Snodland Chess Club

Harvey Cup Match v Medway 10/02/12

2012-02-11T11:34:00.000Z

Last night we travelled to Medway for our sixth of eight fixtures in this season's competituon.We came away with a 3-3 draw, which keeps us at the top of the table with 4 wins and 2 draws, but had to endure a dramatic final game win from Rob to maintain our unbeaten record. The evening had started off excellently....despite the predictions of the need to wear multiple layers the venue was in fact very warm ! Charlie got us off to a good start with a solid draw on board 6, and then George exceeded expectations (mine, not his) by drawing with Andy Mayhew (190) on board 1. In fact he was probably winning !Nick and I then drew what appeared to be unremarkable games, leaving Pete and Rob playing. Unfortunately Pete never really got going in his game, although his opponent almost overlooked the winning move, leaving Rob playing and needing to win. This did not initially seem like a major problem as he had a pawn advantage and a big attack. However when pieces were traded the ending became problematic, with maybe a draw the most likely outcome (didn't someone once say 'all rook and pawn endings are drawn' ?). Anyway Rob gambled by creating a passed pawn and effectively ignoring his opponent's threats which by this stage were real......and it worked, his pawn becoming unstoppable ! That makes it 5/5 for Rob in this year's competition.We now face 2 fixtures in March that will decide where we finish, a top spot and a home sem-final being the aim............Report by David Fowler

Intro Match

2012-01-30T20:31:00.003Z

We went to Medway on Friday night and got a hard earned 2-2 draw,I feel this was a great result and keeps us unbeaten in the competition. We have our last Home Match on Thursday 23 Feb.

Report by Nick Allen.

2011 Prizewinners

2012-01-26T15:57:00.005Z

Pete Hickey, (right) C league winner.
George Hollands, (right) Challenge Cup winner.

David Lettington (right) and Bob Fenn, joint B league winners.

Richard Mallery (right) being presented with the "Most improved player Trophy" by Bob Fenn (Chairman)

Harvey Cup match 19/01/2012

2012-01-20T18:49:00.003Z

Our latest match in this year's Harvey Cup (last night v Weald of Kent) resulted in a 4-2 victory, thereby maintaining our strong results in the competition.
David N and David L gave strong performances to record convincing wins, while the other full point was achieved by Pete who gave checkmate almost out of the blue !
Neil's opponent, although a piece for 2 pawns up, was happy to settle for a draw while George couldn't make his various advantages count for more than a half point. Hugh almost crashed through with a fierce kingside attack, but was left material down from which he was unable to recover.
With 3 matches to go we are giving ourselves every chance of reaching the semi-finals with a record so far of 4.5 /5
Snodland Weald of Kent

D Nichols 163 1-0 James Hart-Dyke 145

G Hollands 149 ½-½ Mike Matthews 128

D Lettington 134 1-0 D Warrick 118

Pete Hickey 115 1-0 Clive Oram 118

H Broadbent 110 0-1 Mark Horner 92

Neil Miners 77 ½-½ Elliot Oram 88

4-2

Report by David Fowler

Kent Messenger report

2012-01-16T11:13:00.002Z

The Kent Chess season has now passed its midway point and clubs are now entering the "business end" of the year. Snodland have made a solid start, suffering only one defeat in their first nine matches. Wins against Medway and Hastings in the Intro Cup, three wins in three matches in the Harvey Cup and strong performances in the Tom Fuller Cup have put Snodland within reach of the semi finals in all three cup competitions.

After making a promising start to the season, Snodland are hoping to once again travel to Dartford to take part in the Kent Chess Association’s Finals Day. This event is held in early May at the prestigious Mick Jagger Centre when the finals of all seven Kent Chess competitions are contested. If Snodland's good form continues, hopes are high that 2012 will see the Club winning a Kent Chess trophy.

The Snodland Chess Club meets every Thursday from 7.30pm at the Cricket pavilion Snodland.

Report by Neil Miners

Harvey Cup result 11/01/12

2012-01-14T20:33:00.000Z

On Thursday we played our 4th match in this competition, at home to Medway, having won the first three.
Despite our overall performance being somewhat mixed we achieved (escaped with ?) a draw. It is often said that the mark of a good team is to get a reult when not playing well !

Having been 2-0 down (George and Nick on the top boards) Rob won convicingly, and Hugh got the full point after turning down a draw offer when a pawn down ! That left David L and Pete battling to get something from their games, from unpromising positions. Eventually Pete drew an endgame having entered it a pawn down and David created enough threats with his King to persuade his opponent that a draw should be accepted.
Snodland CC Medway CC

George Hollands 149 0-1 Andrew Mayhew 186

Nick Allen 121 0-1 Tyrone Jefferies 116

David Lettington 134 ½-½ Alan Evans 97

Rob Thompson 118 1-0 Dave Langford 95

Pete Hickey 115 ½-½ Barry Sawyer 93

Hugh Broadbent 110 1-0 Barry Hampton 88

3-3

Report by David Fowler

Intro Match 02/12/11

2011-12-04T09:40:00.004Z

Our Intro Team played a match away against Medway B on Friday night. This was a very close match that ended in a 2-2 draw, another great win from Richard and a very solid game from Neil when he was 2 pawns up but unfortunately the opposite colour bishops left him having to settle for a draw,Pete had an epic battle with Doug Smith which could have gone either way but an in form Doug came out on top,I was outplayed by Tyrone but luckily found some last minute threats to score a draw.This was a great effort from all 4 boards and keeps us unbeaten in the Intro cup.

Team Captain Nick Allen.

Tyrone Jefferies 116 1/2 - 1/2 Nick Allen 121

Doug Smith 113 1 - 0 Peter Hickey 115

Alan Evans 97 1/2 - 1/2 Neil Miners 77

John Hanman 45 0 - 1 Richard Mallery 45

Intro Team

2011-11-27T20:43:00.001Z

The Snodland Intro Team continues to set the pace with a second win,this time against Medway A.Thanks to David for being Captain,

A great team effort well done to everyone, with special mention to Neil for his great win against a strong opponent,

Harvey Cup match 19/11/11

2011-11-20T08:39:00.001Z

Today saw the Harvey Cup team maintain their winning start to the season with a 3rd successive victory, this time away to Hastings.

The final result was 4-2.

