Nottingham Central Chess Club

There was a lot of 10min chess played last week: This was the most memorable game (mistakes were made by both players)

1. First team
2. Second team
3. Third team

Links to 2021/22 season’s fixtures

Fixtures are on the English Chess Federation League Management System

• Central 1 fixtures
• Central 2 fixtures

…we squeeze some extra pieces (and squares) onto the board!

(Kevin Argyle)

A makeshift season admittedly but it was great to have OTB chess up and running again in Notts.

Both Central 1 and 2 performed creditably with the second team finishing up amongst the leaders in division 5 and Central 1 in second place in division 3 as I write (although admittedly unlikely to stay there as other teams have games left). It will be interesting to see what the structure of the league looks like next season with many of the normal league rules suspended for this one.

The first team were greatly helped by outstanding performances from Alan and Mark on boards 1 and 2. Alan scored 7.5/10 and Mark 6.5/8! With Adrian Dibble scoring 2/3 and myself drawing 6 games out of 8 it was a very solid season overall.

The second team were also impressive with a 50% score. Ably captained by Joe Sollini (6/10), four other players scored 50% or better with Mark Turner scoring 3.5/5 in the second half of the season.

Look out for some interesting and fun tournaments throughout the summer, starting with a ‘hand & brain’ tournament on Tuesday 17th May at 7:30 (what, don’t know what that is? come along and find out!).

(Kevin Argyle)

West Bridgford 2 were the visitors on Tuesday evening looking for revenge after our win at their place earlier in the season. Our team was weakened by the absence of both Mark Radford (recovering from a kidney transplant) and Adrian Dibble (moved away). Still we were hopeful of a good result in the gloom of the conservatory.

Sadly for us it didn’t turn out that way. Ben was making a guest appearance on board 3 and both him and Mick fought hard but eventually succumbed to defeat.

I faced an Alekhine defence that my stronger opponent was clearly very comfortable with, blitzing out his opening moves. By contrast I took a lot of time to work out how to navigate to the middlegame and built up a very strong, winning position but took far too much time which my opponent exploited. My game losing blunder came just before my time ran out.

The most exciting game was Alan’s on board 1. In his own words; “I had an epic game where my opponent ran out of time first. Lots of tactics that could have gone either way – and Fritz found lots of (obvious once you see them) wins for both of us (the worst being that I could have avoided all the tactics from the beginning and simply picked up material).”

A 3-1 loss then with one game to go.

(Kevin Argyle)

Central 2 maintained their hope of Division 5 promotion with a convincing 3-1 win against Radcliffe & Bingham 3 this week.

Mike James was the first to bring home the full point with an excellent display on board 4. The two players were evenly matched by rating but Mike gradually won more and more material with solid, sensible moves resulting in his opponent dropping his queen and the game under the relentless pressure.

Mark Turner was never in any trouble and made it 2-0 with the minimum of fuss. Simon was playing well against his young opponent, a newcomer and an unknown quantity. Although he was put under pressure Simon slowly turned the tables, slowly and methodically built up a strong position, then slowly ran out of time.

Game of the match was Ben’s on top board against his highly-rated opponent. After some tactical skirmishes the game came down to a rook and pawn endgame with Ben having an extra pawn and an advanced one at that. Although the win was not so easy to work out (my opinion, Alan begged to differ), Ben managed to swap the rooks off and his extra pawn decided it.

(Kevin Argyle)

Both Central teams played on Wednesday 16th with the first team travelling to Grantham on a miserable evening and the second team playing a rearranged game against West Bridgford. Although the first team had to default a board the two results were the same, honours even with 2-2 draws.

Both Alan and Mark made short work of their opponents, Alan winning in only 13 moves even after blundering a pawn in the opening. Mark finished off his game with a nice little combination that he seemed particularly pleased with afterwards. Grantham rearranged their board order due to our default and I ended up playing Chris Hill who was probably earmarked for board 1 originally. Nevertheless I got an advantage from the opening which endured throughout the middlegame until I lost my way (and two pawns) to eventually lose. Still a good result under the circumstances.

The 2nd team lost on the top two boards but Joe and Mark did the business to gain a point and keep them in the hunt for promotion (if indeed there is any at the end of this season).

Alan has kindly provided notes and computer analysis of his game.

Griffiths-Herbert

After an underwhelming period from Nottingham Central teams recently, the 1st team got back to winning ways Monday evening against Nomads 2. In doing so, we completed the double over them and left them rooted to the foot of division 3 whilst we move into clear second.

Alan and Mark completed convincing wins on the top two boards to set up the victory, Mark completely outplaying his lower rated opponent and Alan coolly bringing home the full point with only a few minutes left on the clock. As usual I squandered a totally winning position and ended up with yet another draw. A number of strong winning moves were helpfully pointed out to me after the match.

Mick’s opponent was unrated but I suspect pretty strong and although Mick was the exchange up he was outplayed in the endgame.

Overall an enjoyable evening at The Embankment.

(Kevin Argyle)

Grantham travelled to our venue for the second time in two days having played Nomads the night before. This time we were consigned to the conservatory room due to a wake being held upstairs. The light was just about adequate, reminiscent of the dark days at the King Billy.

To the chess. Alan continued his winning ways on board 1 by beating Grenville Wollerton. Alan gave up a pawn early on for (he hoped) suitable compensation. His opponent then tried too hard to hold on to that pawn and was comfortably beaten in the end. 1-0

Mick felt that an inadvisable pawn move was the deciding factor which cost him the game against his higher rated opponent. 1-1

My game against Richard Chilcott revolved around my IQP which Richard could have won at one point but missed the tactic much to my relief. The position was pretty even throughout and I was happy to take a draw in probably a slightly inferior position. 1.5-1.5

Mark, playing Chris Hill, played a fairly uneventful game with a blocked position and then some minor skirmishes later on but the agreed draw gave us a drawn match which we have to be satisfied with, the Grantham team being higher graded. 2-2

Good luck to the second team against Radcliffe & Bingham!