Monday 29 October 2012
Site Has Moved!
Please change your links to point to www.sidcupchessclub.org.uk where this blog will continue.
Thanks!
Friday 19 October 2012
Intro and Fuller Updates
The Chess season got off to an exciting start at the Hurst Community Centre on Wednesday night as Sidcup’s 2nd team faced arch-rivals (and good mates) from the new 3rd Team in the Fuller Cup. Third team captain Lee Brockwell kept his line-up a closely guarded secret until the last moment and then revealed his big gun, David Helps, on Top Board. As it turned out, the 3rd Team out-graded their 2nd team rivals by an average of six points per Board. In the end those extra points made the difference and the 3rd Team won through by a 3-1 scoreline. Keith Thompson was not worse until he made a small mistake that lost the exchange and eventually the game to David Helps. On Boards two and three Leon Hopkins and Peter Houching, and Ian Reeve and Lee Brockwell reached equality, and eventually agreed honorable draws. On Board four Chris Cheeseman finished with a nice mating attack to take a full point from his game with Ken Grist.
The following evening the Intro Cup team travelled to Dartford to meet a Gravesend 6 team, made up of players from both Gravesend and Dartford Chess Clubs. The evening went largely according to plan - but with one or two hiccups on route! On top Board Leon Hopkins playing his second match on consecutive evenings eventually ground down his opponent for the win. But on Board two, Lee Brockwell blundered a Knight and went down - in the post-match analysis Lee found the move that would have won the game, but that’s chess! Gravesend’s Junior, Conner Phillips, had Ken Grist on the ropes for a while, but the position became blocked and both players shook hands on a draw. Board four provided all the excitement. In a wild game, John Morris first won the exchange, but then dropped a piece, albeit with good counter-play. The game ended when John found a ‘royal’ fork. His Knight checking his opponent’s King whilst also attacking Queen and Rook. The game was over and Sidcup had won the match by the narrowest of margins - 2.5 - 1.5.
Tuesday 2 October 2012
New Season
Matches for the new season are now on the website (see Fixtures tab).
The new season kicks-off on Wednesday, 17 October 2012 when Keith Thompson’s 2nd team - last season’s League winners - take on a brand new Sidcup third team, captained by new recruit Lee Brockwell, in the Tom Fuller Cup.
The following night, on Thursday, 18 October 2012, Peter Houching’s Intro Cup team start their campaign against Gravesend 6. The match is being played at Dartford so our team can be in their beds before midnight.
The Harvey Cup team reached the knockout stages last season and their programme gets underway a week later, on Wednesday, 24 October 2012, when captain Ian McAllan takes our first team to down to play Lewisham 5.
Tuesday 8 May 2012
Semi Final Results - Harvey Cup
The Harvey Cup team lost its semi-final match against Snodland. The three bottom boards lost fairly quickly leaving the top three boards needing to win all their games to win the match on tie-break. Ian and Dave did win, but in the last game to finish Gary had to accept a draw offer in a technically drawn endgame which his opponent could not lose.
Congratulations to Dave for going through the season unbeaten for the second season running.
Wednesday 25 April 2012
Sidcup 2 Update
Sidcup 2 now know that they have to play Snodland 2 in the Final.
Snodland 2 beat Beckenhan 5 in what must have been a nail biting game, as the match finished with a 2-2 draw. However, Snodland go through to the final on board count winning on Board 3. Board 1 & 2 both finishing in draws.
Monday 23 April 2012
Sidcup 2 v Medway 3, Fuller
Congratulation’s go to Sidcup 2 who had a great win against Medway 3 in their Semi-final match to reach the Final of the Fuller Competition which will be held on the Sunday 13th May at The Mick Jagger Centre Dartford.
They were well out-graded by their opponents who’s total grade rating was 433 against Sidcup's 392 - a total of 41 grading points higher.
The evening started off very well with Ken Grist (Grade 89) earning a very good win over his opponent Isaac Oluwale (Grade 92) and at one stage each board had winning chances. It looked as if the team would have a 4.0 win then Keith Thompson (Grade 121) lost to Paul Foster (Grade 140) who, after being in a winning position, blundered missing a skewer move on his 2 rooks on move 34. He disheartenedly resigned immediately, being a bishop down and in a losing position.
With the score at 1 point each it meant that Ian Reeve and Leon Hopkins had to come up with at least 1.5 points between them as a 2 all draw was no good to Sidcup since they would lose on board count. Leon (Grade 97 and who has not lost for the Fuller Team this year) managed to keep the team on track with a draw against Doug Smith (Grade 113), retaining his unbeaten run for the team and gaining the half a point.
