Season news 2013-4
| For recent news see home page. Most recent items at the top of this page. | |
City players at Worcester Open13 Jul. Five City players participated. Highest scoring was Rob Sutton in the Intermediate with 3 points. David Roberst scored 2½ in the Major. Andrew Farthing and Ray Collett helped organise the congress. |
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Worcester players in France.14 Jun. Three members of Worcester City went with Worcester City Twinning Association to play at Le Vésinet, a suburb of Paris. After some warm up games, a European team - Gerard Schmidt, a German master of Correspondaence Chess, Ray Collett, Roger Yates and Pat Greenow (all Worcester City club) played an open-air consultation game with Christophe Imbert, president of Club d'Échecs du Vésinet and strong player Paul Sanglier. The Europeans just lost on time with a drawn position on the board. This game was followed by a small international bliz tournament. The tournament was won by Steve Jessell (IRL) and best placed English player, Ray Collett was mid-table. See full report on Club d'Échecs du Vésinet website. |
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Dramatic end to 2014 club championship22 May. In the final Nick Harris faced Ray Collett playing white. Collett opened cautiouskly playing a restrained King's Indian Attack, but misjudged the position allowing black to build up a small positional advantage. Play became complex and Collett offered a pawn for activity. Play speeded up as players raced to meet the time control. A small inaccuracy fully justified white's provocative play and white's active pieces netted a pawn. Harris, getting short of time exchanged the heavy pieces. Collett failed to play an important central break after these exchanges allowing Harris to build a fortress. Collett futilely marched his king across the board only to find further progress was impossible on that side of the board and retraced his steps. At this stage, black claimed a draw because white had not made progress. The game had to be sent to an arbiter for a decision. After consultation, the arbiter decided that the draw could not be upheld and the game was awarded to white and Ray Collett retained the championship. |
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Steve Mellor wins 2014 Worcester City Club Rapidplay title15 May. Rob Sutton, playing white, faced Steve Mellor's trade mark Caro-Kann in the Rapidplay final. Rob deviated from theory by launching an attack with his king-side pawns. Steve blocked their advance and had better piece play in the middle game piling up pressure on Rob's weak queen-side pawn. Once this pawn had been captured, Rob's position fell apart and he resigned before Steve's forces moved in for the kill. |
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Annual meeting on 29 May12 May, Andrew Farthing reports. The annual general meeting will be held on the last Thursday in May, the 29th. Please note the club is not meeting on 22 May because the venue is in use for the elections. |
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Worcester City Club finalists named8 May. The club championship final is between Nick Harris and Ray Collett and the Raidplay final is between Rob Sutton and Steve Mellor. in the second semi-final of the Rapidplay, Steve Mellor beat Ray Collett. |
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City player wins district Ball Cup24 Apr. In the final of the Ball Cup, Ray Collett beat Peter Seeley at Redditch in a complicated game where the city player had to play a pseudo-sacrifice to maintain equality. Worcester secretary Andrew Farthing writes: "The recent tradition of Worcester City players dominating the Ball Cup continues." |
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All-play-all and Rapidplay semi-finalists announced14 Apr, Rob Sutton reports. In the Club Championship, the semifinals are: Ray Collett - Rob Sutton and Nick Harris - David Roberts. In the Rapidplay Championship the pairings are: Steve Mellor - Ray Collett and Rob Sutton - David Roberts. Players in these games should toss for colour. See report of results at end of the all-play-all stages. |
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Jim Keene wins Blitz tournament13 Feb. Jim Keene secured an easy win over Ray Collett in the final. David Roberts was third and Nick Harris fourth. See picture and details. |
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Rob Sutton has big gain in January rating list27 Jan. In the January rating list published by the English Chess Federation, Rob gained 16 points. The club's leading players, Peter Kitson and Stephen Mellor are now level and John Hesketh is a new entry at 85. | |
Worcester out of Wheatley Cup27 Jan. By a the slender margin of 0.08 Worcester lost on handicap to Shirley & Wythall in the quarter final. Over the boards the result was 2½ - 2½. | |
