Author: Eddie

September 29, 2015

Division B (2015/16) Fixture List For the South Shields Team
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October
21 Wed            Darlington C   v South Shields
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November
5 Thu               South Shields   v Gateshead
16 Mon           Bishop Auckland   v South Shields
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24 Tue            Ron Evers – Rounds 1 & 2
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December
3 Thu              South Shields   v Peterlee B
17 Thu            South Shields   v Darlington B
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January
13 Wed          Durham City Canons  v South Shields
28 Thu           South Shields   v Hartlepool

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February
2 Tue             Ron Evers – Rounds 3 & 4
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February
11 Thu Hetton Lyons B  v South Shields

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March 14th to 18th ( date not confirmed yet )
Ron Evers – Rounds 5 & 6
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The Ron Evers Competition is a Handicapped RapidPlay competition that this year will be played for on a  6 game Swiss Basis .

It will be played for on 3 nights , 2 rounds will be played on each of the nights . Teams play each other twice , once black and once white . Venues added as soon as confirmed

It is open to all the members of our  Club . If you definitely know you want to play then let Eddie /Stan  know . We need mulitiples of 4 team players .

August 26, 2015

Thursday the 27th August has been set for the Annual General Meeting of the club members .

Areas under discussion include ideas for the 150th Anniversary Celebrations next year ,election of committee members ,  pencilling in of team names for the coming season . We expect to play 4 teams , 3 in the Northumberland and 1 in the Durham League . There will also be the presentation of Trophies to Competition Winners .

August 10, 2015

This years British Chess Championships were held at Warwick University . A few of our members took the time to play in some of the events and it with great pleasure we can report that Paul Bielby became joint OVER 65 champion with a score of 4.5 out of 6 . Next years Championship will be held on the Riviera of the South ,,,, Bournemouth .

Mike Savin is organizing a 10 minute Rapid Play , This Thursday the 13th August . Please try to arrive by 7.15 pm …. If you know you are definitely coming then send him an email .

I have also added a new feature to the website , if you register your email address  then you will get automatic updates telling you when a new post has been added to the site .

July 7, 2015

The Club Championship was contested through the last season by 20 of our members  in a World Cup Format .

Paul Bielby finally won out after a couple of close calls on the way  . The finalists kindly gave us permission to review their game and also gave us some insights into their thoughts at the time .

White : Dave Patterson             Black : Paul Bielby

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3
(PB)An oddly defensive move for an attacking player like Dave.  The N on c3 blocks the pawn move c3 which assists White control ihe centre.
(DP) Agreed,  I was a little intimidated by Paul, knowing how strong and attacking he is. I would have preferred the Kings Gambit but he knows it inside out. I chose a waiting/watching game early on.
3. … Nf6 4. Bc4 Be7 5. d3 O-O 6. h3 d6 7. Bd2 Na5
(PB)Nothing very much has happened so far, both sides have developed most of their pieces.  Black is safely castled and White is preparing to do so.  With this move Black wants to break the equilibrium by exchanging N for B.  White allows him to gain space on the Q-side, but there is no escape for the B.
(DP) d3 was careless allowing Bishop to be trapped and exchanged
8. Bb5 c6 9. Ba4 b5 10. Bb3 Nxb3 11. axb3 Bb7
(PB)Black has fully equalised and now threatens the advance d5 to take control in the centre.
(DP) at this stage my doubled pawns and poor Queens Knight left me in a weaker position than I would have hoped. I perhaps should have tried Ne2 instead of Be3 (releasing c pawn and allowing Ba5 to harass the black Queen.
12. Be3 a6 13. O-O Qc7
(PB)Again preparation for … d5 – but now White blunders
(DP) I’d prefer to see it as a black sacrifice from an attacking player😀 as Nxe4 wasn’t forced.  The aim was simply to try to exchange my knight for the stronger black bishop by moving on to Nf5, but it was a sloppy move.

14. Nh4?? Nxe4 15. Nxe4
(PB) His best try, giving him some attacking chances.  Otherwise he is simply a pawn down.
(DP) agreed, I felt a pawn down to Paul, plus doubled pawns would have left an uphill struggle.
15. … Bxh4 16. Qg4 Be7??
(DP) Qg4 seemed a natural attacking move at this stage with the intention of following up with a mate threat on g7.  (Ever the optimist. At least now I was attacking and felt more comfortable😀)
(PB)Black blunders in turn.  16. … Bd8 is much safer, so that 17. Bh6 is met by … f5.
(DP) If 16…Bd8. Then probably try Ng3 but not sure if it would lead to a strong attack.
17. Bh6 g6 18. Qe2??
(PB)White is frightened of the line 18. Bxf8 f5 19.Qe2 Rxf8 where Black has an extra pawn and a hugely active pawn centre to compensate for the loss of the exchange.  None the less it is his best chance.
(DP). Frightened is too strong a word😀 I was too optimistic in thinking that the attack was going to give me better winning chances. I much preferred that than meeting such a strong pawn structure with Paul at the helm.
18. … Re8 19. f4 f5 20. fxe5
(PB)White sacrifices a piece for a strong passed pawn and control of the open f-file.  Unfortunately it’s not quite good enough.
(DP). At this stage 19…f5 was coming no matter what and was a strong defensive move, so I decided that the sacrifice (fxe5) was the only way I could keep some winning chances.

