Hebden Hit the Front

 2011-12 Season Journal  5 Responses »
Jan 272012
 

Matthew Webb (right) made a successful debut for Hebden Bridge against Peter Mulleady

The Barclays Premiership had another so-called “Super Sunday” last weekend. These Sky Sports styled occurrences take place when the league’s top four teams take each other on in the same round of fixtures. On Sunday it was Manchester United and Manchester City who came out on top against their London rivals Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal.

Of course the Calderdale Chess League can’t really claim to hold quite the same standing in the nation’s collective sporting psyche! But, if it did, then we might have dubbed this week’s round of Division 1 fixtures as “Mega Monday”. As the second half of the season began no fewer than five teams (Todmorden ‘A’, Hebden Bridge ‘A’, Courier ‘A’, Huddersfield ‘A’ and Brighouse) were all within 2 points of each other at the top of the table. Rarely has the league been so nicely poised at the mid-season interval. By a happy quirk of the fixtures schedule, four of these teams were set to face-off during the course of this week.

On Monday night Hebden Bridge ‘A’ hosted Todmorden ‘A’ at the Trades Club. These two teams occupied the top two spots in the league both on 11 points but with Todmorden top by virtue of a better board count. On the first week of the season the two drew at Todmorden so a tight match seemed to be in prospect.

Hebden Bridge had taken the opportunity to bring in a fresh recruit over the Christmas break. Matthew Webb had been approached by the Hebden captain, Dave Shapland, earlier in the season when Matthew Parsons had been unavailable. At the time Webb wasn’t able to step in but, when Parsons appeared to be unavailable again for this fixture, Webb was able to make his Calderdale League debut on board 1. In the event there was a last minute re-shuffle in the Hebden Bridge line-up as first Parsons’ schedule changed to enable him to play and then Nick Sykes offered to sit the match out as he had work commitments of his own to attend to. This left Dave with his strongest possible line-up, probably the strongest Hebden have been able to field for many a long year.

Todmorden meanwhile arrived slightly depleted. Their regular board 2, Martyn Hamer was on a chess holiday abroad as he was taking part in the Gibraltar Chess Festival. All this meant that Hebden’s usual top four boards all dropped down one and Todmorden’s bottom four boards all moved up. This difference was almost certainly critical to the outcome of the match as Hebden cruised to a 4-1 victory.

On board 1 Matty Webb faced Peter Mulleady. Forewarned as he was of his likely opponent and his regular repertoire, Matty was able to arm himself with some in depth theoretical understanding of the Sniper — 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 c5. He selected a line that requires Black to play accurately for a lengthy period in order to maintain equality and that small but lasting pressure eventually told as, somewhere, Mulleady went astray. Webb gained a knight and bishop for a rook and then played very accurately indeed to convert the full point. This result represented an excellent debut for Matty at the perfect point in the season for Hebden.

Boards 3 and 5 were the next to finish and they yielded the victories for the home team that sealed the match. Darwin Ursal has been having a wonderful season for Hebden. He is unbeaten and has been playing exciting chess. On board 3 he found himself pitted against Hebden Bridge ‘A’s former captain, Alastair Wright. Wright is always a tricky opponent to meet as he could play almost any opening known to mankind. On this occasion he deployed the Black Knights Tango (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 Nc6!?) against Darwin in a bid to disturb his equilibrium. At first the plan seemed to be working as a messy position ensued from the opening in which Black seemed to be doing quite well. But then, instead of consolidating, Wright went for it a little too soon and Darwin was able to regain control of the game. After that he never let it go and drove home his advantage mercilessly. This result leaves Darwin at the top of the heap in the “Player Performance” table for League 1.

On board 5, captain Shapland beat Rob Tokeley’s Caro-Kann Defence. Rob used up a lot of his time in the early stages of the game and didn’t appear confident in the variation he deployed (the Bronstein-Larsen variation, 4…Nf6!?) At first Dave played for a spacial advantage and control of the centre but then, when it appeared that the Black king did not have an ideal safe haven to secure himself, he went for a direct attack. Under the pressure of the clock, Rob failed to find the most accurate way to defend and Dave’s attack broke through.

