Hebden Bridge Chess Club

Readers would be well within their rights to wonder if your editor had been kidnapped by aliens such has been the paucity of updates here in the last five weeks. We are pleased to inform you that we are alive and well but have been busy!

There is so much to catch up on but we’re going to keep our discipline and report on one round of the Calderdale League at a time. In our last post we recorded Hebden Bridge ‘B’s downfall to their ‘A’ team colleagues which enabled Belgrave ‘A’ to hit the front in the League 1 title race, as well as a League 2 update and the results of Round 4 of the Calderdale Individual Championship. So, picking up where we left off, let’s recount the action from Round 10 of League 1 which took place in the week commencing February 11th.

Newly minted League leaders Belgrave ‘A’ faced a potential banana skin in he shape of third placed Halifax ‘A’ away. The top two boards looked fairly evenly matched but on the lower boards Belgrave had strong rating advantages. In the end it was a one-sided affair with the visitors achieving a compelling 1 – 4 victory. John Morgan beat Bill Somerset on board 1 and Tony Slinger and Richard Bowman took full points off Carlos Velosa and Vivienne Webster respectively. The other two games were drawn.

Hebden Bridge ‘A’ continued their sparkling form at home to their ‘C’ team colleagues with a comprehensive 4½ – ½ victory. Andy Leatherbarrow managed to hold a draw against Andrew Clarkson on board 1 (a highly creditable result) but the rest of the team were swept aside. Here is the full match scorecard:

Hebden Bridge ‘A’ vs. Hebden Bridge ‘C’
A.Clarkson ½ – ½ A.Leatherbarrow (W)
M.Hamer 1 – 0 M.Syrett (W)
P.Cook 1 – 0 N.Bamford (W)
S.Whitehead 1 – 0 P.Gledhill (W)
A.Swales 1 – 0 P.Dickinson (W)
4½ – ½

The other match played on Monday the 11th was between relegation rivals Huddersfield ‘B’ and Belgrave ‘B’. This was a really tight match on paper and it proved to be the case over the board as well. There were draws on boards 1, 2 and 4 and then the sides traded wins on board 3, where Belgrave’s Gordon Farrar beat David Gray, and board 5, where Huddersfield’s captain, Alec Ward beat Les Johnson to save a vital draw for his team. That result left both team locked in a struggle to avoid the second relegation spot.

The last match of the round was played on Wednesday the 13th at the Lindley Liberal Club in Huddersfield where the hosts, Huddersfield ‘A’ entertained Hebden Bridge ‘B’ who were aiming to bounce back from only their second loss of the season in round 9.

In days gone by these two clubs have staged some epic clashes. This time around though the match was something of a damp squib as Huddersfield were under strength and indeed had to forfeit the bottom board. The visitors then built on their hosts generosity with three more wins and a draw to take the match comfortably.

Sam Swain got the ball rolling with a quick win on board 4 against Brendan Briggs and then Dave Shapland took down Steve Westmoreland on board 2 when the Huddersfield man miscalculated a forcing sequence that it turned out would end with him losing his queen or getting check mated. Pete Leonard then made it 0 – 4 when he defeated Amin Hossain.

The last game of the night went on to the end of the evening as Matthew Parsons tried to force a win through against Greg Eagleton. A fascinating endgame struggle ensued where Matthew had three pawns against Greg’s lone bishop. Eagleton was down to vapours on his clock when he finally forced Matthew to concede the only half Hebden gave up in the match. The scorecard is below:

Huddersfield ‘A’ vs. Hebden Bridge ‘B’
G.Eagleton ½ – ½ M.Parsons (W)
S.Westmoreland 0 – 1 D.Shapland (W)
A.Hossain 0 – 1 P.Leonard (W)
B.Briggs 0 – 1 S.Swain (W)
DEFAULT 0 – 1 N.Suttie (W)
½ – 4½

The game viewer at the end of this post below has a number of games from this match in it.

These results left Belgrave ‘A’ top of the League with 17 points, Hebden Bridge ‘B’ in second on 16 and Halifax ‘A’ are in third on 11 points a position they share with Hebden Bridge ‘A’ who after starting the season with a drawn 1 lost 5 record have won all five matches since to reach 50% for the season.

At the bottom Hebden Bridge ‘C’ looked doomed on 3 points. But then it’s a bun fight as Huddersfield ‘B’ have 8 points and Huddersfield ‘A’ and Belgrave ‘B’ both have 7 points. Any of these three teams could join Hebden ‘C’ in the drop to League 2.