Then Ian Reeve (Grade 85) playing Barry Hampton (Grade 88), came up with the full point that was needed to ensure the 2.5 to 1.5 win which meant that Sidcup 2 went through to the final against either Beckenham 5 or a strong looking Snodland 2 side from the Mid Kent division.
The match between Snodland 2 and Beckenham 5 will be played on the 24th April at Snodland to see which of these team Sidcup 2 will be meeting in the Final.
Our best wishes go to our 1st team when they meet Snodland 1 in their Semi final on the 4th May.
They were well out-graded by their opponents who’s total grade rating was 433 against Sidcup's 392 - a total of 41 grading points higher.
The evening started off very well with Ken Grist (Grade 89) earning a very good win over his opponent Isaac Oluwale (Grade 92) and at one stage each board had winning chances. It looked as if the team would have a 4.0 win then Keith Thompson (Grade 121) lost to Paul Foster (Grade 140) who, after being in a winning position, blundered missing a skewer move on his 2 rooks on move 34. He disheartenedly resigned immediately, being a bishop down and in a losing position.
With the score at 1 point each it meant that Ian Reeve and Leon Hopkins had to come up with at least 1.5 points between them as a 2 all draw was no good to Sidcup since they would lose on board count. Leon (Grade 97 and who has not lost for the Fuller Team this year) managed to keep the team on track with a draw against Doug Smith (Grade 113), retaining his unbeaten run for the team and gaining the half a point.
Then Ian Reeve (Grade 85) playing Barry Hampton (Grade 88), came up with the full point that was needed to ensure the 2.5 to 1.5 win which meant that Sidcup 2 went through to the final against either Beckenham 5 or a strong looking Snodland 2 side from the Mid Kent division.
The match between Snodland 2 and Beckenham 5 will be played on the 24th April at Snodland to see which of these team Sidcup 2 will be meeting in the Final.
Our best wishes go to our 1st team when they meet Snodland 1 in their Semi final on the 4th May.
Play online chess
Play online chess
Monday 2 April 2012
Fuller - Sidcup v Beckenham
Congratulation to Sidcup2 on securing their place in the Semi Finals of the Fuller cup on Thursday night by obtaining the half point they needed to win the Metro Section of the League.
Sidcup finish on 4.5 points and Beckenham & Bromley will finish as runners up on 4 0 points. We now go on to have a home tie against the Mid Kent Section of the Fuller league in the Semi’s which at the end of February their section looked a close call between 3 teams.
Thursday evening was the crunch game against Beckenham & Bromley to see if we finish as runners up and having an away fixture in the semis or finish as winners. We lost to Beckenham and Bromley in the first match of the season 2.5 to 1.5 since then we have had a run of 4 good wins by beating Petts Wood and Lewisham in both the home and away legs.
Leon Hopkins (Playing Black) as has been happening all season, set us on the winning road by having a good win against Stephen Roberts. Leon equalized with black on about move 12 when white played what I thought looked an OK move e4 (but Fritz says it lost white the advantage they have on the first move) although it does give white a bad bishop on f3. By move 17 Leon had white in all sorts of trouble when pinning white’s knight to the queen and winning the piece, then going on to also win a bishop and putting the game beyond the reach of Stephen mopping up in grand style by doubling his rooks on the f file.
Keith Thompson secured the half point required to win the section by beating Geoff Kewsey. Keith (playing White) failed to fully capitalize on a mistake made by Geoff on move 9 playing Qf3 instead of Qe5+ where he could have forked a check and his rook on h8 (he completely missed this until he checked against Fritz). So he could have had an earlier night but playing Qf3 he still had a good advantage. Apart from that Fritz has him down as not playing too badly having an advantage all the way through the game although around move 22, Fritz says he was down to a 1.5 pawn advantage but by move 27 was well on top again when Geoff Kewsey took a poisoned pawn on h2 and lost his bishop for 2 pawns with Geoff resigning on move 53 being a bishop down and about to lose more material.
Both Dennis Halton and Ken Grist fought hard in their matches; Dennis losing a very tight match on time when both Dennis and his opponent Howard Walden both having less than a minute on their clocks only for Dennis’ flag to fall first.
Although the season for us is not over just yet, congratulations must go to Leon on having gone through the season unbeaten in section playing 6 and winning all 6 and also to Ian Reeve for a good performance in his first season by winning 3 out of the 4 matches he has played in.
