Club and Local News

Club and Local News Archive 1

Wakefield Juniors are the winners of this season’s AG Sunderland Cup. The final meeting of the event took place at West Bretton on Saturday the 21st of February. Wakefield Juniors scored 14 points out of a possible 15 to win this 3rd meeting. The total score of 39 points out of a possible 45 points from all three meetings was enough to finish at the top of the table.

AG Sunderland Cup 2008-9 Rd.1 Rd.2 Rd.3 Rd.4 Rd.5 Rd.6 Rd.7 Rd.8 Rd.9 Total Score 1. Wakefield Juniors 5 3.5 5 2.5 5 4 5 4.5 4.5 39 2. York RI E 1.5 5 2.5 4 4 2 3.5 3 5 30.5 3. Alwoodley C 3 4 1.5 1.5 3 3 1.5 1.5 3.5 22.5 4. Netherton B 4 2 4.5 0 0 0 3 2 2 14.5 5. Hebden Bridge 5 3 2 0 0 0 2.5 3 2 11.5 6. York RI F 3 2.5 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 10.5 7. York RI G 0 0 0 3.5 0.5 5 0 0 0 10 8. South Yorks 2 4 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 9.5 9. Leeds Juniors B 0 1 0 3 1.5 2 0 0 0 9 10. Harrogate D 0 0 0 2 1 1 0 0 0 8

As you can see from the table York RI E finished in 2nd place with 30.5 points and Alwoodley C finished 3rd with 22.5 points.

The above photo shows South Yorkshire Captain Paul Blackman receiving the AG Sunderland Cup from YCA President Rupert Jones at last years YCA AGM.

Just a reminder that the 1st QEGS Chess Challenge and Training Day sponsored by the ECF is scheduled to be opened this Saturday morning by Gerry Walsh the ECF President at the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School.

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The W. F. Lumley Rapidplay finals are being held at West Bretton Village Institute this evening. Will members who are playing for various teams please note that the start time is 7.15 not the usual 7.30.

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Wakefield A and Wakefield B were in action in the YCA League this Saturday gone. Wakefield B entertained Harrogate C in the Silver Rook at the Club whilst Wakefield A were away against Rose Forgrove A in the Woodhouse Cup. Please see the team pages to see how we faired.

Wakefield Juniors are current leaders in this season’s AG Sunderland Cup as you can see from the current table here. The final meeting of this event is scheduled to take place this Saturday (21st of February) at West Bretton Village Institute home of Netherton Chess Club starting at 2pm.

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Wakefield Chess Club was well represented at the 3rd and final YCA Junior Grand Prix event of the season, the Leeds Junior Chess Congress 2009. Not only were we represented but the junior members were very successful.

Adarsh Vani won the U9 trophy with a score of 4 points and also won the first YCA Junior Grand Prix U9 trophy. Abigail Arnold won the U10 trophy. Francesca Fozard and Amol Vani also scored 4 points and Vlad Mezentsev scored 2.5 points. Amol only just missed out on taking the 1st YCA Junior Grand Prix U 11 trophy on tie break after scoring 11.5 game points across the three events.

The photo below shows all the winners from the congress.

Adarsh is on the left in the front row and Abigail is on the far right also in the front row.

The photo below shows all the winners of the 1st YCA Junior Grand Prix

Adarsh is second from the left on the front row

The top ten places of the 1st Yorkshire Junior Grand Prix Final Standings are shown below. It is worth noting that both Amol and Adarsh finished in the top ten and that Abigail finished in the top twenty. 110! players took part.

 

1st Yorkshire Junior Grand Prix Age Shef Hull Leeds Total GP Pts 1. Louis Brijmohun U18 4.5 5 5.5 15 154 2. Ashley Littlewood U18 5 4.5 5 14.5 150 3. M. Littlewood U14 4.5 4.5 5 14 150 4. Evie Hollingworth U14 4.5 5.5 4 14 143 5. Miles Edward-Wright U12 4.5 4 4.5 13 142 6. Sean McDonald U18 3.5 4 4 11.5 128 7. Robert Oxley U11 4 4.5 3 11.5 126 8. Amol Vani U11 3.5 4 4 11.5 124 9. Adarsh Vani U9 3.5 3.5 4 11 96 10. Wesley McGough U11 2 4 4 10 99

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May I please take this opportunity on behalf of all club members to welcome our newest member Samuel Horn aged 9 who is a pupil of Lofthouse Gate Primary School.