City team has easy win away against Halesowen7 Jan. Worcester won 5 - 1 in the Worcestershire League Division I. | |
City club rides high in leagues at end of 201324 Dec. With all 2013 fixtures completed, Worcester Bishops head the Worcester & District League and Worcester Pawns lead Division 2. In the Worcestershire County League, the City team are placed second close behind Malverm. | |
| 26 Nov. Andrew Farthing has donated his collection of 1980s graphic novels and over a thousnd books to St Richard's Hospice bookshop. Read the full story and see the picture on Worcester News. | |
City team lose out to Malvern22 Nov. In the county league away fixture the team lost 2½ - 3½ with all except board 4 ending in draws. | |
City team draw with Redditch A14 Nov. A quick loss on board 1 boded ill-fortune for the team in this match, but the scores were evened by a fine win from Jim Keene on board 4. David Roberts on board 3 won, but Redditch won on board 2 with a couple of minutes to spare. | |
Worcester and District teams on winning form28 Oct. Both the Pawns and Bishops have played their first matches. The Bishops secured a win away against Malvern and the Pawns have defeated both Hagley and Droitwich. | |
Collett new club champion19 Sep. With the finalists David Roberts and Ray Collett drawing both of their standardplay games, the championship had to be decided by an blitz Armageddon game with Andrew Farthing acting as Arbiter.. Roberts won the toss and opted to play white with 6 minutes to complete his game. Collett, playing black, had only 5 minutes but enjoyed the advantage of the draw. The opening transposed into a Queen's Gambit Declined. Roberts advanced his c-pawn and soon dominated the queen-side. It looked all over for Collett as white gained black's a-pawn, and white's heavy artillery commanded the open b-file. Black clung on, but lost the exchange and was behind on time when Roberts missed a knight sacrifice with a discovered attack on his queen. Collett mopped up concluding with queen and bishop up against a rook and plenty of time | |
League 2013-4 fixtures published18 Sep. Click the "City Teams" button above to see all the dates. | |
Club finalists draw again16 Sep. After the drawn game in the final on 5 Sep (see below), David Roberts and Ray Collett, played a return standard play game hosted by Droitwich club. Roberts played his usual English Opening and Collett responded with an Indian set-up. By the early middle game white had had a slight bind on the position and chose a knight pseudo-sacrifice completely unsettling his opponent. Exchanges led to a position where white could win a pawn, but Roberts chose perhaps the wrong move order, allowing black to bail out with doubled isolated queenside pawns and no immediate material disadvantage. In the queen and double rook middlegame that followed, it proved hard for white to exploit his positional advantage until Roberts forced the exchange of queen and rook to give a rook-and-pawn ending a pawn up. Collett had the more active rook and white's rook was awkwardly placed in front of a passed pawn. Shortly after pawns were exchanged on the king side, players found that white could repeat position or admit the loss of the extra pawn. Roberts and Collett agreed the draw and must now play an Armageddon game to decide the championship. | |
English Chess Federation10 Sep Andrew Farthing reports.Players who wish to pay their 2013-4 season ECF fees through the club and Worcs CA as last year may do so by 17 October and are eligible for the £1 discount. The good news is that the discounted fees have not increased from last year: Bronze £12; Silver £18; Gold £27; Platinum £59. For junior players the discounted fees are: Bronze £8; Silver £12; and Gold £21. Players who are not members of the ECF must pay Game Fee at the rate of £2 for each competitive game played (£1 for rapidplay games) in leagues, the club championship and chess congresses (junior-only events at reduced rates). | |
Hard fought draw in championship final5 Sep. On the first night back at winter HQ in St Stephen's Church Hall, David Roberts and Ray Collett played the delayed final of the 2012-3 club championship. In an unusual line of the Winawer Variation of the French Defence, Roberts, playing black, forced the gain of a pawn in the early stages. Thereafter Collett worked hard to maintain activity in a queenless middlegame where black had a rook and two pawns for two bishops. One pawn fell fairly easily and then Collett set up a blockade on the queenside against black's passed connected a- and b-pawns. Roberts attempted to open the king's side but could find nothing better than to repeat the position after fifty moves had been played. The draw means the two players face each other again at standard play, and will have to decide the title by a fast game if the second is also drawn. | |
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