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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.

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.

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.

Grist v Oluwole, Fuller

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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.

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.

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