Nick was 1st to finish with a draw (opposite coloured bishops ending). Pete and Rob won very convincingly against similarly graded opponents to put us in a strong position. I accepted a draw in an unclear position while Neil had a comfortable position for most of the game but ran out of steam against an experienced opponent. George was always winning and duly picked up the final point. All in all a very satisfactory team performance.

We now wait until the New Year for our next fixture when the 10 players who have represented the Club in the matches so far will strive to continue our good form...

Club Championship Round Two Results

2011-10-01T09:56:00.005Z

Len Hammond Memorial match

2011-09-28T13:17:00.004Z

From left to right, Ian Watson (Maidstone) seen receiving the shield from Bob Fenn (Chairman of Snodland Chess Club).
Maidstone triumphed in this year's Len Hammond Memorial Match, winning 3-2. The annual match, contested between Snodland and Maidstone in honour of Len's contribution to both clubs, was held at the cricket pavilion on 25 August.

After suffering heavy defeats in 2009 and 2010, the 2011 match was a much closer affair. Despite being heavily out-graded on all of the five boards, George, David Lettington, Pete and Neil all came away with draws, but Maidstone clinched the match with a win on board 1, where Matt Bunn lost to Ian Watson.

Len was a longstanding member of both Snodland and Maidstone chess clubs. He joined Snodland shortly after we formed in 2005 and was a solid supporter of the club in those early days.

KCCA Finals Day - Dartford

2011-05-16T18:36:00.000Z

Snodland - 2011 Winners of Stevenson Cup

Snodland add their name to the long list of winners of the
Stevenson Cup in the Kent League Championships by
beating Phoenix from Gravesend 3.5 - 2.5 in the final.

Excellent wins by Zibby Koncki and Matt Bunn, combined
with draws by Ben Spink, Chris Marshall, and David Fowler
secured Snodlands win in their second year playing in the
Stevenson League.

In an incredible run from mid March 2011 Snodland won
their last five matches to lift the trophy. By early February
2011 the team had played four matches, winning 1, drawing
two, and losing one. The road to Dartford and glory was as follows:

14 Oct 10   Rainham       Home     Won 4.5 - 1.5
04 Nov 10 Sevenoaks   Home      Draw   3-3
14 Dec 10   Folkestone Home      Draw   3-3
09 Feb 11   Tonbridge   Away     Lost  4.5 - 1.5
15 Mar 11   Sitt'bourne Home      Won 4.5 - 1.5
17 Mar 11   Maidstone Home      Won 3.5 - 2.5
26 Mar 11   Hastings     Away      Won 1.5 - 4.5
17 Apr 11   Lewisham   Away      Won    1- 5   (S-F)
15 May 11 Phoenix                      Won  3.5-2.5 (F)

Players who appeared for the team during the course of
the 2010/11 campaign were:

Ben Spink
Zibby Koncki
Matt Bunn
Chris Marshall
David Fowler
Tyrone Jefferies
Rob Thompson
Pete Turner
David Lettington
David Nicholls
James Hart-Dyke
Pete Hickey

Thanks to all in playing their part in this historical
win for the Club.

Critical and amusing moments of the season.

The Sittingbourne match where each team travelled
to each other's venue on 3rd February 2011.
Match was later postponed to 15 March 2011.

Tyrone (C) travelling to Snodland by bus after 6.00pm.
reorganizing the team on his mobile for the home match
against Sittingbourne that evening due to train delays
preventing Matt from reaching Snodland in time.
Tyrone managed to get Pete H to play at last minute.
Good job it was a home match and Pete lives so close.
The team then went on to punish Sittingbourne.

David F's dramatic draw against Maidstone to clinch
a very close match.

The away match against Hastings was sweet revenge
due to the losses incurred against Hastings in the Lewis Cup
paving the way for a semi-final match.

The semi-final away match against Lewisham was by far
the best performance of the season up to the final. The
team beating the previously unbeaten Lewisham club 5-1
to book their place in the Dartford Finals.
***

KCCA Finals Day 15 May 2011 Update

2011-05-06T20:23:00.000Z

Our Stevenson Team will play
Phoenix in next week-ends Final.

Stevenson Cup Semi-Final

2011-04-17T19:22:00.000Z

Snodland triumph in South London, beating Lewisham 5-1 and will
be at Kent Finals Day on Sunday 15th May 2011.

The match score sheet confirms an overwhelming performance

Lewisham 3 Snodland 2

162 Peter Wood 0-1 Ben Spink 191
160 Syd Jacob 0-1 Zibby Koncki 170
156 Rod Wigbout 0-1 Matt Bunn 160
146 Chris Brown 0.5-0.5 Chris Marshall 148
144 Dave Helsby 0-1 David Fowler 136
137 Mike Wood 0.5-0.5 Tyrone Jefferies 117
1-5

An exciting Sicilian scrap...

2011-04-08T18:20:00.001Z

The game below was played in the B-League this week, an exciting affair with a nice finish.

Snodland Club Championship

2011-04-08T18:11:00.000Z

Below are the latest positions in the Snodland Club Championship 2010-11.

Snodland Most Improved Player Award

2011-04-08T18:01:00.001Z

The top five players in the running for Snodland's Most Improved Player Award are below.
The table is based on the difference between the average grading performance during the Club Championship and the players actual grade, taken in percentage terms.

Mid / East Kent Chess Leagues - Final positions

2011-04-08T17:52:00.002Z

Lewis Cup Maidstone 2 v Snodland 1 (played 30th March 2011)

2011-04-02T21:18:00.000Z

            Maidstone 2    v                    Snodland 1
184 Chris Howell        0.5 - 0.5 Ben Spink  (W)    191
169 David Munford    0.5 - 0.5 Zibby Koncki       170
162 David Heath          0 -   1   David Nicholls      165
162 John Allan             1 -   0   Chris Marshall      148
139 Robert Lane        0.5 - 0.5 David Fowler        136
133 George Hollands   1   - 0   David Lettington    132
                                   3.5-2.5

Snodland completed their final match in the Lewis Cup with a
disappointing third consecutive loss to Maidstone to finish fourth in their first
season playing in this league scoring an overall performance of W3; D1; L4.

