Congratulations to Julie

Congratulations to Julie van Kemenade on winning the Welsh Ladies' Championship at the 2016 Welsh Chess Championships. Here she is with her trophy. There is a report on the tournament on the Welsh Chess Union site, from which all games can be downloaded. Rudy has annotated one of her games, a fighting draw with a higher-graded player, below.

Julie van Kemenade - Joe Fathallah ½-½

Blacker Wednesday

Having already called a recent post Black Wednesday, I am at a loss what to call my description of Aberystwyth A's match against Haverfordwest B at the Emlyn Cafe, Tanygroes on Wednesday 16th March. It sometimes happens in chess that a player will lose to an opponent graded 3-400 points lower: it adds an element of unpredictability that helps make the game interesting. But it doesn't usually happen three times in the same evening. On top board, Rudy van Kemenade played a very sharp game against Martin Jones, and both players got a bit lost in the complications. Mating combinations were missed, before White eventualy emerged with an extra rook. Adam Robinson was the one Aber player who came out on top, keeping his cool as Scott Hammett plunged into more complications that never looked soundly based with his Latvian Gambit. Tony Geraghty tried to sacrifice his way out of trouble against Robbie Coles, and was soon a rook down without compensation. On fourth board, Jamie Friel dropped a piece against Ray Greenwood, but had a chance to draw the king-and-pawn ending, which would have made Aber's defeat a little less devastating. 3-1 to Haverfordwest B.

Martin Jones - Rudy van Kemenade 1-0

Adam Robinson - Scott Hammett 1-0

Robbie Coles - Tony Geraghty 1-0

Jamie Friel - Ray Greenwood 0-1

Hungarian Fried Liver

Aberystwyth B played a depleted Carmarthen side at the Emlyn Cafe, Tanygroes on Monday 14th March, and secured a good result. On top board, Julie van Kemenade looked for complications against Gerry Heap, and only got herself into difficulties - it's well known that the best approach against Gerry is to try to bore him to death, but that isn't Julie's natural game. Tony Geraghty got a good active position against Richard Thomas's Queen's Pawn Game, winning the exchange and retaining control until White shortened the game with a blunder. Sam Holman played vigorously against the higher-rated Robert Narayan-Taylor's Hungarian Defence, using a version of the Fried Liver Attack that was even more effective than the original recipe to secure a quick win.With the default on Board 4, the match finished 3-1 to Aberystwyth.

Julie van Kemenade - Gerry Heap 0-1

Richard Thomas - Tony Geraghty 0-1

Sam Holman - Robert Narayan-Taylor 1-0

Two more games from the Club Championship:

Rudy van Kemenade - Ian Finlay 1-0

Sam Holman - Joel Greenwood ½-½

Easter Arrangements

There will be no club night on Easter Tuesday, 29th March. Otherwise the club will meet as normal over the holiday period. I hope to update the blog properly in a day or two - currently recovering from a basty bout of flu.