Having worked so hard to catch up with our reports, we have fallen behind again. Never mind, we’ll get back on track again soon enough.

Let’s begin with a recap of the 8th round of fixtures in Calderdale League 1. These were played on the 14th of January and, naturally, featured a whole host of derby matches between sides from the same clubs. In fact three of the four matches played were derbies and two of those three ended in heavy defeats.

We’ll start though with the closest fought of the derby matches. Hebden Bridge ‘C’ took on Hebden Bridge ‘B’ at the Trades Club and both sides found themselves somewhat depleted in number. Hebden ‘C’ were short of players and, as the ‘A’ team were also missing a player, the ‘B’ team loaned out Pete Leonard to the ‘A’ team rather than have a player taking a default and not getting a game.

That meant that a four-a-side match with Hebden ‘C’ lining up with Andy Leatherbarrow, Martin Syrett, Paul Gledhill and Neil Bamford while the ‘B’ team had Matthew Parsons, Dave Shapland, Sam Swain and Neil Suttie. On paper it looked like it should have been straightforward for the ‘B’s but it turned out to be a tough battle.

Matthew defeated Andy on board 1 in relatively smooth fashion. Of course, the game saw a London System on the board and Andy had come prepared for a battle in that system. Early on in the opening he appeared to be doing well but he was gradually out played in the middle game and made a few tactical mistakes which curtailed the game mid-evening.

Sam Swain also had a fairly comfortable night on board 3 against Paul Gledhill. Sam opted for the Grand Prix Attack and, like Matthew, took full advantage of some tactical oversights to ease past his opponent.

The match was already almost in the bag but on the last two boards the ‘B’ team stumbled. First, Neil Suttie lost a piece against Neil Bamford. He opted to go all in and try to confuse his opponent but Bamford held fast, defused the danger and simplified the position to force resignation. This was an excellent win for Neil who has had an excellent season for the ‘C’ team collecting 6½/8 so far.

Finally, it came down to the game between the two Captains. Dave took charge of the game early in the opening and seemed to be building an overwhelming attack. However, Martin hung on determinedly and when Dave couldn’t find the right way to prosecute his attack, he developed his own dangerous counter play. The game simplified and the danger receded. With equal material on both sides and the only chance for a win requiring some level of risk, Dave accepted Martin’s draw offer to ensure that at least the match was won for the league leaders.

Here is the final match scorecard:

Hebden Bridge ‘C’ vs Hebden Bridge ‘B’
A.Leatherbarrow 0 – 1 M.Parsons (W)
M.Syrett ½ – ½ D.Shapland (W)
P.Gledhill 0 – 1 S.Swain (W)
N.Bamford 1 – 0 N.Suttie (W)
DEFAULT 0 – 0 DEFAULT
1½ – 2½

Hebden Bridge ‘A’ continued their resurgence in the only non-derby match of the round as they crushed third-placed Halifax ‘A’ at the Lee Mount Club. Admittedly they had their strongest line up of the season with Phil Cook and Mick Connor missing they were replaced by even stronger players in the form of Chris Bak and Pete Leonard. Together with Andrew Clarkson and Martyn Hamer on the top two boards Chris and Pete won their games as the visitors swept aside Bill Somerset, Richard Porter, Carlos Velosa and Vivienne Webster. Only Sam Scurfield could muster a consolation point against Andy Swales on board 5. Here is the match card:

Halifax ‘A’ vs Hebden Bridge ‘A’
W.Somerset 0 – 1 A.Clarkson (W)
R.Porter 0 – 1 M.Hamer (W)
C.Velosa 0 – 1 C.Bak (W)
V.Webster 0 – 1 P.Leonard (W)
S.Scrufield 1 – 0 A.Swales (W)
1 – 4

With this win Hebden ‘A’ climbed further up the table and away from the relegation zone into a share of 4th and 5th places.

That climb up the table was made possible in part by Huddersfield ‘A’s defeat to their ‘B’ team rivals for the second time this season. Dave Keddie, Steve Westmoreland and Kyle Sharpe were held to draws by Leo Keely, Simon Anscombe and David Gray respectively and then the tail end of the ‘A’ team collapsed as Granville Boot beat Robert Sutcliffe and Alec Ward beat Craig Sharpe. This was a fine win for Huddersfield ‘B’ to boost their survival chances.

