Rej's Ramblings

The first half of the season came to an end with the annual Charity Handicap Rapidplay, held at the home of Morriston Chess , the Visteon Club, Treboeth. This is the event, with ten minutes each on the clock, in which players are handicapped to compensate for their strength as shown by the difference in grading between them and their opponents. A player might, for example, play without one rook and one knight, which is a great leveller and always produces upsets. This year the fastest game to finish was between Richard E. Jones, graded 1587 and Eva Los, just starting out on 999. Jones played without a rook and his b pawn but within 6 moves the game was made irretrievable when he dropped his queen as well!

Top rated, Richard S. Jones, 2336, also struggled against a member of the Los family, Sietse,1481, but managed to survive into and endgame when he was able, at last, to turn the tables. Things took an ominous turn as Jones manage to churn out further wins in rounds 3 and 4 against Bob Moore and Ralph Cook. At this point only two other players, Alan ‘Speedy’ Young of White Knights and Glyn Sinnett, Nidum, remained on maximum points. Young had got there with wins against Jeff Burrows, Nidum, Mike Cleaves, Swansea Valley and David Merryweather, Briton Ferry. Sinnett scored against Joram Los, Upper Killay, June Evans, Upper Killay and Sietse Los.

In round 4, Jones finally met his nemesis in the shape of club mate Glyn Sinnett. Young’s run was halted by Ralph Cook, Upper Killay, who held him to a draw. The final, then took place between Young and Sinnett with Young’s win taking him clear of the rest of the field. Joining Sinnett in second place was Mike Cleaves on the strength of three straight wins against June Evans, Joe Spooner and Richard S. Jones. [ see pic L to R Glyn Sinnett, Alan Young, Mike Cleaves ] Four players finished in joint fourth place, Jason Garcia, White Knights, Bob Moore, Nidum, Ralph Cook and remarkably after his first round debacle, Richard E. Jones, Swansea Valley. The Tournament raised over £100 for a local charity.

Flu has taken its toll this week with as many as four fixtures postponed and re-arranged for early in the second half of the season.

In the First Division of the West Wales League SV Capablanca picked up 2 valuable points away to Morriston A. First to finish on top board, John Trevelyan made short work of Chris Howell. On board 5, Alan Williams walked into a deadly pin and a situation in which all his major pieces were tied down in a futile effort to defend his beleaguered king against Richard Jones. The game between Mike Kearn and Adrian Davies on three was looking fairly even until Davies blundered in spectacular fashion and resigned without further ado. With the match settled the games between Malcolm Jones and Neil Stuart on two and Ian Eustis and Mike Cleaves on three were soon settled as draws.

SV Dynamos made a fight of it at home to Division 2 leaders, White Knights B. Forced to re-shuffle the board order when their board 1 failed to put in an appearance Dynamos defaulted on three. On board one, Richard Jones threw the kitchen sink at Dave Buttel’s king, but failed to break through or recover sacrificed material and resigned on the first time control. Steve Edwards, playing his last game for the Knights before moving to Upper Killay was happy to take a draw from Albert Easton two. The point was also shared between Aled George and Emrys Davies on four. Julie Ward fell foul of the Joe Spooner jinx on bottom board to level the match scores over the boards. The Dynamos will rue an expensive default in a match they might otherwise have won.

Rhyddings A picked up their second win of the season at home to UK Kestrels. Peter Thomas had to settle for a draw against Alan Xiao on top board. Gary Harber and Ken Huntley made all the difference with wins on boards two and three against Roshan Daniel and Cecil Rowland, Honours even on four between Alan Rosser and Daniel Anantharaj. June Evans scored Kestrels’ only win against Lee Godfrey on bottom board.

White Knights D are really running away with Division 3, extending their lead even further after a comprehensive win over second placed UK Harriers. Steve Edwards beat Alan Welch on top board. Aled George made it two against Daniel Anantharaj on two.
Julie Ward made sure of the match with a win over Ken. James on three. Guto Llewellyn’s draw with June Evans on four spared the Harriers total embarrassment. Jonathan. Jones completed the rout against Janet Evans on bottom board.

In a Minor League fixture re-arranged from December 4^th, Briton Ferry Giants lost out at home to BV Squires. Uthandi Jambulingham made a good start with a win over Adam Lewis on top board. Raja Jambulingham drew with Alwin Thomas on two. Squires claimed the 2 points with wins on three and four with Jack Brenton and Gabriel Cura beating Aaron Lloyd-Thorne and Ben Field.

Bishop Vaughan were first past the turning point in the Secondary Schools’ League with the A team celebrating with a whitewash over the Bs. Sam Pritchard, Sam Young, Alwin Thomas and Adam Nowicki were too strong for Ian Remot, Nicholas Hughes, Jack Brenton and Shaun Pritchard.

Martyn Griffiths is the first of the Divisional controllers to release up to date stats, in his case for Division 3. As might be expected, half of the top players are provided by White Knights who have totally dominated the division. Importantly, three of the top list are juniors making their mark in competitive league chess.
Leading Players:

The best individual wins were provided by Clive Gosling, who made up 368 points to topple David Merryweather, Eva Los, bridging a gap of 272 to beat Nick Hale, Alwin Thomas who made little of a 260 difference against Mike Osbourne and Eva Los again making up 257 against John Porter.

The five best draws are headed by Alwin Thomas making up 438 points to hold Tony Scanes. Phillipe Rodgers bridged a gap of 298 to share the point with Peter Thomas. Martin Watt was 270 points behind Julie Ward. June Evans, 227 worse off than Lee Godfrey and Wayne Prescott 216 behind Steve Edwards.

White Knights A maintained their lead in Division 1 of the West Wales League with a home win over CN Emperors. The final 4 - 1 score line disguised a much closer game. Alan Young was held to a draw on top board by Matthew Davies. Adam May had to concede a half to Carl Davies on 2. The Knights took the remaining games. Mark Thomas continued his winning run with a point against Martyn Griffiths on 3. Jason Garcia beat Hywel Griffiths on 4 and David Guy won against Steve Smith on bottom board.

Nidum A kept in touch by beating bottom of the table White Knights B. On board 1 Richard Jones beat Alan Young in an Alekhine Defence. Young, who had dropped down to beef up the B team, held a small edge from the opening, but due to his weak pawn structure and his opponent’s superior endgame technique, Jones brought the full point home. Alekhine’s Defence also figured on board 2. Alan Bennett held a nice advantage from the queenless middlegame - Craig Evans fought tenaciously and probably deserved the draw, but in time trouble he went astray and lost. On 3 Mark Thomas completely squeezed the life out of Andrew Gibbon‘s with a Closed Sicilian and won convincingly. Glyn Sinnett and Keith Downey contested a QGD Exchange. Downey missed several winning chances after Sinnett went wrong in a slightly better position. The resulting double rook and knight ending was agreed drawn. Bob Moore defeated Dave Buttell in a Exchange. Buttell had the better of the opening, turned down a draw by repetition, then blundered a piece and the game.

Morriston A turned out in full strength to take on Nidum B and claimed both points as a result. Ian Jones disposed of Bob Moore after Moore blundered his bishop early on and never got back into it. Peter Bevan could only take a half from Glyn Sinnett after a Dutch White in which he had a small edge from the opening. Proceedings were called to a halt just before major piece swap off in centre. Chris Howells played a French against Dennis Jones who replied with the Advanced Variation. The resulting double edged game was agreed drawn as an opposite coloured bishop ending loomed. Malcolm Jones built up massive pressure down the d file in a Queen‘s Gambit against Kelvin Haines and ended things with forced mate on g7. Ian Eustis won the exchange in the middlegame of a Slav against Jeff Burrows then never looked back.

Division 2 leaders White Knights C paid the penalty for a bottom board default when they travelled to Morriston B. Steve Edwards held Ian Eustis to a draw on top board. Malcolm Probert lost to Brian Tonks on 2.Sam Pritchard got no change from Aled George on 3. Julie Ward made sure of at least a point by beating John Ward on 4.

UK Falcons gained ground with a home win against bottom of the table Rhyddings A. Fred Clough took board 1 against Gary Harber. Ralph Cook was held to a draw by Ken Huntley on 2 and although Alan Rosser pulled a point back for the Brynmill boys against Bill Flew, Alan Xiao and Sietse Los guaranteed both points with wins over Roy Morgan and Norman Speak on the bottom boards.

SV Dynamos gained two valuable points away to Morriston C in spite of being one player short. Joe Spooner and Emrys Davies won quickly against Steve Duffy and John Ward. Richard Jones had the upper hand against Les Philpin, but settled for the half and Sam Pritchard and Albert Easton quickly followed suite.

In Division 3, leaders White Knights D gave bottom club, Rhyddings B a thumping. Peter Thomas saved his team’s blushes with a draw against Aled George on top board. The Knights cleaned up on the remaining boards. Adam Jones beat Lee Godfrey on 2. Julie Ward won against John Porter on 3. Richie Williams and Jonathan Jones finished the job against Norman Speak and Mike Osborn on the bottom boards. UK Harriers leap frogged over CN Senators after winning the away match against their rivals. Steve Smith scored Senators’ only win against Alan Welch on top board. James Silk was held to a draw by Nick Hale on 2. Eric Blackwell scored another half against Ken James on 4. Cecil Rowland and June Evans took the remaining games against John Davies and Larry James on 3 and 5. UK Hawks won at home to BV Rooks. Rooks won on top boards with Phillipe Rodgers and Daniel Wilmot defeating Nick Hale and Clive Gosling. On the bottom boards Hawks reigned supreme with June and Janet Evans and Gwyn Rhys Jones all winning against Martin Watt, Sam Young and A. Lewis.

            UK Kites lost out to BV Abbots in the Minor League. Kynan Eastwood and Jack Brenton took the to boards against Morgan Taylor and D. Taylor. Gabriel Cura won on board 3 against Jonathan Bright-Key. Jonathan Eddyshaw score Kites’ only point against Michael Cura on 4. CN Centurions had a bad day at the office at home to BV Friars. Yean Ha, Alex Dowling and Dylan Matthews got no joy out of Jack Brenton, Gabriel Cura and Michael Cura. Only a bottom board default by Friars saved the whitewash. BF Giants delivered the only whitewash of the week at home to CN Legionnaires. Colin Chambers, Uthandi Jambulingham, Meurig Jones and Raja Jambulingham took all the points against Angharad Jenkins, Daniel Cook, Jack Salter and Alex Dowling.

            The second round of the E.J. Clarke Tournament had to cope with a heating failure in Briton Ferry Constitutional Club, with players competing in hats, coats and gloves. Only 3 players remain on 100% in the Major. Fred Clough beat Steve Edwards after a long fight. Mike Cleaves outplayed Andrew Fraser Cole in a rook and pawn endgame and Peter Thomas got the better of Bill Flew. Roshan Daniel remains in hot pursuit half a point behind the leaders after Dave Buttell defaulted. Brian Tonks drew with Andrew Smith. Les Philpin got off the mark with a win against Andrew Trickey. The games between Ralph Cook and Sietse Los and between Albert Easton and Sam Pritchard are to be re-arranged.

