Chess Updates 20/9/21

Club Updates

Chess Ladder

The first week was fairly quiet with three games battling it out. I managed to keep hold of the top stop, despite two bad moves and a drawn game at the end (thanks for pointing it out Steve!), as time got the better of his Jonathan. In the U1400 ladder, there was no word from Tomasz when Ieuan challenged and unfortunately Lisa has been too busy thank to moving into university so both Ieuan and Andrew Powell move up.

960Chess

The 960chess tournament starts this week, have fun anyone who’s playing. Everyone has been included into the fixtures – if you don’t fancy playing its no biggy, the games will just be default.

Cameron has taken the first points of the tournament, even offering to re-play his game should his opponent not feel up to it. What a gentleman! In the first group, Andrew has decided not to take part so James takes a freebie! Whoohoo!

New interest

We’ve had more interest in the club from a young 13 year old named Sean. First contact has been made!

Bad news

Unfortunately, Ieuan is no longer moving down Neath way so he won’t be able to move into the now thriving OTB club. He’s asked if he can stay in the online club until he gets sorted out with a group in Newport and, seeing as Ieuan has participated greatly in our club, I’m sure you agree there is no reason why he shouldn’t.

Daily chess

Thanks to my blunder in the open, I’ve made it harder for Jonathan to get the team the win. Thankfully, he’s a point up in both games despite his opponent being 86 points higher. He truly is the star of our team.

In the U1800, Andrew Powell has now taken a two point lead in both of his games. With the match 4 – 4 and his being the final games played, it looks like we might be edging toward a draw or win. Keep up the fight Andrew!

Our U1400 against Romania sees Ieuan hammering his opposition (Geto-Daci) and having to plod two pawns onward toward the end of the board whilst Geto-Daci is pretty much waiting for the end. Unfortunately, the match is already lost but at least Ieuan is going to give us a bit more satisfaction in the scores being not so far away from each other.

The second U1400 match has started against the Arizona team, with Michael slipping into our team when it was just about to start. Phew! We’re out graded on every board but we do have some secret weapons and our lower boards are coming on all the time. The Arizona team might just get a bit of a surprise. Good luck to Michael, Andrew Davies, Greg, Dave and Cam.

 The U1000 against Russia sees Josh finish off his opponent in one of the games as he moves toward a win (five points up) in the second. If he triumphs it will not only see the team win but he’ll cement his move up to the U1400 team. Well done!

Finally, as the old U1000 match is coming to an end, a new one has been set up with another ten days to sign up for it. Cam has already jumped on board but we need at least four players to carry out the match.

Online tutoring

The online chess tutoring has started and seems to be going well. Steve is helping out Andrew Davies improve his game (Andrew is one of our strongest – if not the strongest – newcomer so he’s been signed up with our best player), I am tutoring Dale and I am sure someone else is being tutored. Thank you also to Jonathan, Michael and Greg to offer help with the tutoring too. Remember it’s an easy process: play an unrated game and they’ll offer tips in the chat as you go along. Simple as that.

Chat and notifications

Please remember that the notifications are for announcing games in the ladder that have been declare (ie been confirmed), chess news and other important notifications. We opened the group so those who aren’t interested in too many pings can remove notifications from the chat. Sorry to be a pain.

OTB

The club was fantastic last week, with an amazing 17 players coming along! Despite covid rules there was still plenty of chat and many of the more experienced players offered help the newer attendees.

It was amazing to see four juniors coming along (five if Sean joins) so thank you to Toria and Michael for encouraging your kids and their friends into the game. I’ve been trying to do that for the last year and my youngest but one just won’t go for it :’-(.

We should have another few players coming along tomorrow so there are large discussions about how the club is going to progress. There was no hassle with money, despite only coins being taken, and I should imagine we’ll be moving over to the easier option of standard order in a few week’s time.

Finally, there is even discussion of the West Wales Chess League starting up again in January.