Worcestershire Chess Association
Worcestershire Chess Association |
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Published 5 October 2014
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Worcestershire teams 2013-4SummaryThe county entered two teams in the Midland Counties tournaments to compete for entry to the national stages. The Open team competed in Division 2 for a place in the Minor Counties and there was one grade-restricted team in the under-120. Unfortunately no one was able to replace Giles Stanton, who stepped down from the u140 captaincy at the end of last year. The Open team fared badly losing its matches to Midlands County Champions Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Greater Manchester. The under-120 team also fared poorly and for the first time in many years Worcestershire did not have a team in the national stages. See below for all results a and links to details. Minor Counties teamThe Midlands counties competition returned to its previous format of East and West Zones followed by Interzonal matches. This had the effect of pitching Worcestershire against more populous and stronger counties. Although match results were poor, defeats were by narrow margins. Ray Collett was captain.
2013-4 season5 Oct. Worcestershire-Warwickshire. An exciting match with two early upsets. Worcestershire started in the lead helped by a default, but a Worcestershire players' mobile sounded after about half an hour's play and the scores were level. Play was even on most of the boards for a considerable time and as results came it it was clear there would be a close result as predicted from the grades of the players in the two teams. The final three boards to finish were boards 1, 7 and 8. In a difficult minor piece ending the Warks player foiled Charles Higgie's attempts to win. On board 1, Pavel Besedin was material ahead and the game finished with only a few minutes left when his opponent allowed a double attack. The match result now depended on the Hickey-Bethel encounter. In a king and pawn ending Hickey promoted first, but Bethel had several connected advanced passed pawns and chances of a win. The queen, however, eventually triumphed with only seconds on Hickey's clock. Full results are on the MCCU website. 2 Nov. Worcestershire-Greater Manchester. The result was close, but the Mancunians led from start to finish in spite of Worcester wins in the last games to finish. The Mancunians were hampered by delays on the M6 travelling south and several team members, including their captain, were absent at the start of play. The first games to finish were all draws and the first decisive stroke was Andrew Horton's win for Manchester on board 1. Manchester then maintained and extended their lead, but Worcestershire kept in touch. Alan Smith sealed the team win with his game on board 3, which was just as well because Worcester's Peter Kitson had only to avoid perpetual check to win on board 5. Full results are on the MCCU website. 7 Dec. Worcestershire-Staffordshire. This was the only true home match of the season and Worcestershire fielded the strongest team this season in terms of grading. Against the Midlands champions, however, this was not enough. Staffordshire went into the lead with an early win on board 8 followed by a win on board 1. Worcester players made a number of draws before going further behind. Worcester's only win was a remarkable game by John Edge who lost a piece in the early middlegame yet secured a win with a queen and advanced pawn against rook, knight and bishop. Nick Arkell battled to squeeze a win out of his pawn advantage, but his opponent was able to demonstrate a drawn king versus king and h-pawn ending after the last piece was exchanged. Full results are on the MCCU website.
Under-120 teamThe team failed to score match points and finished bottom of the table. On th first a closest match result, both teams defaulted board 5.
5 Oct. The away Warwickshire match was played alongside the Minor counties match and Worcestershire ran local rivals very closely. Team results in 2012-3
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