            Ken James is in the lead on his own in the Minor Section after a lucky when against Jerry Zhou when the youngster, who had outplayed him up to that point overlooked a simple back rank mate. Daniel Anantharaj, Cecil Rowland and Phillipe Rodgers share second spot. Rowland and Anantharaj drew their game. Rogers defeated Joram Los. June Evans drew with Clive Gosling. Daniel Wilmot beat Norman Speak. Four games are due to be re-arranged….

J Ward v E Blackwell
J Spooner v E Los
Janet Evans v A Welch
P Bevan v M Pritchard.

Jeff Jones and Alan Xiao have withdrawn from the event. West Wales players will be saddened to hear of Jeff’s illness and will be wishing him the best. All postponed game have to be play by 20^th January 2009. If not the player who cancelled the game
will lose.

In Division 1 of the West Wales League, CN Emperors slipped up at home to a full strength Morriston A. Matthew Davies lost to Ian Jones on top board, The middle order all ended honours even. Carl Davies was held by Chris Howells. Hywel Griffiths had an excellent result against Peter Bevan as did Steve Smith against Malcolm Jones. Ian Eustis finally tipped the scales in favour of Morriston by beating Wayne Prescott on bottom board.

White Knights B gained a precious point at home to Nidum B. Jason Garcia had to settle for a ½ against Glyn Sinnett In a Lasker Pelikan set-up without e4 - Sinnett had a small edge early on, but once a pair of central pawns were exchanged, the opposite coloured bishop ending was always heading for a draw. David Guy lost to Andrew Gibbons after a Nimzo-Indian Qc2 . Gibbons had a small edge and after a lot of play, was a pawn up at the time control. when Guy went astray and lost deep into the end of the game. Huw Morcom won a pawn before the time control in a Queen’s Pawn against Andrew Gibbons, but early in the second time control blundered his bishop. The knight and one pawn vs 3 pawns ending was won for white. Mark Thomas’s second game since his return to Welsh chess resulted in a win against Dennis Jones. In a Sicilian Closed Jones missed a win of a pawn in the middlegame in an equal position, but in time control, blundered a bit. Keith Downey pulled a point back against Kelvin Haines. A Torre resulted in an equal position, but Haines then lost the exchange and the game.

In Division 2, SV Capablanca lost narrowly at home to UK Falcons. Joe Spooner struck first for the Valley by beating Janet Evans on bottom board. Richard Jones was always under pressure against Fred Clough on 1, but clung on until he had a choice between losing a piece or being checkmated. Albert Easton went for an attack against Ralph Cook on two, but Cook defended accurately and went for a draw once the pressure was relieved. Tony Goodchild also had to settle for a half on 3 against Bill Flew. Andrew Trickey fought to the bitter end against Cecil Rowland, but was always hard pressed in the endgame, a bishop for a pair of pawns down and the match was finally settled in favour of the Falcons.

UK Kestrels enjoyed success against Morriston C. Roshan Daniel and Dave Conway agreed a draw on top board. Sam Pritchard rode his luck on board 2 against Nick Hale. He lost the exchange not only once, but twice, then turned the tables when Hale, in time trouble just before the first control, allowed a knight fork of his king and queen. Play continued for some moves, but the result was never in doubt after that. As far as Morriston was concerned, luck was in short supply on the remaining boards with Cecil Rowland, Daniel Anantharaj and Ken James cleaning up against John Ward, Steve Duffy and Mark Pritchard.

White Knights D have games in hand over their nearest rivals in Division 3, but they have no intention of letting up, chalking up another win at home to UK Hawks. Adam Jones beat Nick Hale on top board. Skipper, Julie Ward, took a point from Clive Gosling on 2. Richard Williams made it three in a row against Joram Los on 3. June Evans marked up the Hawks’ only win on 4 against Guto Llewellyn. Jonathon Jones finished it off against Jerry Zhou on bottom board. UK Harriers did clubmates Eagles no favours in their closely fought home derby. Mark Wilson defeated Clive Gosling on 1. Janet Evans pulled a point back with an excellent win against Alan Welch on 2. June Evans and Morgan Taylor made sure of the 2 points with wins against James Eddyshaw and James Bright Key on 3 and 4. Stephen Wu’s win against D. Taylor on bottom board was some consolation. BV Rooks upset hosts Briton Ferry Brunel with a narrow win. The bottom board games were one sided affairs with Alyn Morris quickly overwhelming Nicholas Hughes and Alwin Thomas doing the same to Brian Morris. On board 2, eight minor pieces were quickly exchanged before Wilmot slipped up and allowed a fork of king and rook, which he never recovered from. Queens came off early between Meurig Jones and Adam Lewis. Lewis went a couple of pawns down then unwisely sacrificed a knight as well. Neither player found the best moves in the position. Lewis spurned various chances to regain his piece, or obtain perpetual check, but nevertheless pressed forward, so constricting his opponent’s king that he was even able to achieve checkmate with a simple pawn push to h6! On top board, in a Ruy

Lopez Steintz variation, David Merryweather played an early f5 against Phillipe Rodgers. Imprecise play by Merryweather enabled Rodgers to establish a passed pawn on a7, blocked by a black rook on a8 and supported by his own rook on a1. Merryweather threw the kitchen sink at the white king and even though most of the pieces were exchanged, he appeared to have broken through by pinning Rodgers’ rook to his queen. Rodgers calmly moved the pinned rook to give check on the back rank and it was recaptured by the rook from a8 allowing him to promote his pawn to a queen. He now had two queens on the board and both of them could be taken. More importantly, he was also threatening checkmate and Merryweather was left with little option other than to resign – a classic piece of finishing.

BV Monks were hard at work in the Minor League. Away to CN Barbarians, they came back with both points. Alex Dowling was the Barbarians’ only scorer, winning on 3 against Sam Lockley. Stephen Lockley, Ian Remot and Kynan Eastwood scooped the remainder of the points against James Ridgeway, Daniel Dowling and Angharad Jenkins. Against clubmates, Abbots, the Monks had to be satisfied with a draw. Jack Brenton beat Ian Remot on top board. Kynan Eastwood pulled a point back against Katie Treharne on 2. Michael Cura edged Abbots back in front with a win against Nicholas Hughes on 3, but a bottom board default cost the Abbots any chance of victory.

Round 2 of the E.J. Clarke Tournament will take place at Briton Ferry Chess Club on Thursday December 11^th. Controller, Ian Eustis has made the draw in both sections as follows:

Bob Moore, the organiser of the annual Charity Handicap Quickplay has released this year’s handicapping system in advance. All clubs have been asked to donate raffle prizes. There will be a 3 pound entry fee, ( mince pies to all ), and all proceeds go to charity. Anybody is welcome to play whether a member of a West Wales club or not. The handicap system with 10 mminutes each on the clock is...
Higher rated player loses (Piece) and plays (Color) as follows…
Less than 100 points Loses nothing but plays black.

100-199 points          Loses "b" pawn and plays white.
200-299 points            Loses "f" pawn and plays black.
300- 399 points           Loses "b" knight and plays white.
400- 499 points           Loses "b" knight and “b” pawn plays white.
500-599 points           Loses "a" rook* and plays white.
600-699 points        Loses "a" rook* and “b” pawn plays white.
700-799 points        Loses "a" rook* and "a" pawn and plays black.
800-899 points        Loses "c" bishop and "g" knight and plays black.
900-999 points        Loses "a" rook* and "g" knight and plays white.
1000 –1099 points   Loses "a" rook*, and "c" bishop and plays black.
1100-1199 points    Loses queen and plays white.
1200 – 1299 points  Loses queen and plays black.
1300- 1399 points    Loses both rooks* and plays white.
1400 points or more Loses both rooks* and plays black.

It’s that easy! So if you want to see chess at its maddest or have the chance to knock over a local giant + give to a good cause give Bob Moore a ring on 01639 711078 or e mail him at moore21uk@aol.com.

Wales completed their Olympic campaign last week [ see pic ] with a final round victory over Botswana. At the end of it all they had played 11, won 5, drawn 1 and lost 5. Seeded 98^th, the team finished equal 64^th, or 81^st on the tie break system , but whichever way, an excellent achievement. In particular, the top two boards, Richard Jones and Ioan Rees, faced with the toughest opposition, performed particularly well. Jones lost only once on board 1, always the one pressing for more in a number of the drawn games, beating one GM and scoring 50% against the 4 Gms he faced.. Ioan Rees, at one stage on course for an IM norm, in the end had to settle for a rating increase which will see him get an FM title. In In round 11, Alan Spice with the black pieces played his favourite Dutch, but in the middlegame his opponent, Gaealashwe won bishop + knight for rook. The game meandered on, but as more pieces came off it was clear that as soon as Spice’s attacking gestures subsided and the bishop + knight + queen re-grouped with Spice’s king helpless.

Richard Jones met a Caro Kann Nxf6, exf6, and soon reached a queen + rook + bishop ending in which he was effectively a pawn up on the q-side, whilst Ignatius Njobvu had doubled pawns on the king-side. Jones eventually got this down to a queen + pawn ending with a passed d pawn which reached the 7^th, but black was able to draw by perpetual.

Tim Kett, white, in a Dragon, reached a position where the queens came off, and Tebogo Pitlagano’s position looked solid. Kett’s e5 was double-edged as it left this pawn weak, but black allowed him to double rooks on the 7^th, whilst grabbing q-side pawns himself. Pitlagano may well have been able to force a draw, but as it went he had to give up a whole rook and resigned a few moves later.

Ioan Rees, black, reached easy equality in a King’s Indian Attack against Botswana’s in form player, Phemelo Kheto, (previously had scored 7.5/9). Rees later sacrificed a piece to get at his opponent’s king but with best play this may have only led to a draw by perpetual or an ending where he could get 3 pawns for a bishop with chances for both sides, but his opponent played differently and Rees quickly won a queen + pawn ending.

White Knights A maintained clear water between themselves and Nidum A at the top of Division 1 of the West Wales League after both teams secured wins against their own B teams. White Knights B held their own on the top boards with David Guy and Keith Downey holding Alan Young and Jason Garcia to draws. Adam May, Huw Morcom and new recruit, Mark Thomas made sure of the two points with wins over Dave Buttell, Malcolm Probert and Aled George. Nidum A were in an even more determined mood against their own club mates. Alan Bennett, Rob Saunders, Andrew Gibbons, Bob Moore and Kelvin Haines took no prisoners against Mike Woodrow, Steve Morgan, Dennis Jones, Steve Woodrow and Jeff Burrows. A weakened SV Capablanca team made little impression against visitors CN Emperors. John Trevelyan drew with Matthew Davies on top board. Femi Adebajo lost out to Carl Davies on 2. Richard Jones offered little real resistance to Martyn Griffiths on 3. Albert Easton scored the Valley’s only win against Hywel Griffiths on four. The bottom board game between Tony Goodchild and Steve Smith provided one for the rule book buffs. Goodchild completed the 35^th move of the first time control and pressed his clock. Smith, before making his 36^th move, noticed that his opponent’s flag had fallen and claimed the win on time. The initial ruling was that this would not stand as Goodchild had completed his move before the claim was made, however further discussion amongst Valley players came to the conclusion that the game should be conceded as the flag must have fallen before the move had been completed and that as the claim had been made before move 36 then it was valid. 1- 0 to Smith.

