A bit of good luck cancels out a bit of bad luck

Snodlands team 2 travelled to far away Thanet yesterday and came away with a 3-3 draw in which considering the circumstances must fill Snodland with some breathing space.

Many events made availability for the match very difficult and could muster just 5 players available to travel to the sea-side club. Thanet having won both there 1st two matches (one notable result being a 5-1 smashing over Hastings) meant that they were looking in great shape and very strong indeed.

Having won the toss Snodland chose to have white on odd boards (sensible as there was no board 6) and played some fantastic chess.

Chris Marshalls game with Keith Findley finished 1st with a draw. Same grade, same board, same strength, meant it was a respectable result.

Len Hammond played a well faught battle who looked winning to begin with but unfortunatly lost when his opponent gradually took the upper hand, but a great effort

Matthew Bunn won a very complicated game against Bob Pooley on board one, full of mind numbing variations and did well to win, both having very little time making the match 2.5 - 1.5 (to Thanet)

David Fowler reached a position in the endgame where he had the extra pawn in a 6 v 7 pawns, 2 rooks and a king endgame. It looked very cramped up at the end and as well having little time agreed a draw which was a fair result Making the match 3-2 to Thanet

Last game to finish Tyrone Jefferies winning eventually on time with an inferior position however in the game it was said he was on top for a majority and might just have made up for the bad luck we had before the game.

However Snodland as the "current reigning champions" of the Harvey cup have started the season with a result that the team is happy with considering only having 5 players. Imagine what we will accomplish with 6.

Below as requested is board one's game Matthew Bunn's (118) game versus Bob Pooley (127)

Results

A number of En Passant matches have already been played, and for the clubs 1st season in the En Passant competition we have battled and come away with good results. More details to follow.

Below is an excellent win from Snodlands David Nicholls on board one against Folkestones John Atherton.




Impressive win David! David has been in very good form this season marking some fantastic wins against his higher rated opponents. Other players have achieved some steady and reliable results Chris Marshall and David Fowler just to name a few. Nick Allen has continued his good string of results, keen and determinated he is and hence the reason he is putting in some good performances. I'm sure if this commitment from the members of the club continues, we can achieve many more things to come.

More details of all matches to come shortly

Recent Progress

The A-league has been running well with some interesting results and games. Matthew Bunn and David Fowler still unbeaten while Chris leads the A-league having played 7 of his 10 games. All to play for still and despite who wins, there will be a new champion come the end of the season.

A LEAGUE P W D L Pts
1 Chris Marshall 7 3 2 2 4
2= Tyrone Jefferies6 3 1 2 3.5
2= David Fowler 4 3 1 0 3.5
4= David Lettington5 2 2 1 3
4= Matthew Bunn 3 3 0 0 3
6= Bob Fenn 4 1 1 2 1.5
6= Nick Allen 4 1 1 2 1.5
6= Len Hammond 3 1 1 1 1.5
6= Matt Gazes 4 1 1 2 1.5
10 Doug Smith 4 1 0 3 1
11= John Simons 4 0 0 4 0

Sad News

A very close friend of Snodland Chess Club and of the entire nation of chess has very sadly passed away. IM Bob Wade was a credit to British Chess, a true talent, and a fantastic coach to say the least. He had an outstanding and devoted commitment to chess and that passion inspired many alike. I for one say and I believe I speak for everyone that he will be sorely missed.



Rest In Peace
IM Bob Wade

Find the right Solution

The Caterham Congress 2008 was held last weekend (24th/25th/26th of October). One member of Snodland (Matthew Bunn) entered the Major section and scored well with 3 out of 5! In one of his games against Nigel Colter he completely dominates the game but fails to find the right continuation on move 26 to finish the game off. In the end a draw was agreed but can you find the right continuation after 25...g5??



White to move, how can white continue?

This is the full game below. Matt plays 26.Qd2 which is weak

A League so far...

The A-league has got off to a kicking start with interesting games and plenty of opportunity. Here are the standings after 6 weeks:

A LEAGUE P W D L Pts
1= Tyrone Jefferies 4 2 1 1 2.5
1= David Fowler 3 2 1 0 2.5
3= Chris Marshall 4 1 2 1 2
3= Matthew Bunn 2 2 0 0 2
3= David Lettington 4 1 2 1 2
6= Nick Allen 3 1 1 1 1.5
6= Len Hammond 2 1 1 0 1.5
8 Doug Smith 3 1 0 1 1
9= Matt Gazes 2 0 1 1 0.5
9= Bob Fenn 2 0 1 1 0.5
11= John Simons 3 0 0 3 0
11= Henry Williams 0 0 0 0 0


So with plenty of games to go Tyrone and David Fowler lead the A league with games and points adrift.