Mike Wilford (right) in the photo below, took on Alec Ward of David Browns in the Huddersfield Evening League Knockout David Woodhead Trophy section Semi Final on Monday Evening.

This game was full of errors but that made it exciting to watch with both sides having plenty of chances to win. I will let you play through the game, which has kindly been provided by Mike Wilford, to see the outcome.

M. Wilford v A. Ward Individual Knockout 2009 David Woodhead Trophy semi-final

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Just a reminder that the YCA League matches are scheduled to take place this coming Saturday (14th) afternoon. Wakefield A are away to Rose Forgrove A at Kippax and Wakefield B are at home against Harrogate C.

Also please note that a major junior chess event is scheduled to take place on Saturday the 28th of February in Wakefield.

The 1st QEGS Chess Challenge and Training Day sponsored by the English Chess Federation and supported by our club is scheduled to take place at The Queen Elizabeth Hall, Queen Elizabeth Grammar School. The opening ceremony is scheduled to take place at 10 am. by ECF president Gerry Walsh and YCA Deputy President Peter Cloudsdale.

YCA Deputy President Peter Cloudsdale is pictured above with (left) ECF President Gerry Walsh and WFM Sabrina Chevannes at a recent junior chess event held at the National Railway Museum in York.

Any club members who are not attending Doncaster Chess Congress and are available on the day are welcome to attend or perhaps even offer to help.

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Wakefield Chess Club were represented at the Jorvick Rapidplay held in York this Saturday gone. The event was strong but both Peter Shaw and Bienvenido Cuaresma acquitted themselves well with a score of 4 points out of 6 each which earnt them equal sixth place with players of the stature of David Adams and Paul Townsend both of York RI A the leading Woodhouse Cup team. The winner of the event was Mike Surtees of Bolton and in equal 2nd place were John Calder from Troon in Scotland, Luke Leong of Singapore and Hubert Mossong now of Chesterfield who used to play for the strong Leeds University team in the Woodhouse Cup in the 70’s I believe.

Francesca Fozzard who plays for the Wakefield Juniors team in the AG Sunderland Cup won a merit award along with Amanda Hipshon each with a score of 3 points.

We had success in the Junior Event, though, with a fine performance from Will Towler who came second just behind winner Karim Ismael.

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The Club Championship 2009 started this week and current tables can be seen here

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I would like to take this opportunity as publisher of the Wakefield Chess Club website to welcome the Club’s newest member, Craig Thompson.

Wakefield’s Evening League Examiner Handicap Team was in action in our final match this season on Wednesday evening taking on West Bretton on their home territory. To find out how we got on look on the Evening League Handicap Team page which can be seen here

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The second meeting of the AG Sunderland Cup took place yesterday at Alwoodley Community Centre, the home of Alwoodley Chess Club. Stuart was full of cold and flu and Alan Coupe organized the proceedings with his usual efficiency. Although there was no team from South Yorkshire at this event there were teams from Leeds, York, Hebden Bridge and Netherton.

Wakefield Juniors had a lot to live up to as we won the first event held in York. This time we were without Harris Vaughan and brothers Amol and Adarsh Vani who were playing at an EPSCA event in Liverpool.

Fortunately, though John Fozzard, and daughters Francesca and Evangelina were all able to play in this event for Wakefield Juniors so we still had a chance to win again.

Although we started off badly in the first round we made up for it in the next two rounds. In the event, the last round game on top board between Vitali and YCA Vice President Peter Cloudsdale was crucial in deciding which teams came first and second. If Peter Cloudsdale could win for York they would come first whereas if Vitali could win for Wakefield Juniors we would win by preventing York from getting the necessary points.

