Torbay Chess League Division 3, Season 2013-2014
South Hams Chess Club fielded a team in Division 3 of the Torbay Chess League. This entailed home and away matches against Newton Abbot, Plymouth, Teignmouth, Torquay and Torquay Boys' Gammar School. Games played in the TDCL are submitted to the ECF grading database.
In this division, teams consist of four players, and the maximum team grade is Under 480. The rate of play is 35 moves in 75 minutes, followed by a 15 minute Quickplay finish. The away team has white on the odd-numbered boards.
Please visit the Torbay Chess League web page for the latest team standings, and our fixtures and results page for the team's fixtures for the 2013-2014 season.
Here are the player statistics for South Hams players in Division 3 over the 2013-14 season:
| Name | Grade | ECF | P | W | D | L | Ave Op | Perf | % | Points |
|---|
| Wilkinson, Ben | 123 | 162703L | 7 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 117 | 132 | 64.3 | 4.5 |
| Russell, Dennis | 112 | 214868H | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 121 | 121 | 50.0 | 1.0 |
| Fowler, James | 99 | 277497F | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 93 | 118 | 75.0 | 1.5 |
| Peach, Cliff | 106 | 116851E | 8 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 105 | 117 | 62.5 | 5.0 |
| Greenhalgh, Roy | 118 | 134641G | 10 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 101 | 109 | 55.0 | 5.5 |
| McConnell, Phil | 107 | 285386D | 7 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 90 | 90 | 50.0 | 3.5 |
| Ashby, Ken | 83 | 181837F | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 87 | 37 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Collins, Tony | 85 | 173334F | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
The team's detailed match record for the 2013-14 season is as follows.
Overall Team Statistics
| Matches Played: | 10 |
| Matches Won: | 4 |
| Matches Drawn: | 4 |
| Matches Lost: | 2 |
| Match Points: | 12 |
| Percentage: | 60 |
| Average South Hams Team Grade: | 437.7 |
| Average Opponents Team Grade: | 389.5 |
TCL Division 3: Teignmouth v South Hams 8 Oct 2013
Match Report
Author: Ben Wilkinson
Date: 22 Oct 2013
The first match of South Hams 2013 division 3 campaign saw a hard fought away match at Teignmouth. Much was expected of the clubs new signing from St Albans, Phil McConnell, who had been immediately promoted to board 3. Unfortunately an uncharacteristic middle game blunder led to an early demise, and a score of 1-0 to Teignmouth.
Roy Greenhalgh managed to even the score after the donation of a piece from his opponent.
Teignmouth’s Bill Frost applied early pressure in his game against Cliff Peach, leading to the inevitable time trouble – a feature of his game that Cliff has been promising to eradicate for the last fifteen years! Although he made the time control, the resulting position was always going to be hard to recover, and the match score turned to 2-1 in the favour of the home team.
The final game of the match was the board one tussle between Norman Tidy and Ben Wilkinson. Bristling from his loss to Norman in the British Championships after reaching a clearly won position he tried very hard to repeat the feat. In a game with mistakes asunder, Norman finally turned down the chance of a certain draw to chase a victory in time trouble. With a ten minute time advantage Ben was able to claim a very lucky point, and in doing so tying the match 2-2.
Four very enjoyable games, and good start to the season.
TCL Division 3: South Hams v Newton Abbot 10 Oct 2013
Match Report
Author: Phil McConnell
Date: 14 Nov 2013
A surprise defeat for Roy Greenhalgh made life difficult for South Hams.
Phil McConnell brought the match level with a win on Board 4, and it was then left to Ben Wilkinson and Cliff Peach to battle it out on Boards 1 and 2. Two tense games both ended drawn, so the match ended 2-2.
TCL Division 3: Torquay Boys Grammar School v South Hams 17 Oct 2013
Match Report
Author: Phil McConnell
Date: 20 Oct 2013
On Board 1, Ben was in a reasonably comfortable position at the tea break, and a pawn up. Immediately on resuming he made an uncharacteristic blunder (what did they put in his tea?), resulting in the loss of two pieces in three moves.
On Board 2, Roy somehow found a way to go a piece down only to win it back, and then he finished his opponent off with a strong central attack on an unprotected King.
