Women's World Championship

Sadly, our club president, Jovanka Houska was knocked out of the Women's World Championship in round 2 by the top seed Humpy Koneru, of India.

Jovanka, pictured playing Koneru below, played very assertively and was a great credit to herself and to English chess.

Matthew Bunn plays in FIDE Open

Snodland's Matthew Bunn played in the FIDE Open that ran alongside the London Chess Classic, this was the toughest tournament that Matthew has ever played in and in round 1 he was paired against International Master Jack Rudd. Matt played very well and had a promising position, but hey, these masters know what they are doing and Matt eventually lost.

Matt, pictured above, scored wins against all of his lower-graded opponents but had some really tough opponents where the games were closely fought but the result didn't go the right way. Matt finished on 3.5/9 and it was an excellent learning experience and hopefully a springboard to greater success.

The London Chess Classic

David Fowler and David Lettington both visited the London Chess Classic and were lucky enough to see the top 4 English players take on 4 of the best players in the world.

England's Luke McShane was the star performer, beating Magnus Carlsen, the world number 1, and not losing a single game in the entire tournament.

Former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik had a tough tournament, including a strange loss to the US number one Hikaru Nakamura.

The tournament was huge success and there were hundreds of spectators every day.

Two match results

We've had a few match postponements due to the bad weather but still have these two match results to report:

Kent League tables

The Kent League tables for the Mid/East Kent region (as of 01/12/10) are below:

Chess in the Snow

12 inches of snow wasn't enough to stop us from playing chess this week! One of our members even walked 5 miles in the snow to play his club championship game (and he won, too!).

Pete Hickey and David Lettington enjoy a game in the snow.

Club President to play in Women's World Championship

Snodland Chess Club's President, IM Jovanka Houska has qualified to play in the Women's World Championship.

Jovanka has been very supportive to Snodland Chess Club and has played simultaneous displays and given lectures, as well as judging our annual game of the year competition and playing in all of the Snodland Rapidplay tournaments.

Jovanka has been preparing for the tournament with GMs Stuart Conquest and Gawain Jones. She will be taking Stuart Conquest with her as her "second". In the first round Jovanka will be facing the Polish IM Iweta Rajlich. Jovanka has a good record against Rajlich and they have very similar Elo ratings. Rajlich's husband is the developer of Rybka, the strongest chess-playing programme in the world, so you can guarantee that she will be well prepared too. If Jovanka wins this first match, then she is likely to face the highest rated player in the tournament in round 2, Koneru Humpy, of India.

The tournament is a 64-player knockout, with just two games played in each round, except the final, which is over four games.

You can follow the games live on http://wwcc2010.tsf.org.tr/ and the first round will be played on Saturday 4th December.

Snodland 3 vs Maidstone 4 : 3.5-2.5

As usual with matches between Snodland and our nearest rivals Maidstone, it was an extremely hard fought affair.

I can't really comment on what happened in most of the games as I was concentrating too much on trying not to lose to George Hollands, but James Hart-Dyke deserves a big round of applause for winning in his first competitive game for Snodland.

Pete Hickey got a very nice position against Douglas Smith and had a significant material advantage but wasn't quite able to make it tell after he lost a pawn whilst in time trouble.

Snodland 3 vs Folkestone 2: 4-2

Snodland scored a very nice 4-2 win over Folkestone in the En Passant Cup.

First to finish was Tyrone Jefferies who outplayed his opponent to win inside 90 minutes.

Rob Thompson then held an endgame a pawn down to score a good draw and put Snodland on the way to victory.

Zibby Koncki then beat an extremely strong opponent with a nice tactic despite being very short of time.

David Lettington scored a win when his opponent made an inferior bishop move and then decided to try a sacrifice to get back into the game. However, solid play was the order of the day and David's material advantage told.

David Fowler then scored a solid draw and by now the match was clearly won with Snodland leading 4-1.

The last game to finish was Chris Marshall's. Chris played well in the opening, but was facing a very strong opponent who fought back and eventually overcame Chris' defensive forces.

Tunbridge Wells 1 vs Snodland 1: 3.5-2.5

This was a disappointing result, as it appeared that we might have been able to hold the match at one point.

Steve Giddins scored a solid draw on baord 1 in his first game for the club. Although Steve had an advantage out of the opening, it wasn't enough to convert into a win.