Matts Minder

A few months ago I played in the Thanet Congress (major section) and gained valuable experience for the rest of the season. I learned a lot just by playing people of higher standard and one of the main things I have learned from that tournament which has held me in good stead for the rest of the season is that position is more than power!




Matt

Snodland named Small Club of the Year second year running!

Snodland Chess Club have been named the English Chess Federation's Small Club of the Year for the second year running.

This is the first time that any chess club had been awarded this national title twice.

More details to follow..

1st Snodland Rapidplay Chess Congress

The 1st Snodland Rapidplay Chess Congress was a great success, with four players tied for first place on 5/6.

FM Martin Taylor managed to beat IM Jovanka Houska, FM Martin Walker and Ian Snape on tie-break, earning the title of Kent Individual Rapidplay Champion 2008 in the process.

More details can be found on:

http://www.snodlandcongress.blogspot.com/

Snodland win National Title

Snodland Chess Club have won their section of the National Chess Club Championship, beating Forest of Dean 4-0 in the Final...more details will follow.

Ben wins B-league title.

Ben Stokes produced a brilliant winning streak to win the B-league title on tie-break over his dad, Malcolm.

Ben's triumph came after he beat Malcolm, who until then had looked unstoppable, and then managed to beat all his remaining opponents, leaving both Ben and Malcolm on 8/10 with 8 wins and 2 losses each.

Ben Stokes, B-league champion.

Bob collects another trophy!

Bob Fenn beat David Lettington in a very exciting final of Challenge Cup. The opening was quite cagey and tense until Bob missed a trick and allowed David to win the exchange.

However, Bob went on the offensive straight away and didn't allow David to get his pieces into the action and the game soon swung towards Bob.

After defending for many moves, David couldn't hold off the attack and soon ended up in a losing position. It was the first time that David had ever been beaten in the Challenge Cup, his unbeaten run lasting nearly 3 years.

Bob's win in the Challenge Cup this year came on top of his win in the A-league last year, so he has a different trophy on the mantlepiece now!

Bob collects the Challenge Cup from Councillor Chris Smith, the Mayor of Tonbridge & Malling.

Henry collects A-league title

Henry Williams beat David Lettington in their individual game and so took the A-league title for 2008 with a score of 9/10, making an unbeaten run of 8 wins and 2 draws.

This means that there has been a different winner every year of the club's most prestigious title.

Above, Henry collects the A-league title from Chris Smith, the Mayor of Tonbridge & Malling.

Snodland win Kent Cup!!

The Snodland 1st team scored the narrowest possible victory in the Final of the Kent "Harvey Cup".

The match against Weald of Kent was drawn 3-3, with Snodland winning 10-11 using the "board count" tie-break method. The result was incredible, considering that Snodland were 3-0 down after the first three games were finished. An amazing comeback!

This is a superb achievement in what is only Snodland's second season of competitive chess.

The overall match result was:
Snodland 1 vs Weald of Kent 2
1. David Nicholls 1-0 James Hart-Dyke
2. Matt Bunn 0-1 Albert Brown
3. David Fowler 1-0 David Warrick
4. Nick Allen 0-1 Mark Horner
5. Neil Miners 0-1 Mike Scott
6. Matthew Gazes 1-0 Dominic Oram

Well....you can't win them all!

Snodland teams reached the Semi-Finals of the Kent "Tom Fuller Cup" and "Intro Cup", but on these occasions we were not able to win, losing to 2.5-1.5 against Beckenham and 3-1 against Charlton.

Praise goes to Mark Buffey and James Mateo for winning their individual games.

Jovanka scores well in Europe

Club honorary president IM Jovanka Houska is scoring incredibly well in the European Individual Championship, held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

After 7 rounds, Jovanka is on 5 points, just half a point off the lead. Yesterday she scored an excellent win over IM Monika Socko, who is rated more than 100 Elo points higher than Jovanka. There are 4 more rounds to go.

The games can be followed on www.eicc2008.com/en

Challenge Cup Quarter Finals

All the games in the Challenge Cup First Round were fairly clear cut.

