The juniors of Sheffield E are the favourites to win the Silver Rook this season and came to the club yesterday afternoon hoping to gain another victory to add to their 4 wins out of four matches.Wakefield B were next to the bottom of the division before this match started and, on paper at least, it looked as though this could be a walkover for the favourites who were the only team in the division who had not dropped a single match point.

On returning to the club after our away match against Pontefract, Peter and I were surprised to see that the match score between these two teams on opposite sides of the division was 3.5 points apiece with the game on board 6 still ongoing and the result of the match hanging on the outcome.

Whatever the outcome of this game and thus the match, our captain could draw confidence and encouragement to take into the last match and into next season from the fine performance of our team making the match so close that it hinged on the result of the final game.

Then after a few more minutes and the game was finished, our player had resigned. So close to the result and the upset of the season. The match details are shown below.

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The game winners for Wakefield are shown above

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Bradford B, our opponents in yesterday’s Silver Rook match were in the division above us last season, the IM Brown. We therefore had to be the underdogs, even before two of our regulars were commandeered to play for the first team. We were fortunate to have both Barry Brian and John Hainsworth back in the fold as well as Dave Pallagrass. This meant that with Dean Hepworth unavailable we were still a player short for the match.

Coming to our rescue was junior club member Wasim Ahmed who was prepared to turn out for us despite the fact that the YCA Wakefield Grand Prix was scheduled for today. We hope he enjoyed the game and got good practice for today’s event!

Although we duly lost the match by the score of 5 points to 3 there were some noteworthy positive points to take from this match. As well as the top board victory by Craig Thompson it is good to see that Captain Mark Shelmerdine’s season is still going strong with another victory - this time on board 2 against a strong team. As mentioned earlier it was also good to see Barry Brian not only playing board 3 but gaining a fine draw.

Special mention should be made however to the draw by Wasim Ahmed in his debut appearance for the team. We hope this is the first of many fine results he will contribute to the team in the future.

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As I do not yet have a photo of Wasim Ahmed, the photo below shows his sister Zara with Mike Denison at last season’s AG Sunderland Cup at West Bretton

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We played host to the rapidly improving junior chess players that are Leeds Juniors A and which includes two of our own junior members. We were a player short at the start of the match with team regulars Ian Johnson and Dave Pallagrass unavailable. At least we didn’t have the need to lend any players to the A team this time.

Now to the action; Alan Holloway, Mike Wilford and Harris Vaughan got fine draws against 2009 Scarborough Congress prize winner, Francesca Fozard, newly qualified England Junior trialist member Adarsh Vani, and YCA Web Site Editor  John Fozard, respectively, but Captain Mark Shelmerdine and Dean Hepworth carry on going from strength to strength with another victory each to add to their growing collection.

Unfortunately, although a close and hard fought match, it was the missing player which counted in the end and we lost the match by the score of 4.5 to 3.5 points. The match details are shown below.

 

5th of December 2009  Wakefield B v Leeds Juniors A 1. C. Thompson 0 1  J. Bowler 2. A. Holloway 0.5 0.5  F. Fozard 3. M. Shelmerdine 1 0  J. Hipshon 4. D. Hepworth 1 0  Amol Vani 5. M. Wilford 0.5 0.5  Adarsh Vani 6. J. L. Whittaker 0 1  W. McGough 7. H. Vaughan 0.5 0.5  J. Fozzard 8. Default 0 1  A. N. Other Result 3.5 4.5

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Wakefield A borrowed our Captain for the afternoon and we were a player short as we arrived in York. The strong York RI D team won with 5.5 points to our 2.5 which was made up with two fine wins from Mike Wilford and Jim Whittaker, along with a draw on board 3 from Ian Johnson.

 

14th November 2009 York RI D C v Wakefield B 1. O. Robson 1 0  A. Holloway 2. N. R. Pearce 1 0  D. Hepworth 3. N. G. Andrews 0.5 0.5  I. Johnson 4. S. Jennings 0 1  M. Wilford 5. M. Beavers 0 1  J. L. Whittaker 6. P. Masiak 1 0  H. Vaughan 7. P. Lakin 1 0  R. Vaughan 8. R. Mitchinson 1 0  Default Result 5.5 2.5

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We travelled towards the mountains for our first match of the season which took place against the team from the Pennines, Calderdale C. The match was a close run affair but the only drawn game of the match took place on top board were our A team Captain Chris Tinker managed to hold Dave Colledge with the Black pieces. With four fine wins on the middle boards from Alan Holloway, Captain Mark Shelmerdine, Ian Johnson and Mike Wilford we managed to take the match by the score of 4.5 to 3.5 points and are off to a winning start. The match details along with photos of our winning team members are shown below.

 

26th September 2009 Calderdale C v Wakefield B 1. D. Colledge 0.5 0.5  C. Tinker 2. S. Priest 1 0  S. Skinner 3. B. Wadsworth 0 1  A. Holloway 4. J. Aldridge 0 1  M. Shelmerdine 5. C. Stratford 0 1  I. Johnson 6. A. Dawson 0 1  M. Wilford 7. D. Tyfa 1 0  J. Whittaker 8. J. Ellis 1 0  D. Pallagrass Result 3.5 4.5