UK Falcons won comfortably at home to Morriston C. Andrew Smith did well to hold Fred Clough on top board and Sam Pritchard also drew with Bill Flew on 3, but the Falcons claimed the remainder of the points as Ralph Cook, Mark Wilson and Sietse Los cleaned up against Dave Conway, John Ward and Mark Pritchard.

CN Senators and White Knights D slugged it out at the top of Division 3. In order of finishing.This was an excellent match .Jonathan Jones won a very tight game out manouevering Eric Blackwell in the end.Dennis Thomas v Richie Williams was a classical Petroff's Defence.It looked drawish. At move 28 Williams offered to exchange bishops, which Thomas should have done but he retreated his bishop to the back rank overlooking the fact that it would be lost in the next couple of moves. His position then folded. James won a piece early on against Adam Jones and never looked back. The Silk wagon rolls on. Steve Edwards agreed a draw with Wayne Prescott. As Guto Llewelyn was two pieces up for two pawns against John Davies, he presumably thought he had a won game. However Llywelyn’s king was rather exposed and Davies with queen and rook was able to conjure up an attack that swallowed up his opponent’s queen. Davies Definitely back from the dead!

BF Brunel climbed a little way away from the bottom with an away win against UK Hawks. Only Clive Gosling on board 2 offered any resistance with a draw against Colin Chambers. David Merryweather, Karl Fredricksson, Unthandi Jambulingham and Meurig Jones took the rest of the points againt Joram Los, June Evans, Janet Evans and Jerry Zhou. Rhyddings B continue to struggle with another loss at home to BV Rooks. Phillipe Rodgers pulled out another spectacular result holding Peter Thomas to a draw on top board. Lee Godfrey lost out to Daniel Wilmot on 2. Derek Bellamy and Tony Scanes were forced to concede further draws against Sam Young and Alwyn Thomas on 3 and 4. John Porter crashed to Adam Lewis on bottom board.

The season of good will arrived early in the Minor League, with all three matches ending in draws! Leaders, BV Squires were held by third placed UK Kites. Morgan Taylor got the Kites off to a good start with a top board win against Stephen Lockley. The middle boards went to the Squires thanks to wins by Ian Remot and Kynan Eastwood against Dylan Taylor and Joseph Bright-Key. Jonathan Eddyshaw squared the match by beating Sam Lockley on board 4. Briton Ferry Giants took the top two boards against CN Centurions with Uthandi and Raja Jambulingham scoring against Yean Ha and Reuben Morgan-Williams. Dafydd James and Dylan Matthews replied with wins against Brian Rees and Brian Morris. At the foot of the table, CN Legionnaires finally got off the mark with a draw at home to BV Abbots. Yean Ha won on top board against Nicholas Hughes. Jack Brenton and Katie Treharne edged the Abbots back in front with victories over Sam Martin and Connor Windos. Daniel Cook made -t 2 -2 by beating William Hughes on board 4.

As predicted, the E.J. Clarke Tournament got under way minus the top Open Section when there were far fewer than the requisite 10 entries for that section. Fortunately, nearly all of those who had entered were also eligible to play in an Under 1800 Major and so only Adam May of White Knights missed out on the competition. The failure of West Wales’ top players to stand up to the mark is a matter of great concern and organisers hope that this year’s debacle will not be repeated in future. That said, the remaining sections should be highly competitive.

Over the board, Fred Clough got his campaign under way with a win over Brian Tonks. Mike Cleaves took full adavntage of a Les Philpin blunder to score his first point. Peter Thomas was too good for Sam Pritchard. Steve Edwards got the better of Andrew Trickey after a long game. Dave Buttell and Albert Easton shared the points as did Andrew Smith and Roshan Daniel. Ralph Cook, Bill Flew, Sietse Los and Alan Xiao took first round byes. Andrew Fraser Cole benefited from the odd number of entrants with a first round full point bye.

In the Minor Section, Ken James downed Paul Bevan. Daniel Anantharaj beat Norman Speak. Daniel Wilmot lost to Jerry Zhou and Cecil Rowland got the better of Mark Pritchard. Janet Evans did very well to draw with Phillipe Rodgers. Clive Gosling and Joe Spooner cancelled each other out as did Eric Blackwell and June Evans. Julie Ward, Alan Welch, Jeff Jones, Joram Los and Eva Los all took ½ point byes.

In the only Secondary Schools match, Pontardulais crashed to Bishop Vaughan A. Sam Pritchard, Sam Young, Alwn Thomas and Nicholas Hughes swept the boards against Adam Lewis, Sarah Lewis and Charlotte Groves with the home side defaulting on bottom board.

Not many Welsh players have written books about chess – Len Skinner and Howard Williams are two who spring to mind – and none have written a book about chess in Wales – until now! Martyn Griffiths of Castell Nedd Chess Club has spent 35 years putting together a history of Welsh Chess and his new book has just come out.

This book takes the reader from the mists of time with tales from the Mabinogion and reference to the game of tawlbwrdd, to the early modern chess era when Captain Evans became perhaps Wales’ most famous chess exponent. Other references to Thomas Bowdler, Nelson Feddon, Ellis Parry, Mary Mills Houlding and John Chambers may not ring the same bells, but these individuals were the among chess giants of their day.

The chapters dealing with the South Wales Chess Association, Welsh Chess Union and the five Welsh Zones also include the history of clubs at Swansea, Cardiff, Newport, Wrexham and Aberystwyth.

The book ends with independence from the British Chess Federation in 1970, but not before outlining the fledgling careers of Pat Bennett, Howard Williams, David Sully, Iolo Jones and many others who are now veterans of the chess stage.

The hardback book contains 338 pages and includes an 800 name index of Welsh players as well as 32 games and 68 illustrations which help to make the book an enjoyable read even for those with limited knowledge of the game.

A brilliant result against Bolivia at the mid point of the Dresden Chess Olympiad set Wales up for the second half of the event. The round did not get off to a good start. Jonathan Blackburn’s QGD turned into an IQP, in which Blackburn managed to exchange his ‘a’ pawn for Raisa Luna’s ‘e’ pawn‘ (a5 Qxa5, B{on a2} xe6 with the ‘a1’ rook now attacking the Q). Although Blackburn’s Queen bishop was liberated, this position favoured Luna, with Black’s pieces finding it difficult to co-ordinate. He won Blackburn’s ‘b’ pawn and broke through down the ‘b’ file. Ioan Rees’s game was a London system (1.d4 Nf6 2.Bf4) which turned out to be a very reasonable Slav type position for Rees as Jonny Cueto’s ‘c’ pawn was still on a2. Rees managed to lock up the kingside, and probed down the ‘b’ file, winning the ‘a ‘ pawn, and was much the better when the game ended rather bizarrely. The time limit is 40 moves in 90 minutes with 30 minutes for the rest of the game and with a 30 second increment from move 1. Rather unusually, instead of the 30 minutes being added after 40 moves, it is added after 90 minutes, so this could happen at e.g. move 50. Rees’s opponent had already, on a previous move, got down to 1 second before moving and having 30 seconds added, but a move or 2 later (still around move 30) Rees noticed his opponent’s clock now showed 30 minutes. He brought this to the arbiter’s attention, and a win on time was duly awarded to the Welsh player, as his opponent had used his 90 minutes but now reached move 40. Richard Jones, on top board, played the ‘Welsh Attack’ (Bc4, Bg5, Qf3) against the Sicilian Najdorf, and got a formidable position against GM Oswaldo Zambrana. He relentlessly attacked Black’s king, whilst making a few deft touches to secure his own position. Ever self critical, Jones says he probably could have won quicker, but the result was never in doubt, and Zambrana was completely helpless when he resigned. An excellent performance. Tim Kett playing with the white pieces in a French Winawer against Jose Daniel Jemy, sacrificed his ‘a’ pawn for dangerous play on the k-side. The game got very complicated, with many sacrifices possible, and both players using a lot of time. Kett kept pressing, and the game could have ended abruptly when Jemy blundered, but this was followed immediately by a mistake from Kett. (f6 ?? by Black, should have been answered by Qe8+). A time scramble later ensued where Jemy suddenly got attacking chances himself and the game petered out to a draw by repetition.

Round 7 produced an absolutely wonderful match [ see pic Switzerland v Wales L to R Richard Jones, Ioan Rees, Tim Kett and Alan Spice take on the GMs ]against Switzerland‘s all grandmaster team, with Wales at one stage on course for a stunning 3 – 1 win. The players gave their all, with all 4 games going into the 2^nd session. Richard Jones, with the black pieces, played his favourite King’s Indian Defence against veteran former world championship contender, Viktor Korchnoi even though Korchnoi is known to love to play against it. In a Classical variation where a lot of moves were played quickly, Jones played an enterprising exchange sac, where he ended up with the 2 bishops and a passed pawn on e3. Korchnoi played like the wily old fox he is, and kept good white square control, but Jones relentlessly pressed on. Even though the Queens came off, Jones’s R + N + 5 proved at least a match for his opponent’s 2R +4. Korchnoi was, in the end, able to force a perpetual. Jones has been playing some breathtaking chess over the last 3 rounds.

Against Ioan Rees Yannick Pelletier played a QGD Cambridge Springs, where White ended up with the better development, but had an isolated ‘c’ pawn. Rees built up a promising position on the k-side, but Pelletier was able to exchange a few pieces, including the Q, to reach an ending where he had the 2 bishops and a better pawn structure. However Rees comfortably held the game which was agreed drawn with just a minor piece and 2 pawns each on the k-side. Alan Spice’s original opening play resulted in a position with 3 fianchettoed bishops and no pawns occupying the centre. A number of pieces were later exchanged but Joe Gallagher was down to increments only on the clock by move 30, and Spice took advantage of this to net 3 pawns just before the time control. Gallagher did well to generate some play around White’s King, but Spice had a couple of good opportunities to consolidate. As it went he would still have won the B + 5 versus R + 2 if he played his K to f1 rather than f3. He kept trying for the win eventually getting down to B + 2 versus R, but B was able to give up his R for 1 pawn, with his K able to force the win of the other. Tim Kett’s game was a Sicilian Bb5 x c6, where Florian Jenni seemed happy to play rather routine moves, and Kett got a comfortable position. The 2 players continued to manoeuvre with Kett getting slightly the upper hand. Jenni managed to reduce the position to a complicated R + N + 5 ending, in which he turned down a draw because he could see at this stage that this would not be enough for his team to win/draw the match. This turned into a R and pawn ending with W having an extra pawn but Black had considerable compensation with a distant passed ‘h’ pawn , and a very tense ending ensued with both players running low on time. Jenni was forced to give up his rook for the ‘h’ pawn, but he alone had winning chances with connected c/d/e pawns against the lone rook (no other pawns). Kett defended extremely well despite being down to 30 second increment only moves, but Jenni’s pawns prevailed. Immediately after the game Korchnoi who had watched the ending showed Kett that he could have drawn with Rd2 one move earlier, in fact if Jenni had then tried too hard to win he could well have well lost. A tragic blow for Tim, who had played a very good game.