Ben Spink scored a smooth win over his opponent on board 2 and at the same time made amends for a loss to the same opponent last year.

Zibby Koncki played well on board 3 and had an advantage in the opening but then ran short of time and his opponent caused complications that allowed him back into the game.

Peter Turner had a difficult game on board 4 and Richard Bedwell scored a nice win.

David Fowler won on time on board 5 when his opponent still had 9 moves to make before the time control and the position appeared fairly even.

David Lettington achieved a nice position on the black side of a Sicilian Defence but once pieces were swapped off his opponent showed superior endgame technique and won. This brought to an end an unbeaten run of 17 games for David.

Medway 4 vs Snodland 6: 2-2

The match between Medway 4 and Snodland 6 was extremely close on all 4 boards. Richard Mallery played extremely well and gave Alan Evans a tough gam. Richard was at a material disadvantage for a long time but fought well and eventually won back his piece. However, Alan's superior pawn structure was decisive.

Neil Miners had a very difficult game against David Langford and fought on from a position that looked bad to a tough Queen and 4 pawns vs Queen and 3 pawns ending, but David's pawns were too strong.

Pete Hickey was involved in a complex tactical melee that saw Pete avoiding the several tactical landmines laid by Isaac Oluwole. Isaac's King was too exposed in the centre of the board and Pete capitalised.

The position below is the final position from David Lettington's game with Baron-Vahl Amos. David, with the black pieces, had built up pressure early on and had a significant advantage when Baron lost on time. The game is near to winning for black, but both players were so short of time that anything could have happened.

Snodland Club Championship

The latest positions in the Snodland Club Championship qualifiyng groups are above.  The top two players in each group get a place in the A-league, the next two get places in the B-league and the last two get places in the C-league. So far, Zibby Koncki, Hugh Broadbent, Ben Spink and Chris Marshall have earned places in the A-league.

Steve Giddins' BCM blog

A link to Steve Giddins' BCM blog has been added to the links list below. Click on it to read the latest about Magnus Carlsen's withdrawal from the World Championship.

Snodland 2 vs Sevenoaks 1: 3-3

Weald of Kent 2 vs Snodland 5: 2.5-1.5

Latest result below:

Club Championship latest

The Snodland Club Championship is not only the strongest ever but also has more competitors than ever. The latest standings in the qualifying groups are below. Each group has two qualifying places for each of the A, B and C-leagues.

Group A is very close and the leading two players are yet to play each other.

In Group B, Chris Marshall is almost certain to qualify for the A-league and probably only needs a draw from his two remaining games to confirm this. The result between David Lettington and Peter Turner is likely to decide the other qualifying spot.

In Group C, Zibby has made an excellent start, as has Hugh Broadbent. Hugh has beaten two higher graded players and onr more good result could put him in the A-league.

In Group D, the game between Douglas Smith and Ben Spink this week is likely to have a big outcome on the top positions.

Rainham 1 vs Snodland 1: 2-4

Snodland 1st team managed to win their first ever match in the Lewis Cup. The result was convincing 4-2 victory over a Rainham team that was slightly stronger in terms of grading points.

Snodland managed to score 3.5 from the first 4 games to finish and so the match was already secured as the top two boards fought on. Zibby Koncki was disappointed not to be able to win in Queen and pawn vs Queen ending, although he was very short of time and it was difficult to see a way to progress.

Ben Spink was the last game to finish in a very close game against Martin Taylor, the Kent Champion.

David Fowler and Peter Turner played very nice games to beat their opponents and Matthew Bunn managed to turn round a very bad position thanks to a nice tactic that his opponent missed.

Snodland player draws with Grandmaster

Snodland player George Hollands achieved an extremely impressive draw with GM John Emms in a simultaneous display that took place yesterday.

You can play through the game below. After 32 Rxe4, white accepts a worse position but still with chances to create a complicated ending that may have winning chances. At this point, white can in fact allow his Queen to be captured and force a draw (32. h3 Nxf2 33. Re7+ Kc8 34. Re8+ Kc7 35. Re7+ with a draw by repetition) but presumably the Grandmaster wants to keep playing for the win. However, George has a sufficient material advantage at this point that he can hold the draw comfortably.