Before too much more of the evening had passed Hebden were 4-0 up. Matthew Parsons displayed impressive strategic understanding of his favourite London system as he remorselessly built up and then exploited his positional advantage against Andrew Clarkeson. With the queens off the board Black’s King’s Indian-style set up didn’t really contain it’s usual poison and, although Black clung on to slim hopes in the end game forcing Parsons to play some accurate moves, he was more than up to the task and closed out the win.

This just left the board 4 encounter where Hebden’s Pete Leonard was playing Neil Suttie. The opening was a Ruy Lopez, an old favourite of Pete’s, nut on this occasion Neil selected a sideline that Pete wasn’t familiar with and his thematic approach turned out to be unsuitable on this occasion. Suttie played resourcefully and patiently to exploit Pete’s inaccuracies but duly converted a superior endgame despite a mild case of zeintot before the time control.

The final match card then was:

Hebden Bridge ‘A’ — Todmorden ‘A’
M.Webb 1-0 P.Mulleady
M.Parsons 1-0 A.Clarkeson
D.Ursal 1-0 A.Wright
P.Leonard 0-1 N.Suttie
D.Shapland 1-0 R.Tokeley
4-1

This excellent win for Hebden maintains their unbeaten run in the League this season and takes them top of the division for the first time. They have hit the front on their own having dispatched their nearest rivals over the course of the last three matches — Brighouse, Courier ‘A’ and now Todmorden ‘A’. However, there won’t be any complacency for the title race is still very close and more tough matches lie between them and the championship.

Here are the games from this match. Select the game you want to view using the drop-down menu above the board. You can also download all the Hebden Bridge games in PGN format via this Chessbase viewer.

The other clash between teams in the top five took place in Huddersfield last night where the league champions announced their grim resolve to defend their crown by thrashing Brighouse 4½-½! Only Dennis Breen was able to resist his adversary as he drew with Dave Keddie. This result is a stark contrast to the defeat they had suffered in the reverse fixture on the opening night of the season. Perennially slow starters, Huddersfield are still in touch with Hebden Bridge ‘A’ and will fancy their chances of catching them yet. They join Todmorden on 11 points just 2 behind Hebden.

The fifth of the quintet spearheading the division at the start of the night were Courier ‘A’. They might well have expected to have joined Todmorden and Huddersfield themselves as they faced relegation threatened Hebden Bridge ‘B’ at home. If they had such expectations then they would have been sorely disappointed with the outcome of their match for Hebden ‘B’ performed heroically to tie it and might even have won.

The critical match up was on board 1 where Hebden’s Andy Leatherbarrow snatched a last gasp victory from John Morgan who was guilty of over pressing in an equal position. Morgan doesn’t lose often and the phenomenon is even rarer when he operates the White pieces so this was a wonderful result for Andy who has performed admirably for the ‘B’s on board 1 this season.

Unfortunately, Martin Syrett fell victim to Dave Patrick’s cunning tactical play early in the evening and was unable to recover so Andy’s result redressed the balance as the bottom three boards were all drawn. On board 3 Dave Sugden and Robert Clegg fought out a tense battle in which it appears the draw may have been agreed with both players in serious time trouble. John Kerrane neutralised Dave Colledge’s efforts relatively comfortably on board 4 and Neil Bamford came very close to beating Geoff Thompson on board 5.

Here is the full match card:

Courier ‘A’ — Hebden Bridge ‘B’
J.Morgan 0-1 A.Leatherbarrow
D.Patrick 1-0 M.Syrett
R.Clegg ½-½ D.Sugden
D.Colledge ½-½ J.Kerrane
G.Thompson ½-½ N.Bamford
2½-2½

Here are the games from the Courier ‘A’ vs. Hebden Bridge ‘B’ match. You can also download all the Hebden Bridge games in PGN format via this Chessbase viewer.

This brilliant result (the second time this season the ‘B’s have drawn with one of the big hitters having also tied their own ‘A’ team away) means that Martin Syrett’s men maintain contact with Belgrave, their rivals in the drop zone. Belgrave fixed Huddersfield ‘B’ firmly to the root of the table by beating them comfortably – 4½-½ – at home on Monday night. If Hebden Bridge ‘B’ can match Belgrave’s results and beat them in their encounter towards the end of the season then they may, once again, perform a great escape. You can take a look at the current state of the league table by going to the Calderdale League page of this site.