Wales fancied their chances against Lebanon, but were soon disillusioned about that. Ioan Rees faced, Faisal Kairallah, an opponent well prepared, who managed to steer into a Dragon fianchetto variation. Rees used up quite a lot of time and his pieces became slightly awkwardly placed. Kairallah won the ‘b’ pawn, but Rees was able to penetrate White’s a file for some compensation. Kairallah was able to improve his position by exchanging some pieces, and Rees, running short of time, dropped a bishop to a rook fork. This is a blow to his IM norm chance. Richard Jones faced an irregular defence, but still managed to get a nice position. He should have played dxe5 instead of Rg1 to maintain a good advantage, and indeed after exf4 he suddenly realised he could not play the intended Qxf4 because of Rxc3, bxc3 Qb6+. When he later won his pawn back, the position was finely balanced, and petered out into a 3 fold repetition. Jon Balckburn’sgame was a KID/Benoni g3 line, in which Antoine Kassis built up a fortress of pawns on the B squares, and the position looked akin to a Czech Benoni structure. The position became very blocked and Blackburn could have repeated moves, with most/all the pieces on, by Bg5-h6 to achieve a draw, but with Rees already losing, played on for the team. Progress was still limited to a space advantage only, and Blackburn’s Nxe5, to unbalance the position may have been a bit too speculative, or certainly offered no more than even chances. As it went, Kassis won back 2 pawns and Blackburn’s rooks although doubled on the 7^th, proved an inadequate match for the R + B + N. Alan Spice played his favourite French MacCutcheon, with Abdo Somoff playing a rather innocuous line against it. It actually looked quite threatening as Somoff transferred his rooks to the kingside, but Spice calmly played g5 to parry this. Somoff rashly opened the ‘g’ file, and Black subsequently won the ‘e’ pawn to reach a R + B ending with 5 v 4 pawns. Eventually Spice managed to create connected passed ‘e’ and ‘f’ pawns, which proved decisive.

The round 9 game against Kenya also ended in disappointment. Alan Spice in a favourite Nc3 d5, e4 d4, Nce2 line built up a promising position on the k-side. However, he tragically played 2 moves out of sequence, blundered his Q and resigned immediately. Ioan Rees, needing a win to continue his IM norm aspirations, met a well prepared Benjamin Magana who quickly reeled off many moves in a Closed Ruy Lopez. White had a space advantage in the centre but a lot of pieces were exchanged, then the q-side pawns, leaving only 3 minor pieces each and 5 pawns ‘d’ – ‘h’, and the game was soon agreed drawn. Richard Jones tried hard in a King’s Indian Defence to create some chances, after Kenya’s American board 1, Peter Gilruth, had exchanged a number of pieces, in a Q plus good N very bad bishop position. Qs came off and although Jones tried his very best to make something of a N + 4 versus B + 4 all on the same side, in the end he had to concede the draw. Tim Kett, in a QGD Botvinnik, grabbed the ‘a’ pawn, but at the expense of having difficulty developing his q-side. At one stage White may have been able to win a piece (g4 instead of Nd4), but instead opted to go into an equalish ending. Kett played this very well, managed to leave Martin Gateri’s’s ‘e’ pawn without sufficient defenders, then later to win it, to reach a R + 4 versus R + 3 ending. Gateri then somewhat aided and abetted Kett by giving him a passed ‘e’ pawn and then later allowed a position R + 2 versus R which was hopeless. This is the sort of team Wales should be putting away with something to spare.

Round 10 saw Wales back in winning form against Honduras, emerging in front by 2½ to 1½. Details have yet to be sent. In the final round Wales face Botswana with a good chance of making a substantial improvement on their start of event ranking.

In the West Wales League it was a case of make hay while the sun shines for White Knights A. With Nidum’s top players unavailable on international duty or through illness, the Knights made the most of their chance with a win at home to the champions. Alan Young and Alan Bennett contested Bishop's Opening and it developed into a game of fluctuating fortunes before being agreed a draw with Alan Young having a slight edge with a bishop + 4 vs bishop + 3 pawns. The Bishop's Opening also featured on board 2 where Rob Saunders had a small edge from opening against Jason Garcia, but blundered a rook just when things were evening out. Craig Evans and Andrew Gibbons danced the Knights Tango. Both players had equal chances, but with time running out, Gibbons had to offer draw. Adam May won a pawn in the middle game after a French Tarrasch with Glyn Sinnett, but then blundered exchange in Sinnett’s time trouble. A draw was agreed with May having Bishop and two pawns for the rook and with better prospects. Huw Morcom drew with Bob Moore in a Modern. The ensuing RRN vs RRB middle game offered nothing more than a draw for both parties.

Nidum B travelled to Pontardawe to take on SV Capablanca, but went home without any points. John Trevelyan beat Bob Moore on top board and although Steve Morgan did well to hold Femi Adebajo on 2, Mike Cleaves and Mike Kearn made sure of the two points against Dennis Jones and Jeff Burrows on 3 and 4. Last to finish on bottom board, Richard Jones in a strong position against Kelvin Haines looked around, found out the match was in the bag and quickly offered a draw which his opponent equally quickly accepted.

White Knights C continue to make all the running in Division 2, increasing their lead over second placed UK Falcons with a convincing away win. Dave Buttell defeated Fred Clough on 1. Steve Edwards held Ralph Cook to a draw on 2 and Bill Flew earned another half against Malcolm Probert on 3. Aled George and Julie Ward wrapped the match up with further wins against Roshan Daniel and Daniel Anantharaj on the bottom boards.

Rhyddings A’s misery continued with a loss at home to Morriston C. Morriston claimed the first four boards with Les Philpin, Paul Bevan, Sam Pritchard and John Ward all winning against Peter Thomas, Ken Huntley, Derek Bellamy and Roy Morgan. Lee Godfrey salvaged a modicum of respect with a draw against Steve Duffy on bottom board.

UK Eagles lost out in the Division 3 home derby against UK Hawks. Nick Hale conceded a draw to June Evans on top board. Joram Los and Jerry Zhou put Hawks in front by beating Ken James and Cecil Rowland. Clive Gosling pulled one point back against Eva Los but James Bright Key’s loss to J. Eddershaw finished it off. BF Brunel edged away from the bottom with victory over UK Harriers. David Merryweather outplayed Cecil Rowland on 1. Colin Chambers lost out to Daniel Anantharaj on 2. Board 3, between Karl Fredricksson and Ken James ended all square. Brunel took the match on the bottom boards with Unthandi Jambulingham and Meurig Jones winning against Jerry Zhou and June Evans.

The Welsh team is battling it out in the nth Chess Olympiad, currently being held in Dresden. Ranked 99^th out of 154 teams, the realistic aim of the squad is to improve on that ranking in the final standings. The added attraction for chess fans is that every single game can be watched live on the Internet starting at 2pm our time by going to the Dresden Olympiad site at …. http://www.dresden2008.de/site/en/main.htm and clicking on live.

            Wales’ manager Stuart Hutchings described how they got off to an easy start, paired against Taipei China in round 1. Richard Jones played a King's Indian, with his opponent, Lee Lin Chung-Yu coming up with a highly unusual b4 gambit. This backfired, soon leaving Jones with an extra protected passed pawn on b3, and W's Queen embarrassingly placed on a1. He soon was the exchange up as well, and Chung-Yu could have resigned well before he did, in a game which was over in just 1.5 hours. Against Jon Blackburn's Herman Ho Hou-Meng played a Stonewall Dutch, but was ill -prepared for Blackburn's e4 break and temporary piece sac, which when white recaptured on e4 with his Queen, threatened mate on h7 and the undefended rook on a8, to net the exchange. Blackburn consolidated comfortably to notch up a win on his Olympiad debut. Ioan Rees was White in a QGD, and achieved an aggressive setup, forcing Po Yueh Wei to be left with an isolated e pawn. His position proved difficult to breakdown, but Rees eventually won the e-pawn, by a fork Ng5, threatening mate on h7. Rees then netted the exchange, and cruised to victory. Tim Kett's opponent was both youthful and useful (in fact, though he was supposed to be 10 years old, it turns out that he was actually only 7 and the youngest player in the tournament! ) It was Two Knight's defence where white played 4.Nc3 allowing the equalising 4... Nxe4, and in the resultant position black had the 2 bishops but a weak pawn structure. Kett won a pawn, and turned the screw with his 2 bishops and rook, finally winning the ensuing R + P ending comfortably to complete a round one whitewash.
            The team were certainly 'up for it' after their performance in round 1, but it turned out to be a very one-sided affair against a Portuguese team of solid 2400s. Ioan Rees's game was a Maroczy Bind with white, in which, for reasons best known to himself, IM Rui Damaso just kept exchanging pieces, so much so that the game could have been agreed drawn at move 15, but with a 'no draws until after move 30' in this Olympiad, the players kept going until then and promptly shook hands for the draw. A good result for Rees, but I he would have preferred an opponent prepared to make more effort. Alan's Spice’s game transposed into a Sicilian Rauser, but without W playing f3 or f4. FM Reuben Pereira seemed to miss or underestimate a Nxe4 tactic, but instead just carried out with his q-side push, which proved far more dangerous than Spice's attempts in the centre, where his pieces were rather short of space. Once the centre cleared, blacks initiative increased and Spice decided to go for broke by sacrificing 2 pawns, but Pereira held it together in a Q + 2R position. Jon Blackburn's game was a slow paced English Nimzo against FM Paulo Dias, where Dias obtained the 2 bishops, and although Blackburn had a solid position, he lacked counter-play. Dias built a a threatening position on the kingside and centre and converted this into a comfortable win. Richard Jones equalised easily against GM Luis Galego’s King's Indian attack against his Sicilian, but when the centre opened up, he was left with an isolated d pawn, and 2 bishops, but these proved inferior to Galego’s's 2 knights and he then won a pawn and broke through neatly.
            Wales’ reward for this defeat was to be paired with an even stronger Germany 2 team. Although the result was the same as round 2, this was a much better performance, and with a ‘favourable wind’ we might have drawn this match, or even sneaked a win. Alan Spice faced IM Niclas Huschenbeth in a French Classical with typical opposite castling and both sides throwing their respective pawns up the board towards the enemy king. The German played quickly and confidently, firstly pushing his pawn to h6, then a 2^nd to f5. Spice seemed to be holding things together, when white found a crushing temporary piece sac and Spice resigned a few moves later. Tim Kett’s game was a very original Sicilian Najdorf, giving IM Sebastien Bogner plenty to think about in an unbalanced position. Eventually a number pieces were exchanged on the d file resulting a R + opposite bishop ending. Any chances in this were always with Bogner, especially when Kett, short of time, allowed him to create connected e + f pawns. These proved very strong with Kett being forced on the defensive before a decisive breakthrough by Bogner. Ioan Rees’s game against IM Arik Braun was a QGD exchange, with Rees setting up a defence with his pawns on white squares. Braun had all the chances of changing the pawn structure, but the way he played allowed Rees a tactic by which he won a pawn. Braun seemed to very lucky to be able to ‘trap’ his opponent’s Q on h3, and create threats of his own in compensation. Richard Jones’s game was a Sicilian Kan, in which he GM Georg Meier set his opponent some interesting problems. He reached a position where Meieir was a bit loose, but nwevertheless managed to hold things together and reach a 2R + N + pawns ending where the chances appeared to be about even (B’s structure versus W’s activity). Jones managed to win a pawn as the Ns were exchanged, but the draw was agreed almost immediately.