On Board 3, Phil’s young opponent played well until move 15 when he allowed a knight to be pinned and hence captured by Phil’s d-pawn. This pawn was definitely man-of-the-match, as it advanced to the 7th rank where the threat of Queening tied Black in defensive knots.
This meant that on Board 4 Tony needed a draw to force a team win. This game went to a tense end-game, with both players having a rook and 4 pawns. The advantage swung backwards and forwards several times before his opponent succeeded in removing the last of Tony’s pieces, with a pawn left that couldn’t be prevented from Queening.
This means that the record of the Division 3 team so far this season is Played 3, Drawn 3.
| Bd |
Torquay Boys Grammar School |
Grade |
Res |
South Hams |
Grade |
PGN |
| 1 |
|
|
1-0 |
|
|
Submit |
| 2 |
|
|
0-1 |
|
|
Submit |
| 3 |
|
|
0-1 |
|
|
View |
| 4 |
|
|
1-0 |
|
|
Submit |
TCL Division 3: Plymouth v South Hams 20 Nov 2013
Match Report
Author: Ben Wilkinson
Date: 11 Jan 2014
in a fixture that South Hams have not won since …… well, for a long time!, once again, even after reverting to slightly underhand tactics, and tinkering with the board order, there was still no luck.
The first result in saw Phil McConnell succumb to a strong Tony Tatam attack on board 4.
Roy Greenhalgh was unable to convert a promising position against Rob on board 1, and South Hams slipped to 0-2.
The fight back was started by Ben Wilkinson with a board 2 victory, which left Cliff Peach the chance to salvage the draw in his game against John Dean.
A pawn up, and things looked promising, unfortunately accurate defence, and Cliff's ever present time trouble meant that a draw was all that he could manage, leaving the final result Plymouth 2.5 - South Hams 1.5.
TCL Division 3: South Hams v Teignmouth 9 Jan 2014
Match Report
Author: Ben Wilkinson
Date: 11 Jan 2014
Entertaining a strong Teignmouth division 3 team, South Hams players turned in an excellent result.
On board 4, Dennis took an early point with an unstoppable passed pawn proving too strong for Bill Tindall.
After analysis, Roy proved that his draw against Ray Chubb was fortuitous to say the least, however over the board Ray was unable to find the winning combination in a complicated middle game.
Cliff Peach managed to break his loosing streak against strong opposition, in the guise of Norman Tidy. Although dropping a pawn in the middle game, tenacious defence left Cliff hanging on to the half point. Analysis after the game was split as to wether this was a fair result or not.
The final board to finish was board 1, with Ben Wilkinson finally converting an early oversight by his opponent. However, the game could have resulted in a far simpler win if he hadn't have missed the chance to win a sec on piece.
Overall, a very good result for South Hams.
TCL Division 3: Torquay v South Hams 15 Jan 2014
Match Report
Author: Phil McConnell
Date: 16 Feb 2014
At first glance, this looks an easy win for South Hams, but things could have turned out differently.
Although we took an early lead with a win for Ben Wilkinson on board one, the three other boards were finely balanced.
James Fowler took the better half point in his draw against Richard Ballantyne being short on time, and playing a very tricky rook and pawn endgame.
In the end, Torquay imploded, with Simon Howard failing to hold a fairly level position, and Tom Maloney picking up the wrong piece, and giving Cliff a far easier victory than the position warranted.
The end result however, puts South Hams at the top of Division 3.
TCL Division 3: South Hams v Torquay Boys Grammar School 13 Feb 2014
TCL Division 3: Newton Abbot v South Hams 27 Feb 2014
Match Report
Author: Phil McConnell
Date: 28 Feb 2014
On Board 1, Cliff's opponent lost a Rook relatively early on. Cliff had to little difficulty thereafter in making his material superiority tell.
Board 2 was closely fought with accuracy by both players. A draw was agreed when both players had a rook and three pawns on the board.
On Board 3 Phil horribly mis-calculated a Bishop sacrifice early on, and his opponent easily exchanged pieces off the board until his superiority was overwhelming.
On Board 4, James won a Rook but then had to weather a strong counter-attack on his King before his material superiority prevailed. "Not good for my blood pressure", he said afterwards.
So, a narrow 2½ - 1½ win maintains the team's good recent form (undefeated in the last 4 matches).
TCL Division 3: South Hams v Plymouth 6 Mar 2014
TCL Division 3: South Hams v Torquay 17 Apr 2014