Lewis Cup Final League Positions
                                                 P  W D L     GP   MP
Rainham 1                                 8   5   2 1     26      6
Hastings 1                                 8   5 0 3    25.5     5
Maidstone 2                              8  4   0 4      24       4
Snodland 1                               8  3   1 4    23.5    3.5
Tun Wells 1                              8 1 1 6    19.5    1.5

2010 / 2011 Results
20/10/10   Rainham     (A) W     2-4
15/11/10   T Wells      (A)  L 3.5 - 2.5
13/01/11   T Wells       (H) W 3.5 - 2.5
24/02/11   Rainham      (H) D     3 - 3
03/03/11   Maidstone   (H) W    3 - 2
11/03/11   Hastings      (H) L    2.5 - 3.5
18/03/11   Hastings     (A) L    3.5 - 2.5
30/03/11   Maidstone   (A) L    3.5- 2.5

Club Championship Results

2011-03-31T22:24:00.000Z

Results from tonight's games played

                           A League

148 Chris Marshall      0-1   George Hollands 133
99 Hugh Broadbent 0-1    Ben Spink           191

                           B League

117 Tyrone Jefferies    0.5-0.5 Bob Fenn        133
130 Robert Thompson    1-0    Nick Allen     118

Kent League Intro-Cup Semi-Final Snodland v Sidcup 9th April 2011

2011-03-29T19:13:00.000Z

Kent League Intro Cup

The first of the Club's semi-final matches in the
Kent Leagues will be played on Saturday 9th April
2011 at home against Sidcup starting at 2.30pm.

Your support for the team will be most welcome.

26 March 2011 Stevenson Cup Hastings 2 v Snodland 2

2011-03-26T21:51:00.000Z

Stevenson Cup Result

    Hastings 2                  v         Snodland 2

162 Paul Kelly        1-0       Ben Spink             191
149 Steve Blewitt   0-1       Zibby Koncki        170
139 Neil Ward       0-1       Chris Marshall       148
135 Mark Finch     0-1       James Hart-Dyke   145
124 Roy Webb    0.5-0.5   Tyrone Jefferies      117
98 Robert Smart 0-1        Rob Thompson      130
                             1.5-4.5

* Snodland White on odds

Intro Cup Result

             Hastings 5              v          Snodland 7

99   Steve Oakman     0-1            Nick Allen    118
e80 B Allum             0.5-0.5        B Stevens    e80
44   Harry Stephens    1-0            Jason Boyes 45
e40 L Steuart            0-1           William Patch 52
                               1.5-2.5

* Hastings White on odds

Stevenson Cup - Snodland storm into the semi-finals of the
Stevenson Cup with a superb win against Hastings. This win
makes it three in row for Snodland who finish strongly as runners
up to winners Folkestone in this division. The win books a semi-final
clash against the unbeaten Lewisham Club next month.

The Snodland Intro team finished their season with a fine win
against the Hastings fifth team.

Thursday 24 March 2011 Harvey Cup Snodland 4 v WOK 1

2011-03-25T22:32:00.000Z

148 Chris Marshall         1-0        James Hart-Dyke 145
132 David Lettington    0.5-0.5    Henry Cove          137
130 Robert Thompson 0.5-0.5   Mike Matthews     118
125 Matthew Gazes     0.5-0.5 David Warwick     114
117 Peter Hickey            0-1      Dominic Oram       111
85    Neil Miners              0-1      Clive Oram            107
                                     2.5-3.5

* Snodland playing White on odds

A disappointing result for the Snodland fourth team in their
final home match of the season. The only winner being
Chris Marshall maintaining a three match unbeaten run
playing for the Club.

Lewis Cup - Hastings 1 v Snodland 1

2011-03-23T19:33:00.000Z

The Lewis Cup Snodland team lost narrowly to Hastings on Sunday 20 March 2011 and will be
unable to qualify for a semi-final place, the teams were:

Hastings 1                                  Snodland 1
192 Richard Almond   1-0      Ben Spink                   191
181 Robert Elliston   0.5-0.5   Steve Giddins           198
164 Ray Brooks          0-1      Zibby Koncki             170
162 Paul Kelly           0-1       Matt Bunn                  160
155 Jim Wheeler        1-0      David Fowler              136
109 John Driver         1-0      Pete Hickey (117)       120
                                3.5-2.5

Another great win!

2011-03-18T18:26:00.000Z

Snodland managed to score another win and put themselves into contention in the Stevenson Cup. A 3.5-2.5 win over nearest rivals Maidstone put is into third place (only top two qualify for the final stage) with a game in hand of the team above us. If we win the final match, we are guaranteed to get a Semi-Final spot.

Two very nice wins from Ben Spink and Chris Marshall, combined with a short draw for Zibby Koncki and long, drawn out escape from David Fowler just gave Snodland the edge.

Excellent result - Snodland vs Sittingbourne

2011-03-16T17:39:00.001Z

Surely Snodland's best result of the season thanks to two excellent results from David Fowler and Chris Marshall.

Snodland player challenges Nigel Short

2011-03-02T17:31:00.000Z

Snodland player George Hollands played Nigel Short in a simultaneous display at Coulsdon, things were going well for a long time..... But Nigel didn't get to become World Championship Challenger without being able to play pretty well. The game is below:

KCCA March League Tables

2011-03-01T18:00:00.000Z

Match result

2011-02-25T19:00:00.000Z

A very closely fought match was saved for Snodland by Zibby Koncki who scored a great win when the team was 3-2 down.

David Nicholls and Tyrone Jefferies stepped in as late replacements, for which we were very grateful. Although Snodland were slightly outgraded overall, some of the games has quite large grading discrepancies, but this only told on one of the boards.

Women's World Championship

2010-12-21T12:16:00.000Z

Sadly, our club president, Jovanka Houska was knocked out of the Women's World Championship in round 2 by the top seed Humpy Koneru, of India.

Jovanka, pictured playing Koneru below, played very assertively and was a great credit to herself and to English chess.

Matthew Bunn plays in FIDE Open

2010-12-21T12:05:00.000Z

Snodland's Matthew Bunn played in the FIDE Open that ran alongside the London Chess Classic, this was the toughest tournament that Matthew has ever played in and in round 1 he was paired against International Master Jack Rudd. Matt played very well and had a promising position, but hey, these masters know what they are doing and Matt eventually lost.

Matt, pictured above, scored wins against all of his lower-graded opponents but had some really tough opponents where the games were closely fought but the result didn't go the right way. Matt finished on 3.5/9 and it was an excellent learning experience and hopefully a springboard to greater success.

The London Chess Classic

2010-12-21T11:59:00.000Z

David Fowler and David Lettington both visited the London Chess Classic and were lucky enough to see the top 4 English players take on 4 of the best players in the world.

