Hebden Bridge Chess Club

Halifax Captain Carlos Velosa was at least as happy as Diego Maradona was in 1986 as his team lifted the title last Monday. Did his team carry him round the car park at Belgrave though?

By now most if not all readers will be aware that Halifax ‘A’ won their first Calderdale Evening Chess League 1 title for twenty eight years last Monday night. Belgrave won the League 2 title to be promoted as champions back to the top flight. They will be joined by Halifax ‘B’ who finished in second place. Halifax’s Darwin “Draw-Win” Ursal finished the season as the best individual in League 1 with a score of 12/14 (or 10/12 if you discount a couple of defaults). Another Halifax player, Scott Gornall, took the League 2 individual player of the year plaudits with 10/11 (with just one of these points coming from a default).

It’s been a wonderful year for Halifax Chess Club and all their members should be given great credit for their commitment and passion for the game especially when you consider that just two seasons ago they had no teams in the top flight. Naturally taking the League 1 title is a really big deal for Halifax. I was 11 years old when they last won it! Let’s take a moment to reflect on what the world was like  in 1986. Here are some of the big events of that year:

In the news

• An accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine kills thousands and pollutes a huge are
• The Challenger space shuttle disintegrates shortly after take off killing all 7 crew members
• Prince Andrew, Duke of York, marries Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey
• Pan Am flight 73 is hijacked by terrorists at Karachi International Airport
• Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher opens the M25 motorway
• The UK and France announce plans to construct the Channel Tunnel
• The Soviet Union launches the Mir space station
• Out of Africa win Best Picture at the Academy Awards
• Microsoft Corporation launches it’s first offering of stock shares
• Pablo Picasso’s Weeping Woman is stolen and then found two weeks later in a locker at a station in Melbourne

In sport

• At World Cup ’86 in Mexico England lose to Diego ‘Hand of God’ Maradonna’s Argentina in the Quarter Finals
• Boris Becker wins his second consecutive Wimbledon Mens Singles title by defeating Ivan Lendl in straight sets
• Liverpool win the League and FA Cup double beating near neighbours Everton into second place in both
• Richard Dunwoody rides West Tip to victory in the Grand National at Aintree
• Greg Lemond wins his first Tour de France
• Joe Johnson surprises everyone by beating Steve Davis 18-12 in the final of the World Snooker Championship
• Mike Tyson wins his first world boxing title defeating Trevor Berbick in Las Vegas

In chess

• Garry Kasparov beat Anatoly Karpov to take the World Chess Championship for the first time
• England (Miles, Nunn, Short, Speelman, Chandler and Flear) won the silver medal at the Chess Olympiad in Dubai finishing only behind the Soviet Union
• Halifax won the Calderdale Evening Chess League

Quite a memorable year I’m sure you’ll agree! 1986 feels like a lifetime ago. Poigniantly I noticed recently that 1986 really was a life time ago for Vugar Gashimov. The Azerbaijani Grand Master was born in 1986 and died tragically from a brain tumour in January this year. The current tournament in Shamkir is being held as a memorial to him.

Now, back to the action in Calderdale. The final round of the season began with three teams still in contention for the title in League 1. Halifax ‘A’ were top on board count but they had to travel to Courier ‘A’, who were on the same match points as them, for the last round. Halifax knew they needed to win to be sure of the title because, if they drew, Huddersfield could over take them by winning away at Todmorden ‘A’. Courier also knew that they had to win the match so a truly bloodthirsty night of chess was in the offing.

The first result of the night came from Todmorden where the home side’s Andrew Clarkson won a miniature against Huddersfield’s Dave Keddie on board 3. This already left Huddersfield with a mountain to climb. Meanwhile at Belgrave Social Club the only early result was a surprisingly short draw on board 4 between the Captains Dave Patrick and Carlos Velosa.

By the middle of the evening it became apparent that Huddersfield were slipping out of contention. In fairness to them Todmorden ‘A’ have put together an incredible record at home this season having lost only one game from 35 played with the White pieces! By the end of the second hour’s play the home side had secured a draw on board 4 between Alastair Wright and Imre Zelei and they then put the title beyond the visitor’s grasp when  Pete Mulleady beat Mitchell Burke on board 2. Huddersfield now had to win both the remaining boards just to tie the match.

