Newsletter   December 2011

To all members:

   The first half of the season has whizzed past and we are coming up to the Xmas break so, as usual, I shall attempt a brief retrospective.   We were pleased to welcome two new junior members at the beginning of the season: Vignesh Ramesh and Jamie Gidley plus most of the familiar faces from last year. We have (temporarily) lost  Wilf Taylor who is on a post-retirement trip to Australia  and one or two others who have not rejoined but in general membership remains healthy and we are able to sustain teams in all the team competitions run by the Torbay League and DCCA.

  The first two events of the season, the Simultaneous Display by GM Keith Arkell and the 10-second Buzzer Tournament both proved enjoyable. Congratulations to Andrew Kinder, our President, for his fine win in the Simul .  The club owes a debt of gratitude to John Allen and Jim O’Grady for their generous financial support of the Arkell evening and to Jacquie Barber-Lafon for the terrific success of her Raffle which raised over £100 for club funds. Thanks to these members our financial position should be healthier this year.

  As members are aware, we have tried a different format for the club championship this year with a Swiss pairing system being used.  The aim is to play 7 rounds at roughly one per month. So far the new system seems popular. After 2 rounds only Andrew Kinder, Alan Brusey and Mark Abbot have  2 out of 2 with top-seed Dominic Mackle have dropped half a point to the club’s most improved player, Alex Billings.

In the Torbay League we got off to a bad start in Division 1 losing to TBGS but then beat Torquay convincingly with Paul Brooks scoring a notable win against Andy Dunn. Paul’s Division 2 team is unbeaten with a win against Brixham and draws with Torquay and Teignmouth. Roger Hocking’s division 3 side has played 4 games drawing 2 and losing 2 (though one of the losses, a 2-2 draw on the night came about because we had inadvertently exceeded the grade limit. If you want the whole story ask the Secretary whose fault it was! ).  In Division 4 Vitali Chornenkyy’s team has drawn its only match to date against Plymouth. The Rapidplay team under our President’s iron grip has had 3 wins by the same score (5-3) against South Hams, Torquay and Brixham and John Allen’s Knock-out cup team edged a tight match against Teignmouth (3 ½ - 2 ½) and will now travel to Plymouth (date not yet fixed).

In the DCCA competitions the Div 1 Bremridge team plays its first match on December 17^th against Teignmouth. John Allen is captaining the Div 2 Mamhead team which drew  2-2 with Barnstaple whose team notably included IM Jack Rudd and up-and coming Devon junior Theo Slade (aged 11). Alex Billings is captaining the Division 3 Schofield team and they have beaten Tiverton and drawn with Teignmouth.  The Div 4 Moyle team captained by Jim O’Grady drew 2-2 with Exeter.

John Fraser’s team in the Bloodworth Shield (junior division) gets under way on December 16^th at Exeter and, finally, our Peter Rooke Knock-Out Cup team will host Teignmouth in February (date to be confirmed).

So a great deal has gone on already.  Several members competed in the ever-popular Torbay Congress at the ERC in Torquay and pride of place in the results goes jointly to Dominic Mackle, joint first in the Open with two others one of whom was GM Keith Arkell and to Jacquie Barber-Lafon with 4/5 in the Minor which she looked odds-on to win after 4 rounds when she had a 100% score.  Dominic, incidentally, qualifies for the 2012 British Championship to be held in Newcastle.

In October the club hosted the now traditional DCCA Team Rapidplay event. Entries were up again with 12 teams taking part. Tiverton were this years winners.

Some of the club’s juniors competed in the Devon Junior Championships at Teign School on December 3^rd. John Fraser did well with 4.5/6 in the unde 15s and Vignesh Ramesh scored 5/6 in the under 11s.

IMPORTANT NOTICE:  Xmas break: the last club session before Xmas is Thursday December 15^th and the first session of the new Year will be January 5^th.

Junior Tournament:  Vignesh Ramesh is the runaway leader in this tournament with 10 wins out of 10 followed by Rafe Whitehead with 7/7. (Well done to Rafe, by the way, for his first senior  win in Torbay League match against South Hams). Juniors are reminded that these games should be played with clocks and that 2 games will be played against each other player.

