Press Report 13th December 2023
South Hams Chess Club has had a busy month.
This month's "internal game in focus" took place between Tony Tatum and Phil McConnell. Phil playing with the black pieces, had an out of character, rush of blood to his head. He made an unsound sacrifice at move 17. deliberately allowing his knight to be taken for a pawn. He did think there would be sufficient positional advance from the manoeuvre. The advantage was not enough, as we can easily see in retrospect using computer chess engines. Phil started to feel the pressure and was definitely loosing until Tony made a careless mis calculation and at a gain of a pawn, lost a rook on move 29. This took his position from a computer assed +4.5 points advantage, to a -1.5 deficit. Material loss accounts for 4 of the lost 6 points, but additionally, the position was now compromised. Phil went on to win. I don't think Phill will repeat his adventurous approach to games for a while.
On Sunday December 3rd, several South Hams players entered the 7th Plymouth Rapidplay. Six rounds of 25 minute games for the 38 players. Each round paired opponents with a similar win rate on the day. There were several prizes and copious tea and treats provided by the club and volunteers. The match was won by Plymouths' Neil Crickmore with 5½ points from a possible 6 and winning £120.
On Monday 4th December, South Hams played away to Totnes in the Torbay Chess League Division 1. The pre match banter from Totnes was, "...our top player is unavailable so we are to field a weak team, you've bound to beat us!". In reality, not only were their strongest players available and playing, they had an additional surprise for us. The surprise was in the shape of Keith Arkell! Keith is an English chess Grandmaster, turning professional in 1980. He won the English chess championship in 2008. In 2014 he was both European Senior Champion, and joint first in the World Senior Championship! Totnes went on to win 4:0! We'll done Totnes (he said through gritted teeth).
On Tuesday 5th December, our Torbay League Div 4 team were away against a new team in the leagues, Devonport grammar school. Unfortunately for the grammar school, their top player had to cancel, meaning that each of the remaining 3 grammar school players had to move up a board, and a last minute substitute had to be found for the fourth board. South hams had success at 4 games to 0. Our own Lance Howarth had his first win of the season, well done Lance.
On Thursday 7th December, our Division 1 team, still licking our wounds of the earlier encounter that week at Totnes, were away to Newton Abbot. Steve Levy won on board #1, turning down two offers of draws in the process. David Archer won on board #2. Phil McConnell on board 3, having initially driven to our home location in Kingsbridge, realised it was an away match, battled against the floods to arrive at the correct venue of Newton Abbot arriving a little late. Phil went on to win. Trevor Hurt on board #4, was out graded and out classed by Newton Abbots' Jack Wills. Jack has excellent recent form, having recently been a joint winner of the Torbay Congress intermediate section. Jack has also just finished 3rd in the Devon under 18 juniors competition.
To finish with, a little seasonal tale. I was recently strolling locally, when I saw two former chess word champions Gary Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov having a barbeque on the beach. I overheard them discussing their careers and triumphs over the years. That's right, it was a case of "Chess nuts boasting over an open fire".
As always, anyone wanting further information about the club check out our website at www.southhamschessclub.com or ring Phil McConnell on 01803834135. The club meets every Thursday at the Regal Club, Kingsbridge at 7pm. Feel free to pop in to say "hi" and see what we look like.