Vitali was successful on the day and Wakefield Juniors won the second event of the AG Sunderland Cup and remain top of the table going to the third and final event at West Bretton on the 21st of February.

The photo above shows sisters Evangelina (left) and Francesca Fozzard receiving the winners trophy on behalf of the Wakefield Juniors team from Alan Coupe.

The Wakefield Junior team are shown above in board order from top left to bottom right and are as follows Vitali Mezentsev, Bienvenido Cuaresma, Francesca Fozzard, John Fozzard, Abigail Arnold, Vlad Mezentsev, Evangelina Fozzard, Will Towler and Vivi Way.

Team Co-ordinator and chess teacher Mike Denison is shown below keeping a watchful eye over the team and made himself available for chess tuition of which some of the other team’s players took full advantage.

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Vitali has kindly given his permission to publish his game against IM Richard Palliser from the top board of the Woodhouse Cup match against York RI A played on the 10th of January. Vitali has also generously provided notes which help someway to explain the fantastic complications of the game.

The position above occurred after White has just played 20.Rxe6.

The game is published on the first team page here

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Wakefield’s Evening League Scratch team win the first game of 2009, our last in the Watkinson Trophy this season! Why do we still have more fixtures?

Yes Wakefield went to West Bretton on Wednesday the 14th of January to take on Netherton 2. The match report and details along with some photos can be seen on the Evening League Scratch Team page along with the answer to why we still have fixtures here

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Wakefield’s A and B teams were in action in the YCA League this weekend. The A team were away to title favourites York RI A and the B team played host to the high flying juniors that are Sheffield E.

Whilst the A team lost as expected, Vitali played an exciting game against Yorkshire’s highest rated player IM Richard Palliser on top board with the result ending in what seemed an unlikely draw. Report here

The B team, however, gained a fantastic draw even though we only had 7 players. Report here

Wakefield’s Evening League Handicap team played the first match of 2009 on Monday the 5th of January at the Club against the Huddersfield Dragons. Vlad Mezentsev made his debut for Wakefield in a standardplay match on this ocassion.

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Wakefield Evening League Handicap team were in action on Monday evening.

Vlad is pictured above making his debut and looked prepared for Siberian Winter weather conditions. The match result and details can be seen on the Evening League Team page here

The highlight of my visit to the Club on Monday evening however was when Vivi Way (aged 9!) demonstrated to us older members of the club how to checkmate an opponent with only a Bishop and a Knight. Mike Denison has only recently managed to master this procedure in his 71st year and myself in my 48th year still cannot manage this.

Go to the top of the Class Vivi!

The photo above shows Vivi ready for action at the recent AG Sunderland Cup Jamboree at York.

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There were only two members of Wakefield Chess Club who took part in the 22nd York Chess Congress held over the 1st weekend of 2009 at the Oaklands Sports Centre in York.

Barry Marshall took part in the Major section which was won by York RI A team player and talented junior Jean-Luc Weller with 4.5 points out of 5. Barry, who has been successful in this section on many occasions got a 50 per cent 2.5 point score, which is very creditable, but I’m sure he will not be personally pleased with.

Peter Shaw took part in the Open section. After drawing with top seed International Master Richard Palliser in round 3, Peter lost to Jos Woolley in round 4 which kept him out of the prizes even though he won his 5th round game fairly easily to finish one half point behind the winners on 3.5 points out of 5. The five joint winners were, Mario Gavilan Diaz, Luke Leong, IM Richard Palliser, Mike Surtees and Jos Woolley who all finished on 4 points.

Peter Shaw v IM Richard Palliser 22nd York Open round 3 board 1 3rd of January 2009.

The photo above shows Peter (right front) in action during his last round game at York.

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Three Junior members of Wakefield Chess Club were in action at the Football Premiership KC Stadium in Hull on Sunday the 14th of December. See the Junior News page to see how they did.

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Vitali Mezentsev scores his first victory for Wakefield A in only his second Woodhouse Cup match. Vitali won quickly and impressively against Winston Williams (175) on board 2 in our match against Bradford A on Saturday.