Back at Halifax the match situation remained tense for much longer. By 10 o’clock only a second draw in board 2 encounter between Tony Slinger and Winston Williams had been added to the early result and the match as in the balance. Courier’s Robert Clegg seemed to have the advantage over Sam Scurfield but failed to find the best way to press it home and then blundered to give Halifax the advantage on the bottom board. The top board match up between Phil Watson and Darwin Ursal was destined to run and run with the outcome being anyone’s guess. It was only when Bill Somerset beat John Morgan on board 3 that Halifax really started to believe they could do it.

Shortly afterwards Halifax did clinch the title as Sam mopped up against Robert to make the score 1-3. The last game to finish was significant only because it robbed Darwin of his unbeaten record in Calderdale this season. Phil managed to beat him in a time-scramble at the end of the evening’s play.

Zeintot could have played a part in the outcome at Todmorden too as both Rob Tokeley and Dave Tooley ran very close to the wire. The Todmorden man had to make his last nine moves before the time control in a minute but he just made it and the players went into an opposite coloured bishops ending which looked drawn. They squeezed every last drop out of the position but finally Dave offered Rob a draw and it was accepted. Todmorden had won the match and all that remained was for Leo Keeley to do all in his power to take down Martyn Hamer and give Huddersfield a consolation victory. Sadly for them, even that didn’t happen and another draw meant that Todmorden took the match 3½-1½.

The final league table therefore shows Halifax ‘A’ on top with 21 points. Courier ‘A’ were second on 19 points just one and a half boards ahead of Huddersfield who finished third also on 19 points. Todmorden ‘A’ were fourth on 18 points and will be left wondering what might have been had they not defaulted in the penultimate fixture at Halifax. Had they played and won that match they’d have won the league themselves by a single point!

Below Todmorden the 2012-13 champions Hebden Bridge ‘A’ finished the season off in fifth place but ended the season in fine style by thrashing Todmorden ‘B’ at home 4½-½. Todmorden therefore finished in sixth. For a change I’ll not bore readers with a long description of what was a meaningless encounter but suffice to say Hebden tried their best to hold on to their crown but simply didn’t have enough strength in their team to sustain a challenge this season. The match score card was:

Hebden Bridge ‘A’ vs. Todmorden ‘B’
M.Parsons 1 – 0 N.Suttie
P.Leonard 1 – 0 M.Connor
D.Shapland 1 – 0 P.Edwards
A.Leatherbarrow ½ – ½ R.Collier
M.Syrett 1 – 0 T.Webster
4½ – ½

The game viewer at the end of this post has four of the five games from this match in it. Some of them are quite interesting and I’d particularly like to draw readers’ attention to the slugfest between Martin Syrett and Tom Webster which is highly entertaining toe-to-toe struggle in a King’s Gambit Accepted. The viewer also has Bill Somerset’s critical win against John Morgan in the Courier versus Halifax match and Andrew Clarkson’s game against Dave Keddie from the Tod ‘A’ versus Huddersfield match. My thanks as always to Adrian Dawson for collecting Bill’s game and Andrew for taking the time to share his thoughts on his game and on the match at Todmorden. I’d also like to thank the Halifax Captain Carlos Velosa for his description of events at Courier.

As a curtain call on this year’s League 1 reporting it should be noted that Hebden Bridge ‘B’ defaulted their ‘dead rubber’ at Brighouse. Both those teams go down to play in League 2 next season. It seems highly unlikely that Hebden will be able to field three teams in the lower flight having struggled for numbers all season long.

… and so to League 2. Hebden Bridge ‘C’ finished their season off by playing the leaders Belgrave at the Trades Club. If they could emulate their ‘D’ team colleagues in defeating the front-runners then it was still possible for Halifax ‘B’ to pip Belgrave at the post by defeating Hebden Bridge ‘D’ at home. The last fixture of the night saw Todmorden ‘C’ take on Halifax ‘C’ at home.