The League 1 sides return to action again next week as the ‘B’ team travel to Todmorden who will be wounded and very dangerous and the ‘A’ team take on Huddersfield ‘B’ away and must avoid assuming that the result will be a foregone conclusion and be focused on improving their board count against the back-markers.

Hebden pick Halifax’s pocket in knockout final

 2011-12 Season Journal  1 Response »
Jan 212012
 

After Monday night's result the Trades Club have now installed this new sign outside the venue

Chess: it’s a funny old game. A position can appear to be straightforward and clear cut and yet there is always a chance that placid waters can become stormy and unclear. Any outcome is always possible no matter how unlikely. The reason for this is simply human error. This is what provides the game with much of its charm. Sure, a computer can give you an ice cold assessment of any position over the board and tell you what the result should be but when it comes to practical over the board play between two people there is always room for doubt. The quote under the title of this website says it all in my view. The margin between joy and sorrow is indeed a fine one and we all do well to remember that. Whichever side of that margin we are on at the end of a game, next time it could be different.

I’m prompted to spout this spurious nonsense because I was directly involved in a stark example of the cruelty of the game at the Trades Club on Monday night as Hebden Bridge ‘A’ lifted the Summer Team Knockout title by beating Halifax ‘A’ in the final by a score of 3½ -1½. The score line masks a topsy-turvy night of drama in which all the participants experienced the full range of emotions associated with any competitive pass time.

First of all a brief explanation to those readers who wonder why a competition entitled “Summer Knockout” is being played out in the depths of winter! Hebden Bridge ‘A’ played the previous round of this tournament back in June. The reason for the delay is straightforward. The two finalists are competing in different divisions of the Calderdale League and, as the fixture schedule sets matches out on an alternate week basis, there simply hasn’t been an available Monday to arrange the fixture on until now. Probably for the best then that the match wasn’t drawn and a replay required!

It is also worth mentioning the slightly unusual format of the competition. All matches are played on a time handicap basis. When team sheets are exchanged by the captains the grading difference between each pair of opponents is calculated and the resulting difference is converted into minutes and subtracted from the higher rated players’ clock and added to the lower. This can mean that, in the case of a large time difference, highly rated players are getting less than half an hour for the whole game whilst their opponents have over two hours. This levels the playing field a little. On this occasion, Hebden Bridge ‘A’ gave away time to their opponents on every board although the differences what not so significant as to have a huge impact on proceedings.

So long ago were the earlier rounds played that Hebden Bridge ‘A’s board 2 player, Darwin Ursal, was still representing Halifax. He therefore stepped back onto board 1 to take on his league team mate, Matthew Parsons. This was certainly the most mouth watering clash of the evening as both players are in good form. In the event Matthew (who had 20 minutes less for his moves) played a couple of inaccurate moves in the opening and Darwin pounced to obtain a positional strangle-hold. The pieces came of the board until the players reached a queen and pawn ending with Darwin a pawn up. These types of end games are notoriously difficult to play because long forcing sequences can frequently occur and must be calculated. In this instance however, Darwin managed to maintain control of proceedings and collected a handful of pawns to win the game.

At this stage of the evening Hebden Bridge had already been forced to grit their teeth and dig deep to stay in the match. On board 5 Nick Sykes was heard to emit a great groan of dismay early in the night as he dropped a piece to the in form John Aldridge. However, he managed to win the piece back later and, by the time the top board had been concluded, the game was closely contested once again. Alastair Wright (representing Todmorden this term) returned to the Hebden Bridge line up on board 4 and he won smoothly against Ray Cully with the White pieces despite giving away over an hour on the clock under the handicap rules.

By the time Pete Leonard and Adrian Dawson had agreed peace terms on board 3 the match was poised at 1½-1½ each and Halifax looked well placed to take a surprise victory. The Sykes-Aldridge clash was balanced but, on board 2, Hebden’s captain, Dave Shapland, was having dreadful difficulties against Carlos Velosa. Playing White, Carlos had conducted himself impeccably in the opening and Dave overlooked a cunning manoeuvre that led to his queen becoming trapped. When the dust from the ensuing complications had settled Dave had only managed to grab a piece as compensation for her majesty and seemed doomed to a swift end but it was hereabouts that Caissa began conspiring against Halifax.

