Team Lightning and Juniors at the Pennine Megafinal

 2017-18 Season Journal, Junior chess  1 Response »
May 142018
 

Just for a change, today we publish some news that is less than a month old! Your editor promises to bring the Calderdale League reporting to a conclusion later this week. Until then, we bring reports on the Calderdale Team Lightning and Junior Pennine Gigafinal events.

This is my annual excuse to find a beautiful photograph of lightning! This year's is by Kim Seng. It is used under Creative Commons terms and sourced from Kim Seng's Flickr photostream.

The advent of the Team Lightning competition gives us our tenuous excuse to publish a beautiful photograph of lightning! This year’s is by Kim Seng. It is used under Creative Commons terms and sourced from Kim Seng’s Flickr photostream.

On Monday 30th April, Belgrave Chess Club hosted the league’s Annual Lightning Competition at the Belgrave Club, Halifax. Pete Leonard reports on the event which ended in a resounding success for Hebden Bridge:

The last fixture of the season in the Calderdale Evening Chess League is traditionally a Team Lightning Tournament, held in the Belgrave Club, in Halifax. This format gives each player precisely ten seconds in which to make each move, leading to occasionally humorous outcomes, as the rules permit a player to capture their opponent’s king. A total of 24 players enabled six teams of four to contest a five-round, all-play-all competition.

On paper, Hebden Bridge had by far the strongest team, but little is certain in lightning chess. In the event, the form book proved true, and Hebden Bridge swept the board, scoring 19½ out of a possible 20 points. Belgrave A were second, on 12 points.

With such a result, it was no surprise that Hebden Bridge’s team of Matthew Parsons, Pete Leonard, Nick Sykes and Martin Syrett won all four of the individual board prizes. A light-hearted evening was enjoyed by all who took part.

Then, last Saturday, nine of our young chess players from Hebden Bridge and Todmorden travelled to Saddleworth Secondary School, Oldham, to play in the Pennine Megafinal (the area final) of the 2018 UK Chess Challenge. john Kerrane reports on this event:

Players from the Upper Calder Valley have a good record in this event, and this year was no exception. After a slow start, most of the players scored well, and five of them qualified to progress to the Gigafinal (the northern regional final) which takes place in Manchester on July 14th and 15th. So, congratulations to Eira Watson (Girls U-7) of Hebden Royd School Chess Club, and Gwilym Hughes (Boys U-13) of Hebden Bridge Chess Club, who both won their sections, and to qualifiers Luca Curry (Boys U-15), also of Hebden Bridge Chess Club, and Freya Birch (Girls U-11) and Eric Guest (Boys U-9) of Castle Hill School, Todmorden.

The individual scores for all our participants were: Dan Crowley (U11B, 2½/6), Ben Crowley (U8B, 2½/6), Freya Birch (U11G, 4/6), Gwilym Hughes (U13B, 4/6), Martha Kidd (U11G, ½ /6), Luca Curry (U13B, 3/6), Eira Watson (U7G, 2/6), Art Watson (U7B, ½/6), Eric Guest (U9B, 3½/6).

Although the entry to the Megafinal was a little down or previous years, the standard was still high, and we acquitted ourselves very creditably. Several of the youngsters were a bit disappointed at just missing out on qualifying to progress to the next round, but they all bore it well, and for all the players, it was great experience, and makes a good platform to build on for the future. We wish Eira, Luca, Gwilym, Freya and Eric all the best in the Gigafinal, which will be quite a challenge for them all.

Thanks to Pete and John for these updates. Stay tuned for a final round of reporting on the outcome of the Calderdale Leagues.

Upper Calder Valley Junior Chess Challenge 2015

 Competition, Junior chess  1 Response »
Jun 022015
 
Just a few of Hebden Bridge Chess Club's Junior Members

This competition gives juniors the chance to play competitively and there are prizes for the best players at different levels of ability

On Saturday the 13th of June Hebden Bridge Chess Club will be running this 5-round junior event again as a follow up to the UK Chess Challenge that was held in spring this year. It will take place at the Trades Club, Holme Street, Hebden Bridge, in the upstairs concert room. Entry is open to all Calderdale youngsters, but it is especially intended for those who took part in the UK Chess Challenge. There will be small cash prizes for the three players with the highest scores overall, and a number of ‘grading prizes’, so that everyone has a chance of winning something.