Snodland 2nd vs Rainham 2nd : 4.5-1.5

Snodland scored their first win of the season, with a convincing victory over Rainham by the score of 4.5-1.5

Matt Bunn was the first player to score a point with an extremely impressive win against Tom Stonehouse's. Matt played a strong Caro-Kann defence and had a very nice finish with multiple threats around Tom's king. Matt was very modest about his quick win, saying "Oh, it was mostly theory!"

The next game to finish was team captain Tyrone Jefferies, who scored a win over Martin Reeve. Tyrone is in good form this season and is picking up lots of points.

Despite being ill, Zibby Koncki scored a nice victory over Andy Waters. It was Zibby's first competitive game for the club, so he is now the proud owner of a 100% victory rate. Long may it continue!

Chris Marshall converted the match into a victory with a draw against Paul Giddins in a complex rook and pawn endgame.

Rob Thompson brought his win drought to an end with and excellent victory over Rob Springett, who is an extremely tricky opponent. Rob T had a material advantage for a long time but Rob S defended doggedly and it was one of the last games to finish.

Ben Spink had a long game against Martin Taylor, the Kent Champion, but wasn't quite able to hold the rook and pawn endgame where Martin had very active rooks.

Well done to the team who gave Snodland their first victory of the season!

Snodland 4 vs Medway 1: 2-4

Although Snodland lost this match, there was an excellent result on the top board from David Fowler who drew with Andrew Mayhew, who is graded 53 points higher. Statistically speaking, in a 100 game match, David would be expected to lose every game, so a draw is an excellent result. In footballing terms, it's like a League 2 club beating a Premiership side.

Although David Lettington managed a draw on baord 2 and Tyrone Jefferies scored a neat win on board 5, the rest of the team were not able to convert their grading advantages into wins.

Despite two losses, the teams remain in high spirits and we look forward to a win this coming Thursday!

Tunbridge Wells 2 vs Snodland 3: 4.5-1.5

Snodland 3 had a slightly disappointing start to the season with a 4.5-1.5 loss to Tunbridge Wells 2, but we took heart that it was an extremely competitive match and many of the games could have gone either way.

Unusually, and not discovered by either of the players until after the game, both board 2 and board 4 for Snodland were playing on the black side of a Sicilian Najdorf in which white played 6.f3. However, Chris Marshall chose to play 6... e6, whilst David Lettington chose 6... e5 at which points the games took considerably different courses. The choice of top grandmasters is apparently 6... Qb6 when white plays 7.g4.

There was an excellent win with white for team captain David Fowler on board 3 in a very sharp line of the King's Gambit. Another win for the British U140 champion!

Snodland 7th vs Snodland 6th: 0.5-3.5

Snodland 6th team again beat the Snodland 7th team, but this time by a bigger margin. The games all went as expected according to grade, except for the board 2 clash between Daryn Gilbert and Hugh Broadbent.

Daryn played extremely well to score a draw against hig higher graded opponent and in the process brought Hugh's nine game winning streak to an end.

Daryn was a pawn up for much of the game and even had winning chances, but Hugh defended well and managed to hold the draw.

Snodland 6th vs Snodland 7th: 3-1

In the first competitive match of the season, Snodland 6th team managed to beat Snodland 7th team by the convincing score of 3-1. At one point it looked like the score might have been 4-0, but some strong endgame play from Daryn Gilbert enabled him to beat his much higher grade opponent.

Hugh Broadbent scored his 9th consecutive win at the club by outplaying John Simons.

The game between Charlie Palmer and William Patch was extremely hard fought, with William fighting hard in a rook ending a pawn down, but Charlie showed good technique to convert his advantage to a full point.

The diagram below is the final position in Jason Boyes vs Richard Mallery. Richard played well but let his initial opening advantage slip and Jason had a tremendous attack and bulit up a significant material advantage. Unfortunately Jason missed Richard's strong attack down the h-file and was checkmated.

Nigel Short vs Mike Wiltshire - play through the game

Below is the game the Kent County Chess Association Chairman played against Nigel Short..... Mike played very well and I think that he will get his revenge next time!