Nick Sykes managed to complete his own comeback by beating John Aldridge to put Hebden ‘safe’ on the 2½ points they needed to secure at least a replay. That result renewed Dave’s resolve as he began to try and find ways of complicating Carlos’s task in the hopes of salvaging a draw that would win the match. In this endeavour he was assisted by his opponent who, having gained such a decisive material advantage now seemed to want to consolidate his position completely as his only weakness was that his king was somewhat exposed. He played too cautiously and suddenly, with only a pair of knights, a rook and a bishop, Dave assumed the initiative. There were real tactical threats but Carlos had more than enough resources available to expose his opponent’s attack as bluster.

Finally more pieces were exchanged and Carlos sensibly gave back the exchange in order to simplify the position to his advantage. He still had a queen for the rook. What happened next was a tragedy for the Halifax player simply moved his king to a square where the Black knight was able to fork the White king and queen! Perhaps, as someone said afterwards, having successfully defused the complications, Carlos relaxed and played an overly casual move. Whatever the reasons a despondent and shell-shocked Velosa now found himself an exchange down in a game he had to win. Dave was now very short of time but the end game was fairly straight forward and Carlos was in no fit psychological state to defend himself effectively. Dave won the game and Hebden took the title.

The final match scorecard was:

Todmorden ‘B’ vs. Hebden Bridge ‘C’
M.Parsons 0-1 D.Ursal
D.Shapland 1-0 C.Velosa
P.Leonard ½-½ A.Dawson
A.Wright 1-0 R.Cully
N.Sykes 1-0 J.Aldridge
3½-1½

Some of the games from the final can bee seen in the viewer below (select the game you wish to view using the drop-down menu above the board) and versions with commentary are available to download here.

Black to play... and lose!

After the match was all over Dave Shapland felt compelled to reflect that he could empathise with Carlos over the trauma of such an unfortunate and untimely abberation. Last summer Dave reached the position on the right in the final round of his section at the British Chess Championship needing a win to finish joint first. Having just forced White to give up his rook to remove a promoted pawn on f1 the game now seemed to be a straightforward matter for Dave to convert. Howerver, instead of playing 58…Ke2 in order to return his king to the action as swiftly as possible, Dave instead had a total brain storm and played 58…Rf2? removing his rook from its defensive task of monitoring White’s most distant passed pawn in order to try and cut off the White king from the pawns. This is completely the wrong way to approach the position and after 59.d6 Ke2? (59… Rd2 would still have been good enough) 60.e5 Ke3 61.d7 Rd2 62.e6 it was White who won! Dave still has nightmares about this position but it reinforced a lesson he won’t forget in a hurry – if you have a rook against connected passed pawns that have not yet reached the sixth rank you must position your rook behind the most distant one whilst you bring up your king.

Whilst the drama described above was unfolding at the Trades Club, Hebden Bridge ‘C’ had travelled to Todmorden to take on their division 2 title rivals Todmorden ‘B’ in a match that had been re-organised to take place a week early to help Hebden manage next week’s busy schedule. Despite the disadvantage of playing with the Black pieces and suffering an unexpected default on board 4, Hebden managed to tie the match to maintain their position in the league.

The final match scorecard looked like this:

Todmorden ‘B’ vs. Hebden Bridge ‘C’
S.Innes ½-½ J.Kerrane
C.Edwards 0-1 N.Bamford
P.Edwards 0-1 S.Priest
M.Huett 1-0 DEFAULT
R.Pratt 1-0 S.Leatherbarrow
2½-2½

This result suits both sides who will now pull another point clear of the chasing pack in the hunt for promotion.

And the Winner is…

 2011-12 Season Journal, Competition, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Jan 162012
 

Time for the solutions to this year’s Christmas Quiz. The fabulous prize was a chess set courtesy of this year’s competition sponsors: www.chesssets.co.uk.

Before I dive into the solutions I should say a few words about how I selected the positions. First of all I wanted to use positions from actual games played by Hebden Bridge Chess Club members. Although not all the games were played in Calderdale competitions, I succeeded in doing that.

Secondly, I was hoping to provide a game from each month of the year excepting May (when the league season is just over) and December (which had barely started when I posted the competition). I also managed to do this although some months had slim pickings because not much chess is played in June, July and August!

