Club Championship Report

Seven people took part in the Club Championship at the weekend, which allowed us to play a six-round Swiss with every player except Rudy receiving one full-point bye. The results were as follows:

1. Rudy Van Kemenade 6
2. Matthew Francis 5
3. Julie Van Kemenade 4
4. Ian Finlay 3
5. John Basterfield 2.5
6. Georgina Gray 2
7. Tony Geraghty 1.5

Congratulations to Rudy, whose domination of Aber chess was confirmed. Congratulations also to Georgina, the lowest-graded player, whose win over Tony was selected by Rudy as the best game of the tournament. Her game against Rudy himself was, he says, the most stubborn defence, and featured a delightful square of four passed pawns on the d and e files. I should have beaten Rudy in round 2 - on the other hand I should have lost to nearly everyone else, especially Georgina, who had a nasty attack against me in the first round and missed a hard-to-see mating line and a more straightforward win of material. But as Snoopy once said, we're not playing should'ves. The eighteen games played produced only one draw.

Many thanks to Tony for organizing it. He turned up on Saturday with several gallons of water for making tea and coffee, only to discover there was no kettle. All part of the learning curve. We might also wear thicker coats next time as even with two fires on the St David's Club can get cold. But there will definitely be a next time, as it was a thoroughly enjoyable event. Tony is now planning an all-play-all rapidplay tournament to be held on club nights.

I am expecting to get my Internet connection restored next week, so will post the tournament games and the missing games from earlier matches over Christmas.

Club Championship

The Club Championship will be held this weekend, 12th and 13th December at the St David's Club. It will be a six-round Swiss, with the first round beginning at 9.30 on Saturday. If you want to play and haven't yet contacted Tony, please do so:

2-2

At last we have broken the 2.5-1.5 pattern, with a 2-2 draw against Cardigan A. Results as follows:

Mark Talbot - Howard Williams 0.5-0.5
Iolo Jones - Rudy van Kemenade 0.5-0.5
Julie van Kemenade - Tony Haigh 0-1
Awne Osinga - Matthew Francis 0-1

Another good result for Mark, who was promoted to Board 1 to give him a go at the league's strongest player and has improved his grading still more. I am very happy with my win, which comes after a mini-slump with a defeat last week and three recent unimpressive draws against lower-graded players. I just managed to clinch a rook and pawn ending with a couple of minutes left on the clock. We are now tied with Cardigan A on match score, but they are well ahead of us on game score. All the same it's an excellent result for Aber, and shows how the addition of players like Mark (and also David Ferguson who won last week) has strengthened the team.

2.5 - 1.5

There must be a way of writing a fraction on Blogger, but until I find what it is I will have to stick to .5. Ironic really, as I am getting a reputation as the club's draw specialist. Since my last update, we have played two more matches, against Cardigan B on 18 November and Carmarthen on 25 November, and both of them, like our first two matches, ended in a 2.5-1.5 win for Aber. Can we keep up the same result all season? I can't include the games at the moment as my home modem is broken so I don't have access to ChessBase. Here, though, are the results:

Aberystwyth vs Cardigan B 18/11/09

Caerwyn Owen - Rudy van Kemenade 0-1
Julie van Kemenade - Howard Leah 1-0
Roland Spencer - Matthew Francis 0.5-0.5
Tony Geraghty - Awne Osinga 0-1

Carmarthen vs Aberystwyth 25/11/09

Rudy van Kemenade - Gerry Heap 0.5-0.5
Huw Morcom - Mark Talbot 0-1
Matthew Francis - David Buttell 0-1
Paul Orton - David Ferguson 0-1

A good debut for Mark Talbot on Board 2. I'm off to play in the match against Cardigan A now. If we win that 2.5 - 1.5 it will be a miracle.