Club Championship results - week 1

There were lots of games played to kick off the Club Championship this week:

Group A
Steve Giddins (198) 1 vs 0 Jason Boyes (14)
Bob Fenn (133) 1 vs 0 John Simons (89)
Matt Gazes (125) 0.5 vs 0.5 Nick Allen (118)

Group B
David Lettington (132) 1 vs 0 Tyrone Jefferies (117)

Group C
Zibby Koncki (170) 1 vs 0 William Patch (52)
David Fowler (136) 0 vs 1 Hugh Broadbent (99)

Group D
Ben Spink (191) 1 vs 0 Richard Mallery (34)
George Hollands (133) 1 vs 0 Neil Miners (85)
Douglas Smith (126) 0.5 vs 0.5 John Brown (110)

Congratulations to Hugh Broadbent who not only beat a much higher graded player but has now won eight games in a row at the club.

The position shown above occurred in one of the games in this week's club championship.

Here, black played the innocent looking 1....Nc4, but white then plays 2. Be6! Ne3 3. Rxf7! Rxf7 4. Rxf7 Rb1+ 5. Rf1+ black resigns.

Dinner with Garry Kasparov

Two members of Snodland Chess Club, David Lettington and Steve Giddins, were lucky enough to have dinner with Garry Kasparov yesterday ....... along with 200 other people at the Staunton Memorial Dinner at the historic Simpsons-in-the Strand.

The event was held to raise money for charity and also for Anatoly Karpov's bid to become President of FIDE, the world chess federation. There were many chess luminaries there and the Chairman of the Kent County Chess Association, Mike Wiltshire, was lucky enough to get to play against former World Championship challenger, Nigel Short (pictured above).

In addition to Karpov, Kasparov and Short, other top players in attendance were Michael Adams, Luke McShane, David Norwood, Raymond Keene, Nicholas Pert and Jonathan Speelman. The evening was organised by CJ de Mooi, of Eggheads fame, who is the President of the English Chess Federation.

2nd Len Hammond Memorial match

Congratulations to Maidstone Chess Club for winning the Len Hammond Memorial match for the second year running.

It was a well deserved victory for Maidstone, who managed to win 5 out of the 8 games.

The Snodland players Matthew Bunn, Tyrone Jefferies and Hugh Broadbent all played extremely well to get draws against higher graded players.

A special mention also goes to Zibby Koncki who defended for a very long time before turning a cramped position into a strong attack which threatened to breakthrough. However, both Zibby and his opponent got into severe time trouble just as the game became extremely complicated and David Munford won a rook, forcing Zibby to resign.

The photo above shows Snodland Captain David Lettington presenting the trophy to Maidstone Captain Bob Fenn.

Snodland success at British Chess Championship

Snodland player David Fowler (pictured) is the new British Chess Champion for players graded under 140. David scored 4.5/5 and achieved a grading performance of 162, which is 26 points above his new grade.

Congratulations go to David for his success, which is well deserved. David's experience in tournament play enabled him to win his final round game with a strong attack after a lot of manoeuvring in a tense middle game.

Another Snodland player, Matthew Bunn, also excelled himself and was the runner-up in the U160 section and the Afternoon Open. Matt scored 4/5 in both competitions, with respective grading performances of 171 and 198.

Ben Spink scored a creditable 5.5/11 in the extremely competitive Major Open, which features many internationally rated players.

Club Championship 2009-10 Final Positions

The Club Championship 2009-10 finished with Bob Fenn as clear winner of the A-league and Hugh Broadbent as clear winner of the B-league.

There were some excellent games played this year, including a nice win from Doug Smith over the pre-tournament favourite Norman Blake.

The Most Improved Player was Pete Hickey who started the season with an estimated grade of 92 but had a tournament performance rating of 116.

Mayor's Presentation Evening

After a busy and rewarding season for the club, the traditional Presentation Evening was held on the 10th June.

Deputy Mayor Cllr Brian Luker presented all the awards, and stayed on for the whole evening. David Lettington set the tone for the evening with the presentation of a game nominated for "Game of the Season", after which all the presentations were made.

Jason Boyes and Charlie Palmer both received Bronze level chess coaching certificates, and Jason and Charlie were also joined by Richard Mallory and William Patch in receiving awards for competing in the B-League competition. This season's B-League was very competitive, with John Simons and Neil Miners tying for runner up and each receiving Runner's Up certificates. Hugh Broadbent was the eventual winner of the B-League, and was presented with his trophy.