In the final match of the round Belgrave ‘B’ hosted their ‘A’ team and were roundly thrashed for their troubles. Gordon Farrar saved a half on board 1 against John Morgan but after that it was slaughter as Dave Patrick, Tony Slinger, Peter Hughes and Karim Khan put Mike Barnett, Keith Marsh, Les Johnson and Angel Gonzales to the sword. This result ensured that Belgrave maintained their hot pursuit of Hebden ‘B’ in second place in the table.

You’ll find some of the games from round 8 in the game viewer below.

Happy New Year to everyone!

Today we continue with our catch up on the first half of the Calderdale Evening Chess League season as we cover the matches played in Round 6 of League 1. These matches were played on the week commencing 10^th of December.

Readers will recall that we left the League Champions, Hebden Bridge ‘A’, languishing at the foot of the table having managed just a single draw in their first five encounters. That said, they had lost three of those five matches by the narrowest possible score line and so it seemed entirely plausible that, with a little bit of luck, they could start to pick up points again.

In round 6 they welcomed Belgrave ‘B’ to the Golden Lion in Todmorden. Reviewing the two line-ups on paper suggested that this match really should have been straight forward for the hosts as they out graded Belgrave on every board. Hebden welcomed back Andrew Clarkson to board 1 and had Martyn Hamer and Phil Cook on board 2 and 3. All three of these players out rated their opponents, Gordon Farrar, Keith Marsh and Les Johnson by 40 points or more. On board 4, Richard Bedford made a guest appearance in the absence of both Mick Connor and Andrew Swales. He held a more modest 15-point rating advantage over Paul Edwards. Finally, on board 5, Peter Dickinson had an even smaller rating advantage over Chris Edwards.

It looked like the outcome of the match should really be determined on the upper boards and that did indeed prove to be the case as the home side won on the top four boards with varying degrees of struggle. On board 5 Chris salvaged pride for the visitors with a victory over Peter. The full match score card is given below:

Hebden Bridge ‘A’ vs. Belgrave ‘B’
A.Clarkson 1 – 0 G.Farrar (W)
M.Hamer 1 – 0 K.Marsh (W)
P.Cook 1 – 0 L.Johnson (W)
R.Bedford 1 – 0 P.Edwards (W)
P.Dickinson 0 – 1 C.Edwards (W)
4 – 1

This match win came as a huge relief to all involved in the ‘A’ team as they looked at other match results during the week and found that they had gained ground on their relegation rivals.

At the other end of the Calder valley, in Halifax, third-placed team Halifax ‘A’, hosted Hebden Bridge ‘C’ who hovered just two points ahead of their ‘A’ team colleagues. Once again, on paper, the statistics suggested an easy win for the home team as they out rated all their opponents and Hebden made life even more difficult for themselves when they arrived with only four players.

The home team sealed their match win on the top boards as Bill Somerset beat Andy Leatherbarrow and Richard Porter beat Martin Syrett. On boards 3 and 4 however the visitors put up serious resistance as Paul Gledhill drew with Carlos Velosa on board 3 and Neil Bamford went one better and took down Sam Scurfield on board 4, a fine result for Neil. Below is the full match scorecard.

Halifax ‘A’ vs Hebden Bridge ‘C’
W.Somerset 1 – 0 A.Leatherbarrow
R.Porter 1 – 0 M.Syrett
C.Velosa ½ – ½ P.Gledhill
S.Scurfield 0 – 1 N.Bamford
S.Gornall 1 – 0 DEFAULT
3½ – 1½

This result meant that Hebden Bridge ‘A’ had now drawn level with their ‘C’ team and were only a point behind their vanquished foes Belgrave ‘B’, who had 4 points.

Huddersfield ‘B’ were the other team on 4 points at the start of the round and they had a tough assignment away to the League leaders, Hebden Bridge ‘B’. Once again, the stats suggested that it would be a routine victory for the home team and, once again, the stats didn’t lie. Huddersfield ‘B’ also struggled with a default as one of their players was a no-show. This handed Hebden’s Sam Swain a full point on board 4.

Most of the other games were fairly straightforward wins for Hebden, even if those wins were achieved in contrasting styles. On board 1 Matthew Parsons simply outplayed Simon Anscombe and attained a winning endgame position before the halfway point of the evening had been reached.