A full report of the rounds 4 and 5 games has not yet been received although the outcomes are already known. Round 4 saw another Wales win 3½ to a ½ against Malawi. Round 5 found Wales paired with Pakistan

Division 1 of the West Wales League continues to be a close run thing between Nidum A and White Knights A with both teams winning their matches this week. Nidum A were away to CN Emperors and they meant business. In the absence of Richard Jones on Olympiad duty for Wales, Alan Bennett stepped up to the mark and took over on board 1. In a French Advanced he sacced a pawn from opening and bust up Matthew Davies's kingside to won the exchange and the game. On board 2, Glyn Sinnet’s Dutch Classical I saw him won a piece with kingside attack against Carl Davies within 20 moves. Andrew Gibbons saw off Hywel Griffith’s King's Indian when he won pawn and then piece in the first 25 moves, and then polished things off by queening his c pawn. Steve Smith held Bob Moore for a good while in a Caro Kann - Panov, but in an equal position and in terrible time trouble, he pressed the panic button and self destructed. Wayne Prescott got a horrendous position from the opening in a Trompowsky against Steve Morgan . He fought back, but just before the time control, dropped a pawn and piece to leave the final score 0 - 5.

If Nidum B hope to do their club mates a favour at home to White Knights A, they were sadly mistaken. All Alan Young needed in a Sicilian c3 against Andrew Gibbons was a pawn won just before the time control and then converted to a full point. Steve Woodrow dropped a piece in a Vienna against Craig Evans and never got back into the game. Adam May created a spatial edge in a Sicilian Rossolimo against Mike Woodrow. May then turned it into a pawn advantage on the time control, enough to win the endgame and point. In a Benko Gambit, Dennis Jones held Huw Morcom after he won piece in turn for wrecking his own kingside structure and although he was close to winning, he had to settle for a drawn queen and pawn ending. Kelvin Haines lost to Keith Downey in a Queen's Pawn even after Downey missing mate early on.

The 3^rd Frank Hatto (Welsh Individual Rapidplay) Championships were held on Sunday 9^th November 2008 at the Briton Ferry Constitutional Club, Briton Ferry.

The first round of the “Frank Hatto” Major saw two complete surprises when Phillipe Rodgers (1340) beat Peter Thomas (1638) and Ben Thomas (1246) beat Malcolm Probert (1579). Rodgers and Robert Dineen both won their 2^nd games with Rodgers having another great win by beating top seed Lisbeth Haugsvaer from Cardiff. In the 3^rd round, he then beat Dineen to be sole leader with 3/3. After 3 wins against the top seeds, Rodgers then had two draws, firstly with Julie Wilson in Round 4 to maintain his ½ point lead and then again in round 5 with Simon Blackmore to move to 4/5. At this point Julie Wilson had won her 5^th round game to become co-leader.
In the final round, Rodgers beat Joe Spooner whilst Wilson lost to Peter Thomas. Incredibly Rodgers [ see pic ] was only seeded 8^th with a rating of 1340 but played all the top 1600+ players scoring 3½/4 in the process and thoroughly deserved his win. He became the 3^rd successive Junior to win the Frank Hatto trophy with which Frank would surely have been very pleased.

Nidum A lead Division 1 of the West Wales Chess League by the narrowest of margins after winning away to Morriston A. On top board, Ian Jones lost to Richard Jones. Malcolm Jones held Alan Bennett to a draw on board 2. Ian Eustis went down to Andrew Gibbons on 3. Andrew Smith took half a point from Bob Moore on 4. Glyn Sinnett’s win against Adrian Davies on bottom board completed a comfortable win for the long reigning champions. White Knights A are in hot pursuit after demolishing Nidum B. Only Rob Saunders could produce anything for the visitors - a half against Alan Young on top board. After that it was all one way traffic. Jason Garcia beat Mike Woodrow on 2. .Adam May took a point from Steve Woodrow on 3. Huw Morcom and Keith Downey completed the carnage by defeating Kelvin Haines and Jeff Burrows on 4 and 5.

In Division 2, Rhyddings A remain rooted to the foot of the table after a narrow loss at home to Morriston B. Gary Harber lost to Chris Howells on board 1. Ken Huntley did well to hold Ian Eustis to a draw on 2 and Alan Rosser made up a 200+ grading point deficit against Andrew Smith to share the point on 3. Derek Bellamy dropped Paul Bevan on 4 so that Andrew Fraser Cole’s win over Lee Godfrey on bottom board was not enough to restore the deficit. Even without skipper Steve Edwards, who was on fireworks duty with his daughter, White Knights C marched on to victory against Upper Killay Kestrals in an impressive display. Malcolm Probert held the fort on board one against Ralph Cook, agreeing an early draw, while Aled George did the same on board two against Alan Xiao. Meanwhile on board three, Adam Jones had the jump on Sietse Los, going a piece up early and making the advantage count. Richie Williams also won on five against Daniel Anatharaj's Sicilian, with only stand-in skipper Julie Ward dropping a point on board four after a Scotch Game despite being a piece up, finished off by a combination of well placed rooks and passed pawns. The 3-2 win leaves the C team three points clear at the top of Division Two.

UK Eagles move up into second place in Division 3 after a narrow away win at CN Senators. James Silk opened up an attack too early against Alan Welch and got clobbered for his pains. Wayne Prescott managed to checkmate Nick Hale late into their game. Dennis Thomas beat Clive Gosling with a pawn on the seventh rank and no way to prevent it from queening. Janet Evans went a rook up against Eric Blackwell and never looked back. Yen Ha should have won against June Evans, but fell for a back rank mate. Rhyddings B moved a little further away from the bottom with a sound win against UK Hawks. Derek Bellamy took a point from former Rhyddings stalwart, Clive Gosling, on top board. The Hawks suffered an expensive default on board 2. Lee Godfrey had to concede a draw to June Evans on 3. Richard Morgan beat Jerry Zhou on 4 and finally. John Porter lost to Eva Los on bottom board. The game between UK Harriers and BV Rooks was postponed.

Briton Ferry Giants struck a powerful blow at home to BV Abbots. Colin Cghambers, Karl Fredricksson and Raja Jambulingham cleaned up against Georgie Treharne, Jack Brenton and William Hughes. This puts them on the same points as Abbots, down on game points, but with two whole games in hand. CN Barbarians and BV Friars shared the point at Catwg School. James Ridgeway beat Tom Crudge on board 1, but Daniel Dowling lost to Gabriel Cura on 2. William Hughes took the Abbots back in front with a victory over Angharad Jenkins on 3, only for Daniel Davies to level the scores with a bottom board win against Shaun Probert.

The Divisional controllers have produced their first batches of stats of the season. In Division 1, Janet Evans shows that Les Philpin, Morriston, leads the giant killers with his win against Huw Morcom of White Knights, making up a deficit of 321 grading points in the process. Hywel Griffiths, CN Emperors mad little of being 214 points down against Keith Downey, also of the Knights, to register another fine win. Malcolm Probert of the Llanelli Club earned a draw against Bob Moore, Nidum, in spite of being graded 311 points lower than his opponent. Sam Pritchard, Morriston, held Albert Easton, Swansea Valley, making up ground on being 260 points down at the start of the season. In the 2^nd Division, Les Philpin was on the wrong end of a loss against club mate, Dave Conway, who made up 264 points to record the win. Sam Pritchard was at it again taking down Brain Tonks as if the 239 point difference between them was nothing. Paul Bevan’s draw with Ian Eustis produced the biggest margin between any two players, a staggering 404 grading points eclipsing a fine result by Alan Xiao against Ralph Cook, a mere 333! In Division 3, James Silk has made an impressive start with 5½ points out of 6, but the best win was recorded by Clive Gosling against David Merryweather, overcoming a gap of 368 points. Eva Los made up 272 points to defeat Nick Hale.

The first round of the E.J. Clarke Closed Championship of the West Wales League is scheduled to start next Monday, but even at this late stage the entry for the highest section is still well below the minimum limit of 10 players set and there is therefore a great danger that this section will not run for the first time in the history of the league. Most of the league’s strongest players have shown little interest in this event for some years and without their participation it has ceased to be a meaningful event. Of the entries so far received, most would still qualify to play in the Major Section and both this and the Minor look to produce some healthy completion. Organiser, June Evans, has pointed out, “This is the last chance for our top players to get involved and there will be no use complaining if they cannot be bothered to put their reputations on the line!”

White Knights B dropped to the bottom of Division 1 after losing narrowly at home to CN Emperors. Jason Garcia was held to a draw by Matthew Davies on top board and Huw Morcom could not find a way past Carl Davies on 2. David Guy got the better of Martyn Griffiths on 3, but it all went wrong for the Knights on the bottom boards with Keith Downey crashing to Hywel Griffiths and David Buttell overpowered by Steve Smith. The Emperors’ win takes them up into second place in the Division.

SV Capablanca scored their first win in Division 1 at home to Morriston A after a very tightly contested match. On board 4, Richard Jones always had an initiative against Alan Williams in an f4 Sicilian, but never had quite enough to force the win. Williams, for his part, had all his pieces committed to defending his king, with no opportunity to launch a counter strike and so the game ended in deadlock. On top board, John Trevelyan and Ian Jones explored the Philidor once more, but yet again, neither player was able to break through. Sam Pritchard sacrificed a pawn in the opening against Albert Easton and for a while Easton had to tread carefully to negotiate the complications that arose before he too could settle for a half. The Valley’s break through came on board 2 where Mike Cleaves, suffering from excruciating pain from a trapped nerve in his shoulder battled on against Chris Howells. After going two pawns down in the opening, he hauled himself back into the game and took full advantage when Howells blundered late in the day. On board 3 Mike Kearn and Ian Eustis tried in vain to find a way through each other’s defences and this too finished in a draw giving Capablanca victory by the narrowest of margins.

White Knights C scored their second whitewash in as many matches with a thrashing of Morriston C. The visitors defaulted board five, which wasn't a great start, and quickly lost on boards three and four, where Aled George beat John Ward and Adam Jones murdered the ungraded M. Pritchard. Malcolm Probert encountered stiffer opposition on board two, where young Sam Pritchard proved a difficult nut to crack, but the real battle royal occurred on board one, where Dave Conway, outgraded by almost 300 points, had white against Steve Edwards. A variation of the QGD Exchange ended with Conway a pawn down and it looked like he would struggle to hold the endgame. He refused to lie down, though, and took it right to the wire. Edwards was fortunate to take the whole point in the end, the grading difference perhaps telling in endgame technique. The Cs remain top of Division Two.