Kiruthika Rajeswaren, the Yorkshire Girls’ Open Champion also turned out for Wakefield A for the first time, of which we hope will be many, this season on board 8 and drew.

The match details can be seen on the First team page.

Wakefield B had 7 players for the home match on Saturday against West Leeds. West Leeds won and go joint top with Sheffield E who were held to a draw by by Calderdale C.

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A number of Club members were in action at Lindley Liberal Club in Huddersfield on Wednesday evening in various sections of the HDCA Individual Knockout competition.

In section 1 Peter Shaw, who is trying for his third title in succession was held by Chris Booth and a rematch will have to be arranged.

In section 2b, Mike Wilford was paired against Chris Booth’s son David, to fight for a place in the semi-final. This was an exciting game for the spectators and Mike has generously given this game to us for scrutiny and can be seen below.

Mike Wilford v David Booth HDCA Individual KO 2008

Yes. Mike managed to win this encounter and now goes on to play Alec Ward of David Browns’ in the semi-final. Also playing in this section was Barry Brian who came second this time in his rematch against Paul Jackson.

In section 3 the final is between ex-captain of Wakefield C team John Eagers and Norman Battye of Holme Valley.

Full draw and results can be seen on Geoff Peake’s website here

The photo above is taken from the one by Geoff Peake taken at the Lindley Liberal Club on Wednesday evening and shows from the left Chris Booth, David Gray, Mike Wilford and John Eagers with Paul Hill facing away from the camera.

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One of Wakefield Chess Club’s newest members Hormoz Rad made his debut for the Club in today’s Silver Rook match against York RI D. Unfortunately both Hormoz and Wakefield B came second but I’m sure Hormoz will bring many victories to the team in the future. The match details can be seen here.

Hormoz is pictured above after opening 1.g3 on board 8 against Rodney Mitchinson of York RI D.

Club President Mark Shelmerdine scores a coup for Wakefield Evening League Scratch Team by securing the services of Vitali Mezentsev to play top board. Vitali also does his share by defeating Huddersfield A and Holme Valley top board Roger Keely on his Evening League debut for Wakefield.

The photo above shows Vitali (facing the camera) in action on top board against Roger Keely yesterday evening at the Club. For the result and match details click here

Also please note that the Finalists in the Summer Tournament have been published on the Summer Competition page.

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The 2008 Yorkshire Girls Open Championship took place at Alcuin School in Leeds on Sunday the 23rd of November. There were entries from Yorkshire and Lancashire with England Girl’s International team members taking part.

The tournament was a success for Wakefield Junior member Kiruthika Rajeswaren who won the title of Yorkshire Girls Open Champion in 2006 but lost it last year to Amanda Hipshon. Kiruthika not only regained the title in this much stronger event but did so with a perfect score of 6 points out of 6.

The above photo shows Kiruthika in action recently a Huddersfield Evening League match.

The event was also successful for Wakefield Junior member Abigail Arnold who scored a fantastic 3 points out of 6 in this very strong field. Although being tagged in the Under 10 section, Abigail won the Under 11 West Yorkshire Championship title and trophy. It looks like Wakefield Juniors might well have another member who will win the Yorkshire Girls Open Championship in the future.

The above photo shows Abigail preparing for a game in the recent AG Sunderland Cup event which Wakefield Juniors won.

The following report on the Yorkshire Girls Open Championship has been kindly provided by John Hipshon.

The Yorkshire girls open took place last Sunday and again proved to be a very tough competition. Some of the best players from Yorkshire and Lancashire gathered again chasing a £100 first prize and the title of Yorkshire Girls Open Champion.

The top seeds were all on course until the fourth round where the heavyweight clashes began. Defending champion Amanda Hipshon played Evie Hollingworth and managed to beat her for the second year in a row. 2006 winner Kiruthika Rajeswaran looked in formidable form having beaten Isobel Cotogni in round 3. She defeated the 2005 winner Rachel Cass in round 4 to set up the meeting with Amanda in round 5. It was tense encounter but a clever middle game tactic gave Kiruthkia the advantage which she used to secure a victory. It guaranteed nothing, however, as she met Evie Hollingworth in round 6 but there was no stopping her and she won to take first place. Amanda defeated the vastly improving Francesca Fozard in round 6 to take second. Last match to finish was a gruelling affair between Isobel Cotogni and Rachel Cass, which finally ended in a draw “ enough for Rachel to take 3^rd and Isobel 4^th with the consolation of the U14 trophy.