Dave Shapland and Neil Suttie by contrast won in more percussive fashion against David Gray and Alec Ward respectively. On board 5, Neil deployed the unusual Budapest Gambit against Alec. He gained a promising position from the mainline of the variation and, when Alec miscalculated, he pounced with a nice intermezzo tactic to win the game on the spot.

On board 2 Dave played another gambit line against the Queens Gambit of David Gray, the Albin Counter Gambit. David seemed to be doing perfectly well when he placed his knight on c3 even though it was attacked by Dave’s pawn on d4 because the pawn was pinned to the Black queen by a White rook on d1. See the diagram on the right. However, Dave decided that he could sacrifice his queen to get his d-pawn to the b2 square and, with White’s king still in the middle of the board, the position looked very dangerous indeed. In the game David couldn’t find the best defensive line and capitulated reasonably swiftly. Further analysis of the game shows that he could have done better but the resource was not easy to find. Can you do better?

The last game of this match between Pete Leonard for Hebden and Granville Boot for Huddersfield finished in a draw as the visitors narrowly avoided a whitewash. Below is the match score card:

Hebden Bridge ‘B’ vs. Huddersfield ‘B’
M.Parsons 1 – 0 S.Anscombe (W)
D.Shapland 1 – 0 D.Gray (W)
P.Leonard ½ – ½ G.Boot (W)
S.Swain 1 – 0 DEFAULT
N.Suttie 1 – 0 A.Ward (W)
4½ – ½

The final game of round 6 took place on the 12^th of December as Huddersfield ‘A’ hosted the second placed team in the division, Belgrave ‘A’. In this match Belgrave pulled together a ferociously strong line up which probably wouldn’t have been possible (or necessary) for them to have done had the match been on a Monday. However, missing some regular players who weren’t able to play on a Wednesday night Belgrave reinforced with Tony Slinger on board 3 and Colin Proctor on board 4. Two very experienced and challenging adversaries on the best of occasions but Huddersfield were themselves somewhat depleted of regular players and, as a result, they went down convincingly 1½ – 3½.

Greg Eagleton and John Morgan drew on board 1 and Dave Keddie beat Dave Patrick on board 2 but then it was a land slide for the visitors on the bottom three boards as Tony Slinger beat Nick Sykes, Colin Proctor beat Mark Rojinsky and Peter Hughes beat Brendan Briggs.

As a result of all these fixtures the top three positions in the league remained unchanged with Hebden Bridge ‘B’ on 12 points, Belgrave ‘A’ on 9 points and Halifax ‘A on 8 points. At the other end of the table the relegation scrap was made much more interesting following Hebden Bridge ‘A’s victory. Hebden Bridge ‘C’ were now bottom of the league on board count and with 3 points. Hebden ‘A’ also had 3 points. Huddersfield ‘B’ and Belgrave ‘B’ had 4 points each and Huddersfield ‘A’ had 5 points.

In the next post we’ll report on the final round of fixtures before the Christmas break in both divisions. These were played on the 17^th of December. 

Hebden Bridge ‘A’, like this giant redwood, have been brought down low recently. Can they climb back up the league before it’s too late. Image: Andreas Vonderheit’s Flickr photostream

We must start this post by apologising to readers for the recent service disruption. The web site was hacked and this led to an array of rogue posts being displayed and also a hoard of nonsense comments and ping backs. Gladly, these issues have now been rectified and we hope that normal service can now resume. The only fly in the ointment at the moment is that your Editor’s broadband is currently faulty and this is making it a little less convenient to post content. Hopefully that too will be fixed early next week.

We’ll start our catch up with a post we were planning to publish several weeks ago covering the fifth round of Calderdale League 1.

This week commencing the 19th of November saw the fifth round of Division 1 fixtures played in the Calderdale Evening Chess League. It’s been a fascinating season thus far with the headline story being that the team who have been League champions for the last four seasons are sitting at the bottom of the table.

Admittedly much has changed for the team who were called Todmorden ‘A’ for their title wins in 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17 and then became Golden Lion when they won their fourth title last season. Now they have merged with Hebden Bridge chess club and prestige demanded that they adopt the Hebden Bridge ‘A’ moniker. They still have the spine of the team that has swept all before them for the last four years but, somehow, it’s all gone wrong for them so far this season and they have just one draw from their first three matches with a postponed match against Huddersfield ‘A’ to come.

Huddersfield ‘A’ are another of the perennial ‘big beasts’ of the league but they too are in struggling having also managed only a single win from their first three matches.