SV Dynamos proved to be no match for UK Kestrels. On top board, Richard Jones always had the initiative against Ralph Cook’s Caro Kann, but for a second game in succession, he never had quite enough to finish off the attack and this game fizzled out into a draw. On board 4, Emrys Davies’s Latvian Counter Gambit did not free up his attack as intended and it was all he could do, with his clock ticking down, to secure a draw against Roshan Daniel. On board 2, Tony Goodchild felt the sharp edge of Alan Xiao’s growing prowess. Going into a bishop and rook versus a knight and rook ending, Goodchild over-pressed and got his bishop trapped in a corner. Once that had gone Xiao had options on both flanks and he played the ending faultlessly to earn a full point. Joe Spooner had an up and down game against Daniel Anantharaj on bottom board. Coming out of the opening two pawns up, he then took his foot off the gas and allowed his opponent back in. In the subsequent rook and pawn ending he found himself four pawns to two down, but managed to create big threats with a passed pawn on the seventh rank. He managed to reduce the odds to two against one, but then made the crucial error of swapping off rooks at which point, with his king on the wrong side of the board, the extra pawn made all the difference Andrew Trickey had a similar ending against Sietse Los, but in this case he had the knight and Los the bishop. Los managed to trap the knight on the back rank leaving Trickey in effect a piece down for a crucial passage of the endgame. This allowed Los to create unstoppable threats on the opposite wing and struggle though Trickey did the point was always going to the Kestrels.

With Steve Edwards as caretaker captain, White Knights D disposed of Upper Killay Eagles in fairly short order to go two points clear at the top of Division Three. Richie Williams finished first, defeating Clive Gosling's Modern Defence on board two, while on board four Jeff Jones, keeping faith with his new 1.g3 opening, mated Janet Evans with a dramatic sweeping queen move that drew gasps of anguish from his opponent. On five, Jonathan Jones had the upper hand over young opponent Eva Los, but blundered away a rook and the game. On one, Steve Edwards inflicted a death of a thousand cuts on Alan Welch, who ended the game two pieces and several pawns down, while on three the battling Guto Llywelyn made the most of Joram Los's blundering away of a rook, and converted the win with confidence.

UK Harriers’ closely fought draw at home to Rhyddings B took them up into third place. All three top boards ended up in draws. Nick Hale and Derek Bellamy settled for a half on board 1. Janet Evans and Tony Scanes ended up all square on 2 as did the board 3 encounter between Clive |Gosling and John Porter. The major action took place on the bottom boards, where Joram Los’s accurate endgame technique earned him a full point against Norman Speak, but this was nullified on bottom board with Eva Los losing out to Mike Osborn.

The annual West Wales Closed Championship for the E. J. Clarke trophy is scheduled to begin next Monday, but organiser, June Evans, has reported that entries have been slow to come in and the prestigious Open Section is in serious danger of not running this year. Following difficulties last year and the year before, it has been decided that sections would not run if a minimum of ten players were not entered. Players opting for the higher sections would also not be allowed to transfer down, unless they fell within the specified grading limits. “This is a wake up call to those who want to participate in a meaningful championship,” warned Evans, ”Get your entries in quickly or you will miss out!”

For Nidum, the last 3 rounds of the European Club Cup, proceeded in much the same way as the first four. In round 5, against Matinkylaen Shakkikerho Espoo of Finland. Richard Jones held his own against IM Mikael Agopov. Alan Bennett lost to IM Petri Lehtivaara. Alan Young drew with IM Miikka Maki-Uuro. Facing Ksh Llamkos an EU combination Nidum lost by the narrowest of margins. On top board, Richard Jones drew again, this time against Ramadan Ajvazi. On 2, Alan Bennett held Naim Sahitaj. Alan Young took a half from Ragip Mikushnica. Glyn Sinnett lost out to Halil Haliti and there were further draws from Jason Garcia and Bob Moore on the bottom boards. The final round saw Nidum lose out to Monaco. Alan Bennett drew with Stevens Rouchouse. Andrew Gibbons held Daniel Sabo-Benke. Bob Moore finally got off the mark with a win against Adrien Levacic.

Summing up on an extremely disappointing trip, Richard Jones said that there were no excuses for a poor team performance. Although some team members had suffered from food poisoning at the outset, the results were down to rank bad play.

The only First Division match this week was between the two bottom teams, White Knights B and SV Capablanca. Although Capablanca were without two of their Bridgend contingent, who had apparently dropped out the day before, they still had the stronger side by some margin. They had significant grading advantages over the top three boards (with 2142-rated former Welsh champion John Trevelyan on top board), and parity on board four with a slight disadvantage on board five. However, a makeshift White Knights team was hobbled even further by the non-appearance of Malcolm Probert on board four. ( it was later learned that the B team captain had told Probert that Swansea Valley did not have a new venue and were still playing at the Dillwyn Arms. Probert arrived at the the old club venue to find it boarded up and shut, with no way to find out where the new venue was.) Thus, against a significantly stronger team, and having already defaulted one board, the makeshift Knights set out to salvage something from the shambles. First to finish was Dave Buttell on board two. Against Mike Cleaves' King's Indian Attack, he managed to completely glue up the board to the point where the draw became inevitable. Another draw arrived on board five, where Julie Ward had white against Joe Spooner. Spooner employed the Philidor to some effect, ending up two pawns to the good. However, Ward was able to hold the endgame, and the point was shared. Next, attention moved on to board three, where Steve Edwards had employed the Smyslov System against Mike Kearns' King's Indian. Kearns dropped a pawn in the middle game during a complex exchange, but it was far from clear whether this would be enough to make a decisive difference, however, Edwards had the superior endgame technique and managed to guide home his extra pawn to the queening square to win. This left David Guy on board one, with white against John Trevelyan. Again the Philidor was utilised and the former Welsh champion seemed to have a significant positional advantage in a materially-equal endgame. However, Guy stuck in there, and even champions have to take notice of ticking clocks. A draw was offered, gratefully accepted, and the match ended all square at 2½-2½.

White Knights C thrashed Swansea Valley Dynamos 5-0 the following evening, though the score line was perhaps a little flattering, as the Dynamos probably deserved to get at least something from this match. They started with a handicap as board five was defaulted after a last minute drop-out, and then Joe Spooner was late after being held up by business. Perhaps this was not conducive to Spooner's game, as he lost quickly to Aled George, who is in good form at the moment. Malcolm Probert then finished off Emrys Davies on board three, giving the rubber to the Knights and leaving the top two boards to decide the margin of victory. Richard Jones was unfortunate on board one, holding David Buttell most of the way but blundering right at the end, and Tony Goodchild was even more unfortunate against Steve Edwards on board two. He had dropped a knight and then a pawn in the middlegame - the former blunder allowed white to make one of those rare bishop moves that provided both a skewer (queen and rook) and a fork (queen and knight) - but Edwards lost concentration and counter-blundered by dropping the very bishop that had done all the damage previously. This led to a tense and difficult endgame with big guns and pawns that was almost certainly drawn until Goodchild blundered again and gifted it to white.

Morriston B halted UK Falcons’ progress with a strong performance at home to the Killay team. Ian Eustis beat Fred Clough on top board. Andrew Smith held Ralph Cook to a draw on 2.BrianTonks and Bill Flew also settled for a half on 3. Andrew Fraser Cole tipped the scales with a win against Cecil Rowland on 4. Upper Killay defaulted on bottom board. Upper Killay Kestrels scored a surprise win away to Rhyddings A. Peter Thomas provided another impressive scalp for the inform youngster, Alan Xiao. Ken Huntley drew with Roshan Daniel and there were further draws on 3 and 4 between Alan Rosser and Daniel Anatharaj and Derek Bellamy and Cecil Rowland. The decisive win came on bottom board with June Evans getting the better of John Porter.

In Division 3, second placed CN Senators came a cropper at home to UK Hawks. Only James Silk played to his usual high standard in defeating Ken James on top board. Dennis Thomas was soon in trouble as early as move 5 having played the opening in wrong order in a Philidor’s Defence and ending up losing to young Joram Los. Wayne Prescott was a victim of his usual time trouble, losing out to Cliuve Gosling on 2. Jerry Zhou and June Evans mopped up on the bottom boards with wins against Eric Blackwell and Larry James.

UK Harriers only just managed to beat Briton Ferry Brunel, although you would never guess it from the final score line. David Merryweather scored Brunel’s only point against Sietse Los on top board. Roshan Daniel, Alan Welch, Ken James and June Evans swept the boards for Harriers against, Colin Chambers, Karl Fredricksson, Uthandi Jambulingham and Ben Field. Where did the narrow finish come in then? Just moments after Roshan Daniel had claimed the final point, the hall was plunged into darkness by a power cut!

BV Rooks lost narrowly at home to UK Eagles. Although Phillipe Rodgers and Daniel Wilmot started off well with wins on the top boards against Cecil Rowlands and Clive Gosling, Joram Los, Jerry Zhou and Eva Los hit back for the Eagles beating Martin Watt, Sam Young and A. Lewis.

Minor League leaders, BV Squires, were held at home by CN Centurions. Centurions won on the top boards where Reuben Morgan Williams and Yean Ha took care of Ian Remot and Corey Edwards. Alwin Thomas and Jack Brenton saved the day with wins against Joseph Howe and Dylan Matthews on 3 and 4. In second spot, BV Monks did not take the opportunity to close the gap. Raja Jambulingham and Meurig Jones won for BF Giants against Ian Remot and Sam Lockley. It took wins by Jack Brenton and Nicholas Hughes against Aaron Lloyd Thorne and Brian Morris to save the day for the Monks.CN Barbarians lost out narrowly to UK Kites. Morgan Taylor and Stephen Wu took the top boards against James Ridgeway and Daniel Dowling. Alex Dowling and James Bright Key shared the point on 3. Angharad Jenkins scored a full point against Dylan Taylor on 4. BV Friars won at home to CN Legionnaires. Newcomers, Tom Crudge and Daniel Cook shared the point on top board. Gabriel Cura beat Sam Martin on 2. Williams Hughes lost out to Connor Windos on 3, but Michael Cura’s win over Jack Salter sealed the victory on bottom board.

A win away to Queen Elizabeth High School propelled Bishop Vaughan A to the top of the Secondary Schools League. Ewan Wright held Sam Pritchard to a draw on top board. Ivan Remot, Alwin Thomas and Jack Brenton scooped the rest of the points against Jethro Evans, Daniel Jones and Josh Lewis. QEHS won comfortably against Bishop Vaughan B. Although Jethro Lewis lost out to Nicholas Hughes on board 2, Ewan Wright, Daniel Jones and Josh Lewis each won against Ian Remot, Richu Kuriakose and Joshua Reynolds. BVB made up for this with a whitewash over Bro Myrddin. Bro Myrddin defaulted on bottom board. Ian Remot, Nicholas Hughes and Richu Kuriakose were too good for Rhys Nugent, Elgan Davies and Samuel Davies on the remaining boards.

With so many Division 1 players committed to the European Club Cup in Kallithea, Greece, there have been no fixtures in Division 1 this week. Nidum may be the top dogs in Welsh Chess, but in this tournament they find themselves ranked 60^th out of 64 and every match is a real struggle. In Round 1, Nidum only just survived being whitewashed, thanks to a top board draw by Richard Jones against IM J. Riff of Schachfreunde Eisenstein, of Switzerland, not that he was happy with a draw against a player rated 250 points higher than him as post match analysis showed that he missed several chances to win outright!