As it was Belgrave assumed the mantle of Champions by dispatching Hebden ‘C’ comfortably. Here are the individual scores:

Hebden Bridge ‘C’ vs. Belgrave
J.Kerrane ½ – ½ G.Farrar
N.Bamford 0 – 1 M.Corbett
T.Sullivan ½ – ½ M.Barnett
R.Deravairere 0 – 1 L.Johnson
A.Brown 0 – 1 A.Gonzalez
1 – 4

The games from this match can also be found in the viewer below.

Belgrave secured the title with a score of 21 points. Halifax ‘B’ didn’t have to play in the end as Hebden ‘D’ defaulted their match as well. Halifax finished in second place with 19 points. Todmorden ‘C’ were third with 16 points as they defeated Halifax ‘C’ 4 – 1 in their last match and this meant that Halifax ‘C’ finished fourth with 10 points. Hebden ‘C’ were fifth with 9 points, Courier ‘B’ scored 7 and Hebden ‘D’ were last with 2 points (but what a glorious 2 points they were!)

In future posts over the summer I’ll do the usual thing of reviewing the season and the performance of the Hebden Bridge teams and individuals. I’d welcome further comments from players outside the club. Anyone who’s followed the comments posted against last week’s newsflash will see that the debate and opinion has been positive and extensive. Do feel free to contribute. In particular I’d very much like to see some nominations either in the comments here or by email to hebdenbridgechessclub@gmail.com for the best games of the season. I’m going to be writing a review of the Calderdale season for the Yorkshire website and would very much like to feature the best games of the year from right across the leagues not just from Hebden Bridge.

Thank you all for following the website during the season. I hope you’ve enjoyed the coverage and I’m looking forward to what I hope will be another fantastic year in 2014-15!

About this time two years ago we were all getting excited about the tightest Calderdale League 1 title race ever. Hebden Bridge ‘A’ fell across the finishing line with a draw giving Todmorden ‘A’ the opportunity to steal the title if they could win 5-0 at Huddersfield ‘B’. They won 4-1 and lost out by a single board point.

This year’s title race has been even more compelling and, although Hebden Bridge aren’t directly involved they played their part on Wednesday night in setting up a three-way photo finish that reminds us of this iconic image from the recent Winter Olympics in Sochi.

You might have enjoyed watching this entertaining end to one of the ski-cross races as three competitors fell and slid across the finishing line almost in unison. This season’s League 1 title race has been similarly unpredictable with seemingly no-one able to assert their authority for long. Which of the final three contenders will step up to take the crown from Hebden Bridge on Monday night?

Hebden Bridge ‘A’s title ambitions for this year were finally expunged by Halifax in the last round of matches but, if they are honest with themselves, they’ll have realised some time ago that the game was up.  Since they beat Halifax away last November they have won only one match and drawn two from their last eight fixtures. That’s relegation form. That said, Nick Sykes’ team have fought hard in every encounter and tried to defend their title with as much vigor and determination as ever.

Before this week’s round of fixtures Huddersfield seemed to have the title race under control as they were two points clear of Halifax ‘A’ and Courier ‘A’ and three clear of Todmorden ‘A’. On Monday night those two teams did their job to make the run in as close as possible by winning in very different circumstances. Halifax were due to host Todmorden ‘A’ who still had an outside chance of catching up themselves if they could win this match and then beat Huddersfield at home in the final round. However, Todmorden’s old ‘away fixture’ weakness returned to haunt them as they found that several regular A-teamers were unavailable and were forced to decide between fielding a weakened line up at Halifax or playing a strong ‘B’ team at home against Brighouse to try and secure that team’s league 1 status. Bizarrely (from this observer’s perspective at least!) they chose the latter and whilst Todmorden ‘B’ won narrowly 3-2 to condemn Brighouse and Hebden Bridge ‘B’ to the drop, the ‘A’ team defaulted their match against Halifax completely. This 5-0 walkover may yet have a significant impact on the destiny of the title.

Meanwhile Courier ‘A’ were also struggling to field a side as they arrived at the Trades Club to play Hebden Bridge ‘B’ with only four players. It could have been disastrous for their title bid but the quartet they did bring were still too strong for Hebden who only managed to add a draw to the point gained from the defaulted board. Martin Syrett did continue his recent excellent form by drawing with Dave Patrick but that was as good as it got for Hebden Bridge ‘B’ who have endured a torrid time this season. They finish off with a wooden spoon contest against Brighouse on Monday with both teams doomed to the lower division already.