In this week’s round of fixtures Hebden ‘A’ visited Belgrave ‘A’ who have been performing very well so far and lie in second place in the table. Huddersfield ‘A’ hosted Hebden Bridge ‘C’ who were alongside them on two points. League leaders Hebden Bridge ‘B’ were also at the Belgrave Club as they played Belgrave ‘B’ and Halifax ‘A’ played Huddersfield ‘B’ at home.

Let’s start our round up with news of those teams languishing at the foot of the table for a change. Hebden ‘A’ took their strongest line up of the season so far to Belgrave. Messrs Clarkson, Hamer and Cook were joined by Mick Connor in his first appearance of the season and Andy Swales. Belgrave ‘A’s line-up looked very solid indeed with John Morgan, Dave Patrick, Peter Hughes, Malcolm Corbett and Karim Khan taking to the field. On paper it looked like it would be a tight battle and so it proved to be.

The encounters on the top three boards were all very competitive. It was on the bottom two boards where the fixture was decided. Mick Connor went down to Malcolm Corbett on board four. Your Editor didn’t see much of this one but Mick seemed to have had some kind of opening catastrophe on the White side of a Dutch Defence because Malcolm’s position looked very good early in the middle game.

Matters got even worse for the visitors when Andy Swales lost on time to Karim Khan whilst thinking about his 22nd move. Apparently, he had misunderstood the time controls but, nevertheless, seemed to be playing at a much slower rate than Karim in the early stages of the game.

Hebden struck back when Phil Cook defeated Peter Hughes on board three and now the match came down to whether or not Andrew or Martyn could manage to defeat John or Dave respectively. Both the Belgrave men were lower rated but of course they are also very experienced and hard to breakdown. Andrew and John’s game seemed to seesaw back and forth. There was no lack of excitement here but, after many adventures a draw was agreed.

Martyn and Dave were the last to finish with Martyn pressing for a win in an endgame where he was a pawn up. However, Dave defended resourcefully and kept his opponent at bay – just. So, Belgrave won the match by the narrowest possible margin and consigned Hebden Bridge ‘A’ to their third defeat in four matches. Here is the match score card:

Belgrave ‘A’ vs Hebden Bridge ‘A’
J.Morgan ½ – ½ A.Clarkson (W)
D.Patrick ½ – ½ M.Hamer (W)
P.Hughes 0 – 1 P.Cook (W)
M.Corbett 1 – 0 M.Connor (W)
K.Khan 1 – 0 A.Swales (W)
3 – 2

Huddersfield ‘A’s match with Hebden Bridge ‘C’ took place on Wednesday evening at the Lindley Club and immediately the home side were given a boost when the visitors arrived with only four players. It seems to be becoming increasingly difficult for the teams who play most of their matches on Monday nights to field anything like their usual line ups on a Wednesday night on the one occasion in the season when they need to do so. Earlier this season Halifax ‘A’ visited Huddersfield with a side that looked nothing like any of the other sides they’ve put out in the rest of the fixtures.

Now Hebden Bridge ‘B’s line up was also much altered. They had three regulars in the form of Andy Leatherbarrow, Martin Syrett and Neil Bamford. Paul Gledhill would normally have joined them but he was unavailable on the Wednesday night and so switched into the Hebden Bridge ‘B’ team playing at Belgrave ‘B’. Going in the other direction was Sam Swain who was unavailable on the Monday night but was able to play to supplement the ‘C’ team’s ranks on Wednesday.

Sam’s reward was a tough board 1 match against Greg Eagleton which the ratings suggested he would find challenging and indeed he did. However, Sam’s inclusion enabled Andy, Martin and Neil to play one board lower and they made this set of circumstance count. Andy defeated Steve Westmoreland on board 2, Martin drew with John Lavan on board three and Neil beat Nicola Thompson on board 4 to counteract the default on board 5. This tied match result was excellent for Hebden ‘C’ but more bad news for Huddersfield.

Here’s the match scorecard:

Huddersfield ‘A’ vs. Hebden Bridge ‘C’
G.Eagleton 1 – 0 S.Swain (W)
S.Westmoreland 0 – 1 A.Leatherbarrow (W)
J.Lavan ½ – ½ M.Syrett (W)
N.Thompson 0 – 1 N.Bamford (W)
B.Briggs 1 – 0 DEFAULT
2½ – 2½

Huddersfield ‘A’s visit to Hebden Bridge ‘A’ at the Golden Lion on Monday 26th now assumes a great deal of importance. If Hebden can manage their first win of the season they will draw alongside their visitors and Hebden Bridge ‘C’ on three points and can hope to dig themselves out of their current trough of despair. Lose however and they’ll be cut adrift at the foot of the table and in grave danger of relegation which would have been unthinkable at the start of the season.