Entry fee will be £1, payable on the day. We will, however, need to know who is entering, so that we can take the draw for the first round ahead of the event. Either fill in the form below, or pass the same information to John Kerrane by phone on 01422 842 426.

All games will be played using a chess clock at a limit of 15 minutes per player. The event will consist of 5 rounds, and we hope to be finished by 12.00 noon, or soon after. We advise entrants to bring a drink and a snack.

Tournament details

Date: Saturday 13th June

Venue:
The Trades Club
Holme Street
Hebden Bridge

Timetable:
Arrive and Register 9.00 a.m.
First Round 9.15 a.m.
Finish time 12.00 noon

Entry fee: £1

 

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UK Chess Challenge Megafinal, 2014

 Junior chess  1 Response »
May 202014
 

DelancyUKCC250On Saturday the 17th of May, a squad of seven junior players travelled from Hebden Bridge to Sheffield for the South and West Yorkshire megafinal (area final) of the 2014 UK Chess Challenge.

The Hebden Bridge youngsters have always been quite successful at this stage of this national competition. However, this year, with several players new to large competitions, expectations were not quite so high. Despite the lack of experience the young players were very enthusiastic, and they achieved some very creditable results.

The most successful were Luca Curry and Martha Leggett, who each came second in the very competitive Under-11s sections for boys and girls respectively, while Gwilym Hughes came third in the Under-9 boys. The two youngest entrants, Amelie Thomson and Joshua Davenport-Hardy, also  managed good scores for players in their first competition.

The individual results were: Toby Dodd (Hebden Bridge, Over-11 Boys) 1/6, Luca Curry (Hebden Bridge, U-11 boys) 5/6. Martha Leggett (Hebden Bridge, U-11 girls) 3/6, Anna Nevison (All Saints, U-11 girls) 3/6; Gwilym Hughes (Hebden Bridge, U-9 boys) 3/6, Amelie Thomson (Hebden Royd, U-8 girls) 2 ½ /6, Joshua Davenport-Hardy (Hebden Bridge, U-7 boys) 2/6.

Junior’s Club Organiser John Kerrane (above) commented,

I was very pleased with the attitude overall. There was some disappointment that more of the youngsters didn’t achieve the necessary 4 points to progress to the next round, but I’m sure they will do better next time, now they know what to expect.

Junior Chess Challenge

 Junior chess  1 Response »
Jul 192012
 

John Kerrane reports on the latest Junior event to take place at our club. The development of youngsters is a really important aspect of our club as Hebden Bridge is the only club in the Calderdale League that currently caters actively for juniors.

John Kerrane organised the Junior Chess Challenge

On Saturday morning, Hebden Bridge Chess Club held the July meeting of its twice-a-year junior congress, the Upper Calder Valley Chess Challenge at the Trades Club, Holme Street. The event is intended as a follow-up to the UK Chess Challenge, held earlier in the year, and gives the young players a chance to try their skills against a wide range of opponents.

Nineteen youngsters of a wide range of abilities took part from four local clubs and the five-round event proceeded very smoothly. To no-one’s surprise, the winner was 10-year-old Kyle Sharpe of Hebden Bridge with 5/5, who showed just why he has been selected for the England under-11s squad, as he dealt with all his challengers without a great deal of trouble. Second prize went to Spike Leatherbarrow (4/5), also of Hebden Bridge, on a tie-break from his sister Hephzi (4/5) of Riverside. Grading prizes went to Owen Buchan (Hebden Bridge, 4/5), Jacob Entwistle (Riverside, 3/5), Dylan Leggett (Hebden Bridge, 4/5) and Martha Leggett (Hebden Bridge, 2/5)

Hebden Bridge Chess Club’s junior organiser, John Kerrane, commented,

This was a pleasant, friendly event, and we were all impressed with the attitude of the young players, especially those new to this type of event. We look forward to running the next congress in November, when they will have that much more experience under their belts, and the competition will be even sharper. We are grateful to the committee of Trades Club who made their facilities available to the youngsters free of charge, and helped everything to run so smoothly.”

Unbeaten Parsons Grabs 2nd at Brighouse

 2011-12 Season Journal, Junior chess, Summer Events 2012  No Responses »
Jun 132012
 

Matthew Parsons dropped just two draws from six games. This one was against the tournament winner Peter Shaw

Who says that the end of the league season means no more chess until September? Today I offer readers a veritable cornucopia of results from across Calderdale and beyond.