The Quarter Final draw is:

David Lettington vs Tyrone Jefferies

Douglas Smith vs Matt Bunn

Neil Miners vs Bob Fenn

Matt Gazes vs David Fowler

The games are due to be played on 8th May.

Snodland reach two finals in two days!

Wow! Two great results in two days!

Snodland beat Hastings in the U100 section of the National Club Championship to reach the final.
The team won 2.5-1.5, with David Lettington and Matt Bunn winning and David Fowler gaining a draw.

Matt Bunn scored a good win against the experienced Hastings player and David Fowler then achieved a draw against his young opponent.

This meant that David Lettington or Matthew Gazes only needed to draw to put Snodland through on board count. David's opponent had an opportunity to make a risky sacrifice, but decided to play safely and then grabbed a pawn which allowed David to make a counter attack that eventually gave him the initiative.

The following day Snodland beat Lewisham in the Kent County Chess Association's Harvey Cup to reach the final. The match was tied 3-3, but Snodland won on board count. The Snodland winning players were David Nicholls, Henry Williams and Matt Bunn. More details later....

A-league & B-league results

After some interesting results, the latest league positions are as above.

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The A-league results this week were:

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Matt Bunn 0.5 - 0.5 Neil Miners

Ben Stokes 0 - 1 David Lettington

Matthew Gazes 1 - 0 Len Hammond

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The B-league results this week were:

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Ben Edwards o - 1 Arjun Toor

John Morgan 0 - 1 Malcolm Stokes

Arjun Toor 1 - 0 Ben Stokes

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Malcolm's win means that he maintains his perfect score and his rating performance is more than double his actual grade.

IM Bob Wade visits club

The chess club were lucky to have IM Bob Wade visit and deliver some coaching.

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After demonstrating some opening variations in the Italian Opening, Bob went on to tell us how he helped Bobby Fischer prepare for his 1972 World Championship match versus Boris Spassky, including showing us some handwritten letters from Fischer himself.

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Bob also spoke about his time in Cuba when he played chess against Che Guevara amongst others.

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Bob then played a simultaneous display against 6 players, with Matt Bunn managing to beat Bob and Douglas Smith gaining a well deserved draw. Bob won the other 4 games.

Latest league positions

The leading A-league and B-league positions are as follows:

In the A-league, the two leading players are yet to play each other. In the B-league, Malcolm needs two more wins from four games to win the title.

Challenge Cup Preliminary Round results

There were some surprise results this week. In the Challenge Cup Preliminary Round;

Arjun Toor 1-0 John Morgan.
Despite John's good form, Arjun scored a good win.
Henry Williams 1-0 Malcolm Stokes.
Malcolm put up a good fight but lost ot his higher rated opponent.
Ben Edwards 1-0 Jason Boyes.
Young Ben progresses to play his school coach Neil Miners.
Nick Allen 0-1 Matt Gazes.
Matt fought on when material down and beat his higher rated opponent in a complex endgame.

The competition is down to the last 16, all games to be played on 24th April.

Snodland Teams Progress

After some fantastic matches with other clubs in Kent, Sussex and Essex, all of Snodland's teams have scored great results in the Kent County Chess Association and National competitions. At the time of writing, the Snodland 1st team stands second in Mid Kent "Harvey" league, the 2nd team stands second in the Mid Kent "Tom Fuller" league, the 3rd team stands 2nd in the Mid Kent "Intro" league, and the 4th team stands 4th in the same league.

The final league positions will be announced in the next few days, and if the positions remain the same, then 3 of Snodland's 4 teams will have reached the Kent Semi-Finals. This a fantastic achievement for a club that is only 4 years old and only started playing competitively last year.

Snodland have also reached the Semi-Finals of the National Club Championship "U100" section and face a tough match with Hastings in a couple of weeks.

Special mention goes to:

Matthew Gazes and David Fowler for their fantastic records this season. They have chalked up over 15 wins between them and only one loss!

Neil Miners for holding a draw whilst material down and with only seconds on his clock, to score the vital half point need to beat Hastings in the Harvey Cup.

David Parkins for a neat checkmate to give the 4th team a draw against Weald of Kent.

Soriah Williams for a brilliant combination to her crush her opponent when playing Maidstone.

Matt Bunn for scaring his opponents with aggressive, uncompromising opening play.

John Morgan for consistent improvement and taking a big lead in the B-league.

Everyone at the club has made a fantastic contribution to our successes so far this season. Hopefully there are lots more victories to come!