England's Luke McShane was the star performer, beating Magnus Carlsen, the world number 1, and not losing a single game in the entire tournament.

Former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik had a tough tournament, including a strange loss to the US number one Hikaru Nakamura.

The tournament was huge success and there were hundreds of spectators every day.

Two match results

2010-12-21T11:53:00.000Z

We've had a few match postponements due to the bad weather but still have these two match results to report:

Kent League tables

2010-12-03T20:21:00.000Z

The Kent League tables for the Mid/East Kent region (as of 01/12/10) are below:

Chess in the Snow

2010-12-02T22:50:00.000Z

12 inches of snow wasn't enough to stop us from playing chess this week! One of our members even walked 5 miles in the snow to play his club championship game (and he won, too!).

Pete Hickey and David Lettington enjoy a game in the snow.

Club President to play in Women's World Championship

2010-11-28T13:56:00.001Z

Snodland Chess Club's President, IM Jovanka Houska has qualified to play in the Women's World Championship.

Jovanka has been very supportive to Snodland Chess Club and has played simultaneous displays and given lectures, as well as judging our annual game of the year competition and playing in all of the Snodland Rapidplay tournaments.

Jovanka has been preparing for the tournament with GMs Stuart Conquest and Gawain Jones. She will be taking Stuart Conquest with her as her "second". In the first round Jovanka will be facing the Polish IM Iweta Rajlich. Jovanka has a good record against Rajlich and they have very similar Elo ratings. Rajlich's husband is the developer of Rybka, the strongest chess-playing programme in the world, so you can guarantee that she will be well prepared too. If Jovanka wins this first match, then she is likely to face the highest rated player in the tournament in round 2, Koneru Humpy, of India.

The tournament is a 64-player knockout, with just two games played in each round, except the final, which is over four games.

You can follow the games live on http://wwcc2010.tsf.org.tr/ and the first round will be played on Saturday 4th December.

Snodland 3 vs Maidstone 4 : 3.5-2.5

2010-11-28T13:39:00.000Z

As usual with matches between Snodland and our nearest rivals Maidstone, it was an extremely hard fought affair.

I can't really comment on what happened in most of the games as I was concentrating too much on trying not to lose to George Hollands, but James Hart-Dyke deserves a big round of applause for winning in his first competitive game for Snodland.

Pete Hickey got a very nice position against Douglas Smith and had a significant material advantage but wasn't quite able to make it tell after he lost a pawn whilst in time trouble.

Snodland 3 vs Folkestone 2: 4-2

2010-11-19T00:06:00.000Z

Snodland scored a very nice 4-2 win over Folkestone in the En Passant Cup.

First to finish was Tyrone Jefferies who outplayed his opponent to win inside 90 minutes.

Rob Thompson then held an endgame a pawn down to score a good draw and put Snodland on the way to victory.

Zibby Koncki then beat an extremely strong opponent with a nice tactic despite being very short of time.

David Lettington scored a win when his opponent made an inferior bishop move and then decided to try a sacrifice to get back into the game. However, solid play was the order of the day and David's material advantage told.

David Fowler then scored a solid draw and by now the match was clearly won with Snodland leading 4-1.

The last game to finish was Chris Marshall's. Chris played well in the opening, but was facing a very strong opponent who fought back and eventually overcame Chris' defensive forces.

Tunbridge Wells 1 vs Snodland 1: 3.5-2.5

2010-11-18T23:58:00.000Z

This was a disappointing result, as it appeared that we might have been able to hold the match at one point.

Steve Giddins scored a solid draw on baord 1 in his first game for the club. Although Steve had an advantage out of the opening, it wasn't enough to convert into a win.

Ben Spink scored a smooth win over his opponent on board 2 and at the same time made amends for a loss to the same opponent last year.

Zibby Koncki played well on board 3 and had an advantage in the opening but then ran short of time and his opponent caused complications that allowed him back into the game.

Peter Turner had a difficult game on board 4 and Richard Bedwell scored a nice win.

David Fowler won on time on board 5 when his opponent still had 9 moves to make before the time control and the position appeared fairly even.

David Lettington achieved a nice position on the black side of a Sicilian Defence but once pieces were swapped off his opponent showed superior endgame technique and won. This brought to an end an unbeaten run of 17 games for David.

Medway 4 vs Snodland 6: 2-2

2010-11-12T23:45:00.000Z

The match between Medway 4 and Snodland 6 was extremely close on all 4 boards. Richard Mallery played extremely well and gave Alan Evans a tough gam. Richard was at a material disadvantage for a long time but fought well and eventually won back his piece. However, Alan's superior pawn structure was decisive.

Neil Miners had a very difficult game against David Langford and fought on from a position that looked bad to a tough Queen and 4 pawns vs Queen and 3 pawns ending, but David's pawns were too strong.

Pete Hickey was involved in a complex tactical melee that saw Pete avoiding the several tactical landmines laid by Isaac Oluwole. Isaac's King was too exposed in the centre of the board and Pete capitalised.

The position below is the final position from David Lettington's game with Baron-Vahl Amos. David, with the black pieces, had built up pressure early on and had a significant advantage when Baron lost on time. The game is near to winning for black, but both players were so short of time that anything could have happened.

Snodland Club Championship

2010-11-12T16:43:00.000Z

The latest positions in the Snodland Club Championship qualifiyng groups are above. The top two players in each group get a place in the A-league, the next two get places in the B-league and the last two get places in the C-league. So far, Zibby Koncki, Hugh Broadbent, Ben Spink and Chris Marshall have earned places in the A-league.

Steve Giddins' BCM blog

2010-11-06T10:59:00.000Z

A link to Steve Giddins' BCM blog has been added to the links list below. Click on it to read the latest about Magnus Carlsen's withdrawal from the World Championship.

Snodland 2 vs Sevenoaks 1: 3-3

2010-11-06T10:37:00.003Z

Weald of Kent 2 vs Snodland 5: 2.5-1.5

2010-10-26T18:44:00.001Z

Club Championship latest

2010-10-26T17:25:00.003Z

The Snodland Club Championship is not only the strongest ever but also has more competitors than ever. The latest standings in the qualifying groups are below. Each group has two qualifying places for each of the A, B and C-leagues.

Group A is very close and the leading two players are yet to play each other.

In Group B, Chris Marshall is almost certain to qualify for the A-league and probably only needs a draw from his two remaining games to confirm this. The result between David Lettington and Peter Turner is likely to decide the other qualifying spot.

