – 0 Godfrey, David (140)
5 Sayers, Mark (134) 1 – 0 Smith, Lucy K (125)
6 Carr, Robin (126) 1 – 0 Brooke, Ian R (109)
Match played: 21 Nov 2013 5 – 1

The first to finish was Daniel who played the Smith-Morra gambit as white. He sacrificed two pieces in the build-up to the mate.

Gareth on top board played against a Smith-Morra and suffered the same fate, 1-1.

Andrew won a piece early in the game and went in to win, while Liam was under a lot of pressure but wiggled his away out to end up in a better position.

Robin and Mark also won to produce a 5-1 win for Cumnor 1!

Even more shocking is that this win puts us up to 4th place (for now at least) in Division Two.

Current state of Division 2