Ben Spink was unrivalled in quickplay events this year, and was presented with two trophies for winning both the Speed Chess and the Challenge Cup, with Matt Bunn and Peter Turner receiving Runner's Up awards for each of these awards respectively.

Jason Boyes received an award for his unique achievement of scoring 100 % against other clubs this year, while David Lettington received a certificate for the most points scored against other clubs in all competitions. Matt Gazes was the best-placed junior player, while Peter Hickey received the award for best grading performance in the club competition.

David Fowler, Tyrone Jeffries, Nick Allen and Matt Gazes received certificates for competing in the A-League. Peter Hickey and Doug Smith tied for third place in the A-League, with Norman Blake receiving the Runner's Up prize. Bob Fenn was the clear winner in the A-league - Bob was undefeated in all his A-League matches! The photo shows Bob receiving his award from Brian Luker.

Club Championship latest

The Club Championship latest standings are as follows:

A-league

B-league

Exciting game ends in time trouble chaos

Snodland were roundly beaten 3.5-0.5 by Weald of Kent chess club in the Tom Fuller competition. The one high point for Snodland was an exciting draw between David Lettington and Teddy Wickman in a game which could have gone either way as both players hit terrible time trouble.

Below there are some notes on the game by David Lettington.



1. e4 d5
The Scandinavian Defence, also known as the Centre Counter.
2. exd5 Nf6
The most usual move here is ...Qxd5 but Nf6 is becoming more common.
3. Nc3
I was giving away twenty grading points and was also unfamiliar with the opening. I guessed that d4 is the most common response but I didn't want to play into my opponents opening preparation and so I plumped for Nc3.
3. ... Nxd5
4. Nxd5 Qxd5
5. Qf3
This was the point behind Nc3. Now the black Queen can be challenged and it can't wreak the havoc that can occur if the Scandinavian is misplayed.
5. ... Qxf3
... Qe5+ is an alternative but it just allows white to develop another piece.
6. Nxf3
White has now only a tiny advantage (if any) but has minimised the stronger players chances of creating a quick attack.
6. ...Bf5
7. c3 e6
8. d4 Bd6
9. Bb5+ c6
Bb5+ is pretty pointless as it just encourages c6. Be2 might be a reasonable alternative but it looks pretty passive.
10. Be2 Nd7
11. 0-0 h5
White castles, but into a potential attack from the black kingside pawns. Teddy starts on this plan immediately.
12. Nh4 Bh7
13. Bg5
White cannot play Bxh5 or black replies Bd3 and wins material. I was pleased with Bg5 as it stops queenside castling unless black is prepared to play f6 which takes the square away from the black knight on d7. Castling kingside is not an option currently or the bishop can then capture on h5 after all.
14. Be3 0-0-0
15. a4
Now that black has castled, white can use his queenside pawns to start his own attacking plans, b4 was an alternative way of kickstarting a similar plan, but a4 gives the possibility of going a5 taking the b6 square away from the knight.
15. ... g5
16. Nf3 Bf4
A very interesting move. I was expecting g4 to continue the pawn attack but Teddy comes up with an alternative plan. This move allows white to ruin the black pawn structure but in return black can look to dominate the g-file with his rooks and form a battery against the white king. I made the judgement that white has enough pieces to defend against the attack.
17. Bxf4 gxf4
18. Bc4
White cannot allow black to continue with his idea and so applies some pressure to the loose pawn structure.
18. ... Bg8
I was slightly surprised by this move as I was expecting ..e5 19. Rfe1 e4 20. Nh4 when the black pawns begin to look a bit more menacing but white has options like Be6 and gets a bit more piece activity.
19. Rfe1 e5
20. Bxg8 Rhxg8
Similar to the idea above but white has manged to exchange a pair of pieces which gives black less attacking options but in return gets his rook onto the g-file where it cannot be challenged easily.
21. Rad1
It's very tempting to play dxe5 which wins a pawn and this is probably the strongest move, but I was worried about continuations like ... fxe5 22. Nxe5 Nxe5 23. Rxe5 Rd2 when it looks like black will get some counterplay by attacking the white pawns and doubling rooks on the d-file. I felt that I had a slight advantage and wanted to retain it.
21. ... Rde8
