Wednesday 28 June 2017

Tournament next Monday

There is a tournament at the club next Monday, 8.30pm start, for Coventry Chess club members.
£1000 in prize money.

Wednesday 7 June 2017

AGM & Summer Cup Presentation

The AGM was held on  June 6th along with the Presentation of the Summer Cup

Topics discussed:

The committee has a new look with two resignations last night and four new appointments

Teams for next Season - there will be 6 teams next Season

Paul Lam gave us an update on the Coventry Academy and informed us they will be entering three new teams into the League.

After the AGM we then had light refreshments

The Summer Cup trophys were also presented to Dave Ireland, Ed Goodwin and Stan Whitmore

The club will be open for friendlies during the Summer Months

Thursday 1 June 2017

Summer Cup - Round 6 Final Results

The final matches of the Summer Cup were held on the 30th May and with the Winner/Runner Up and U120 Trophy all still wide open for a number of players there was plenty to play for. Plus of course a lot of players had their own personal target, for example to get 3 points or remain unbeaten throughout the Tournament, or finish in the top ten.

For the Summer Cup Dave Ireland(Black) played Mike Donnelly(White) and the match ended up a draw with Dave under a lot of pressure for most of the game. Mike Donnelly did say in analysis after the game there was a win for himself however as he had only 7 minutes on the clock to Daves 20 minutes this was probably not long enough to have found the win in the time he had left.

Ed Goodwin beat Nigel Morris which meant he tied with Dave Ireland on 5 points - having got out my slide rule, calculator and the most powerful computer money can buy I crunched the numbers and did a count back on both their previous games and the final result is : Dave Ireland came out the Winner with Ed Good win as Runner Up - it was very close - only half a point difference between them.

For the  Gordon Cornell Trophy again any number of players could have won this, however Stan Whitmore is the overall winner on 3.5 points - again I had to use my slide rule, calculator and Deep Blue to work out the winner as he tied with John Conway on 3.5 points.


Round Up of the Competition:

Mike Donnelly secured third place with a draw against Dave Ireland.

Mike Johnson remained unbeaten throughout the Tournament with 4 draws, 1 win.

Paul Sweatman had a remarkable competition only loosing in the first round to Dave Ireland and then securing 4 draws and a win against mainly opponents who outgraded him.

Clive Blackburn also had an excellent competition again only loosing in the first round and then had four draws and a win.

As well as winning the U120 Stan Whitmore finished 5th overall in the competition.

Dave Filer was challenging all along for a top spot and only lost to Ed Goodwin in the fouth round. Dave finished fourth in the competition - an excellent result

Pete Smith finished with three points only loosing to Mike Donnelly. One win and four draws.

And that brings the competition to a close, so Congratulations to Dave Ireland, Ed Goodwin and Stan Whitmore and the trophies have been sent to the engravers and hopefully will be ready for presentation at the AGM next week.

I would just like to Thank all players for taking part and making the competition a success and I hope everyone enjoyed the Competition.

Match results from Round 6 (30th May)

D. Ireland .5 .5 M.Donnelly
E.Goodwin 1 0 N.Morris
Bava 0 1 D.Filer
S.Whitmore .5 .5 J.Conway
H.Jones .5 .5 M.Johnson
P.Sweatman .5 .5 J.Harris
P.Smith .5 .5 C.Blackburn
R.Watson 1 0 J.Loughnane
D.Adams 0 1 A.Franklin
W.Beeston .5 .5 I.Evans
T.White 0 1 G.Cornell



Total Scores after 6 rounds.

D. Ireland       5 - Winner
E.Goodwin     5 - Runner Up

M.Donnelly    4.5
D.Filer           4
S.Whitmore   3.5  - UI20 Winner 
J.Conway       3.5
P.Sweatman  3
Bava             3
N.Morris         3 
M.Johnson     3
P.Smith          3
C.Blackburn    3
R.Watson        2.5
J.Harris        2.5
G.Cornell      2.5
J.Loughnane  2
I.Evans         2
A.Franklin      2
D.Adams      1.5
W.Beeston    1.5
T.White         .5
M..Houldershaw 1
N.Critchley   0
W.Ingram     0
S.Weaver    2

Wednesday 24 May 2017

Summer Cup - Round 5


Round 5 produced some more exciting games especially Dave Ireland against Ed Goodwin. The game ended as a draw however Ed only had 2 seconds left on his clock ! (Dave had just over a minute) This is where a digital clock really does come into its own as everyone could clearly see exactly how long each player had left. Ed played well especially as he had the black pieces.