Brighouse Quickplay 2012

On Saturday Calderdale players (and a number from outside the area) gathered at Brighouse for the club’s annual Quickplay event. Unfortunately entry numbers were somewhat down this year (just 24 players entered), perhaps because of the clash between this event and the semi-final matches of the National County Championships in which Yorkshire had both U180 and U160 teams. Despite this there were a number of strong players at the event and, in the end, the strongest player on paper won the event. Peter Shaw of Wakefield scored 5½ out of 6 to take the first prize.

Pete Leonard and Nick Sykes analyse a game in between rounds. Pete scored 4 points and Nick scored 3.

Hebden Bridge were represented by three of last season’s title winning ‘A’ team and they all acquitted themselves outstandingly. Matthew Parsons was seeded 3 in the initial draw and remained unbeaten by winning four games and drawing two against the two players seeded above him. This was enough to give him second place on his own with 5 out of 6. This was an excellent result. Congratulations Matthew!

Pete Leonard scored 4 out of 6 (beating the 4th seed in the process) and Nick Sykes scored 3 out of 6 a result which included a win against Brighouse’s strongest player Robert Broadbent. Well done to both Pete and Nick for their strong showing.

Nick and Pete have analysed and annotated all of their games from the competition and these can be found in the game viewer at the end of this post. Matthew has also provided us with the score from his win against Jim Vickery.

Individual Knockout Results

Over the last two weeks the Calderdale Summer Knockout Competitions have begun in earnest. A number of Individual encounters were decided over the last two weeks including all the round 1 match-ups below:

S.Priest 0 — 1 D.Ursal
J.Nicholson 0 — 1 A.Dawson
D.Milton 0 — 1 N.Sykes
M.Syrett 1 — 0 J. Aldridge
A.Leatherbarrow 1 — 0 B.Joyce
J.Todd 0 — 1 J.P.Ellis
P.Rawlings 0 — 1 T.Webster
M.Parsons 1 — 0 D.Crampton

There were several byes in the draw in round 1 and so there are still plenty of games left to play. Anyone interested in seeing the full second round draw can take a look at the “Summer Events” page for more details.

Juniors at the Megafinal

Next up, 14 of our club’s juniors were in action this weekend as they travelled for the area Megafinals of the National Championships. There were several winning performances for Hebden Bridge with Kyle Sharpe winning the boys U10, Hephzi Leatherbarrow taking the girls U11 title and Leona Sharpe coming joint 1st in the girls U13. John Kerrane has written a full report and listed all results on an excellent day out in Sheffield. For details see the “Juniors” page.

Team Knockout Underway

John Kerrane reports on Hebden Bridge ‘B’s opening fixture in the summer team knockout competition.

On Monday evening, Hebden Bridge ‘B’ opened the Calderdale League 2012 Summer Team Knock-Out Competition with an away match against Todmorden ‘B’. It was an ironic pairing, as Todmorden ‘B’ had just been promoted to the Calderdale League first division, passing Hebden Bridge ‘B’ on the way down from the first division to the second.

The handicap system left the Hebden Bridge ‘B’ players short of time on all boards, none more so than Neil Bamford on board 5, who had only ten minutes to play his game against Bill Joyce. He was soon in trouble, but fought his way out to an early win. He was soon joined by John Kerrane on board 4, whose opponent, Tod B captain J. P. Ellis, chose a disastrous plan against the Catalan opening, and lost quickly. With two wins already achieved, the pressure was off the senior players, and Hebden Bridge ‘B’ finally won with a score of 4½-½.”

The individual results were:

Todmorden ‘B’ vs. Hebden Bridge ‘B’
D. Milton ½ – ½ A. Leatherbarrow
T. Webster 0 — 1 M. Syrett
M. Huett 0 — 1 D. Sugden
J. P. Ellis 0 — 1 J. Kerrane
B. Joyce 0 — 1 N. Bamford
½ – 4½

Hebden Bridge ‘A’ are the defending champions in this competition and they begin their title defence with a re-run of last year’s final as they travel to Halifax ‘A’ on the 25th of June.

Thats all for now, below is a collection of games from the competitions mentioned in this post.

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