In Group C, Zibby has made an excellent start, as has Hugh Broadbent. Hugh has beaten two higher graded players and onr more good result could put him in the A-league.

In Group D, the game between Douglas Smith and Ben Spink this week is likely to have a big outcome on the top positions.

Rainham 1 vs Snodland 1: 2-4

2010-10-26T17:05:00.004Z

Snodland 1st team managed to win their first ever match in the Lewis Cup. The result was convincing 4-2 victory over a Rainham team that was slightly stronger in terms of grading points.

Snodland managed to score 3.5 from the first 4 games to finish and so the match was already secured as the top two boards fought on. Zibby Koncki was disappointed not to be able to win in Queen and pawn vs Queen ending, although he was very short of time and it was difficult to see a way to progress.

Ben Spink was the last game to finish in a very close game against Martin Taylor, the Kent Champion.

David Fowler and Peter Turner played very nice games to beat their opponents and Matthew Bunn managed to turn round a very bad position thanks to a nice tactic that his opponent missed.

Snodland player draws with Grandmaster

2010-10-17T16:00:00.004Z

Snodland player George Hollands achieved an extremely impressive draw with GM John Emms in a simultaneous display that took place yesterday.

You can play through the game below. After 32 Rxe4, white accepts a worse position but still with chances to create a complicated ending that may have winning chances. At this point, white can in fact allow his Queen to be captured and force a draw (32. h3 Nxf2 33. Re7+ Kc8 34. Re8+ Kc7 35. Re7+ with a draw by repetition) but presumably the Grandmaster wants to keep playing for the win. However, George has a sufficient material advantage at this point that he can hold the draw comfortably.

Snodland 2nd vs Rainham 2nd : 4.5-1.5

2010-10-15T07:48:00.003Z

Snodland scored their first win of the season, with a convincing victory over Rainham by the score of 4.5-1.5

Matt Bunn was the first player to score a point with an extremely impressive win against Tom Stonehouse's. Matt played a strong Caro-Kann defence and had a very nice finish with multiple threats around Tom's king. Matt was very modest about his quick win, saying "Oh, it was mostly theory!"

The next game to finish was team captain Tyrone Jefferies, who scored a win over Martin Reeve. Tyrone is in good form this season and is picking up lots of points.

Despite being ill, Zibby Koncki scored a nice victory over Andy Waters. It was Zibby's first competitive game for the club, so he is now the proud owner of a 100% victory rate. Long may it continue!

Chris Marshall converted the match into a victory with a draw against Paul Giddins in a complex rook and pawn endgame.

Rob Thompson brought his win drought to an end with and excellent victory over Rob Springett, who is an extremely tricky opponent. Rob T had a material advantage for a long time but Rob S defended doggedly and it was one of the last games to finish.

Ben Spink had a long game against Martin Taylor, the Kent Champion, but wasn't quite able to hold the rook and pawn endgame where Martin had very active rooks.

Well done to the team who gave Snodland their first victory of the season!

Snodland 4 vs Medway 1: 2-4

2010-10-08T16:23:00.002Z

Although Snodland lost this match, there was an excellent result on the top board from David Fowler who drew with Andrew Mayhew, who is graded 53 points higher. Statistically speaking, in a 100 game match, David would be expected to lose every game, so a draw is an excellent result. In footballing terms, it's like a League 2 club beating a Premiership side.

Although David Lettington managed a draw on baord 2 and Tyrone Jefferies scored a neat win on board 5, the rest of the team were not able to convert their grading advantages into wins.

Despite two losses, the teams remain in high spirits and we look forward to a win this coming Thursday!

Tunbridge Wells 2 vs Snodland 3: 4.5-1.5

2010-10-05T20:12:00.002Z

Snodland 3 had a slightly disappointing start to the season with a 4.5-1.5 loss to Tunbridge Wells 2, but we took heart that it was an extremely competitive match and many of the games could have gone either way.

Unusually, and not discovered by either of the players until after the game, both board 2 and board 4 for Snodland were playing on the black side of a Sicilian Najdorf in which white played 6.f3. However, Chris Marshall chose to play 6... e6, whilst David Lettington chose 6... e5 at which points the games took considerably different courses. The choice of top grandmasters is apparently 6... Qb6 when white plays 7.g4.

There was an excellent win with white for team captain David Fowler on board 3 in a very sharp line of the King's Gambit. Another win for the British U140 champion!

Snodland 7th vs Snodland 6th: 0.5-3.5

2010-09-23T21:05:00.002Z

Snodland 6th team again beat the Snodland 7th team, but this time by a bigger margin. The games all went as expected according to grade, except for the board 2 clash between Daryn Gilbert and Hugh Broadbent.

Daryn played extremely well to score a draw against hig higher graded opponent and in the process brought Hugh's nine game winning streak to an end.

Daryn was a pawn up for much of the game and even had winning chances, but Hugh defended well and managed to hold the draw.

Snodland 6th vs Snodland 7th: 3-1

2010-09-21T22:27:00.004Z

In the first competitive match of the season, Snodland 6th team managed to beat Snodland 7th team by the convincing score of 3-1. At one point it looked like the score might have been 4-0, but some strong endgame play from Daryn Gilbert enabled him to beat his much higher grade opponent.

Hugh Broadbent scored his 9th consecutive win at the club by outplaying John Simons.

The game between Charlie Palmer and William Patch was extremely hard fought, with William fighting hard in a rook ending a pawn down, but Charlie showed good technique to convert his advantage to a full point.

The diagram below is the final position in Jason Boyes vs Richard Mallery. Richard played well but let his initial opening advantage slip and Jason had a tremendous attack and bulit up a significant material advantage. Unfortunately Jason missed Richard's strong attack down the h-file and was checkmated.

Nigel Short vs Mike Wiltshire - play through the game

2010-09-11T18:50:00.002Z

Below is the game the Kent County Chess Association Chairman played against Nigel Short..... Mike played very well and I think that he will get his revenge next time!

