Results from last 3 weeks

Here are the latest results from the last 3 weeks of competitions at the Coventry Chess club.
In Week 1, Wesley Beeson and Dave Ireland were joint winners, in week 2, Wesley and Dave Filer were joint winners and in week 3, Dave Ireland won the tournament. It was blitz on all 3 weeks, either 5 or 10 minute chess depending on the number of entries.
Last Tuesday it was 5 minute all play all, which worked out well, as there were a large number of people up the club.

New Season

Well at last! The new 2011/12 season officially starts on Tuesday August 30th.

I will be collecting membership fees on that evening, so if all players could attend even if you do not wish to stay for the whole evening.

Although you could always take part in one of Dave Ireland's mini-tournaments! which have proved to be very popular!

Membership Fees are as follows:

Adult       £18.00
Under 18 £16.00

Massey Ferguson Social club member £8.00  (Due in January)
Concession .50p for over 65

UPDATES
1. New website is now starting to take shape so please have a look around.

STAY IN TOUCH! I have also put on a facility whereby you can receive any update to this website. On the top right hand corner of the site you will see "follow by email" just enter your email address in that box and every time there is an update you will receive an email with the new information.

2. New Grades have been received and have been posted under Tables& Grades

3. New Digital Clocks have been received and will be trialled for the first season by the A team.

Do you think you could improve your Coventry grade?

A thought occured to me the other day ( occasionally this happens !) Why not give the upcoming chess season a bit more spice. I've spoken to various players from different clubs and the general impression I get is that they feel the Coventry chess league has been dwindling in recent years. From our club's point of view, we've had a lot of new players join recently, which is very encouraging. Hopefully this is a reflection on the league's potential as well.
Back to my idea, and it's based on the player in our club whose Coventry grade increases by the most between now and next season, with prizes !! The amount of prizes is up to us !!
Basically, anyone that wants to enter pays an entry fee before the season starts, and everyone will pay the same amount, how much that is is up to you all. Now there's probably about 40 players in our club with a Coventry grade, if 40 people want to participate, then they pay into the pot. If this was even as little as £1 each, ( and bear in mind this is for a season ), that's enough to buy, for example, one of the strongest PC chess programs as a prize for the most improved player in our club. So the winner could win the latest version of Shredder, Junior, Hiarcs, Fritz or world computer champion Rybka, whichever they preferred.
That's just if participants put in a pound each, but as it would be for a whole season, players might want to put in a fiver, a tenner or even £20 each, providing everyone was happy with it, and were all willing to chip in the same amount. Think about it, £10 x 40 people, for example, gets enough money in the pot to have real nice prizes for the 3 or 4 most improved players of the season. The first prize in this instance could even be lessons from a master player, either in person or online, or tickets to see a major event, plus expenses paid !!
The league used to, and maybe still does, award a trophy to the league's most improved player. This is nice to win, but I don't know if it's even still awarded anymore, as the annual prizegiving has now been abandoned. So why not renew the idea for our club members ?
I think it's a nice idea which would create a lot of enthusiam and motivation to obtain good results during the season.
I think to make it a fair reflection on the overall season, players should have to play at least 10 league games to qualify for prizes. After all, if one player happened to get, say, 5 fortunate results in 5 games, they might abandon the rest of the season as a tactic to achieve a probably over inflated grade, and also to attempt to bank a prize having only played a part season.. This is not what their teams would want, as they would effectively lose that player for the rest of the season , and it would not be good for the league overall. However, a 10 games minimum rule would stop this potential tactic and mean all participants would have to play their fair share in the league.
So let me know what you all think, either when we're next at the club, or by posting comments.
I welcome views from other players and clubs in the league, or even if you don't play in the Coventry league ! Alternatively, I can be contacted at davidireland2010@hotmail.co.uk or irasputin@hotmail.co.uk
See you soon !

5 minute chess on 26th July

Hi. Another good turnout at the Massey Ferguson club on Tuesday 26th July saw 13 of the regulars play an all play all 5 minute tournament. The entrants included the junior brothers, Simon and Jacob; two more juniors, also brothers, Martin and Lucas, their dad Maric, Paul Williams, club newcomer Carl Stephens, Howard, Bava, Wesley, Dave Howlin, Dave Filer and myself, Dave Ireland.
It turned out to be a close run finish, with less than 2 points separating myself, Bava and Wesley.
The top scoring junior was Martin, who finished on 6 points, and our new player, Carl, had a fair tournament and looks like he should do well in his debut season for the club. Paul was unlucky in some of his games, losing a few on time rather than on the board. Playing blitz chess can take a bit of getting used to, although the internet does provide the chance to do just that, with many chess servers and websites now in operation.

The top 3 scorers ( out of a possible 12 points ), were :

Dave Ireland 11,
Wesley Beeson 10+1/2,
Bava 9+1/2.

Quick Play Chess on 19th July

A ten minute per game tournament was held on the 19th July with 16 entrants. There was a big turnout at the club which was encouraging, with 20-25 people there. It was nice to see Maric, Michael and Lucas back, as well as the other juniors, Simon and Jacob, along with their mum, Henrietta. Yves, who has recently joined, also played. Additinally, another club newcomer, Carl Stephens, did well, finishing in a four way tie for second place.
Here are the full results after six completed rounds:

Dave Ireland 5+1/2, Howard Jones 3,
Dave Filer 4, Dave Howlin 3,
Carl Stephens 4, Jacob Junior 3,
Paul Sweatman 4, Perry Blunden 2,
Wesley Beesley 4, Yves Andre 2
Maric 3+1/2, John loughnane 1+1/2,
Simon Weaver 3, Martin 1+1/2,
Lucas 3, Simon Junior 1

Pictures from Doubles Tournament

Here are a few pictures from the latest Doubles Tournament run by Dave Ireland.

One of our Juniors

Pairs tournament / 12th July

Another pairs tournament was run on Tuesday, 12th July, which featured 5 pairings. It was the same format as an earlier competition which took place 2 weeks prior to this ( see blog re : 28th June ). Different pairings were used this time, but the idea was again to balance up the chances of each pairing if possible. Everyone enjoyed it, and some games had wild fluctuations, in particular, the ones involving me and Paul. I didn't think we were going to get a point going into our final match because we'd lost all our games up till then, but we did manage to win our very last game. Here are the results :

Howard Jones and Paul Sweatman 6,
John Loughnane and Wesley Beesley 6,
Simon Weaver and Yves Andre 4,
Bava S and Dave Howlin 3,
Dave Ireland and Paul Williams 1,

Congratulations to the top two pairings who shared the prize money, and it was good to see yet another club newcomer, Yves Andre, competing and doing well.