Rip Van Winkle

The exertions of the day took their toll on Les Hall once again and he ended up in his usual coma whilst the play-off was taking place !!

Still Awake At This Point

But It Didn't Take Long !!

ZZZZZZZZZZZZ

South Potteries Rapidplay Championship

Yesterday's South Potteries Rapidplay Championship was a great success, with 19 players from 7 NSDCA clubs taking part. At the end of the 6 rounds there was a two way tie between Jacob Boswell of Cheddleton and Geoff Laurence of Macclesfield, with both of them on 5/6. There was then a 2 match play-off with 10 minutes on the clock, with Jacob Boswell emerging victorious by 2-0. 3rd place went to Martin Frischer of Crewe on 4.5/6. The whole event ran extremely well under the direction of Tournament Controller and Arbiter, Matthew Carr, and his assistant Victoria Dinoo, to whom we are extremely grateful. Next year's event has been pencilled in for Sunday 26th June.

The Play-Off

Trophy Presentation

Trophy Presentation

More photos from the event can be found here.

British Championships 2015

The British Championships in Coventry are fast looming and if you intend to enter any of the sections then please get your entry in by the 1st July or you will be incurring a late entry charge. There are a handful of NSDCA entrants at the moment, namely :

Jacob Boswell (Cheddleton)    U14 and U15 Sections
Carl Gartside (Cheddleton)       U180, Week 1 PM Open and Weekend Open Sections
Simon Edwards (Cheddleton)   Weekend Open Section
Roger Edwards (Cheddleton)   Weekend Open Section
Rob Taylor (Fenton)                  Weekend U150 Section
Steve Emmerton (Fenton)         U140 Section

South Potteries Rapidplay Championship

Details of entrants, results, etc., etc. can now been found here.

Chess Arbiter's Documentation

In preparation for the Arbiter's Course in September, Matthew Carr has asked me to provide a link to the documentation that will be used. You can click here to view/print/download it. As this documentation should be of use to all players, whether you are intending to become an Arbiter or not, I am leaving a permanent link to it on the left hand side of the page.

County AGM

The County AGM is being held at Stafford Chess Club on Wednesday 22nd July. All members of all clubs are invited to attend and vote.

Newcastle Rapidplay Jamboree

This year's Rapidplay Jamboree is being held at Newcastle Bridge Club on Friday 3rd July. As usual there will be 2 sections - Open and U130. Entry fee is £1 per team. Entries to Martyn Harris as soon as possible please.

Keith Arkell Simultaneous

Ray Hyde has submitted the following report on Monday evening's simultaneous display by GM Keith Arkell :

2014 was Fenton Chess Club’s 20^th anniversary. At the Club’s AGM it was agreed that we should hold a special event to celebrate this landmark.  I offered to explore various suggestions from the members. These included a chess tournament, a guest lecture, a dinner etc. At this time GM Keith Arkell, one of my chess heroes, was blazing a trail, winning the European Senior Championship and eventually coming second in the World Senior Championship, albeit with the same score as the winner. I also possessed his very telling and fascinating autobiography, “Arkell’s Odyssey” which revealed a lot about Keith and also his approach to chess.

It occurred to me that Keith might agree to give a simultaneous display at the Club in 2015. I managed to track him down via email when he was halfway through the World Senior Championships taking place in Greece. He expressed an interest immediately and said he would like to take it further after “this old gits’ tournament”. Keith’s words not mine!

We were fortunate when one of the Club’s members, Steven Walley of Attingham Consulting Engineers, agreed to sponsor the proposed event. This paved the way for me to agree fee, expenses and date with Keith; the plan being that he would pop up to Fenton, give his grandmaster performance and then return to sunny Paignton. It didn’t quite work out like that.

Firstly, Keith had anticipated there would be minimal interest and he expected only a few participants, perhaps a maximum of 12 to 15 boards. However Fenton members had drummed up business and entries came in from across Clubs in North Staffs and even one from Gateshead. In addition 2 non-attached chess-players entered. Mainly because of the room limit we closed the entries at 28 boards. Keith was monitoring progress on the Fenton website, where Steve Emmerton, our Secretary and Webmaster, had listed all the entrants. At this stage I must pay tribute to Keith’s enthusiasm for the project. He confirmed he was delighted that so many wished to take part and then, generously, suggested White on alternate boards, no maximum grade limit and finally the introduction of clocks at the point when only 3 boards were still playing. I doubt that many GMs would be as accommodating as this.

Secondly, I had noticed that The Leek Rapidplay was scheduled for the day before our own event and mentioned this to Keith. He duly entered this competition and won it outright as a warm-up for the simul the following day. As we were to find out, this achievement hadn’t drained his energy for grinding out wins.