West Yorkshire Championships were also awarded “ a good day for Wakefield Girls High School who took three of these:

U18 Kiruthika Rajeswaran

U14 Francesca Fozard

U11 Abigail Arnold

U9 Rachel Brown

Unfortunately the U14 WY trophy was wrongly awarded “ some confusion as Francesca lives in South Yorkshire but attends school in West Yorkshire so is the rightful owner “ apologies all round  - the trophy will be awarded publicly to Francesca at the next big event.

Other trophy winners:

Under 12: Lara Buckley

Under 11: Anna Cunnigham

Under 10: Victoria Sung

Under 9: Jessica Priest

Under 8: Rachel Brown

The novice competition was contested by 9 girls playing in their first tournament. Worthy winner was Sydney Ropella who score 5.5/6 and second was 8 year old Lucinda Thompson from Alcuin with 4.5. Third was Zahra Ahmed from Wakefield also with 4.5.

Congratulations to all girls for taking part. Many thanks to Julie Fisher who assisted brilliantly on the day.

John Hipshon

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Wake field Chess Club’s newest member is a chessplayer who has not played for years but is still very good. Vitali Mezentsev, who’s son Vlad is already a Junior member of the club, took part in the AG Sunderland Cup top section and scored 3 wins from 3 games which helped Wakefield Juniors to their first Trophy of the season.

Vitali is pictured above getting ready for another victory in the Sunderland Cup after defeating Paul Blackman three times in friendly knockabout games.

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The first meeting of the AG Sunderland Cup took place yesterday at Wigginton Primary School, York. This is the second season that Wakefield has entered a team in the competition. Last season, our first in the event, Wakefield C came 3rd after all the events had taken place.

This year, after yesterday’s first Jamboree, Wakefield Juniors as the team is now known, lead the table and won the first Jamboree Trophy which was presented to Team Captain Mr Denison by Headteacher Mrs Pat Boyle shown below.

This was no mean feat as there were 8 teams at the Jamboree, Alwoodley, Harrogate, Netherton, South Yorkshire, Wakefield Juniors, York 1, York 2 and York 3. We scored 13.5 points out of a possible15, whilst second placed York 3 and third placed York 2 each scored 10 points.

Maximum points were obtained by New member Vitali Mezentzev and his son Vlad and also by Adarsh Vani. The girls from Wakefield Juniors also scored well with Vivi and Abigail pictured below scoring 1.5 and 2 points out of a possible 3 respectively.

A picture of the winning team can be seen on the Junior News page, along with other photos from the event, as well as in the Photo Gallery 2. Full individual results and crosstables can be seen on the A. G. Sunderland Cup page on the YCA web site.

The next round of the AG Sunderland Cup is scheduled to take place at Alwoodley Community Centre, Leeds on the 17th of January.

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Four Wakefield players were in action on Wednesday Evening in the Huddersfield and District Chess Association Individual Knockout 2008/9.

John Eagers defeated Joe Froggatt in the first round of the U85 section and has earned a semi-final pairing against Paul Hill.

In the David Woodhouse Cup which represents grades of 85 to 109, both Barry Brian and Mike Wilford drew their first round games against Paul Jackson and Bill Lumley respectively.

Making a successful start to the defence of his Individual Knockout Title and going for an hat-trick in the top section (above 134), Wakefield’s top player Peter Shaw defeated Leo Keely with the Black pieces and is now scheduled to play Chris Booth in the Semi-final on the 10th of December.

The photo above was taken by Geoff Peake at the first round of the Individual Knockout on Wednesday evening.