Here is the match scorecard from the Trades Club:

Hebden Bridge ‘B’ vs. Courier ‘A’
J.Blinkhorn 0 – 1 T.Slinger
M.Syrett ½ – ½ D.Patrick
J.Kerrane 0 – 1 J.Cawston
R.Deravairere 0 – 1 R.Clegg
D.Crampton 1 – 0 DEFAULT
1½ – 3½

Now all eyes could turn towards the Lindley Liberal Club for Wednesday’s clash between Huddersfield and Hebden Bridge ‘A’. Halifax and Courier players had everything crossed in the hopes of any kind of away result. Even a draw would have given them hope of catching up with the leaders.

Hebden Bridge ‘A’ have a truly execrable record against Huddersfield. Just one win in the last five years and that was last season at Huddersfield when the home side only fielded four players! To make matters worse Matthew Parsons and Nick Sykes couldn’t play and Matthew Webb was unavailable too. This forced Dave Shapland, the stand in Captain on the night, into drastic measures as he called on the services of regular super-sub Andy Bak and virgin debutante Calderdale Leaguer Ihor Lewyk. The philosophy for Hebden Bridge was straight forward: “If you want to take our crown from us then you’ll have to break our fingers to get it!” Hebden have fielded very strong line-ups against their closest rivals this season and they weren’t about to abandon that approach just because they were out of contention for the title.

Huddersfield meanwhile had also fielded a strong team though perhaps, with half an eye on Monday’s visit to Todmorden,  not their very strongest. Another epic contest was in the offing as the ten players sat down to start the clocks.

The first game to finish was the top board encounter between Ihor and Greg Eagleton. The opening was a Czech Benoni which is typifed by a closed pawn structure in the centre and some deep manoeuvring in the trenches and on the flanks. Neither player was in the mood to take too many risks and as the heavy pieces started to come off they agreed to peace.

Shortly afterwards another draw was agreed on board 5 where Hebden’s Andy Leatherbarrow initially appeared to have gained the upper hand right out of the opening. Unwittingly Tony Aguirre had wandered into a line of the Nimzowitsch Defence that Andy had looked at that very day and he deployed a tactical trick to win a pawn and seemingly put the White king in grave danger. However, Tony kept his head and calculated that by moving his king to f2 would solve his immediate problems and simplify the position a good deal. His idea worked to the extent that he gained a bishop pair against Andy’s brace of knights as compensation for Black’s extra pawn and the two entered the endgame early. Once again neither player wanted to risk too much in a very balanced position and they quickly agreed to a draw.

The last three games went on far longer and on they seemed to be very close indeed. On board 2 Andy Bak had gained a very pleasant position against Mitchell’s Spanish by deploying the Smyslov Variation (typified by 3…g6). On board 3 Pete Leonard was up against Huddersfield’s own latest recruit, Imre Zelei, who had boldly deployed the Four Pawns Attack against Pete’s Alekhine’s Defence. However, Pete used some opening preparation of his own as he unleashed the unusual and very interesting move 5…g5!? which is at the extreme end of the ‘hypermodern’ spectrum. Imre sensibly kept the tension in the position and carefully maintained his pawn centre until on move 22 his, and subsequently, his team’s, night came to a rather abrupt end.

There was a sudden rush of action on the remaining three boards. Poor Imre had simply removed the protect from an attacked knight and therefore lost it on the spot. He had no compensation whatsoever and therefore had to resign. This was shortly followed by an equally sudden and unexpected catastrophe from Mitchell on board 2. Realising that he possibly had to play for a win to maintain his sides chances he opted to hide his king on h1 on move 29 but this allowed Andy to play a nice combination which won a piece and incredibly the match was over.

This just left Dave Shapland to add the cherry to the cake as he lured Dave Tooley into a pawn grab with his queen on b7. The subsequent open b-file was acquired by Black’s rook which then landed on the seventh rank. Tooley tried to surround the rook but in doing so he allowed his opponent to sweep his defending pieces from the king-side, push forward with his f-pawn and then offer a rook sacrifice on f2. Subsequent analysis prooves that, for once, Dave Shapland’s idea was sound and he went on to force the enemy king into the open. From there it was reasonably simple.