Back at the Belgrave Club on Hebden Bridge ‘B’ were busy continuing their perfect start to the season as they put Belgrave ‘B’ to the sword. However, it wasn’t as convincing as they scoreline may suggest. Pete Leonard defeated Keith Marsh relatively comfortably on board 3 and Richard Bedford did the same for the visitors against Angel Gonzalez on board 4, but on the other three boards it was much harder going for the league leaders.

On board 5, Paul Gledhill’s debut for the ‘B’ team was not a happy one as he went down against Belgrave’s form man of the season so far, Steve Harrington. He is 3/4 in League 1 and 4/4 in Division 2.

Matthew Parsons also had a real struggle on his hands against Gordon Farrar on board 1 although he finally came through with some excellent calculation in an end game to get the win that took Hebden over the line to three points.

Finally, the board 2 encounter between the team captains, Mike Barnett of Belgrave and Dave Shapland of Hebden Bridge, was a marathon. Dave got a good position out of the opening against Mike’s Pirc Defence. However, he then frittered that advantage away with some loose moves and then made the mistake of continuing to play for a win in what was objectively a drawn position. Dave’s obduracy should have been punished as Mike gained a winning position in a king and pawn ending but, at the end of a long night he somehow couldn’t seem to find the right winning method and ended up settling for a draw. A very lucky escape for Dave!

Here’s the final match scorecard:

Belgrave ‘B’ vs. Hebden Bridge ‘B’
G.Farrar 0 – 1 M.Parsons (W)
M.Barnett ½ – ½ D.Shapland (W)
K.Marsh 0 – 1 P.Leonard (W)
A.Gonzalez 0 – 1 R.Bedford (W)
S.Harrington 1 – 0 P.Gledhill (W)
1½ – 3½

In the final match to be played on the 19th of November, Halifax ‘A’ hosted Huddersfield ‘B’ (this was supposed to be the other way round so we assume there must have been a venue problem for Huddersfield ‘B’. On the night Leo Keely beat Winston Williams on board 1, but this was offset by Bill Somerset and Richard Porter who beat Simon Anscombe and Granville Boot respectively to give the home side a 3 – 2 win. Boards 4 and 5 were drawn.

In our next post we’ll update readers on the postponed match played between Hebden Bridge ‘A and Huddersfield ‘A’ and also catch up with round 2 of the Calderdale Individual Championship which was played on December 3rd.

There are a whole host of games from this round of fixtures in the game viewer below.

Facing up to closest rivals Belgrave ‘A’ was something of an ordeal for Hebden Bridge ‘B’ on Monday night. Image: Kevin Jarrett’s Flickr photo stream

It was a night of high tension at the Trades Club on Monday as Hebden Bridge Chess Club’s ‘B’ and ‘C’ teams took part in round 4 of the Calderdale Evening Chess League 1. Both sides were well matched by Belgrave ‘A’ and Huddersfield ‘B’ respectively and both matches were decided by fine margins even if the score lines didn’t necessarily reflect that.

Hebden Bridge ‘B’ were at the top of the table as the only side with a 100% record after three rounds when the evening began. Having already managed to beat strong sides in the form of Huddersfield ‘A’ and Hebden Bridge ‘A’ they now faced their closest rivals, second placed Belgrave ‘A’.

Half term week meant changes for both sides as some regular players were away. For Hebden Bridge their star performers on boards 4 and 5, Sam Swain and Neil Suttie, were absent. In their place came Richard Bedford on board 5 and Chris Bak who played on board 2. On the Belgrave side they were also missing a star performer on the lower boards, Steve Harrington. In his place came Ian Hunter who was inserted on board 1, allowing the rest of the team to move down a board. Both sides then were in fact marginally stronger than they had been for previous rounds.

The players had barely made their opening moves when Ian Hunter and Matthew Parsons agreed a draw on board 1. Ian boldly essayed Matthew’s trade mark opening system with White himself – the ‘Accelerated London’ with 1.d4 and 2.Bf4. Matthew quickly deployed a solid response, equalized and offered a draw on move 12 which Ian accepted. The match would be decided on the bottom four boards where there was a good deal more belligerence.