Against OSS, Norway, there was not even the relief of a single draw as the Welsh champions went down with all hands. The draw then saw them face fellow Welsh team Cwmbran earlier than expected and in a tightly fought contest it was the West Wales team that emerged with the bragging rights. Richard Jones and Jason Garcia scored against Dave Perrett and Alan Howell. Alan Bennet, Alan Young and Andrew Gibbons drew against John Thornton, Jon Gilbert and Colin Gilbert. The downside of the win is that it dropped Jones’ average opponent from over 2500 and makes his chances of a good final performance rating much more difficult.

Round 4 against CRE Charleroi of Belgium, saw Alan Young pick up his first win and Jason Garcia a half. Finland awaits in Round 5 in the shape of Matinkylaen Shakkikerho Espoo.

In Division 2 of the West Wales League, UK Falcons continue to soar above the rest. A comprehensive win away to bottom of the table Rhyddings A cemented both teams positions. Derek Bellamy’s draw with Bill Flew on board 3 prevented a whitwash, but Fred Clough, Ralph Cook, Sietse Los and June Evans claimed the rest of the points from Peter Thomas, Ken Huntley, Lee Godfrey and Norman Speak. In the middle of the table, White Knights C and Morriston B shared the spoils. Morriston brought in Ian Jones to stiffen up the ranks and he duly delivered with a win against Dave Buttell on top board. On 2, Steve Edwards drew with Andrew Smith. Les Philpin’s good run of form continued with victory over Malcom Probert on 3. Aled George and Julie Ward saved the day for the Knights by beating Brian Tonks and Paul Bevan on the bottom boards. SV Dynamos opened their account at home to Morriston C. Andrew Trickey was first to finish defeating John Ward on 3. Albert Easton beat Dave Conway on 1. Tony Goodchild halved it with Sam Pritchard on 2. Joe Spooner and Emrys Davies completed the job with wins against Mark Pritchard and Steve Duffy.

White Knights D held on to their narrow lead in Division 3 by beating Briton Ferry Brunel. On board one, the half points went to Steve Edwards and David Merryweather. On the other boards, Aled George, Adam Jones, Julie Ward and Jonathan Jones defeated respectively Colin Chambers, Karl Fredriksson (dropped a knight), U. Jambulingham (a "sneaky rook attack along the h file"), and B. Morris (dropped a rook). CN Senators kept up the pressure with a win at home to UK Harriers. On top board there was a tight contest between Steve Smith and Nick Hale, decided ultimately by Smith’s extra pawns. On boards 2, 4 and 5, the Senators quickly went pieces in all three games. James Silk, John Davies and Eric Blackwell then made no mistake in finishing things off against Daniel Anantharaj, Janet Evans and Stephen Wu. On three Dennis Thomas ran into a carefully marshalled attack by Cecil Rowlands, which culminated in Rowlands taking his queen and the game. UK Eagles shot up the table with a good home win against Rhyddings B. Rhyddings conceded one point with a default on bottom board. John Porter was their only scorer with a half against Clive Gosling on 2. Roshan Daniel, Joram Los and June Evans took the remainder of the points against Alan Rosser, Norman Spewak and Mike Osborn. BV Rooks lost out narrowly to UK Hawks. Phillipe Rodgers and Daniel Wilmot gave the Rooks hope with wins on 1 and 2 against Cecil Rowland and Clive Gosling. This was quickly dashed as Joram Los, Jerry Zhou and Eva los cleaned up on the bottom boards against Martin Watt, Sam Young and Adam Lewis.

BV Squires win at home to CN Barbarians keeps them 4 points clear of the rest of the field in the Minor League. Ivan Remot and Alwin Thomas took the top boards against James Ridgeway and Daniel Dowling. Alex Dowling scored the Barbarians only point against Ian Remot on 3. Sam Lockley made sure of the two points against Angharad Jenkins on bottom board. BV Abbots kept in touch with a win away to CN Centurions. Centurions’ new board 1 Yean Ha held Stephen Lockley on board 1, but the Abbots’ Jack Brenton, Sam Lockley and William Hughes each won against Reuben Morgan Williams, Joseph Howe and Dylan Matthews. BV Monks followed their club mates’ example with a win away to CN Legionnaires. Corey Edwards and Ian Remot showed the way with top board wins against Jack Salter and Sam Martin. Daniel Cook replied with a win for Legionnaires against Nicholas Hughes on 3, but the bottom board went to Monks, thanks to Kynan Eastwood’s defeat of Connor Windos. BF Giants climbed up the table after travelling to BV Friars and delivering their hosts a whitewash. Colin Chambers, Karl Goren Fredricksson, Aaron Lloyd Thorne and Brian Rees swept the boards against Gabriel Cura, William Hughes, Michael Cura and Olivia Nichols.

A busy week in the schools league saw Olchfa A keep their lead with a good win away to Bishop Vaughan A. Sam Pritchard and Roshan Daniel cancelled each other out on board 1. Olchfa took 2 and 4 with Eva Los and Minshi Yuan getting the better of Ivan Remot and Alwin Thomas. Sam Young was BV’s only winner against Jerry Zhou on 3. Olchfa had more on their hands when facing Bishop Vaughan B. Roshan Daniel and Minshi Yuan took the top and bottom boards against Adam Nowicki and Joshua Reynolds, but Ian Remot and Jack Brenton squared it for the Bs. Olchfa B had an altogether tougher time. Sam Pritchard, Ivan Remot, Sam young and Alwin Thomas took a white brush to Josh Davies, Dheeraj Thankachan, Deepak Thankachan and Dan Van Der Werf. Deepak Thankachan with a half against Jack Brenton and Dan Van Der Werf with a win against Joshua Reynolds almost managed a half against BVB, but Adam Nowicki and Ian Remot’s wins against Josh Davies and Dheeraj Thankachan kept both points in Bishop Vaughan hands. Queen Elizabeth High School scored their first win thanks to a whitewash delivered away to Bro Myrddin. Ewan Wright, Jethro Evans, Daniel Jones and Josh Lewis proved too strong for Rhys Nugent, Josh Morgan Jones, Elgan Davies and Dafydd Roberts.

The Nidum A juggernaut rumbled into action this week and the Division 1 table suddenly has that familiar look However, in spite of outgrading SV Capablanca on all boards, the champions did not have it all their own way.Nidum skipper, Glyn Sinnett, noted ruefully, “After about an hour's play, the match was definitely swinging Swansea Valley's way, with possible winning positions on boards 2 and 5.” Unfortunately for the Valley boys, things began to unravel at that point. On bottom board, Richard E. Jones had established an edge against Steve Morgan’s French Tarrasch, but got over excited at the prospect of a queen sacrifice to finish his opponent and duly launched it, only to find that he had overlooked the only defence and for his strongest piece he had gained not victory, but a rook and two pawns. Some pointless moves took the players to the first time control, at which point Jones duly resigned. On board 2, Alan Bennett and Femi Adebajo contested a Sicilian Dragon. Wild complications arose, with Adebajo having Rook and 3 pawns for two pieces, and later 4 pawns for the piece. A draw was agreed, with a probable knight vs pawn ending being reached. On 3, Andrew Gibbons and Neil Stuart played a Sicilian Closed with Gibbons a sacced pawn up from opening. Stuart developed sufficient counterplay, but in the tactics ensuing in a time scramble he ended up losing a rook and the game. Mike Kearn played a Modern Defence against Bob Moore. Moore built up a spatial advantage from the opening, and was 2 pawns to the good with a vice like bishop controlling the long diagonal when Kearn resigned what was a lost position. On top board, John Trevelyan quickly achieved his favourite queenless middle game against Richard S. Jones’ King’s Indian. The resultant rook and opposite coloured bishop ending was nothing more than a draw. So it was that Jones’ incredible run of thirty straight wins [ see pic ] in a row in Division 1 came to an end and while Capablanca had ended up on the wrong end of a 4 - 1 scoreline, they will take comfort from the fact that it is a long time since Nidum have been held on the top two boards!

CN Emperors won a closely contested match at home to Nidum B. On 1, Matthew Davies and Glyn Sinnett drew a Nimzo Indian. Davies had a queenside pawn majority, and slightly better endgame chances vs Sinnett’s two bishops before a half was agreed. Cral Davies played his favourite English against Bob Moore on 2. Once all the major pieces were swapped off a draw was agreed in a king and pawn ending with neither side able to make progress. Hywel Griffiths, on 3, tried the Sicilian against Steve Woodrow, but found himself comprehensively outplayed. Woodrow was firstly 2 pawns up, then a queen for rook and piece before finishing things off. Kelvin Haines misplayed a French Advanced against Steve Smith giving him a huge spatial advantage on the queenside, and allowing him to win the game efficiently. On bottom board,

Wayne Prescott won a pawn in the early middle game in a King‘s Indian against Jeff Burrows. This turned it into a two pawns advantage and finally an exchange to boot.

White Knights B's dreadful start to the season continued with another bad result away to Morriston. Ian Jones played a Philidor against Craig Evans; a fairly levellish position was reached, and despite Evans’ best efforts to open the g-file and launch some sort of attack, Jones played it well and a draw was agreed just before the time control. Malcolm Jones unleashed a nice piece sacrifice against David Guy in a strange King’s Indian Defence type position, and should have won the material back with a huge attack. However, he slightly misplayed the position and Guy consolidated well, returning the piece to launch his own attack and going on to win quickly. Keith Downey's up-and-down start to the season continued as he blundered a piece against Ian Eustis after a relatively subdued opening, and his experienced opponent made no mistake in converting to the full point. Les Philpin played an absolute blinder against his opponent, Huw Morcom, despite being over 300 points outgraded. It looked like Morcom should be whipping up a nice queenside attack against Philpin's king, but Philpin was rightly unconcerned as he started his own kingside pawn storm, and it was he who made the decisive breakthrough forcing resignation from the Llanelli man. David Buttell tried his best to rescue a point on bottom board. Having played inaccurately from the opening, he then forced Brian Tonks to sacrifice a piece for two pawns, albeit getting two connected passed pawns in the centre as a result. Buttell played gamely on for the win, but Tonks handled the position well and was generous enough to agree the match-winning draw when Buttell's flag was close to falling.
White Knights C thrashed an admittedly weakened Rhyddings A without mercy in a 5-0 whitewash in Division 2. First to finish was Steve Edwards on board two. His opponent, Ken Huntley, went badly wrong on the black side of a Slav Exchange, and was soon a rook down. Next, Julie Ward defeated Norman Speak in an Italian Game on board five, a task made considerably easier when her genial opponent dropped his queen. Aled George then finished off Lee Godfrey with his Trompowsky after a neat knight fork attacking both of his opponent's rooks. Malcolm Probert made no mistake on board three after his Sicilian left him two pawns up against Alan Rosser, while David Buttell on one eventually finished off Peter Thomas following a closed Sicilian, after the latter went somewhat wrong in the endgame.

Morriston C came a cropper at home to UK Kestrels. The Kestrels were re-inforced with Ralph Cook on board 1 against Paul Bevan. Bevan’s Kamikaze attack soon crumbled allowing Cook to take the first point of the night. Dave Conway added a new scalp to Alan Xuiao’s growing collection. Sam Pritchard got no joy out of Roshan Daniel on 3. John Ward scored Morriston’s only win against Daniel Anatharaj on 4 and newcomer Mark Pritchard got off the mark with a draw against Cecil Rowlands on 5.