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The Summer Tournament first stage is nearing completion with the 1st of November arriving on Saturday. In Group 1 top seed Peter Shaw is way out in the lead with a fantastic 8 points out of 8 games. In second place at the moment is Simon Skinner with 4.5 points out of 6 games losing only to Peter in their game. Alan Holloway is in close 3rd place with 4 points out of 6 losing to both Peter and Simon.

Peter is pictured above on the left at the British Rapidplay Chess Championships 2007 accepting Grandmaster Keith Arkel’s resignation.

In group 2 top seed Mike Denison has only played 2 games. Third seed Dave Toulson has taken good advantage of this to lead the group with 4.5 points out of 5 games played, only dropping a one half point to Amol Vani. 4th seed Ian Johnson is in second place with a creditable 4 points from 6 games losing only to Mike and Dave.

Dave Toulson is pictured above (again on the left) outplaying Mike Dow of Alwoodley Chess Club.

The top two players from each group go into a six game playoff final.

The Summer Tournament table can be viewed here

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Kiruthika and myself went to the seaside over the weekend to represent Wakefield Chess Club at the 32nd Scarborough Chess Congress. I’m afraid I let the club down with a feeble score of 1.5 points out of 5 in the Open Section but not Kiruthika who scored a fantastic 3 points out of 5 in a very strong Major Section. See the Junior News page for a picture of our heroine in action. Also making a guest appearance (away from poker!) was ex club member Joe Kilshaw who was doing well on 2.5 points out of 3 but then lost against the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit to the eventual winner David Stephenson of Hull. I hope to publish a report soon.

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All Wakefield team match reports, some with pictures have been published including yesterday evening’s match. Peter Shaw pointed out that his opponent in Saturday’s Woodhouse Cup match Roger Keely, blundered away a rook but we still think this was due to his new aggressive attacking style and so the report stands. Two Wakefield Junior members were in action at Strong events over the Weekend. Kiruthika was in action at the strong Leicester Chess Congress Major section and Amol was taking part in trials for England selection at Nottingham. I hope to let you know how they faired soon. Keep your eyes on the Junior News section. Amol was also in action foe Wakefield yesterday evening against Eddie Mellor. See Evening League Scratch team page for report and picture.

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Wakefield Chess Club would like to give a warm welcome to our two newest members who also happen to be Juniors. Vlad Mezentsev is 9 years old and lives in Dewsbury and Will Towler is 8 years old and is a pupil at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School Juniors.

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I have published an exciting game by Wakefield Junior Amol Vani versus Daniel Waite which took place in the Sheffield E v Leeds Juniors A Silver Rook match on Saturday the 27th of September. It is a typically exciting game that abounds with tactics which emerges from the Sicilian Dragon Yugoslav attack. The game can be found on the Junior News page and is very instructive for any body wishing to play this exciting opening.

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Both our teams Wakefield A and Wakefield B lost our first round matches in the YCA League on Saturday. Wakefield B lost to a very strong Netherton A in the Silver Rook division and Wakefield A lost to the newly promoted Sheffield D in the Woodhouse Cup division. Reports and match details have now been published on the first team and second team pages in club teams on the left.

Three Wakefield Junior members were in action in the YCA Silver Rook division on Saturday and details and pictures can be seen on the Junior News page in the Wakefield Juniors section also on the left.

May I take this opportunity to remind members that this years subscriptions are due before the end of this month. Please give these to Club Secretary Mike Denison.

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Wakefield lost to a very strong Netherton A side in their opening match in the Huddersfield Examiner League on Wednesday evening. The match report is on the Evening League Handicap Team page.

Three Wakefield Junior members were also in action in the Huddersfield Examiner League on Wednesday evening for various teams. Visit the Junior News page to find out how they got on and see their photos.

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Wakefield struggled to raise a team for the opening match of the New season in the Watkinson Trophy section of the Huddersfield Evening League against Netherton 1 yesterday evening. We were outgraded on all boards. For the result and match details see Evening League Scratch Team page in the Club Teams section.

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The Bradford Chess Congress 2008 took place over the weekend at the Latvian Welfare Club. Two Wakefield Chess Club members were taking part in the Congress. Wakefield number 1 Peter Shaw was in the Open section and Kiruthika Rajeswaren was in the strong Major section.