Club Championship results - week 1

2010-09-09T23:11:00.007Z

There were lots of games played to kick off the Club Championship this week:

Group A
Steve Giddins (198) 1 vs 0 Jason Boyes (14)
Bob Fenn (133) 1 vs 0 John Simons (89)
Matt Gazes (125) 0.5 vs 0.5 Nick Allen (118)

Group B
David Lettington (132) 1 vs 0 Tyrone Jefferies (117)

Group C
Zibby Koncki (170) 1 vs 0 William Patch (52)
David Fowler (136) 0 vs 1 Hugh Broadbent (99)

Group D
Ben Spink (191) 1 vs 0 Richard Mallery (34)
George Hollands (133) 1 vs 0 Neil Miners (85)
Douglas Smith (126) 0.5 vs 0.5 John Brown (110)

Congratulations to Hugh Broadbent who not only beat a much higher graded player but has now won eight games in a row at the club.

The position shown above occurred in one of the games in this week's club championship.

Here, black played the innocent looking 1....Nc4, but white then plays 2. Be6! Ne3 3. Rxf7! Rxf7 4. Rxf7 Rb1+ 5. Rf1+ black resigns.

Dinner with Garry Kasparov

2010-09-09T16:34:00.003Z

Two members of Snodland Chess Club, David Lettington and Steve Giddins, were lucky enough to have dinner with Garry Kasparov yesterday ....... along with 200 other people at the Staunton Memorial Dinner at the historic Simpsons-in-the Strand.

The event was held to raise money for charity and also for Anatoly Karpov's bid to become President of FIDE, the world chess federation. There were many chess luminaries there and the Chairman of the Kent County Chess Association, Mike Wiltshire, was lucky enough to get to play against former World Championship challenger, Nigel Short (pictured above).

In addition to Karpov, Kasparov and Short, other top players in attendance were Michael Adams, Luke McShane, David Norwood, Raymond Keene, Nicholas Pert and Jonathan Speelman. The evening was organised by CJ de Mooi, of Eggheads fame, who is the President of the English Chess Federation.

2nd Len Hammond Memorial match

2010-08-27T17:30:00.004Z

Congratulations to Maidstone Chess Club for winning the Len Hammond Memorial match for the second year running.

It was a well deserved victory for Maidstone, who managed to win 5 out of the 8 games.

The Snodland players Matthew Bunn, Tyrone Jefferies and Hugh Broadbent all played extremely well to get draws against higher graded players.

A special mention also goes to Zibby Koncki who defended for a very long time before turning a cramped position into a strong attack which threatened to breakthrough. However, both Zibby and his opponent got into severe time trouble just as the game became extremely complicated and David Munford won a rook, forcing Zibby to resign.

The photo above shows Snodland Captain David Lettington presenting the trophy to Maidstone Captain Bob Fenn.

Snodland success at British Chess Championship

2010-08-26T13:14:00.003Z

Snodland player David Fowler (pictured) is the new British Chess Champion for players graded under 140. David scored 4.5/5 and achieved a grading performance of 162, which is 26 points above his new grade.

Congratulations go to David for his success, which is well deserved. David's experience in tournament play enabled him to win his final round game with a strong attack after a lot of manoeuvring in a tense middle game.

Another Snodland player, Matthew Bunn, also excelled himself and was the runner-up in the U160 section and the Afternoon Open. Matt scored 4/5 in both competitions, with respective grading performances of 171 and 198.

Ben Spink scored a creditable 5.5/11 in the extremely competitive Major Open, which features many internationally rated players.

Club Championship 2009-10 Final Positions

2010-08-17T17:40:00.002Z

The Club Championship 2009-10 finished with Bob Fenn as clear winner of the A-league and Hugh Broadbent as clear winner of the B-league.

There were some excellent games played this year, including a nice win from Doug Smith over the pre-tournament favourite Norman Blake.

The Most Improved Player was Pete Hickey who started the season with an estimated grade of 92 but had a tournament performance rating of 116.

Mayor's Presentation Evening

2010-06-24T16:43:00.003Z

After a busy and rewarding season for the club, the traditional Presentation Evening was held on the 10th June.

Deputy Mayor Cllr Brian Luker presented all the awards, and stayed on for the whole evening. David Lettington set the tone for the evening with the presentation of a game nominated for "Game of the Season", after which all the presentations were made.

Jason Boyes and Charlie Palmer both received Bronze level chess coaching certificates, and Jason and Charlie were also joined by Richard Mallory and William Patch in receiving awards for competing in the B-League competition. This season's B-League was very competitive, with John Simons and Neil Miners tying for runner up and each receiving Runner's Up certificates. Hugh Broadbent was the eventual winner of the B-League, and was presented with his trophy.

Ben Spink was unrivalled in quickplay events this year, and was presented with two trophies for winning both the Speed Chess and the Challenge Cup, with Matt Bunn and Peter Turner receiving Runner's Up awards for each of these awards respectively.

Jason Boyes received an award for his unique achievement of scoring 100 % against other clubs this year, while David Lettington received a certificate for the most points scored against other clubs in all competitions. Matt Gazes was the best-placed junior player, while Peter Hickey received the award for best grading performance in the club competition.

David Fowler, Tyrone Jeffries, Nick Allen and Matt Gazes received certificates for competing in the A-League. Peter Hickey and Doug Smith tied for third place in the A-League, with Norman Blake receiving the Runner's Up prize. Bob Fenn was the clear winner in the A-league - Bob was undefeated in all his A-League matches! The photo shows Bob receiving his award from Brian Luker.

Club Championship latest

2010-03-17T23:08:00.005Z

The Club Championship latest standings are as follows:

A-league

B-league

Exciting game ends in time trouble chaos

2010-03-17T20:49:00.004Z

Snodland were roundly beaten 3.5-0.5 by Weald of Kent chess club in the Tom Fuller competition. The one high point for Snodland was an exciting draw between David Lettington and Teddy Wickman in a game which could have gone either way as both players hit terrible time trouble.

Below there are some notes on the game by David Lettington.

