Torbay Chess League Division 2 Season 2014-15
South Hams Chess Club fields a team in Division 2 of the Torbay Chess League. This entails home and away matches against Newton Abbot, Teignmouth 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 540. 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 further information on Division 1, and our fixtures and results page for the team's fixtures for the current season.
League Table
Congratulations to Newton Abbot, deserved champions of Division 2 with a 100% record. South Hams finished in a satisfying second place. Here is the final league table.
| Division 2 | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts |
|---|
| Newton Abbot |
6 |
6 |
0 |
0 |
18½ |
5½ |
12 |
| South Hams |
6 |
3 |
0 |
3 |
9½ |
14½ |
6 |
| Teignmouth |
6 |
2 |
0 |
4 |
10 |
14 |
4 |
| Torquay Boys Grammar School |
6 |
1 |
0 |
5 |
10 |
14 |
2 |
Individual Player Statistics
Here are the final player statistics for South Hams players in Division 2 during the 2014-15 season:
| Name | Grade | ECF | P | W | D | L | Ave Op | Perf | % | Points |
|---|
| Levy, Steve | 140 | 134450L | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 154 | 179 | 75.0 | 3.0 |
| Russell, Dennis | 112 | 214868H | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 110 | 160 | 100.0 | 1.0 |
| Peach, Cliff | 110 | 116851E | 5 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 123 | 133 | 60.0 | 3.0 |
| Greenhalgh, Roy | 97 | 134641G | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 120 | 120 | 50.0 | 1.0 |
| Wilkinson, Ben | 129 | 162703L | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 132 | 116 | 33.3 | 1.0 |
| Fowler, James | 105 | 277497F | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 137 | 87 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| McConnell, Phil | 102 | 285386D | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 137 | 87 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Belli, John | 100 | 300901E | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 117 | 67 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Ashby, Ken | 83 | 181837F | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 82 | 57 | 25.0 | 0.5 |
| Best, Barclay | 90 | 233494L | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 82 | 32 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Drake, Derek | 0 | 299675D | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 34 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
Overall Team Statistics
| Matches Played: | 6 |
| Matches Won: | 3 |
| Matches Drawn: | 0 |
| Matches Lost: | 3 |
| Match Points: | 6 |
| Percentage: | 50 |
| Average South Hams Team Grade: | 426.3 |
| Average Opponents Team Grade: | 477.3 |
TCL Division 2: Newton Abbot v South Hams 11 Dec 2014
Match Report
Author: Cliff Peach
Date: 12 Dec 2014
On Board 1, Cliff managed (yet another draw). His opponent was a up by a passed pawn in the end game, but Cliff somehow managed to bottle the game up (in the way that only Cliff knows how), and a draw was agreed. A great result for Cliff.
On Board 2, Phil's opponent was simply more accurate and Phil was down in material from move 12 onwards. It eventually came to an end game, with Phil's opponent having 4 pawns against Phll's 3 - which was comfortably enough for White to force the win.
On Board 3, Roy resigned when his opponent queened a pawn with both clocks running down - in fact his opponent had only two minutes left, so it was close. Subsequent analysis shows Roy could have forced a draw by not allowing his opponent to exchange off queens - which was what led to the won pawn ending.
On Board 4, Barclay was cross with himself for not playing as accurately as he felt he should have done. We all have games like that!
Overall, 3½ - ½ sounds like a big defeat , which it was. But when it is considered that Newton Abbot outgraded us by 503 to 399, we certainly weren't disgraced on the night.
As Phil says on paper it's a big defeat but the reality was we were a fraction off getting a 2-2 draw, talking to Roy on the way home, he said, he messed up the ending turning a draw into defeat, Nathan Mills said this to me at the Newton Club after the game as well, with Roy on the board next to Barclay, Roy thought Barclay had the better of the game throughout but somehow Barclay lost , just a case of a bad day at the office , we all have those, sitting on the board next to Phil, I think he summed up his game pretty accurately, when it got to the pawn end game it looked difficult for Phil, good game to watch though, my game I felt comfortable , didn't even get into time trouble for a change, knowing Andrew from when he was a member of the South Hams Club, I knew not to try anything clever. From a team point of view I thought we did well, no quick games, we are certainly getting a solid group of players throughout the club.
TCL Division 2: South Hams v Torquay Boys Grammar School 15 Jan 2015
Match Report
Author: Phil McConnell
Date: 5 Mar 2015
A warm welcome to Steve Levy on his return to Chess after a gap of some 10 years! With a previous grade of 178, he came with quite a reputation - which was vindicated on the night with a very nice winning central attack against Black's exposed King.
On Board 2, Cliff fought out another of his "Cliff draws".
Boards 3 and 4 both produced unexpected results right at the end. On Board 4, Barclay fought hard to get himself a Rook up, but then somehow managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by blundering his rook in a way which resulted in a back-rank mate the following move. So, with Russell a Rook down on Board 3, it was looking like a 2½ - 1½ defeat - but Russell managed to conjure up a neat mating attack when all looked lost to win the game and the match.