On board 2, Chris Bak took advantage of a dubious move order employed by John Morgan and was able to pick up an exchange early on in the game with some accurate play. Unfortunately, his precision did not continue as he overlooked a tactical feature a little later on and was compelled to give the exchange back. A relieved John offered a draw at this point and Chris saw no reason to decline.

Now the match would be decided on the bottom three boards and Hebden had cause for concern on all of them. On board 3 there was a ‘Battle of the Daves’ and Dave Patrick and Dave Shapland had a Classical Variation of the Ruy Lopez on the board. Dave Patrick seemed to have the better of the opening and took control of the open e-file. Shapland countered by offering a pawn up in order to activate his pieces. He succeeded in doing this and managed to win back the material at which point Dave Patrick offered him a draw.

The fact that Dave Shapland declined the draw offer had nothing to do with the position on the board. If anything he was still worse and could have accepted gladly. However, by this stage of proceedings it was clear that Hebden were right up against it. Pete Leonard was a pawn down against Malcolm Corbett who had essayed the super-aggressive Four Pawns Attack Variation against Pete’s Alekhine’s Defence. Pete appeared to be in a good deal of trouble. Meanwhile on board 5 Karim Kahn versus Richard ‘Beaky’ Bedford was anything but straight forward and both players seemed to be burning their clock time liberally.

Patrick vs. Shapland. It’s white to make his 23rd move. He has the advantage but there is only one way to proceed to preserve it. Can you find it? Answer in the game viewer at the end of this post.

So, with the prognosis apparently poor on boards 4 and 5, Dave decided he had to play on and try to win his game against Dave Patrick. Of course matter then immediately got worse for him as he tried to play actively but in doing so opening himself him to a direct attack on his king. Fortunately, Patrick missed his best chance to win the game but instead followed a line that also looked very promising indeed. However, it turned out to be one of those lines that, whilst optically appearing overwhelming, in reality required precise play to capitalize on. Now with just a queen and a minor piece left each (plus six pawns each) Patrick grabbed a Black pawn on b7 and lost all of his advantage. The key position is in the diagram on the right. See if you can find the only move to keep White his advantage. After the pawn grab Shapland was able to equalise the position again and Patrick decided to offer a queen exchange when it became apparent that his opponent was going to win back his pawn. At this point Patrick offered a draw again.

The situation had not improved in any way on the lower boards. In fact, by this point Pete was two pawns down and still under massive pressure and Beaky was getting into hot water on the clock. On this occasion though Dave Shapland had more reasons than just the match situation to help him decide not to accept the draw offer. He’d seen that, after the queen exchange he’d have a bishop to Dave’s knight and could play on and try to win with little risk of losing. So, this is what he did.

With time control looming and all six players running short of time, the ’10.15 crisis’ was the most nerve shredding point of the night. Karim and Beaky were both in desperate trouble with their clocks and were banging out moves in a highly complicated and tense position knowing that one slip could prove fatal. Meanwhile Pete and Malcolm were also short of time and were trying to navigate a head-spinning position. Pete seemed to be fighting back however.

On board 3 Dave Shapland had a critical decision to make on his 36th move. He’d seen a pawn break which looked like his only chance to win but meant temporarily sacrificing a pawn. However, if it all went wrong he’d probably lose. Once more he decided to gamble and put his opponent under pressure. Once more he got lucky as Dave Patrick didn’t play the most resilient defence and slipped into a losing endgame position. Now there was hope for Hebden to at least hold the match.

Incredibly, they did a lot better than draw the match as, during the final phase of the match they somehow managed to win all three remaining games! First of all, Pete swindled Malcolm with a mating attack when Malcolm thought his own attack would connect first. It didn’t, and Pete put Hebden ahead. Then Beaky and Karim got into their second time crisis of the night but by this stage Karim’s attack had completely petered out. He’d had a piece for three pawns but then lost a second piece and then a rook as it all went wrong for him. Hebden had snatched the match from the fire.

The last game to finish was Patrick versus Shapland on board 3 where ultimately Shapland’s bravery was rewarded as he finished off his opponent to seal the deal. It had been an ordeal indeed but Hebden had held out. All five games from this match can be found in the game viewer at the end of this post.