UK Falcons were victorious at home to SV Dynamos. Mark Wilson and Emrys Davies took a quick draw on board 4. Ralph Cook soon went an exchange up against Tony Goodchild and when he added a pawn there was no way back for his opponent. Sietse Los claimed the Falcons second point against Joe Spooner on bottom board. Albert Easton had got on top against Fred Clough on top board, but went wrong in Clough’s time trouble. Andrew Trickey chalked up the Valley’s only win against Bill Flew on 3.

In Division 3, CN Senators won away to BV Rooks despite severe reverses on the top two boards. Steve Smith lost out to young Phillipe Rodgers on board 1. Wayne Prescott suffered the same fate against Daniel Wilmot on 2. James Silk, Dennis Thomas and Eric Blackwell came to the rescue with wins against Sam Young, Adam Lewis and Alwyn Thomas. Briton Ferry Brunel scored their first 2 points of the season winning away to Rhyddings B thanks to a board 2 default by the home team..David Merryweather beat Peter Thomas on board 1 and Meurig Jones’ point against Norman Speak on bottom board made sure of the points. Lee Godfrey and John Porter scored for the Brynmill club against Alwyn Morris and Brian Field on 3 and 4. The all Killay affair between Harriers and Hawks ended ina win for the Harriers. Roshan Daniel took the top board points against Cecil Rowland. Daniel Anantharaj and Clive Gosling settled for a half on 2. June Evans levelled the scores beating Joram Los on 3 but J. Eddershaw and Eva Los cleaned up on the bottom boards against Janet Evans and Stephen Wu.

BV Squires stretched their lead at the top of the Minor League to 4 points after a confident win over club mates BV Monks. Ivan Remot, Alwyn Thomas and Sam Lockley took the top 3 boards against Ian Remot, Kynan Eastwood and Nicholas Hughes. Sam Lewis spared Monks real embarrassment with a draw against Kieran Ingram on 4. BV Abbots moved into second spot with an equally impressive performance against club mates Friars. Jack Brenton and Katie Treharne showed the way with wins against Gabriel Cura and Olivia Lewis on 1 and 2. William Hughes held Gabriel Cura on 3, but Friars added to their woes with a default on bottom board. CN Centurions got the better of CN Legionnaires with Yean Ha, Reuben Morgan Williams and Joseph Howe each winning against Daniel Cook, Connor Windos and Jack Salter. Only Sam Martin could score for the Legionnaires against Dafydd James on 4. Uk Kites and BF Giants split the points. Jerry Zhou overcame Colin Chambers on 1. Morgan Taylor and Karl Fredricksson drew on 2. D. Taylor lost to Aaron Lloyd Thorne on 3 and newcomer Joseph Bright-Key held his own for a half against Brian Morris on 4.

Olchfa A’s 3 - 1 win away to Queen Elizabeth High School makes them the early leaders in the Secondary Schools’ League. Roshan Daniel and Eva Los got them off to a good start with wins against E. Wright and J. Evans. D. Jones pulled a point back against Jerry Zhou on 3, but Josh Davies finished it off with a win against J. Lewis on 4. Queen Elizabeth got off the mark with a draw against Olchfa B.

White Knights A kept up the push to dominate Division 1 with a solid win at home to CN Emperors. Alan Young got back to winning ways against Matthew Davies on top board. Jason Garcia lost out to Carl Davies on two, as Davies continues with his hot streak, but the Knights swept the boards on 3 - 5 with Adam May, Huw Morcom and David Guy, each winning against Hywel Griffiths, Steve Smith and Wayne Prescott.

Nidum A kept up the chase, but made hard work of winning away to White Knights B. On board 1, Richard Jones continued his exploration of the Openings in an Old Indian against Craig Evans. For most of the middlegame he was the exchange to the good, and polished things off in the second time control. On 2, David Guy employed a Queen’s Gambit Accepted against Alan Bennett. Bennett was comfortably two pawns to the good and later an exchange plus a pawn, but things went astray and he was fortunate to win the rook and pawn ending. Keith Downey and Andrew Gibbons drew a Queen’s Indian Dfence after Downey Keith missed winning chances in the QBB middlegame. On board 4 Glyn Sinnett missed a clear win right at the start of the second control after being better was most of the game in a Classical Dutch against Dave Buttell and this too petered out into a draw.

A double edged game against Bob Moore turned Malcolm Probert's way after Moore thrashed out with a dodgy g4 in a Queen‘s Pawn Opening. Fortunately for Moore, a draw was agreed when Probert was clearly better. Nidum skipper Sinnett summed up their performance, “We were a little fortunate to win this, as at some point we were possibly losing on bds 3 and 5!”

When Nidum B won at home to Morriston A, there were three ex-Neath players were in the match - on opposing teams ! Although Ian had built up a spatial edge on the queenside in a Petroff against Rob Saunders on top board, Saunders outplayed him in middlegame and won two pieces plus pawn for rook. Glyn Sinnett faced the first of the Neath trio in the form of Chris Howells on 2. In a rook and bishop vs rook and knight ending, Sinnett had a huge squeeze on the e8 square, but tried to win it too quickly and ended up drawing. Bob Moore went a pawn down to Ian Eustis but in trying to win the difficult middlegame, Eustis came unstuck. The 3 pawns vs knight ending was won for Moore, before Ieustis eventually lost on time.

Steve Morgan coped comfortably, with ex Neath stalwart Alan William’s Colle launching a direct winning attack on an uncastled king. On bottom board, Kelvin Haines found himself pitted against his old team mates and in an irregular opening against Adrian Davies Irregular, although Davies had the better from the opening, it was Haines who found a neat mate to grab the full point.

There was only one match in Division 2 last week as the scheduled fixture between Morriston C and UK Falcons has been postponed. UK Kestrels had a close encounter with Morriston B and came away with a valuable 2 points. Ralph Cook dropped won a team to claim a point from Andrew Smith on board 1 Alan Xiao held Brian Tonks to a draw on 2. Mark Wilson and Andrew Fraser-Cole cancelled each other out on 3. Sietse Los lost out to the Morriston ’Whirlwind’, Paul Bevan 1 on 4 and the match then turned on the bottom board encounter between Roshan Daniel and Dave Conway. This went right down to the wire with Daniel taking the point as Conway’s flag fell at the last.

Division 3 saw what might prove to be an early season crunch match between CN Consuls and White Knights D. There was no doubting who was the hero as White Knights D won 3-2 in a match which could have gone either way right up to the end. On board one, Steve Smith and Steve Edwards ground out a dead draw after a Slav Exchange, but elsewhere there was much excitement. Julie Ward reached the time control on board two a pawn up against James Silk and was seemingly in control, but went wrong in the endgame and allowed Silk to draw. On board five, the stalwart veteran Jeff Jones looked at one point as if he was going to win a rook, but blundered and allowed Larry James a crushing attack down the kingside which led to victory - but only after a mate in one and a mate in two had been missed when two queens (!) up. Richie Williams was always in control on board three and eventually overwhelmed his opponent John Davies, which left Guto Llywelyn against Eric Blackwell on board four to decide the match. And what a fight it was. Llywelyn took an early advantage, but blundered into the loss of the exchange after a complex liquidation of pieces. From this low point of being a zero, Llywelyn gritted his teeth and fought back. Blackwell dropped one pawn and then another. Suddenly, Llywelyn had four pawns for the exchange and had a clear won game. He also had but a few minutes left on the clock to convert the win, and didn't make things easy on himself by delaying the winning pawn march. However, the pawns did eventually march and Blackwell was forced to resign, and Llywelyn had made the transition from zero to hero and won the match for the Ds. Thrilling stuff.

Cecil Rowland drew first blood with a point against Alan Welch. Daniel Anatharaj hit back against Joram Los on board 2. Janet Evans and Nick Hale shared the point on 3. Eva Los took the Eagles back in front against debutant J Eddyshaw on 4, but a costly default on 5 allowed Harriers to share the spoils after all.

The grizzled veterans of Rhyddings B came a cropper against the young guns of Bishop Vaughan Rooks. Only Ken Huntley’s half point against Phillipe Rodgers on board 1 spared the Brynmill team’s blushes as Rooks cleaned up emphatically in the remaining games with Daniel Wilmot, Martin Watt, Sam Young and Alwin Thomas wiping out Le Godfrey, John Porter, Norman Speak and Mike Osborn.

Both Briton Ferry Brunel and UK Hawks were players short for their match, but nevertheless played a 3 boarder with the Hawks claiming both points after Clive Gosling pulled off a stunning win against David Merryweather on board 1 and June Evans followed this up with victory against Colin Chambers on 2. Meurig Jones was the Ferry’s only scorer against Stephen Wu on 3.

BV Squires are firmly in the lead of the Minor League after a great win away to CN Legionnaires. Ivan Remot lead the way, beating Sam Martin on top board and even though Jack Salter pulled a point back against Sam Young on 2, Stephen and Sam Lockley wrapped it up for the Squires with wins against Connor Lindos and Daniel Cook on 3 and 4.

CN Centurions dented BV Monks’ aspirations with useful win at home to the visitors. Yean Ha beat Ian Remot on 1. Monks defaulted on 2. Dafydd James lost out to Jack Brenton on 3, but Reuben Morgan-Williams secured the two pints with a win over Shaun Pritchard on bottom board.

BV Abbots got off the mark with a crushing home win over CN Barbarians. Katie Treharne, Keiran Ingram, Gabriel and Michael Cura whitewashed James Ridgeway, Daniel Dowling, Angharad Jenkins and Alex Dowling. UK Kites won at home to BV Friars thanks to Morgan Taylor’s win against Jack Brenton on top board, followed by a Stephen Wu victory over William Hughes on 2. Dylan Taylor lost out to Shaun Probert on 3, but Joseph Pright completed the job, beating Tom Crudge on bottom board.

In the Secondary Schools’ League, Pontardulais shared the points with Bishop Vaughan B courtesy of the away sides’ bottom board default and a good win on top board by Adam Lewis over Ian Remot. BVB took boards 2 and 3 with wins by Jack Brenton and Nicholas Hughes over Sam Lockley and Jacob Davies.

White Knights A move to the top of Division 1 with a home win against SV Capablanca, but in their own estimation it was not a great performance with the Llanelli boys held on the top three boards by a side that was missing John Trevelyan, on duty that night with Cardiff. Alan Young drew with Femi Adebajo on board one as Black in a Classical Ruy Lopez. Young was a pawn up, but his opponent organised sufficient pressure against his b pawn, while restraining it with a pawn on a5. Jason Garcia seemed to have a very strong position early on as White in a Sicilian Grand Prix Attack against Mike Cleaves. However, this also resulted in a draw. Adam May was black versus Neil Stuart in a Classical Caro Kann. Stuart developed sensibly, without h4-h5, putting his bishop on f4. It seemed so natural to hit this with Nd5 but this lead to May castling queenside after Bg5. He again played g5 (last week commented as extremely risky). This week it was just not very successful. White replied b4-b5-bc. In a m