So it was a narrow win for South Hams in the end, leaving us having played 2, won1, and lost 1 in Division 2.
| Bd |
South Hams |
Grade |
Res |
Torquay Boys Grammar School |
Grade |
PGN |
| 1 |
|
|
1-0 |
|
|
View |
| 2 |
|
|
½-½ |
|
|
Submit |
| 3 |
|
|
1-0 |
|
|
Submit |
| 4 |
|
|
0-1 |
|
|
Submit |
TCL Division 2: Teignmouth v South Hams 24 Feb 2015
Match Report
Author: Phil McConnell
Date: 25 Feb 2015
Outgraded by over 50 points, South Hams Division 2 team achieved another excellent result. On board 3, Cliff was first to finish, gaining a half point from a game that never looked to be anything other than drawn.
On top board Steven Levy sealed a further half point against Bill Ingham in another closely fought game.
Under the cosh from the opening Roy Greenhalgh emerged into a virtually lost endgame. His opponent however, catastrophically misjudged the fact that Roy could stop his a-pawn from queening after an exchange of rooks and left Roy an easy win in the resulting aftermath.
Last to finish was Ben on board 2, who once again had a game that neither he nor his opponent could understand. Whilst gradually accruing a greater material advantage, Ben’s position never looked safe, as Charles Doidge had tactics available to the end.
TCL Division 2: South Hams v Teignmouth 5 Mar 2015
Match Report
Author: Cliff Peach
Date: 12 Mar 2015
South Hams fielded a relatively inexperienced team in order to spread around the opportunity to play Torbay League matches. This included John Belli, playing his first match for South Hams.
Outgraded by a massive margin - 518 points to 388, it is not surprising that South Hams went down to a heavy defeat. But it was good experience - and all four games were in fact pretty close.
The evening ended with nine people clustered round Board 1 - watching while "Steve the Magician" managed to turn round a deficit - he had a bishop, a rook and 5 pawns against two rooks and 5 pawns - into an advantage - a rook and a pawn against a rook. However with both players' clocks running down to around 2 minutes, Steve was unable to queen his pawn, and a draw was agreed.
An enjoyable evening.
TCL Division 2: Torquay Boys Grammar School v South Hams 17 Mar 2015
Match Report
Author: Cliff Peach
Date: 18 Mar 2015
South Hams Chess Club don't often out grade their opponents but this time they did on all 4 boards,they got off to a good start with Cliff Peach winning a pawn & Rook on moves 10 & 11 from then on with careful play the result was in no doubt, Steve Levy slowly piled the pressure on board one against Ramesh, who in the end sacrificed a bishop to unbalance the game but this tactic was not going to prevent Steve from winning the game a couple of moves later, so 2-0 up but the match was not in the bag just yet, Ben Wilkinson playing an attacking careful game was putting his bogey man on the chess board, J. Wray, under pressure through out the game but Jared found good moves to hold the game, then Ben made an unforced error getting his knight pinned and resigned immediately, that's the 3 rd game against Jared that Ben in good positions has lost, we all have those players for some reason we just can't get a result against how ever the game is going, the match now seemed to be heading for a 2-2 draw with Ken Ashby being two pawns down in the end game, Ken sacrificed his Knight to get rid of one of the pawns he then played well in a tight corner against bishop and pawn with his lone king to force the draw which gave the South Hams victory.
| Bd |
Torquay Boys Grammar School |
Grade |
Res |
South Hams |
Grade |
PGN |
| 1 |
|
|
0-1 |
|
|
Submit |
| 2 |
|
|
1-0 |
|
|
View |
| 3 |
|
|
0-1 |
|
|
Submit |
| 4 |
|
|
½-½ |
|
|
Submit |
TCL Division 2: South Hams v Newton Abbot 9 Apr 2015
Match Report
Author: Phil McConnell
Date: 25 Apr 2015
In their final Torbay Division Two match of the season, South Hams suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of Newton Abbot, by the repeat score line of their away encounter earlier in the season. On their top 3 boards they were outgraded by 25 points in each game, all 3 players gave a good account of themselves. The match got under way and fairly quickly South Hams went 1-0 down on board 4 when Derek Drake, playing his first game for the club as a late stand in, lost. then just as the tea interval arrived Cliff Peach was offered a draw in a game where both players were willing to exchange pieces, with two knights and 6 pawns each he accepted, Ben Wilkinson's game was next to finish, Paul Brooks with all his pieces active slowly built the pressure up with one of Ben's rooks on the h file and out of the game was just too much for Ben to hold his position already a pawn down, so now the match was lost, at this stage Phil McConnell's game was still in a complicated position, John Allen was building a strong centre with queen and rooks, then at this stage while watching another game, Phil resigned, not sure what the final position was for Phil to resign but overall the team was not disgraced, it could have been an entirely different result if Steven Levy had been available.
