Author: Lewis

September 23, 2019

Congratulations to Dave Mooney who won the Ponziani’s themed blitz with 8/8. Well done to Yaroslav Kolodiy for coming second with 5.5/8. Full details here.

Next Thursday, 26^th September, the theme will be the Petrov Defence (or Russian if you hail from Eastern Europe). Play will start after 1 e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 with white to move.

Two videos for your prep. First an introductory video from the excellent “Hanging Pawns”.  This is the first of five. There are four more in his series going into the possible variations for the keen student. Since the defence has a bit of a boring reputation, here is a video from the St Louis Chess Club on one possible white attempt to make life exciting, the Cochrane Gambit where white plays Nxf7, sacrificing a piece on move 4!

September 14, 2019

Congratulations to Dave Mooney who won the Alekhine’s Defence themed blitz with 6/7. Well done to Yaroslav Kolodiy for coming second with 4.5/7. Full details here.

Next Thursday, 19^th September, the theme will be Ponziani’s Opening. Play will start after 1 e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. c3 with black to move.

Two videos for your preparation, one from Chessexplained and one from thechesswebsite.

September 8, 2019

Congratulations to Dave Mooney for winning the well attended (18 player) FIDE rated warm-up blitz for the British Championships qualifier in Newcastle with 8.5/9. It paid off with Dave finishing equal 3rd in the main event.

John Boyd and Charlie Storey were equal second on 7.5/9. In 4= there were 5 players, Yaroslav Kolodiy, Paul Bielby, Ian Maughan, Dave Patterson and Jay Steel. Apologies to Dave and Jay for missing them off the details in the email.

This Thursday, 12^th September, the theme will be Alekhine’s Defence. Play will start with black to move after the moves 1. e4 Nf6 2. e5. As usual a couple of YouTube videos for your preparation.

First, a game with Nakamura playing the black side with commentary by “kingscrusher”.

For a more serious study of the opening here is the first in a series of 9 (!) videos on the defence from “Hanging Pawns”. Keen students will, obviously, want to track down and watch the other 8 🙂

September 8, 2019

This was a good tournament for South Shields players. Dave Mooney had a very good result, coming equal 3rd (with Yichen Han) in a strong field with 10/15. The two players above him were GM Danny Gormally and IM Lorin D’Acosta and these two players get the two places on offer for the finals.

Further down the field Michael Allen continued his good form now that his A Levels are behind him, finishing on a very respectable 7/15 with Paul Bielby just behind on 6.5/15.

Congratulations too, to Prachi Arora who, although not a South Shields member, plays occasionally in our Thursday evening tournaments. She was the 2nd highest female player and therefore wins a place in the Women’s Blitz Championship final.

Full details here.

August 30, 2019

First, congratulations to Dave Mooney for winning the Colle themed blitz on 22nd August with 9.5 / 10. Well done to Kevin Rowden (6/10) and Paul Bielby (5/10) for finishing 2nd and 3rd. Full details here.

The North East qualifier for the 2019 British Blitz Championships is being held at RGS in Newcastle on Saturday 7th September. Online entry form here.

The time control for this event is 3 minutes with a 2 second increment, which is a bit faster than our normal themed blitzes.

So, to help club players who want to enter this tournament to acclimatize to the faster time control and also for those who just want to play some rated blitz, we are running a warm-up event over 9 rounds on Thursday 5th September. This will have the same time control, 3+2, as the real event and will be FIDE rated. Start time is 19:30 at The New Ship Inn on Sunderland Rd.

As usual, no entry fee, no prizes, open to all who want to turn up and play.

August 18, 2019

Congratulations to Dave Mooney for winning the Scandinavian themed blitz with 9/9. Well done to Paul Bielby who finished 2nd with 7.5/9 and to Tim Wilton-Davies and Brian Towers for finishing equal 3rd on 5/9. Honourable mention to Michael Allen, making his debut in these themed blitzes, for finishing 5th on 4.5/9. Full details here.

This Thursday, 22nd August, the theme will be the Colle. Play will start with black to move after the moves 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. e3 e6 4. Bd3. There are two basic directions white can go in with either c3 (Colle-Koltanowski) or b3 (Colle-Zukertort).

As usual here are two videos for your prep, one for each variation, the Colle-Koltanowski and Colle-Zukertort.