1. e4 d5
The Scandinavian Defence, also known as the Centre Counter.
2. exd5 Nf6
The most usual move here is ...Qxd5 but Nf6 is becoming more common.
3. Nc3
I was giving away twenty grading points and was also unfamiliar with the opening. I guessed that d4 is the most common response but I didn't want to play into my opponents opening preparation and so I plumped for Nc3.
3. ... Nxd5
4. Nxd5 Qxd5
5. Qf3
This was the point behind Nc3. Now the black Queen can be challenged and it can't wreak the havoc that can occur if the Scandinavian is misplayed.
5. ... Qxf3
... Qe5+ is an alternative but it just allows white to develop another piece.
6. Nxf3
White has now only a tiny advantage (if any) but has minimised the stronger players chances of creating a quick attack.
6. ...Bf5
7. c3 e6
8. d4 Bd6
9. Bb5+ c6
Bb5+ is pretty pointless as it just encourages c6. Be2 might be a reasonable alternative but it looks pretty passive.
10. Be2 Nd7
11. 0-0 h5
White castles, but into a potential attack from the black kingside pawns. Teddy starts on this plan immediately.
12. Nh4 Bh7
13. Bg5
White cannot play Bxh5 or black replies Bd3 and wins material. I was pleased with Bg5 as it stops queenside castling unless black is prepared to play f6 which takes the square away from the black knight on d7. Castling kingside is not an option currently or the bishop can then capture on h5 after all.
14. Be3 0-0-0
15. a4
Now that black has castled, white can use his queenside pawns to start his own attacking plans, b4 was an alternative way of kickstarting a similar plan, but a4 gives the possibility of going a5 taking the b6 square away from the knight.
15. ... g5
16. Nf3 Bf4
A very interesting move. I was expecting g4 to continue the pawn attack but Teddy comes up with an alternative plan. This move allows white to ruin the black pawn structure but in return black can look to dominate the g-file with his rooks and form a battery against the white king. I made the judgement that white has enough pieces to defend against the attack.
17. Bxf4 gxf4
18. Bc4
White cannot allow black to continue with his idea and so applies some pressure to the loose pawn structure.
18. ... Bg8
I was slightly surprised by this move as I was expecting ..e5 19. Rfe1 e4 20. Nh4 when the black pawns begin to look a bit more menacing but white has options like Be6 and gets a bit more piece activity.
19. Rfe1 e5
20. Bxg8 Rhxg8
Similar to the idea above but white has manged to exchange a pair of pieces which gives black less attacking options but in return gets his rook onto the g-file where it cannot be challenged easily.
21. Rad1
It's very tempting to play dxe5 which wins a pawn and this is probably the strongest move, but I was worried about continuations like ... fxe5 22. Nxe5 Nxe5 23. Rxe5 Rd2 when it looks like black will get some counterplay by attacking the white pawns and doubling rooks on the d-file. I felt that I had a slight advantage and wanted to retain it.
21. ... Rde8
Threatening to push the e pawn on, but there is no apparent way to stop it other than the dxe5 maneouvre that I had rejected on the previous move.
22. a5
Stopping the knight from coming to b6 and then on to c4 or d5, but allowing the e4 advance.
22. ...e4
Both players were now starting to get pretty short of time (around 5 minutes each left for the next 13 moves).
23. Nh4 Rg5
A good move, Rg4 doesn't work as it allows Nf5, aiming for a fork on d6, and the knight has too many squares. Rg5 also prepares to double the rooks on the g file and simultaneously attacks the a5 pawn.
24. b4 f5
25. g3
A definite mistake. Nf3 is a possibility, exploiting the pin on the e file, but it doesn't seem to gain anything. Kf1 might also work as it gets the king out of the way of the black rooks. However, it's still not clear that black can break through.
25. ... Reg8
26. Ng2 fxg3
27. fxg3 Nf6
Black's pices are moving in and I definitely think that I have lost any advantage that I may have had. The e4 pawn is beginning to worry me at this point too. By now, both players have maybe 90 seconds each for the next eight moves. Look out for the mistakes!
28. Nh4
Another mistake, c4 is better.
28. ... f4
Oh dear, here come the pawns.
29. Rf1
Hopefully preventing fxg3 because of 30. Rxf6, but with so little time to calculate then 30. ...g2 might even be playable.
29. ...f3
Black now has two connected passed pawns and it's beginning to look bad for white.
30. Rde1
I considered Nxf3 just to stop the pawns but I didn't want to throw it away and tried to defend for a bit longer. At the moment neither pawn can move, or the other one drops.
30. ...Rg4
Allowing the knight back in the game.
31. Nf5
Threatening a fork on e7 and h6. Black must play Kd7.
31. ... Kb8
Seeing one fork but missing the other. However, we both had seconds left at this point and both of us had stopped recording the moves so we had no idea if we had reached the time control.
32. Nh6 Rxg3
This isn't absolutely necessary as black can play Re8 and allow Nxg4, hxg4. In this way the pawn structure would remain strong and have good chances of threats later on. On the other hand it's veyr passive and loses the initiative with which black hopes to force a quick win.
33. hxg3 Rxg3+
34. Kf2
A mistake. If I play Kh2 here then I am probably winning.
34. ... Rg2
35. Ke3 h4
36. Nf5 h3
37. Rh1 Ng4+
38. Kf4
I thought I couldn't play Kxe4 because of Nf2, but in fact after 39. Kxf3 Nxh1 40 Rxh1 I would just be a piece up.
38. ...e3
A bad mistake that should lose. We had made the time control at this point but neither of us were aware of that because we had stopped recording the moves so we continued to bash the moves out quickly.
39. Nxe3 Nxe3
40. Kxe3 f2
41. Rfe1 Rg1
42. Rxf2
The final, and worst, mistake. Rhxg1 is completely winning; 42. ... fxg1=Q 43. Rxg1 and the h pawn cannot promote giving white a trivial win.
42. ... Rxh1
43. Kf3 h2
44. Kg3 Rc1
In a slight state of shell shock, we agreed a draw. Both of us had winning chances and it was a great fighting game. One lesson learned was to leave enough time to at least record your moves at the end!

Club gets new digital clocks

2010-03-17T20:42:00.003Z

Snodland has been awarded a grant from the Snodland Partnership to help us buy digital chess clocks to use in competition matches. We have decided to purchase the DGT 2010 clocks as shown below.

Inaugural Kent Blitz is success

2010-03-17T20:38:00.002Z

Snodland Chess Club organised the inaugural Kent Blitz Chess Championship, which proved to be a great success.

The event was won by FM Martin Taylor of Rainham Chess Club with an extremely impressive 8.5/9. In second place was Ian Watson of Maidstone, Andrew Mayhew of Medway was third and the top placed Snodland player was Ben Spink in fourth place.

We hope to run the event again in the future. More details can be obtained from David Lettington at david_lettington@hotmail.com

Great start to 2010

2010-03-17T20:33:00.002Z

Snodland have had a great start to 2010 with 8 straight match wins against other Kent clubs. Some excellent performances have seen the club move into contention for the Harvey Cup, Tom Fuller Cup and Intro Cup competitions.

