Man bites dog

Only kidding. Cavendish won again.

The annual Team Blitz Championship, despite a plot-line which runs like a stuck record (remember records?) remains a popular event. The entry this time featured a junior team from the Redbridge Chess Academy ("R.C.A."), and Ilford B with three juniors.

The leading teams had some fire-power:

Cavendish: Matt Piper 218, Danny Wright 188, Zaki Harari 189, Syd Kalinsky 157;

Barking: David Sands 211, Jeff Goldberg 191, Bill Stirling 175, Colin Ramage 162;

Ilford A: Andrew Lewis 210, Kevin White 196, John Hodgson 195, Tom Barton 167.

Controller: Ivor Smith

Acknowledgements: Tom Barton and Ilford CC for the venue

Prize List

Team prize: Cavendish - Digital Chess Clock

Board prizes:

Board 1 Matt Piper (Cavendish) 8½/9 (£15)

Board 2 Danny Wright (Cavendish 9/9 (£15)

Board 3 Bill Stirling (Barking), Zaki Harari (Cavendish), John Hodgson (Ilford A) all 7/9 (£5 each)

Board 4 Colin Ramage (Barking) 8½/9 (£15)

Grading prize: Ian MacLachlan (Maldon - grade 146) who scored 6½/9 on board 2 (only 1 loss) (£15)

Junior prizes: (presented by the David Wood Memorial Trust)

Team prize: RCA (£10)

Other prizes:
Devdoot Barman (RCA - 3 points) (£5), Aditya Verma age 7 (Ilford B) (£5) for his win against Terry Whitton (174)

Link for: Board Scores (Teams in draw order)

Tournament Report

 Rounds 1-3   Cavendish, Ilford A and Barking, all set off like scalded hares, each scoring 4-0 in their first two games to share the lead on 8/8. The pace moderated slightly in R3 with Cavendish held to 2½-1½ by Wanstead A and an early clash of the leaders finishing with a similar score: Ilford A 2½-1½ Barking. Writtle, meanwhile, stole up to the leaders' coat tails with a 4-0 win against Ilford B.
So it was Cavendish, Ilford A, 10½/12; Writtle 10; Barking 9½...

 Round 4   Cavendish now put in a startling result with a near-whitewash, 3½-½, against Ilford A, only Tom Barton saving Ilford's honour. Writtle made further progress, scoring a full house against Wanstead B, and briefly shared the lead with Cavendish on 14/16. Barking scored 3-1 against Maldon to move ahead of Ilford A into third.
Cavendish, Writtle 14/16; Barking, 12½; Ilford A, 11...

 Round 5   In the context of a 4-points-a-round event, Cavendish put in a massive stride in R5, opening a 2½ point gap over their co-leaders at the start of the round. Cavendish scored a clean sweep against Maldon, while Writtle met Barking and could only manage to be on the wrong end of 1½-2½.
Cavendish, 18/20; Writtle, 15½; Barking, Ilford A, 15. This leading group had opened a bit of a gap to the next team, Wanstead A on 10½.

 Round 6   Cavendish's lead was narrowed in the next round, when Writtle held them to 2½-1½, while Barking scored full points against Ilford B. Ilford A slipped back a bit when losing 1½-2½ to traditional rivals Wanstead A.
Cavendish, 20½/24; Barking, 19; Writtle, 17; Ilford A, 16½...

 Round 7   The leading teams all scored 4-0 against back markers in R7, so the positions were unchanged with two rounds to go: Cavendish, 24½/24; Barking, 23; Writtle, 21; Ilford A, 20½...

 Round 8  In the penultimate round, the leaders remained merciless in their pursuit of their goal, Cavendish dispatching Wanstead B 4-0 while Barking recorded the same score against Upminster. Wanstead A 2-2 Writtle and Ilford A 2½-1½ Maldon took Writtle and Ilford A out of the picture.
One to go: Cavendish, 28½/32; Barking, 27; Ilford A, Writtle, 23.

 Round 9   Perhaps Ivor's Machievellian instincts loaded the draw to ensure a theatrical finish? Had he envisaged the likely challengers to the presumed winners? Whatever, the two leading teams finally met, in the last round. The Gunfight at the OK Coral. Barking had to win 3-1 while 2-2 was all Cavendish needed. And 2-2 is what they got. The Earps win again. Cavendish, 30½/36; Barking, 29; Ilford A, 26½; Writtle, 23½; Wanstead A, 20½; 10 teams.

 Lightning Championship

Controller: Ian Hunnable

26 June 2011 The afternoon event, the Lightning Championship, was one of the more open events of its type, due mainly to the unusually high number of drawn games. Of the 40 games in the event, no fewer than 8, or 20%, were drawn, which is almost unheard of in lightning chess. This meant a more closely packed field-spread, giving rise to an open event.

The eventual destiny of first place was largely decided in the Round 3 clash between David Sherman and David Sands, which Sherman won with the black pieces. In the next round, Sherman drew with speed-specialist Roland Payne, while Sands beat Phil Staniland.

With only one round to go, Sherman held a slender half point advantage ahead of a chasing pack of four players. The final pairings of Ivor Smith (3) v Sherman (3½), Payne (3) v Staniland (2) and Sands (3) v Goldberg (3) promised a high-powered shoot-out. In the event, only Payne managed to win out of the chasing group, while David Sherman ground down Ivor Smith in the endgame to get the full point that made the pursuers' efforts fruitless.

1 David Sherman, 4½/5; 2 Roland Payne, 4; David Sands, Jeff Goldberg, 3½... 16 players

Click here for: Cross table

Rapidplay Championship

Andrew Brett double

The Essex Rapid 2011, incorporating the Essex and North Essex Rapidplay Championships, was successfully held at Brentwood CC on 17th July. The all-day event, of six rounds R30 chess under the control of Gavin Strachan, attracted 65 entries who competed in four sections.

The two principal titles resulted in a particular success for Andrew Brett who snaffled them both!

Links to result sheets:
Open | U140 | U120 | U100

Gavin’s report:

Thanks to Ivor for helping out on the day and ECA for the equipment. The electronic clocks made the event look a lot more professional!

Officially we had one more player than last year, 65 to 64 (one player last year signed up but didn’t turn up). I had one cancellation the day before.

The NECL and Essex Rapidplay Championship went to Andrew Brett (Rayleigh/Writtle) retaining the NECL title and winning the Essex Championship on tie-break over David Sands (Barking).

The Essex Junior title went to Adam Taylor (Colchester) who had a fantastic grading performance (191) and is showing real improvement.