August 13, 2019

Congratulations to Dave Mooney for winning the Grob themed blitz with 8/9. Well done to Yaroslav Kolodiy who pushed him close with 7/9 and Paul Bielby who finished 3^rd with 5.5/9. Full details here

This Thursday, 15^th August, the theme will be the Scandinavian Defence. Play will start with black to move after the moves 1. e4 d5 2. ed. Two serious videos, the first from the St Louis Chess Club and the second from “Hanging Pawns”

July 29, 2019

Congratulations to Dave Mooney for winning the Stanley Johnson Trophy Club Championship beating Yaroslav Kolodiy in the final.

Here is the game with notes by the winner.

[pgn height=500 initialHalfmove=1 autoplayMode=none]

[Event “South Shields Club Championship 2019”]
[Site “South Shields”]
[White “Mooney, Dave”]
[Black “Kolodiy, Yaroslav”]
[Result “1-0”]
[Annotator “Mooney, Dave”]
[PlyCount “1”]
[TimeControl “75+10”]

1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. Nc3 {The early development of the Queen’s Knight is an alternative to the main line 3. d4 that has been suggested by the British GM Nigel Davies.} Nb6 4. d4 d6 5. Bf4 Nc6 6. Bb5 a6 7. Bxc6 bxc6 8. Qf3 Bd7 9. Nge2 g6 10. 0-0-0 {White’s decision to castle queenside is not his best option according to Stockfish. The engine prefers castling short as the best way to maintain an edge for White.} Bg7 11. Qg3 0-0 12. h4 h5 13. Bg5 Rb8 14. b3 a5 15. Qe3 Re8 16. a4 Qc8 17. Bh6 Bh8 18. f3 Nd5 19. Nxd5 cxd5 20. g4 {White is intent on breaking through on the kingside but Black’s position has its own attacking chances.} hxg4? {The error that costs Black the game. After} (20… c5! 21 dxc5 dxe5) {the position is unclear.} 21. h5 gxf3 22. hxg6. fxg6 23. Qg5 Bf5 24. Nf4 dxe5 25. Nxg6 Bf6 26. Qg3 Kf7 {despite being short of time, Black finds an ingenious way to avoid the mating net but White still has the option to convert his advantage into a winning endgame.} 27. Nxe5+ Bxe5 28. Qxe5 Rg8 29. Qxd5+ Qe6 30. Qf3 Qe4 31. Qxe4 Bxe4 32. Rhf1+ Kg6 33. Rde1 Bg2 {If Black’s king takes the bishop then the White rook captures on e4 with excellent prospects in the subsequent rook and pawn endgame.} 34. Re6+ Kh7 {Here} (34…Kh5) {avoids the immediate loss of a piece but White still has a clearly won game.} 35. Rf7+ Kh8 36. Ree7 Rg6 37. Rh7+ Kg8 38. Reg7+ Rxg7 39. Rg7+ {resigns} [/pgn]

July 26, 2019

Congratulations to Dave Mooney for winning the Berlin wall themed blitz with 9/10. As we had 6 players we played a double round robin for a change. Full results here.

Next Thursday, 1st August, as a complete contrast to the Berlin the theme is the Grob. Play will start with Black to move after the move 1. g4

As usual two videos for your preparation. First this video gives the script for when white gets his wishes satisfied and black grabs the pawn. Second, a video featuring a game from the 1980’s with Tim Wall as the Grob player, when Black refuses to play ball.

Late breaking news: Dave Mooney beat Yaroslav Kolodiy in the final of the Stanley Johnson Trophy Club Championship. More details, including I hope the game, when I have them.

July 14, 2019

First, congratulations to Dave Walker and Dave Mooney for finishing equal first in the Warm-Up Blitz on the 4th July with 8.5/9. Well done, too, to Ian Maughan who finished 3rd on 6/9. Full details here.

The next theme is the Berlin Wall in the Ruy Lopez on Thursday 18th July. Play will start after the moves 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. O-O Nxe4 5. d4 Nd6 6. BxN dxB 7. de Nf5 8. QxQ KxQ with White to move.

This difficult, enigmatic opening makes a change from the usual “wham-bang-thank-you-Stan” fare of gambits and slightly wacky openings we usually have. To help you with the ideas and plans for the opening here are two YouTube videos for your preparation. First, from Yasser Seirawan, a long but very good video which includes some interesting historical perspective. Second, a shorter video which also gives a good introduction to the Ruy Lopez proper.