Finally, I was aiming to try and find a range of games from a number of different players and a range of degrees of difficulty across the problems. I managed to scatter the degree of difficulty quite well but it was harder to find a very balanced representation across the club. The reason for this was simple, not every player plays a game each month that involves a pithy combination or checkmate. When I reviewed the season there were plenty of games that involved gradual positional squeezes. Unfortunately these types of games, though very impressive if you play all the way through them, don’t readily lend themselves to having a tactical “sound-bite” taken out of them for consumption in this kind of affair! I also had to select positions that I myself could manage to glean a good measure of truth from so that I could be confident the answers were correct.

In the end I picked this motley crew and I have to apologise that an embarrassing proportion of them (well 3 anyway) are from my own games which at least I can claim to have a reasonable level of understanding of.

Should anyone want to study these positions and their variations further (I did get quite a lot out of looking at some of the complicated ones in depth) then I’ve uploaded them to the Chessbase Viewer so you can download them.

Congratulations go to Pete Leonard who scored a very respectable 8 out of 11 (question 5 had two parts) and wins the chess set! I gather Mr Leonard used the competition to help him digest his Christmas dinner (and quite a number of subsequent seasonal banquets) although I would like to take this opportunity to remind readers that concentrating too hard after a large lunch might be inadvisable if you are actually playing a match.

Reigning Champion defeated

 2011-12 Season Journal, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Jan 132012
 

Pete Leonard (left) now has a 100% record with his new chess set!

On Monday night the competitors taking part in this season’s Calderdale Individual Chess Championship gathered at the Belgrave Social Club in Halifax to do battle in round 3. At the end of an interesting and exciting evening just three players had managed to preserve a 100% record.

Without doubt the story of the round was Pete Leonard’s victory over last year’s winner and top seed, John Morgan. The night started auspisciously for Pete when he arrived at the club to find he had won this website’s Christmas Quiz. His prize was a beautiful wooden chess set donated by www.chesssets.co.uk and the organisers has set up the board and pieces for him to christen that night.

Pete chose to inaugurated his new toy by playing 1.e4 and John responded by deploying the Pirc Defence, varying from his favourite St. George’s opening (1…a6) which he utilised to defeat Josh Blinkhorn with in round 1. It seems that John may not have responded to Pete’s strategic plan in the very best way. Usually when White advances in the centre with e5 Black will respond to the challenge directly by playing c5 rather than the c6 and b5 advance that Morgan selected.

In itself this was not a critical factor as John succeeded in gaining space on the queen’s side to counter Pete’s extra space in the centre. But Pete successfully stabilised the situation there and made the most of the hole John had left for him on c5 by establishing a knight on the square.

Pete managed to maintain the initiative throughout the middle game and when all the pieces except the rooks had been removed from the board both players had passed pawns but, crucially, Pete’s was further from the enemy king and further advanced up the board. A complicated double rook ending ensued but Pete maintained control of the situation admirably and in the end his passed b-pawn decided matters. No doubt John will be disappointed to have lost the game but he didn’t appear to have played the game too badly and Pete had a very good day at the office. Congratulations go to him for taking down one of the hardest players to beat in Calderdale.

Huddersfield’s number one, Mitchell Burke, dealt with Pete Hughes very efficiently. He gained a positional advantage utilising the Grand Prix Attack against Pete’s Sicilian Defence and, although it might appear that Pete resigned the game a bit early, it must be said that being a pawn down and with very few prospects of counter play against a player of Mitchell’s calibre, the future looked fairly miserable.

Probably the most exciting pyrotechnic game of the evening took place on board three where Darwin Ursal played in thematic and classical fashion to comprehensively take apart Robert Clegg. I’m no expert on the King’s Indian Defence and I’m not familiar with all the ideas but it appears that Robert must have gone astray at some stage late in the opening because Darwin’s pawn storm in the king’s side seemed unstoppable. Perhaps a move like 12.f3 would have held up Darwin’s momentum a little.