The final match scorecard looked like this:

Huddersfield vs. Hebden Bridge ‘A’
G.Eagleton ½ – ½ I.Lewyk
M.Burke 0 – 1 A.Bak
I.Zelei 0 – 1 P.Leonard
D.Tooley 0 – 1 D.Shapland
A.Aguirre ½ – ½ A.Leatherbarrow
1 – 4

Another dramatic chapter in the long history between these two rivals was written then and on this occasion the outcome was a devastating blow for the home team although they were as generous and sporting in defeat as they are gracious in victory. They now have to go to Todmorden ‘A’ on Monday and win to have any chance of taking the title. They must also hope that Courier and Halifax draw their match or that Courier win by a point less than they do at Todmorden.

Halifax are now in the box seat as their board count is insurmountably superior to the other two teams on the same points as them. However, they can take nothing for granted because, like Huddersfield, they will be playing with the Black pieces on Monday night and Courier will surely field their strongest possible line up. All three teams have to play for a win because a draw, even for Halifax, won’t guarantee success. It should be a monumentally tense and dramatic evening in the Calder Valley. The stakes are even higher for the two team playing in Halifax as the last time either of them won the league was when Halifax took it in 1985-86! (Thanks to Carlos Velosa for this nugget.)

You can view all the games from the Huddersfield vs. Hebden Bridge ‘A’ match in the viewer below. My thanks to all the Hebden team who have taken the time to add some commentary to their games.

All that remains for me to say is “Good luck!” to all three teams involved in Monday night’s showdown. Whoever does inherit Hebden Bridge’s crown will be very, very worthy ‘Kings of the Valley’ this year.

The original Kingmaker. Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick. Shakespeare puts the words of this quote into his mouth as he lies wounded and dying after the battle of Barnet. (Image from Wikipedia)

By the end of the night tonight the crown that the Hebden Bridge ‘A’ team have possessed with such pride for the past two seasons may well have been prized from their grasp. Yes, it’s time to bring readers up to date with the current state of play in the turbulent League 1 title scrap. Let’s begin today’s post with a little bit of Shakespeare to remind ourselves that all good things must come to an end.

… what is pomp, rule, reign, but earth and dust?

And, live we how we can, yet die we must.”

– Henry VI Part 3, Act 5, Scene 2

The last round took place exactly one month ago whilst your editor was taking his annual recreation in the Alps — that is the only excuse I can offer for the tardiness of this website’s recent reporting. Round 11 already saw the champions entering, if not the “last chance saloon”, then certainly the “next to last chance saloon”! They travelled to Todmorden and took on one of their key rivals, Todmorden ‘A’. They knew it would be a terrifically tough task to win as Todmorden had not dropped a single game point at home in the season until then. Not only that, but as well as missing Dave Shapland, they were also forced to travel without Matthew Parsons who was unwell.

That forced Nick Sykes into some last minute improvisation as the team had long planned to recruit in their “super sub” Matthew Webb in place of Dave Shapland. Now the captain was forced into desperate but soundly considered action as he managed to get hold of John Allan to play on the bottom board. This meant that Hebden still turned up with a pretty strong line up to face the Tod ‘A’ regulars of Messers Hamer, Mulleady, Clarkson, Wright and Tokeley. The night was set for drama.

Hebden have suffered in recent rounds from starting the night out well and then slipping to draws or defeats in the later games to finish. This time they couldn’t have had a worse start to the evening as Pete Leonard had a terrible accident against Pete Mulleady on board 2. It was one of those occasions when, no matter what a player tries, they only seem to make things worse. Pete was dead and buried in very short order and went out into the cold night licking painful wounds.

But, Hebden bounced back immediately as Matty Webb did what no-one else has done at Todmorden ‘A’ this season. He won with Black! It was a smooth positional victory rather than the blood and thunder triumph he had enjoyed against the same opponent in the first half of the season. Doubling up on Martin Hamer is no mean achievement and goes to show what kind of form Matty is in at the moment. He’s gone on since this match to get his Yorkshire live rating up over 200. That was his target for the season, so congratulations to him for reaching this significant milestone.