20. … fxe4 21. e6!
(PB) With the threat of Rf7 this requires very careful defence.
(DP) onward ever onward, by now there was no going back.

21. … Bf8 22. Rf7 Qb6+ 23. Be3 c5 24. Qg4 Bg7
(DP) If only I still had my knight, how things would have been different😅
(DP) At this point I had to hold onto my pawn at e6 (h4, h5. Looked to slow)

25. Rd7?
The final and decisive mistake.  The line 25. Raf1 Rf8 26. Rxf8+ Rxf8 27. e7 Re8 28. Qe6+ Kh8 29. Rf8+ Rxf8 30. e8=Q!  Bd5!  31 Qxf8+ Bxf8 32 Qxd5 (as suggested by Houdini , the chess engine in my computer) still leaves Black a pawn up. (neither Dave nor I saw this deep and desperately exciting line in our post match analysis)
(DP) wow, wish I’d seen that as it would have felt great even if not winning😀
(DP). Even now, Winning chances if Paul made a mistake, but not to be.
25. …. Bc8  26. Bg5 d5 27. Rf1 Bxd7 28. exd7 Rf8 29.  Rxf8+ Rxf8 30. d8=Q Rxd8 31. Bxd8 Qxd8 32. White resigns.

(PB)The ending is easy for Black, a clear piece up.
(DP). Agreed, that’s why I resigned.

June 17, 2015

In an effort to raise the profile of South Chess Club we have arranged the first of our open air ventures at the Westoe VIllage Fete this coming Saturday 20th of June .  Fingers crossed for the weather .  Hopefully a couple of the members will pop down for a quick game .

June 13, 2015

The Ron Evers Final was played between Durham and South Shields A on Thursday 11th May . On paper Durham were the much stronger team and so the Handicap offered South Shields a 1.5 point advantage . Following two hard fought rounds Durhams strength showed , they overcame the disadvantage to win by 0.5 point overall . Congratulatulations to Durham and well played Paul Bielby , Kevin Rowden , Ben Wood ,Stan Johnson and Colin Campbell for getting so close to winning the trophy this year. There ‘s always next year .

April 13, 2015

The Ron Evers Rapid Play Chess Tournament  is an annual competition held by the Durham County Chess Association and it members . This year South Shields fielded 3 teams  of 4 players .  Both the A and the B  teams have managed to get in the Semi Final and will be facing each for the pleasure of playing against Durham A , probably the strongest team in the competition in terms of individual grading points .

Fortunately the competition is a  Team Handicap , with the average grade of each team taken into account and then a handicap applied according to the difference between the average ratings .  The teams play two 30 minute games against each other , one black and one white .

The South Shields Semi Final is due to be played shortly  so look out for the result.

 

 

 

March 30, 2015

South Shields A team  secured the necessary points against Gateshead at the Carlton Club to pip them at the final hurdle . It was a tight match with the final score of 3.5 to 1.5 . The Result now means that next season the team will be promoted to the First Division of the Northumberland Chess League .

At the same time the South Shields B Team playing at home at The New Ship managed to pull out an excellent Draw against Tynedale Rievers . This put South Shields B in 3rd  Place in the 3rd Division of the Northumberland League by a single board point .

With two matches left in the Durham League the South Shields Team are playing for a respectable mid place position in Division 2 .

This season has been a bit of a renaissance season  , having for many years struggling to pull one team together we now have 3 teams with the possibility of a 4th team next season ,

The relative success can be put down to a great club spirit . The players moved around within the teams in order to give a wide range of opportunities and all efforts were truly appreciated .

 

February 18, 2015

Solving chess problems is an useful way of improving tactical ability but the art of setting problems is a skill in itself and I discovered a great resource that I though I would share with you all .

The British Chess Problem Society, founded in 1918, is the world’s oldest chess problem society. It exists to promote the knowledge and enjoyment of chess compositions, and membership is open to chess enthusiasts in all countries. The Society produces two bi-monthly magazines, The Problemist and The Problemist Supplement (the latter catering for beginners), which are issued to all members. It organises the annual British Chess Solving Championship (sponsored by Winton Capital Management), and selects the Great Britain squad for the World Chess Solving Championship. Members are invited to attend BCPS lectures, which are held in London on the last Friday of each month between September and April. The Society holds an annual residential weekend, with a full programme of solving and composing tourneys and lectures. Members are entitled to use the resources of the BCPS library, and the Society book service, which can provide new and second-hand publications.

January 26, 2015

Chess has been played now in one form or another for around 1500 years  . In recent years the internet has opened up the game to many more people. You can quite easily play online chess with people from all over the world from the comfort of your front room , However chess is a fundamentally a game that crosses all the social borders and you cannot beat the experience of sitting directly opposite your opponent and hopefully watching them squirm as you make that killer move. Serious competition chess doesn’t permit discussion and laughing out loud or “sledging” , It doesn’t allow mobile phones … and if that isn’t a great reason to take up chess I don’t know what is . However in the more social and friendly practise games the Art of Talking someone off the board is alive and well . Come down to our club and witness some of the banter . Chess can be both fun and serious . The internet has never made it so easy to pick up the skills to become the next Chess Champion . I have come across a really great  site that is crammed full of tips and is aptly called The Chess World