JANUARY MATCH FIXTURES:

Thur  5^th      TL2 Torquay                         H       7 p.m.

Sat 7^th            DCCA 2 Mamhead Tiverton  A        2.30 p.m.

Sat 7^th        DCCA 4 Moyle Tiverton        A         2.30 p.m.

Tues 10^th   TL3 Teignmouth                    A        7 p.m.

Thur  12^th   TL R-P  Plymouth                 H         7 p.m.

Sat 14^th    DCCA1 Bremridge   Exeter    A         2.30 p.m.

Tues 17^th  DCCA Junior Bloodworth  Broadclyst PS    A   4 p.m.

Wed 18^th  TL4    Torquay                       A          7 p.m.

Thur 19^th   TL1  Teignmouth                  H          7 p.m.

Thur 19^th TL R-P  South Hams                   A         7 p.m.

Tues 24^th  TL2 Teignmouth                         A        7 p.m.

Sat  28^th DCCA 2 Mamhead Teignmouth    A        2.30 p.m.

I conclude by appending a couple of games played by club junior members this season.

Game 1 DCCA Schofield Cup  Newton Abbot v Tiverton 12.11.11

White: Alex Billings 157    BLACK Keith Atkins   146

1 d4 g6 2 e4 c6 3 c4 Bg7 4 Nf3 d5 5 exd5 cxd5 6 Nc3 Nf6 7 Bg5 dxc4 8 Bxc4 Nc6 9 h3 0-0 10 Qd2 Bf5 11 d5 Nb4 12 0-0 Qc8 13 Qe2 Re8 14 Rfd1 h6 15 Bf4 Nh5 16 Bh2 Nf6 17 Rac1 e5 18 a3 Nc2 19 Nb5 e4 20 Ne5 e3 21 Rxc2 Bxc2 22 Qxc2 exf2+ 23 Kf1 Qc5 24 Qd3 a6 25 Nc3 Nh5 26 Nxf7 Qe7 27 Ne5 Qd6 28 Nxg6 Re1+ 29 Rxe1 fxe1(Q)+ 30 Kxe1 Bxc3+ 31 Qxc3 Re8+ 32 Ne5 Nf6 33 Qg3+ Kh7 34 Qg6+ Kg8 35 Qh6+ Kg8 36 Qg6+ Kh8  37 Qxe8+!   1-0 A nice finish

Game 2 TORBAY CONGRESS (Intermediate Section)

White: Chris Webb 140 Black: John  Fraser 125

1 d4 Nf6 2 Bf4 d5 3 e3 e6 4 Nf3 c5 5 Be2 Nc6 6 0-0 Be7 7 Nc3(?) a6 8 h3 0-0  9 dxc5 Bxc5 10 Na4 Be7 11 c4 dxc4 12 Nc3 Nd5 13 Bxc4 Nf4 14 exf4 b5 15 Bb3 Bb7 16 Re1 Qxd1 17 Raxd1 Rfd8 18 Ne5 Nd4 19 Rc1 Nxb3 20 axb3 Bb4 21Re3 Rac8 22 Ra1 Rd2 23 Nd3 Bxc3 24 bxc3 Rxc3 25 Nb4 Rxe3 26 fxe3 Rxg2+ 27 Kf1 Rb2 28 Nxa6 Bxa6 29 Rxa6 g6 30 Rb6 Rxb3 31 Ke2 Kg7 32 Kf3 h5 33 Ke4 Rb1 34 Ke5 Rh1 35 Rxb5 Rxh3 36 e4 Rh1 37 f5 exf5 38 exf5 Rg1 39 f6+ Kh6  40 Kd6 Re1 and Black soon won  0-1

Good technique from John against a higher- graded player.

Finally may I wish all members an excellent Xmas break and look forward to seeing you refreshed for the battles ahead in the New Year.

Trefor Thynne

Club Secretary  15.12.11

DIV 1 Bremridge    (Trefor Thynne)  6 boards no limit

Teignmouth      Home      17 December 2011

 CLUB COMPETITIONS FOR SEASON 2011/2012