Here is the final match scorecard:

Hebden Bridge ‘B’ vs. Belgrave ‘A’
M.Parsons ½ – ½ I.Hunter (W)
C.Bak ½ – ½ J.Morgan (W)
D.Shapland 1 – 0 D.Patrick (W)
P.Leonard 1 – 0 M.Corbett (W)
R.Bedford 1 – 0 K.Khan (W)
4 – 1

Meanwhile, across the room, Hebden Bridge ‘C’ and Huddersfield ‘B’ were engaged in a similarly tough battle although in this case the games ended earlier in the evening. Half-term week hit Hebden ‘C’ hard and they were missing a player. This meant that Huddersfield’s Captain, Alec Ward, got a night off and still collected a point for his team.

This proved to be decisive as across the remaining four boards the honours were evenly shared. Hebden’s Captain, Martin Syrett, lost out to Granville boot on board 2 but Paul Gledhill equalised the score with a win on board 3. Board 4 was drawn and this left Andy Leatherbarrow in the envious position of having to win on board 1 against David Gray to level the match. Hard as he tried this never appeared to be likely and indeed Gray held firm and a draw was brokered giving Huddersfield a 2 – 3 win.

Here are the individual results from that match:

Hebden Bridge ‘C’ vs. Huddersfield ‘B’
A.Leatherbarrow 0 – 0 D.Gray (W)
M.Syrett 0 – 1 G.Boot (W)
P.Gledhill 1 – 0 K.Stanczyk (W)
N.Bamford 0 – 0 C.Haigh (W)
DEFAULT 0 – 1 A.Ward (W)
2 – 3

Elsewhere in the League, Hebden Bridge ‘A’s match against Huddersfield ‘A’ at the Golden Lion was postponed at the visiting team’s request and will be rearranged for either the 12th or the 26th of November and at the Lee Mount Club, Halifax ‘A’ smashed Belgrave ‘B’ 5 – 0.

After 4 rounds of play (for everyone except the two sides mentioned above) Hebden ‘B’ remain top of the league with 8 points. They’ve increased their lead over Belgrave ‘A’ who, despite their loss to the leaders stay in second place with 5 points. After that there is something of a bottle neck with Halifax ‘A’, Huddersfield ‘B’ and Belgrave ‘B’ all on 4 points. Hebden Bridge ‘C’ and Huddersfield ‘A’ have 2 points and Hebden Bridge ‘A’ languish at the foot of the table with 1 point but with that match against Huddersfield ‘A’ in hand.

League 2

We’ve been neglecting League 2 on this website. They have now played three rounds of fixtures, the most recent being on the 22nd of October. In this round Brighouse continued their perfect start to the season with a narrow 3 – 2 over Huddersfield ‘C’. Steve Westmoreland scored an excellent win against Robert Broadbent on board 1 for the visitors and another Robert, Sutcliffe, also won on board 3. However, wins for Paul Whitehouse, Adrian Dawson and Tim Pryke meant that Brighouse took the match.

Hebden Bridge ‘D’ were missing two players for their match with Halifax ‘C’ (who only brought four players themselves) but they still managed to get their first game point on the board as Zora Sandhu defeated Barry Wadsworth on board 1. Congratulations to Zora for this excellent win. Let’s hope many more are to follow. Below is the match scorecard:

Hebden Bridge ‘D’ vs. Halifax ‘C’
Z.Sandhu 1 – 0 B.Wadsworth (W)
A.Dermo 0 – 1 P.Stowe (W)
J.Edmundson 0 – 1 J.Nicholson (W)
DEFAULT 0 – 1 E.Fynn (W)
DEFAULT 0 – 0 DEFAULT
1 – 3

Finally, Belgrave ‘C’ lost to Halifax ‘B’ 2 – 3 despite Halifax only having four players. Carlos Velosa, Pete Moss and Daniel Rowley all won their games with (that man again!) Steve Harrington scoring the only point aside from the default for the home team against Howard Wood.

Brighouse stay top with 6 points having taken sole lead by beating Huddersfield ‘C’. They and Halifax ‘B’ are on 4 points. Belgrave ‘C’ and Halifax ‘C’ have 2 points and Hebden Bridge ‘D’ have yet to score a match point but have at least now scored a board win.

Calderdale Individual Championship

Next week, on Bonfire night, the first round of the Calderdale Individual Championship will take place at the Trades Club. All Calderdale players are welcome, indeed encouraged, to enter. If you have not yet entered and wish to do so please contact John Kerrane either by email at kerranerie@btinternet.com or telephone on 01422 842 426. Entries close on Sunday evening so get moving if you’ve not signed up yet!