 28 chess enthusiasts, ranging from ungraded (2 players) to 190+, and fortified with drinks from the bar and refreshments provided by several club members, set about the task of trying to bring down a GM. The event started punctually at 7.30 pm and concluded well after midnight. The GM certainly earned every penny for this event! Many of the games were exceedingly hard-fought, sadly not my own thanks to a strategic blunder which left me grovelling before the inevitable coup-de-grace. Keith remarked that several of the games had reached a high standard. After about an hour Keith won his first game, after which resignations came in quite regularly. By about 11.00 pm, Keith had conceded one draw and was down to fewer than 10 opponents. Most of these remaining games seemed to me to be either difficult, unfathomable middle-games or endgames which looked balanced or dead drawn, at least they would have been at Club level.  However, Keith Arkell has a richly deserved reputation for his endgame play and won several more games with great technique and huge determination. As the numbers dwindled the GM conceded 2 more draws, at which point, just before midnight (!) the clocks were introduced, 5 minutes each, for the blitz finish for the remaining 3 boards. It was an awesome sight   to see a GM playing simultaneous blitz against good club players.. As his time ran down Keith conceded his fourth draw. At the end of a very long, exhausting evening and at approximately 10 minutes past midnight he defeated his final 2 opponents.

The final score: played 28, won 24, drawn 4. The duration of the event: 5 hours! Many congratulations to Gerald Acey (Stafford), Roger Edwards (Cheddleton), Karl Lockett (Crewe) and Glyn Valentine (Fenton) on achieving draws with such an uncompromising GM. Keith himself commented that their play had been of a high standard and well above what he had anticipated. Special mentions too for 78 year-old Bill Noble (Gateshead), who held on for 4 hours only to be finally outplayed in a balanced Rook and 3 Pawns endgame, and for Phil Cattermole (Macclesfield) who was last to finish and who eventually fell in the blitz finish. Phil said afterwards that he had never before played a blitz game!

Congratulations are due to Keith Arkell for the wonderful effort he put into making our 20^th anniversary such a memorable success. He set out to win every game at all costs and provided us all with a wonderful model of fighting chess. The event could not have happened without our sponsor, or without the cooperation of our host venue, the Florence Tennis and Bowling Club, who allowed the event to run well over its allotted time.

My own opinion?  A brilliant evening, a memorable event and I’m encouraged that we may be able to host something similar in 2016. Certainly our sponsor is keen and I hope the word gets round the GM circuit that this is one event to be welcomed, albeit that the GM will well and truly have to earn his or her fee!!

Photos from the evening can be viewed here.

Keith Arkell with our sponsor Steven Walley

Keith Arkell Simultaneous

Last night's simultaneous display by Keith Arkell was a resounding success. 28 players turned up to test themselves against him and Keith came away with a score of 24 wins, 4 draws and no losses. Ray Hyde will be doing a full report on the event shortly but, in the meantime, this photo of Les Hall shows the level of excitement generated during the evening !!

Arbiter Training Course

Anybody interested in becoming qualified as an Arbiter ?

An Arbiter training weekend has been organised for Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 September 2015.  The course will be held at the Rycroft Community Hub, New Forest Road, Walsall.  The fee to take part is £20.  The lecturer will be David Welch, ECF Chief Arbiter. Further information from Matthew Carr - Tel: 07578 163901.

South Potteries Rapidplay Championship

Entries to the South Potteries Rapidplay Championship are now closed.

South Cheshire Shield

Newcastle  2.5  Alsager  1.5

Newcastle started their defence of the South Cheshire Shield last night with a 2.5 - 1.5 win against Alsager. The grades shown on the score sheet are the January 2015 grades.

South Potteries Rapidplay Championship

16 of the 20 available places in the South Potteries Rapidplay Championship have now been taken, leaving only 4 available, so please contact me asap if you wish to take part.

South Potteries Rapidplay Championship

This is a new event, with entries restricted to 20 people. It is being held at Fenton Chess Club on Sunday 28th June, starting at 10:30 and running until about 5:00. It will be a 5 round Swiss competition with 30 minutes on the clock for each player. We are not using Fischer timing so there will be no 10 second increments. All games will be graded and the Tournament Controller will be ECF Arbiter Matthew Carr. There is an entry fee of £3 and the winner will receive a trophy and a medal, the trophy to be held for one year. If anybody is interested in playing then please contact Steve Emmerton as soon as possible. You can view the current list of entrants from the tab at the top of the page.

NSDCA AGM

The NSDCA AGM will take place @ Fenton Chess Club on Monday 13th July. Any proposals for consideration at the meeting should be sent, either in writing or by email, to Robert Milner by the 15th June at the latest - ie : 28 days before the AGM.

ECF Handbook Of Rules

Following last night's EGM I was asked to provide a link to the ECF Handbook Of Rules. This link now appears beneath the FIDE Laws Of Chess on the left hand side of the page. These rules are dated August 2013 and have been confirmed by the ECF as the latest copy.

NSDCA Match Score Card

Following last night's EGM I was asked to provide a link to download or print an NSDCA match score card. You can now find this link on the right hand side of the page. The columns will automatically expand to hold the data that you enter.

NSDCA EGM

Just a reminder that the NSDCA Extraordinary General Meeting is taking place this Thursday @ Fenton Chess Club, starting @ 7:30. This meeting is to to discuss the proposed changes to the Constitution and League Playing Rules so it is important that your club sends a representative. Robert Milner has distributed all of the relevant documentation to Club Secretaries. If you haven't received this documentation then please let Robert or myself know.

South Cheshire Shield 2015

This year's South Cheshire Shield will only be contested by 3 teams - Newcastle, Crewe and Alsager. The fixtures can be found from the tab at the top of the page and have also been added to the NSDCA Calendar.