Another surprising result was unfolding on board 4 where Hebden Bridge’s Dave Shapland was taking on Halifax’s John Aldridge. Despite giving away more than 50 rating points to Dave, John played extremely well and defended resourcefully and tenaciously right until the end of the night to gain a highly creditable draw. At several points in the game Dave appeared to have gained the upper hand but despite winning the exchange for a pawn, there wasn’t enough material left on the board for him to be able to take advantage and in the end it was John who was playing for a win. Finally, Dave gave back the exchange to remove John’s last remaining pawn leaving just bare kings and a minor piece each.

It was a night for Sicilian Defences it would seem. Pete Hughes and John Aldridge both deployed it and so too did Robert Sutcliffe, Adrian Dawson and Tom Webster. Whilst the first two players did not succeed in winning their games the last three did and Adrian over came a higher rated opponent in the form of Martin Syrett.

Here is the full list of results:

Round 3 Results
P.Leonard 1 — 0 J.Morgan
M.Burke 1 — 0 P.Hughes
R.Clegg 0 — 1 D.Ursal
D.Shapland ½ — ½ J.Aldridge
A.Leatherbarrow ½ — ½ M.Barnett
C.Edwards 0 — 1 R.Sutcliffe
M.Syrett 0 — 1 A.Dawson
N.Bamford 0 — 1 D.Sugden
J.Blinkhorn 1 — 0 M.Levy
D.Milton ½ — ½ C.Velosa
N.Sykes 1 — 0 B.Joyce
A.Gonzalez 1 — 0 J. Nicholson
S.Priest 0 — 1 T.Webster

All the games from the night’s play are available to play through in the viewer below and also to download here.

Round 4 takes place on the 13th of February and the competition is wonderfully poised with Darwin and Pete flying the flag for Hebden Bridge and Mitchell, now the leading highest seed with a perfect score. These three will be joined on the top two boards by Dave Shapland who, despite his draw is still very much in touch and is the only player on 2½.  A large group of players are on 2 points and, should the top two boards both end in draws (not that unlikely a scenario) then the final round could be tremendously competitive.

Leading Scores
3 points: M.Burke, D.Ursal, P.Leonard
2½ points: D.Shapland
2 points: J.Morgan, R.Clegg, P.Hughes, A.Leatherbarrow, R.Sutcliffe, J.Blinkhorn, D.Sugden, A.Dawson, J.Aldridge

A Happy New Year for Crampton, Sykes and Bamford

 2011-12 Season Journal  No Responses »
Jan 072012
 

The secret to Dan's success? He likes to get himself into character before each game

First of all, “Happy New Year” to all our members and readers!

As we have reached the half way point in the league season I thought it might be interesting to publish Hebden Bridge Chess Club player’s current live grades. Below are their Yorkshire Chess Association grades which are up to date to the end of December. The numbers in brackets indicte the variance on the players’ last annual grade published in May 2011. Players are listed based on the teams they have represented most frequently so far and roughly in board order:

‘A’ Team Players
Matthew Parsons — 172 (-2)
Darwin Ursal — 173 (+7)
Dave Shapland — 160 (+1)
Pete Leonard — 163 (+5)
Nick Sykes — 149 (+8)

‘B’ Team Players
Matthew Wedge-Roberts — 159 (+1)
Andy Leatherbarrow — 137 (-3)
Martin Syrett — 133 (-6)
Dave Sugden — 133 (-4)
Terry Sullivan — 125 (-10)

‘C’ Team Players
Josh Blinkhorn — 137 (+1)
John Kerrane — 121 (-4)
Steve Priest — 121 (+1)
Neil Bamford — 120 (+8)
Matt Levy — 62 (-3)

‘D’ Team Players
Robert Murray — 111 (New grade)
Chris Greaves — 85 (+5)
James Todd — 79 (+4)
Tim Wilton-Davis — 37 (New grade)
Kyle Sharpe — 86 (-19)
Dan Crampton — 68 (+12)
Tim Whelan — 62 (-3)

Congratulations to ‘D’ team Captain, Danny Crampton, who has seen his live grade rise by 12 points since the start of the season. Nick Sykes and Neil Bamford have also made significant ground as well as having made valuable contributions to their teams’ success in the league thus far.

Danny also makes a selfless and significant contribution to the club in working with John Kerrane to coach our juniors. In honour of Mr Crampton’s moment in the sun below are two of his recent efforts. In the game viewer you will find is his last win in the league and also a marginally less taxing training game played against one of his young charges to whom I promised to publish the game on these pages: