6 October 2014 - Club Allegro

Dave Hewitt writes: The autumn allegro on Monday evening was well attended, with 16 players including the two juniors Andrew and Ewan - they both had to leave before the end but it was good to see them getting involved. Given that various regulars were absent there could well be scope for an event with 20 players in due course, and it's good to see the club busy.

For a while it looked as if Shivan was going to stroll to 5/5 (he beat me in a long game and then saw off Neil in nine moves en route to 3/3), but Robin uncorked a Q sac against him in r4 and was suddenly on 100% himself. The last round saw Robin lose to Neil and Shivan beat Graham, so it finished as a three-way tie between Neil (who was also joint-winner last time), Shivan (making his debut in the event) and Robin, who had somehow contrived never to win any of the 18 previous allegros. Tony finished fourth with 3.5/5, while Robert T played well and made an excellent start - a draw with Graham and a win against Steve - before finishing on 2/5. Craig had his best result thus far, 3/5, including a curious r3 encounter with Gordon where both players ended up with not much time but Gordon had been the beneficiary of a two-minute bonus for an illegal move earlier, except that this had been remembered rather than actually added (don't tell anyone at FIDE, otherwise we'll be banned). At least with Craig's flag being the one to fall this meant that there wasn't any need to solve the puzzle of what to do if the person with spare unadded time actually ran out of the regular stuff first. (Problems relating to digital clocks, no.263...)

Time control: 15 minutes each for all moves

	Name	Grade	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Place
1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16	Shivan Murdochy   Graham Anderson   Neil Irving   Steve Smith   Robin Hayles   Dave Hewitt   Tony Pitson   Gordon Allcock   David Brodie   Robert Togneri   Mick Bloor   Craig Manson   Paulo Ferreira   David Little   Andrew Richardson   Ewan Lennox	1907   1610   1603   1583   1522   1502   1425   1376   1332   1197   1189   1134   u/g   u/g   u/g   u/g	1 W 9   ½ B 10   1 W 11   0 B 12   1 W 13   1 B 14   1 W 15   1 B 16   0 B 1   ½ W 2   0 B 3   1 W 4   0 B 5   0 W 6   0 B 7   0 W 8	2 B 6   1½ W 12   2 B 7   0 W 10   2 B 8   1 W 1   1 W 3   1 W 5   1 W 14   1½ B 4   1 W 15   1 B 2   1 W 16   0 B 9   0 B 11   0 B 13	3 W 3   1½ B 5   2 B 1   1 bye   3 W 2   2 B 10   2 B 11   2 B 12   2 B 13   1½ W 6   1 W 7   1 W 8   1 W 9   1 B 15   0 W 13   -	3 B 5   2½ W 11   3 W 8   2 W 13   4 W 1   2½ W 7   2½ B 6   2 B 3   2½ W 10   2 B 9   1 B 2   2 B 14   1 B 4   1 W 12   1 bye   -	4 W 2   2½ B 1   4 W 5   3 B 11   4 B 3   3 B 8   3½ W 9   2½ W 6   2½ B 7   2 W 12   1 W 4   3 B 10   1 W 14   2 B 13   -   -	=1   =8   =1   =5   =1   =5   4   =8   =8   =11   =13   =5   =13   =11   =13   16

Thanks to Neil for providing his third round match against Shivan below, with analysis.

Murdochy - Irving

19 May 2014 - Club Allegro

Dave Hewitt writes: The penultimate night of the season saw the spring allegro being played - the 18th in the series - and 12 players took part. Congratulations to John and Neil who shared first place with 4/5 - both were unbeaten and they drew with each other (but not a grandmaster draw) in r5. It was Neil's first win - always good to see a new name on the roll of honour (there have now been 11 different winners or joint-winners) - and John's fifth, leaving him just one win behind Steve in overall terms.

Tony claimed the other place on the podium - an excellent result given that he started with a loss - and he won an interesting QvsRR game against Steve in r5 when a win for the latter would have seen him finish joint-first. It was good to see young James getting his first proper tournament outing - always a bit daunting, and even though the three games he played all ended in defeat it will have been good practice and will hopefully be just the start of a long competitive career.

Time control: 15 minutes each for all moves

	Name	Grade	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Place
1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12	Bill Cook   John Blake   Graham Anderson   Neil Irving   Tony Pitson   Steve Smith   Dave Hewitt   Robert Togneri   David Brodie   Mick Bloor   Craig Manson   James Warwick	1684   1657   1593   1588   1581   1575   1502   1278   1276   1130   1071   u/g	1 W 7   1 B 8   1 W 9   1 B 10   0 W 11   1 B 12   0 B 1   0 W 2   0 B 3   0 W 4   1 B 5   0 W 6	1 B 4   1½ W 6   2 B 11   2 W 1   ½ B 9   1½ B 2   0 W 10   1 B 12   ½ W 5   1 B 7   1 W 3   0 W 8	1 W 2   2½ B 1   2 W 4   3 B 3   1½ W 10   2½ W 11   1 W 12   2 W 9   ½ B 8   1 B 5   1 B 6   0 B 7	2 B 10   3½ W 3   2 B 2   3½ W 6   2½ W 8   3 B 4   1½ B 11   2 B 5   1½ Bye   1 W 1   1½ W 7   0 -	2½ W 3   4 B 4   2½ B 1   4 W 2   3½ B 6   3 W 5   2½ W 9   3 W 11   1½ B 7   2 Bye   1½ B 8   0 -	=6   =1   =6   =1   3   =4   =6   =4   =10   9   =10   12

20 January 2014 - Club Allegro

Dave Hewitt writes: Congratulations to Steve for winning the club allegro last Monday - his sixth win or joint-win in the 17 events held thus far (since 2005), which takes him two clear of the next most frequent winner (Graham). By the end of r3 this edition was a shakeup between Steve, Graham and me in terms of who was going to win it. I was clear leader after r3 but was then well beaten by Steve, who held his nerve to win a tricky ending against Robert L in r5 was I was squeezing past Graham to finish second.

As ever there was an entertaining mix of tight margins and sudden turnarounds. Robert L - who surely did better than anyone in relative grading terms - scored 2½/5 but also came very close to getting draws in his games against Graham and Steve (and possibly a win against Graham - a pawn on h7 just needed to be pushed one more square and the result would have been different). The final-round game against Steve was possibly the tightest of the lot - it was heading for a technical drawn ending as the clocks ticked down, but when Steve had just 25 secs left Robert moved into a check and the resulting two-minute bonus gave Steve enough time to work out how to win.

Steve also had a close shave in r3 against Gordon - with very little time left he was just one move away from mate but forgot to press his clock. Gordon very sportingly pointed this out to him. My own r3 game was also exciting and included probably the biggest swindle of the night - I was losing in about 20 different ways to Neil and close to resigning before he played something odd and allowed a two-move mate that I certainly didn't deserve.

Overall there were 12 players, and everyone won at least one game - always good to see. The next club allegro will probably be on Mon 28 April, although as ever with late-season stuff there might be a bit of date-juggling to accommodate postponed matches etc.

Time control: 15 minutes each for all moves

	Name	Grade	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Place
1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12	Bill Cook   Graham Anderson   Neil Irving   Tony Pitson   Steve Smith   Dave Hewitt   Gordon Allcock   Robert Togneri   David Brodie   Robert Leckie   Mick Bloor   Craig Manson	1684   1593   1588   1581   1575   1502   1406   1278   1276   1224   1130   1071	1 W 7   1 B 8   1 W 9   ½ B 10   1 W 11   1 B 12   0 B 1   0 W 2   0 B 3   ½ W 4   0 B 5   0 W 6	1 B 6   1½ W 5   2 B 4   ½ W 3   1½ B 2   2 W 1   1 W 12   0 B 11   0 W 10   1½ B 9   1 W 8   0 B 7	2 W 11   2½ B 10   2 W 6   1 B 8   2½ W 7   3 B 3   1 B 5   ½ W 4   0 B 12   1½ W 2   1 B 1   1 W 9	2 B 2   3½ W 1   2 B 10   2 W 12   3½ B 6   3 W 5   1 W 11   ½ B 9   1 W 8   2½ W 3   2 B 7   1 B 4	3 W 4   3½ B 6   3 B 11   2 B 1   4½ W 10   4 W 2   1 B 9   1½ W 12   2 W 7   2½ B 5   2 W 3   1 B 8	=4   3   =4   =7   1   2   11   10   =7   6   =7   12

29 April 2013 - Club Allegro

The latest - the sixteenth - in the series of club allegros proved to be a competitive affair, as ever. There were 13 entrants - the highest since the May 2010 edition - and the early pace-setter was Gordon. He was the clear leader after two rounds. There was a spate of draws (five in all, including three in the first round - no one had more than one draw, however), and this made for a tight race. The pack gradually reeled in the early leader, and in the end the top five graders occupied the top five places. In r5 Graham played John, both on 3½/4 and with no one on 3/4, so it was effectively a playoff. Graham won, to take the title for the first time in a couple of years, while John ended up in a share of second along with Neil, Bill and me. Further down the rankings, both Roberts had good nights relative to their gradings

Time control: 15 minutes each for all moves

	Name	Grade	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Place
1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13	Neil Irving   John Blake   Bill Cook   Graham Anderson   Dave Hewitt   Martyn Roe   Steve Smith   Gordon Allcock   Robert Togneri   David Brodie   Jonathan Blake   Mick Bloor   Robert Leckie	1659   1639   1575   1565   1523   1520   1516   1398   1324   1300   1234   1123   1053	0 W 8   ½ B 9   ½ W 10   1 B 11   1 W 12   ½ B 13   1 Bye   1 B 1   ½ B 2   ½ B 3   0 W 4   0 B 5   ½ B 6	1 B 12   1½ W 13   ½ B 6   1½ W 7   1 B 8   1½ W 3   1½ B 4   2 W 5   1½ W 4   ½ W 9   1 Bye   0 W 1   ½ B 2	2 W 11   2½ B 6   1½ W 13   2½ B 9   2 W 10   1½ W 2   2½ W 8   2 B 7   1½ W 4   ½ B 5   1 B 1   1 Bye   ½ B 3	2½ B 5   3½ W 7   2½ B 11   3½ W 8   2½ W 1   2½ B 9   2½ B 2   2 B 4   1½ W 6   1½ Bye   1 W 3   1 B 13   1½ W 12	3½ W 6   3½ B 4   3½ B 3   4½ W 2   3½ B 7   2½ B 1   2½ W 5   2 W 8   2½ Bye   1½ W 13   1 B 12   2 W 11   2½ B 10	=2   =2   =2   1   =2   =6   =6   =10   =6   12   13   =10   =6

22 October 2012 - Club Allegro

Congratulations to Steve Smith, winner of the Autumn Allegro. This is the fifth time Steve has come first or first equal, more than anybody else.

Time control: 15 minutes each for all moves

	Name	Grade	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Place
1	John Blake	1639	1 W 6	1½ B 4	2½ W 10	3 B 2	4 W 8	2nd
2	Bill Cook	1575	1 B 7	1½ W 3	2½ B 5	3 W 1	3 W 4	3rd=
3	Dave Hewitt	1523	1W 8	1½B 2	1½ W 4	1½ B 6	2 B 7	7th
4	Steve Smith	1516	1 B 9	1½ W 1	2½ B 3	3½ W 5	4½ B 2	1st
5	Robin Hayles	1459	1 W 10	2 B 6	2 W 2	2 B 4	3 W 9	3rd=
6	Gordon Allcock	1398	0 B 1	0 W 5	1 B 9	2 W 3	3 W 2	3rd=
7	Robert Togneri	1324	0 W 2	0 B 10	0 W 8	0 B 9	½ W 3	10th
8	David Brodie	1300	0 B 3	1 W 9	2 B 7	3 W 10	3 B 1	3rd=
9	Mick Bloor	1123	0 W 4	0 B 8	0 W 6	1 W 7	1 B 5	8th=
10	Robert Leckie	1053	0 B 5	1 W 7	1 B 1	1 B 8	1 W 6	8th=