Sidcup finish on 4.5 points and Beckenham & Bromley will finish as runners up on 4 0 points. We now go on to have a home tie against the Mid Kent Section of the Fuller league in the Semi’s which at the end of February their section looked a close call between 3 teams.
Thursday evening was the crunch game against Beckenham & Bromley to see if we finish as runners up and having an away fixture in the semis or finish as winners. We lost to Beckenham and Bromley in the first match of the season 2.5 to 1.5 since then we have had a run of 4 good wins by beating Petts Wood and Lewisham in both the home and away legs.
Leon Hopkins (Playing Black) as has been happening all season, set us on the winning road by having a good win against Stephen Roberts. Leon equalized with black on about move 12 when white played what I thought looked an OK move e4 (but Fritz says it lost white the advantage they have on the first move) although it does give white a bad bishop on f3. By move 17 Leon had white in all sorts of trouble when pinning white’s knight to the queen and winning the piece, then going on to also win a bishop and putting the game beyond the reach of Stephen mopping up in grand style by doubling his rooks on the f file.
Keith Thompson secured the half point required to win the section by beating Geoff Kewsey. Keith (playing White) failed to fully capitalize on a mistake made by Geoff on move 9 playing Qf3 instead of Qe5+ where he could have forked a check and his rook on h8 (he completely missed this until he checked against Fritz). So he could have had an earlier night but playing Qf3 he still had a good advantage. Apart from that Fritz has him down as not playing too badly having an advantage all the way through the game although around move 22, Fritz says he was down to a 1.5 pawn advantage but by move 27 was well on top again when Geoff Kewsey took a poisoned pawn on h2 and lost his bishop for 2 pawns with Geoff resigning on move 53 being a bishop down and about to lose more material.
Both Dennis Halton and Ken Grist fought hard in their matches; Dennis losing a very tight match on time when both Dennis and his opponent Howard Walden both having less than a minute on their clocks only for Dennis’ flag to fall first.
Although the season for us is not over just yet, congratulations must go to Leon on having gone through the season unbeaten in section playing 6 and winning all 6 and also to Ian Reeve for a good performance in his first season by winning 3 out of the 4 matches he has played in.
Play chess online
Play online chess
Harvey - Sidcup v Lewisham Result
The Harvey Cup team finished the regular season with a draw against a very strong Lewisham side on exactly the maximum average grade and also including a 10 year old who had jumped 26 grading points in the January grading list. After two quick losses we were up against it, especially as Keith, Rob and Gary all had slightly worse positions. Gary gained a draw despite his awful pawn structure and Keith drew with the talented 10 year old. Ian then ground out a win and finally Rob turned his game around with both players in time-trouble and mated his opponent.
In the Kent League semi-final the team will be playing Snodland.
In the Kent League semi-final the team will be playing Snodland.
Tuesday 21 February 2012
Harvey - Sidcup v Chislehurst
On 15th February the Harvey Cup team went to the top of the table with one match to play by defeating Chislehurst by 3.5 to 2.5.
With Dave and Don winning and Dennis and Keith drawing we only needed a draw to win the match; Gary had a winning position, but was short of time, so forced a draw to close out the match.
With Dave and Don winning and Dennis and Keith drawing we only needed a draw to win the match; Gary had a winning position, but was short of time, so forced a draw to close out the match.
Tuesday 7 February 2012
Fuller - Sidcup v Lewisham
A good win for the second team this week with 2.5 against Lewisham’s 1.5.
This win gives us 3 wins and 1 loss with 2 to play. At the end of January, we were in second place.
In what looks as though it’s going to be a very close run thing with Bromley\Beckenham & Petts Wood (who we still have to play in the return matches) and ourselves still in the running to win the Metropolitan section of the division.
Leon Hopkins got the evening off well for us by winning on board 3 against Delroy Bennett who can be tricky player. The evening got better for us as Ian Reeves won against Marlon Stone. So we only needed a draw from our last 2 games which Ken Grist secured for us against Ian Moody. Dennis Halton fought hard game against Mike Knight and got down to an end game which he could have drawn at one stage but just lost under time pressure.
Saturday 14 January 2012
Gravesend v Sidcup, Fowers v Thompson
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I lost the match after coming out of the opening badly. e never let me have any small advantage until I made tactical mistake and gave up my Bishop; I thought I could hold onto the endgame and get a draw.
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