Mike Donnelly and Bava also had a very close game, Mike informed me he sacrificed a piece but just couldnt quite break down Bava's defences and so they both agreed a draw.
Stan Whitmore continued his excellent form and yet again despite being outgraded, he got a draw against Dave Filer

Paul Sweatman continues to have a good Tournament and despite Pete Smith having two pawns on the seventh rank Paul managed to fight back and force a draw. Paul has only lost to Dave Ireland so far in the Tournament.

Clive Blackburn is also having a good run, his only loss was in the first round to Mike Donnelly and he won last night against Gordon Cornell.
Mike Johnson has not yet lost a match (although he did miss one week due to holidays) and won his game last night.
David Adams and Ian Evans played a very good game, coming down to a difficult end game but finally agreeing a draw.

What does all of last night's results mean for the trophy's ?

Clearly, Dave Ireland is in pole position to win the Summer Cup however if he looses next week to Mike Donnelly then he could let in Ed Goodwin or of course Mike Donnelly.

Runners up spot is even less clear  with at least 6 other players in with a chance of finishing second

The Gordon Cornell trophy is also wide open with Stan Whitmore and John Conway on 3 points both leading at the moment. However there are a number of players on 2.5 points - Clive Blackburn, Pete Smith, Paul Sweatman who are all still in real contention - All depends on next weeks results.

I thought it was interesting that the first game to finish was well past 9pm, showing that all players were fairly evenly matched. I think this shows how a Swiss Tournament should work - that eventually all players end up playing other players of roughly equal playing strength and gives everyone a fair chance to play an opponent of equal strength.


 So, final round next week and then we have our AGM the following week where we hope as many club members will join us in the election of new officers. Hopefully everyone has received a letter from Dave Filer regarding the AGM, if not let me know and I can let you have a copy (I have uploaded a copy in the Facebook group for those members on Facebook)



Match results from Round 5 (23rd May)

D.Ireland  .5 .5 E.Goodwin
M.Donnelly .5 .5 Bava
S.Whitmore .5 .5 D.Filer
N.Morris 1 0 J.Harris
P.Smith .5 .5 P.Sweatman
J.Loughnane 1 0 T.White
H.Jones 1 0 W.Beeston
C.Blackburn 1 0 G.Cornell
M.Johnson 1 0 R.Watson
D.Adams .5 .5 I.Evans
J.Conway 1 0 A.Franklin


Total Scores after 5 rounds.
D. Ireland    4.5
E.Goodwin   4
M.Donnelly  4
Bava           3
D.Filer        3 
J.Harris       2
S.Whitmore  3
N.Morris       3 
P.Smith          2.5
J.Conway       3
C.Blackburn    2.5 
R.Watson        1.5
M..Houldershaw 1
M.Johnson    2.5
J.Loughnane  2
P.Sweatman  2.5
D.Adams      1.5
W.Beeston    1
A.Franklin      .5
T.White         .5
G.Cornell     1.5
I.Evans         1.5
N.Critchley   0
W.Ingram     0
S.Weaver    2


Picture from last night :




Final Round Tuesday 31st May 7.30pm



Wednesday 17 May 2017

Summer Cup - Round 4


The fourth round produced some very good games. Dave Ireland won again so he is clearly the player to  beat at the moment. He is closely followed by Ed Goodwin and Mike Donnelly both on 3.5 points.
Stan Whitmore continued his good form and won against Howard Jones. Paul Sweatman also won against David Adams and is now another challenger for the Gordon Cornell cup.
Roy Watson and Clive Blackburn had a marathon game with over 80 moves! but they agreed a draw with only a King and pawn for Clive and a King and two pawns for Roy.