That game levelled the scores and now the bottom three boards would decide the match. This would have been about as good a scenario has Hebden could have wished for as this was where the difference in ratings between the two sides was minimal. All three games went on into the night and the balance was maintained by Andy Leatherbarrow who successfully defended himself once again with the Scandinavian against ex-team mate Alastair Wright for a hard earned half point.

Meanwhile Nick Sykes and Andrew Clarkson on board 3 had been engaged in a highly topical and significant discussion in the Sicilian Najdorf variation. Andrew, as well prepared as ever, opted for an early h3. This line has been seen at the very highest levels recently (including the ongoing Candidates Tournament) and so an interesting and lively game was in prospect here with both players well versed on the themes of the opening. As that game progressed through a see-saw middle game and into a king and pawn ending the pawn 5 game drew to a dramatic and momentous conclusion.

John Allan had managed to engineer a fine position for himself against Rob Tokeley on board 5. Using the Tarrasch Variation he’d first equalised and then gone on to secure a small but stable advantage in the middle game. The only down side was that John was burning up the same volume of time on his clock as his opponent, who is a habitual zeintot addict. Nevertheless, by move 30 John had an extra, passed, but isolated d-pawn in a same coloured bishop and rook ending. He had some winning chances and could press on and on almost without risk.

But that was when John fell foul of one of the oldest tricks in the book. Rob made his 36 move and offered John a draw. Unsure as to whether or not he should accept the offer, which was made from a position of weakness, John got up from the board to look at the match score and the remaining games. Having decided that he should continue to play and try to win he returned to the board only to be informed that he had lost on time! It was a heartbreaking return for Hebden for this board would decide the outcome of the match. A draw would have resulted in a drawn match and a win for John would have been a win for Hebden.

As it was, the loss turned out to be critical, for Nick Sykes was unable to find a win in his endgame against Andrew. In fact, subsequent analysis demonstrates that both sides missed chances to win the game. So, in the end it was a very close scare for the men of Todmorden but they’d won another home match and their first victory over Hebden Bridge for three years. Here’s the full match scorecard:

Todmorden ‘A’ vs. Hebden Bridge ‘A’
M.Hamer 0 — 1 M.Webb
P.Mulleady 1 — 0 P.Leonard
A.Clarkson ½ — ½ N.Sykes
A.Wright ½ — ½ A.Leatherbarrow
R.Tokeley 1 — 0 J.Allan
3 — 2

This defeat left Hebden 4 points behind Todmorden with just 6 points left to be won in the last three matches of the season. It got worse for the champions when news filtered through two days later that Hebden Bridge ‘B’ had been beaten by the league leaders Huddersfield 3½ — 1½ . This result, though not as decisive as the line-ups might have suggested, left Hebden ‘A’ 5 points behind Huddersfield.

The match scorecard of this match looked like this:

Huddersfield vs. Hebden Bridge ‘B’
M.Burke 1 — 0 J.Blinkhorn
G.Eagleton ½ — ½ M.Syrett
D.Firth 1 — 0 Default
D.Tooley 1 — 0 S.Priest
R.Sutcliffe 0 — 1 N.Bamford
3½ — 1½

Whilst all of this was going on Todmorden ‘B’ put a dent in Courier ‘A’s title ambitions by drawing with them at home and Halifax ‘A’ underlined their own title credentials by thrashing Brighouse 5 — 0.

With three rounds to go the Champions now need a miracle to keep their title. Huddersfield would need to lose all three of their remaining matches starting at Brighouse tonight whilst Hebden would need to beat Halifax at home, Huddersfield away and then Todmorden ‘B’ at home. Not only that but they’d also have to overtake Todmorden ‘A’, Halifax ‘A’ and Courier ‘A’. This is not going to happen. However, the King’s of Calderdale League 1 may still have the power to decide who will wrench the crown from their broken fingers as those matches against Halifax and Huddersfield could be critical for either of those two teams’ title hopes were they to lose.

Hebden Bridge ‘B’ meanwhile still have a chance to survive in league 1. They are 3 points behind Todmorden ‘B’ and 2 behind Brighouse and they have to play both of those teams before the end of the season. Two wins could still see them stay up. Watch this space for news of tonight’s 12th round.