Peter started of with a draw after a repairing late on Friday night against Matthew Webb and then defeated Warwickshire player H. Brockbank on Saturday morning. This was followed by a loss to Misa Kostic graded 207 on Saturday afternoon. A draw against Alwoodley’s Jim Vickery in round 4 was followed by an exciting last round match up against Bolton’s Harry Lamb. Unfortunately for Peter, Harry was in tremendous form (he had drawn with IM Palliser earlier in the tournament) and eventually lost. Harry secured equal first place in the Open with IM Richard Palliser of York.

WCC’s representative in the Major section which was jointly won by David Patrick and Tony Slinger with 4 points each was our own Kiruthika Rajeswaren who had taken a long break from competetive chess whilst she was studying for and taking her GCSE exams. This rustiness came to the fore with Kiruthika getting good positions but not finding the win in some of her games.

WCC had no representative in the Minor section which ended in a four way tie for first place between D. Adam, D. Broughton, D. Buckell, and Owen Robson who each finished with 4 points.

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The traditional Huddersfield Evening League pre-season friendly match between Netherton and West Bretton took place yesterday evening. Eight members of Wakefield Chess Club were involved in this match. Harris was the first to finish and gave the lead to West Bretton. Alex Cruickshank then won to level the match. I think Peter won next to put Netherton into the lead by the score of 2-1. The match then swung West Bretton’s way and with wins for Granville Boot, Bien Cuaresma, Stuart Thompson, Chris Tinker and Dave Toulson that was the way it ended, with victory for West Bretton by the score of 7.5 to 3.5. The match details are shown below.

 

Netherton     West Bretton 1. P. Shaw 1 0  P. Senior 2. R. E. Desmedt 0.5 0.5  B. Marshall 3. D. Grobler 0.5 0.5  M. Parsons 4. C. Dixon 0 1  B. Cuaresma 5. W. F. Lumley 0 1  C. Tinker 6. G. Thickett 0 1  G. Boot 7. I. Johnson 0 1  D. V. Toulson 8. J. Morton 0.5 0.5  R. Tuddenham  (Capt.) 9. N. Battye 0 1  S. Thompson 10. J. V. Newsome  (Capt.) 0 1  H. Vaughan 11. A. Crikshank 1 0  N. D. Jones Result 3.5 7.5

You can play through the board 1 encounter. Notes are by the loser!

 Peter Shaw v Patrick Senior  Board 1

The photo below was taken during the game on board 7 between Dave Toulson facing the camera and Ian Johnson

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Adarsh Vani, Wakefield Chess Club’s youngest member won the Under 9 Prize at the Sheffield Junior Chess Congress 2008 at the Source, Sheffield, this Sunday. This was the first of 3 YCA Junior Grand Prix events which are scheduled for this season. A report on members scores at this Congress can be found on the Junior News page in the Wakefield Juniors section.

Adarsh is pictured below receiving his prize from Congress Organiser John Hipshon.

The Derek Paffley Silver Knight Memorial Trophy which is held annually at the Club for players graded 110 and below, was retained by Alan Holloway with a score of 4 points. The photo below shows Alan receiving the Trophy from Club Secretary Mike Denison.

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We would like to welcome our newest member Vivian Way to Wakefield Chess Club.

Vivi as she is known to her friends is 9 years old and attends Wakefield Girls’ High School Juniors.

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The central grading team at the English Chess Federation has been working on a complete revision, designed to undo the perceived deflation of grades over the years. The switch to "New Grades" is planned for 2009-10.

For the coming season, Old Grades remain current. However, New Grades have been calculated for 2008 and they are shown on the Members Grades page alongside the Old Grades, for reference. For an explanation on the reasoning behind this see here

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Please note that we now have a new Wakefield Juniors section. An interesting feature in this new section is the publication of Junior games which have been analyzed and annotated by Mr Denison. News concerning Junior players can also be found on this page. Our Junior members have also been added to this years Summer Tournament which has been updated on the 25th of August. Please note also that old Club and Local news which includes items up to and including Dr. Peter Shaw’s participation in the British Championship 2008 can now be found on the C.&L. News Archive1 link above.