Here are the results from last night (16th may)

D.Ireland 1 0 Bava
E.Goodwin 1 0 D.Filer
M.Donnelly 1 0 S.Harris
H.Jones   0 1 S.Whitmore
J.Conway .5 .5 N.Morris
P.Smith  .5 .5 M.Johnson
R.Watson .5 .5 C.Blackburn
P.Sweatman 1 0 D.Adams
J.Loughanane 1 0 W.Beeston(Default)
G.Cornell 1 0 A.Franklin
I.Evans 1 0 T.White


Total Scores after 4 rounds.
D. Ireland    4
E.Goodwin  3.5
M.Donnelly 3.5
Bava          2.5
D.Filer        2.5
H.Jones     1.5
J.Harris       2
S.Whitmore 2.5
N.Morris       2 
P.Smith        2
J.Conway    2
C.Blackburn 1.5 
R.Watson     1.5
M..Houldershaw 1
M.Johnson    1.5
J.Loughnane 2
P.Sweatman  2
D.Adams      1
W.Beeston    1
A.Franklin      .5
T.White         .5
G.Cornell     1.5
I.Evans         1
N.Critchley  0
W.Ingram     0
S.Weaver    2

Next Round May 23rd 7.30pm. Round 5. 


Wednesday 10 May 2017

Summer Cup - Round 3



We are now already half-way through the Summer Cup and a clear leader in the Tournament has emerged - Dave Ireland. Although he is closely followed by Ed Goodwin,Mike Donnelly, Bava and Dave Filer on 2.5 points.

Last night produced some very close matches.Particular Ed Goodwin against Mike Donnelly. This match went down to the last few seconds on both players clocks before they agreed a draw, in a very difficult end game for both players.

Bava also won again with less then 30 seconds left on his clock against Howard Jones. Stan Whitmore continued his excellent run against higher graded players by obtaining a draw against Nigel Morris.

The challenge for the Gordon Cornell trophy is led by three players Stan Whitmore,Pete Smith and John Conway - all on 1.5 points.

There is still all to play for as we enter the second half of the Tournament

Here is a list of all the results from the 9th May

D.Ireland     1  0     J.Harris
E.Goodwin .5 .5 M.J. Donnelly
Bava            1 0  H.Jones
D.Filer         1 0  R.Watson
N.Morris     .5 .5 S.Whitmore
P.Smith       .5 .5 J.Conway
W.Beeston  .5 .5 C.Blackburn
P.Sweatman .5 .5 J.Loughnane
G.Cornell     0  1  D.Adams
T.White        .5 .5 A.Franklin
S.Weaver     1   0 I.Evans

D. Ireland    3
E.Goodwin  2.5
M.Donnelly 2.5
Bava          2.5
D.Filer        2.5
H.Jones     1.5
J.Harris       2
S.Whitmore  1.5
N.Morris       1.5 
P.Smith        1.5
J.Conway    1.5
C.Blackburn 1 
R.Watson     1
M..Houldershaw 1
M.Johnson    1
J.Loughnane 1
P.Sweatman  1
D.Adams      1
W.Beeston    1
A.Franklin      .5
T.White         .5
G.Cornell     .5
I.Evans         0
N.Critchley  0
W.Ingram     0
S.Weaver    2


As usual the next round is next Tuesday :- Round 4 Tuesday 16th May 7.30pm (We may have to wait for Zumba to finish again - depending on the progress of the Building work) 

Wednesday 3 May 2017

Summer Cup - Round 2


Another good set of Summer cup games in Round 2 with one or two surprise results. Paul Sweatman earning a draw with Clive Blackburn and Gordon Cornel getting a draw against Wesley Beeston are two results of particular note.

Althogh John Loughnane lost to John Harris he put in a great performance and analysis afterwards showed he could easily have won by playing a pawn one square forward.







Next week will see the seeded players start to play each other, which should produce some exciting games.

Results from 2nd May

D.Ireland 1 0 J.Conway
E.Goodwin 1 0 R.Watson
M.Donnelly 1 0 P.Smith
Bava .5 .5 M.Johnson
H.Jones .5 .5 D.Filer
J.Harris 1 0 J.Loughnane
D.Adams 0 1 S.Weaver
P.Sweatman .5 .5 C.Blackburn
N.Morris 1 0 A.Franklin
S.Whitmore 1 0 T.White
W.Beeston .5 .5 G.Cornell


D. Ireland    2
E.Goodwin  2
M.Donnelly 2
Bava          1.5
H.Jones       1.5
J.Harris       2
D.Filer        1.5
R.Watson    1
J.Conway    1
M..Houldershaw 1
P.Smith        1
M.Johnson    1
J.Loughnane .5
P.Sweatman  .5
A.Franklin    0
C.Blackburn .5
S.Whitmore  1
I.Evans         0
D.Adams      0
G.Cornell     .5
N.Critchley  0
W.Beeston   .5
W.Ingram    0
S.Weaver   1

Round 3 Tuesday 9th May.7.30pm - Look forward to seeing everyone next week.