Threatening to push the e pawn on, but there is no apparent way to stop it other than the dxe5 maneouvre that I had rejected on the previous move.
22. a5
Stopping the knight from coming to b6 and then on to c4 or d5, but allowing the e4 advance.
22. ...e4
Both players were now starting to get pretty short of time (around 5 minutes each left for the next 13 moves).
23. Nh4 Rg5
A good move, Rg4 doesn't work as it allows Nf5, aiming for a fork on d6, and the knight has too many squares. Rg5 also prepares to double the rooks on the g file and simultaneously attacks the a5 pawn.
24. b4 f5
25. g3
A definite mistake. Nf3 is a possibility, exploiting the pin on the e file, but it doesn't seem to gain anything. Kf1 might also work as it gets the king out of the way of the black rooks. However, it's still not clear that black can break through.
25. ... Reg8
26. Ng2 fxg3
27. fxg3 Nf6
Black's pices are moving in and I definitely think that I have lost any advantage that I may have had. The e4 pawn is beginning to worry me at this point too. By now, both players have maybe 90 seconds each for the next eight moves. Look out for the mistakes!
28. Nh4
Another mistake, c4 is better.
28. ... f4
Oh dear, here come the pawns.
29. Rf1
Hopefully preventing fxg3 because of 30. Rxf6, but with so little time to calculate then 30. ...g2 might even be playable.
29. ...f3
Black now has two connected passed pawns and it's beginning to look bad for white.
30. Rde1
I considered Nxf3 just to stop the pawns but I didn't want to throw it away and tried to defend for a bit longer. At the moment neither pawn can move, or the other one drops.
30. ...Rg4
Allowing the knight back in the game.
31. Nf5
Threatening a fork on e7 and h6. Black must play Kd7.
31. ... Kb8
Seeing one fork but missing the other. However, we both had seconds left at this point and both of us had stopped recording the moves so we had no idea if we had reached the time control.
32. Nh6 Rxg3
This isn't absolutely necessary as black can play Re8 and allow Nxg4, hxg4. In this way the pawn structure would remain strong and have good chances of threats later on. On the other hand it's veyr passive and loses the initiative with which black hopes to force a quick win.
33. hxg3 Rxg3+
34. Kf2
A mistake. If I play Kh2 here then I am probably winning.
34. ... Rg2
35. Ke3 h4
36. Nf5 h3
37. Rh1 Ng4+
38. Kf4
I thought I couldn't play Kxe4 because of Nf2, but in fact after 39. Kxf3 Nxh1 40 Rxh1 I would just be a piece up.
38. ...e3
A bad mistake that should lose. We had made the time control at this point but neither of us were aware of that because we had stopped recording the moves so we continued to bash the moves out quickly.
39. Nxe3 Nxe3
40. Kxe3 f2
41. Rfe1 Rg1
42. Rxf2
The final, and worst, mistake. Rhxg1 is completely winning; 42. ... fxg1=Q 43. Rxg1 and the h pawn cannot promote giving white a trivial win.
42. ... Rxh1
43. Kf3 h2
44. Kg3 Rc1
In a slight state of shell shock, we agreed a draw. Both of us had winning chances and it was a great fighting game. One lesson learned was to leave enough time to at least record your moves at the end!

Club gets new digital clocks

Snodland has been awarded a grant from the Snodland Partnership to help us buy digital chess clocks to use in competition matches. We have decided to purchase the DGT 2010 clocks as shown below.

Inaugural Kent Blitz is success

Snodland Chess Club organised the inaugural Kent Blitz Chess Championship, which proved to be a great success.

The event was won by FM Martin Taylor of Rainham Chess Club with an extremely impressive 8.5/9. In second place was Ian Watson of Maidstone, Andrew Mayhew of Medway was third and the top placed Snodland player was Ben Spink in fourth place.

We hope to run the event again in the future. More details can be obtained from David Lettington at david_lettington@hotmail.com

Great start to 2010

Snodland have had a great start to 2010 with 8 straight match wins against other Kent clubs. Some excellent performances have seen the club move into contention for the Harvey Cup, Tom Fuller Cup and Intro Cup competitions.

After a terrible start to the Stevenson Cup campaign, the team have now recorded 3 straight wins to move to 50% for the season, which is a superb comeback. Congratulations to team captain Tyrone Jefferies and the rest of the squad.

We have also progressed to the Semi-Final of the National Club Championship Minor competition with a 2.5-1.5 win over Basingstoke.