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We are pleased to welcome three new members to the Wakefield Chess Club. Nicky Howell, and brothers Amol and Adarsh Vani who are pictured below at the club yesterday evening.

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Wakefield Chess Club was well represented and successful at the recent Leeds Junior Chess Association Summer School. Kiruthika Rajeswaren finished in clear second with 9 points, 1 point behind winner James Roberts with whom she drew twice. Abigail Arnold won the best grading performance above their grade prize. Recent visitors to the club Amol and Adarsh Vani won the Under 11 and the Under 9 prizes respectively. A photo of our heroes along with the other prize winners is shown below courtesy of John Hipshon

Kiruthika is second from left on back row, Abigail is center middle row, Amol is right middle row and Adarsh is at the front. To see John’s report on the event along with a photo of the coaching see the YCA website News page.

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The photo below shows four members of the successful Wakefield Team who won the Sherwood Shield last week. They are from left to right:

Mark Shelmerdine (captain), Harris Vaughan (man of the match), Alan Holloway and Ian Johnson.

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Now that the 2008 British Championship at Liverpool is finished I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Wakefield Chess Club’s newest member to our chess family. Abigail Arnold of Leeds is 9 years old and attends Wakefield Girls’ High School Juniors

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Whilst most of Britain’s top Grandmasters and some of Yorkshire’s top players were in action at the prestigious 2008 British Championships in Liverpool, at the other end of the chess spectrum Wakefield took part in a match for the Sherwood Shield at West Bretton against Netherton on Wednesday the 6th of August.

The Sherwood Shield is only open to teams whose members are graded under 110.

Before you look at the result and details of the match below which only tell the end of the story please read this report on the match which was written by our President Mark Shelmerdine who was also Captain and top board for the match.

Every match was a tight affair. The match went like this...

It was 2 hours before the first game ended (Mine).  Paul had played the King's Gambit and after I accepted and played the Cunningham Defence (?) i.e. 3.....Be7, Paul was on the back foot with a very compex position.  I felt I was ahead for most of the game but paul's resilient defence worked well and we agreed a draw.

0.5 - 0.5

Alan went a piece up and in the end game forced home the advantage to win.

1.5 - 0.5

Harris was a pawn down in the endgame against John Newsome.  Harris did brilliantly to save the game and came out with what tuned out to be a match winning draw. Harris was my 'man of the match' 

2 - 1

Steve's game was very exciting.  It was a classic race to mate.  Steve mated his opponent just as he was about to be mated himself!  3 queens on the board at the end too!

3 - 1

At this stage Ian and Barry were both in tight games.  It started looking grim though.  Ian was losing an endgame and Barry was a pawn down with 2 rooks each.  It dawned on us that if they both lost we would lose the match on board count back!!!  We feared the worst and began to brace ourselves for another so near yet so far disaster!!

Ian lost his very complex game. he fought valiantly but to no avail. The Netherton fight back started!

3 - 2

It was all down to Barry now to save us.  With barely a minute or so left on his clock he had to make about 3 moves.  The tension in the room was building as we realised if he lost, we lost.  All we needed was a draw!  We needn't have worried though as Barry made his 35th move with about 30 seconds left.  He was still a pawn down and it looked bad.  Then, John pushed his free passed pawn too far up the board and Barry expertly managed to capture and regain the material. 

Finally John had to admit there was no way through Barry's defence and a draw was agreed.

3.5 - 2.5

After 15 years of trying, Wakefield had won the Sherwood Shield. It's the first time Netherton have failed to win it!!

John Newsome graciously handed the shield over and congratulated us on our victory.

An exciting and successful start to 2008-9 season, may it continue!!

This is a fantastic acheivement for Mark and his team for as mentioned above this is the first time Netherton have been beaten in the competition. The match details are as follows

The photo above shows Harris Vaughan in action, our Captain’s choice for man of the match.

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