After a terrible start to the Stevenson Cup campaign, the team have now recorded 3 straight wins to move to 50% for the season, which is a superb comeback. Congratulations to team captain Tyrone Jefferies and the rest of the squad.

We have also progressed to the Semi-Final of the National Club Championship Minor competition with a 2.5-1.5 win over Basingstoke.

Four matches and a wedding

2009-11-09T21:59:00.003Z

November has thrown up some interesting results for Snodland, and Snodland players representing Kent.

The first Tom Fuller match of the season, away to Maidstone, produced some very exciting games with the points all going with the white pieces. Snodland went 2-0 up in under half an hour, with strong attacks developing from 1. d4 openings by Pete Hickey and Matt Gazes. Unfortunately, the Maidstone contingent produced two fine attacking displays on boards two and four, tying the match after Neil Miners and Nick Allen both fell to strong kingside play.

Snodland was well represented in the first county games for the U100 and U140 Kent teams, playing Essex away. Strong performances in the U140 division saw Kent come away with an overwhelming victory, overseen by Tyrone Jeffries, captaining on behalf of David Lettington. Both of the Snodland players in the U100 division won their games, however the disappointingly large number of byes conceded by Kent contributed to overall defeat.

Snodland hosted an extremely strong Maidstone side in the Stevenson cup. The loss of several key Snodland players to illness lead to the team being heavily outgraded, and under the circumstances the scoreline of 4.5-1.5 was to be expected. Congratulations to Ben Spink for the sole win for Snodland, and to Nick Allen for a gruelling draw against a higher rated opponent.

Away to Rainham in the En Passant cup, wins by Pete Hickey, Ben ("Mr. Reliable") Spink and David Fowler were enough to tie the match 3-3 on the boards. In an unusual turnup for the books, Rainham had turned out with an overgraded team (average grade ~ 142 compared to a 140 limit) - the half point deduction was enough to give the win to Snodland, 2.5-3!

In other Snodland Chess Club news, congratulations and best wishes to David Lettington and Ruth for their marriage on 25th October.

A busy start to the new season!

2009-10-21T16:20:00.004Z

In the few weeks since the start of the season, there has been a lot going on at Snodland.

A team composed of Ben Spink, Matt Bunn, David Nicholls and David Lettington took on some very strong competetion in the National Handicap Rapidplay competiton. Despite being heavily outgraded by some of the teams participating, the team placed as runners up, with an excellent set of results by Ben being particularly encouraging for the coming season.

The first match of the season for the club itself was the Len Hammond Memorial Shield. This friendly match will be held annually between Snodland and Maidstone in the future as a memorial for a greatly missed member of both clubs. Snodland were beaten 5-2, however the match was played in great spirit with fine chess across the boards.

In the two league matches played so far this season, Snodland have given a good account of themselves. A 2.5 - 3.5 defeat in the first Stevenson Cup game played by Snodland, at home to Folkestone, was a fine result by a heavily outgunned Snodland. Wins by Pete Hickey and Ben Spink put the game in the balance, but after some very long and hard fought games on boards two to five, only David Myles was able to hold on for the draw. In the Harvey Cup, Snodland finished 3-3 against Thanet, in a mirror image of the fixture last season! At one win apiece, Tyrone Jeffries wove through a tricky middlegame to reach an excellent ending, however a very neat stalemate resource prevented Snodland from taking the match.

Snodland Win Again

2009-07-13T22:35:00.006Z

Snodland Chess Club have once again won yet another final!!!

This time it was the National Club Minor Championships. The Journey of the tournament started with a tough Maidstone side in which Snodland won the game very tightly on board count! Our next opponents was a strong Rainham side in which Snodland overcame to reach the Semi-finals. Snodland then had to beat Wanstead with a slightly weaker side than normal but overcame all odds when on the day to sail us to the final...Again! On Sunday the 12th of July National Finals day came and we were up against another very strong Hackey team (who knocked us out in the semi-finals of the National Club u100 section thus preventing Snodland from retaining that title (as you can tell, a bit of revenge was of the essence)). The final score fell 2.5-1.5 to Snodland taking victory of the match and the championship to cap off another excellent season of the club. A big well done to the captain David Lettinton who did a fantastic job running the team/s. And also to Tyrone Jefferies whom although wasn't present at finals day stepped in and once again picked up valuable points for the club when it really mattered. So a big well done for those 2 and to the team itself who have all played very well. A deserved trophy!

An honours board will shortly be available to view

Len Hammond

2009-07-13T22:30:00.002Z

Len Hammond very sadly passed away last week. Len was a very loyal member to both Snodland and Maidstone Chess Club. He had a great sense of humour when at the club, always played for fun and was a joy to be around. He will be fondly remembered and greatly missed.

Rest in Peace
Len Hammond

Neil Wins the B-League

2009-07-13T22:13:00.002Z

Neil Miners has successfully won the B-League for the season 2008/09! Many congratulations to him on what has been a fine and successful season.

Successful events at the Club

2009-06-12T12:21:00.003Z

In the absense of the blogs Snodland has had a lot to talk about over the past few months!

We as a Club have reached 2 National Semi-finals, A county Final (once again) just when we thought the club couldn't get any more successful than last year it proves that we have done it again this year.

Furthermore we actually Won the county final of the Tom Fuller cup! Excellently led by the Captain Doug Smith who had a fantastic record all through the season and to all the teams players. Snodland got through the National Club Minor Championship final with a great win over Wanstead. Tremendous wins from David Nicholls and Tyrone Jefferies, a well faught draw by Chris Marshall who from what I'm told could have won against his higher rated opponent, and David Lettington unfortunately lost but again a great effort from the captain, who has sailed yet another team to a final, and not just with the club! Snodland failed to retain the National Club u100 trophy to a well prepared Hackney team who we wish all the best in the final.

Elsewhere in the past few months we now have the official A-league Champion! Matthew Bunn won the league with 2 games to spare after beating a tough David Fowler to seal his seasoned victory. Every player has played some exceptional chess this season and credit goes to everyone who took part. I have a feeling that with the continued rise in the attraction of players each season that next years leagues will be even tougher for certain.

Snodland also held their Speed Chess Tournament in which was won in the end by Matthew Bunn. Narrowly beating Bob Fenn to reach the final, him and David Fowler was to battle out this grueling game in which Matthew just about scraped a victory to seal a 2nd title this year.

Elswhere in the Challenge Trophy Matthew overcame Chris Marshall in the semi-final to play Doug Smith who triumphed over David Fowler in the other Semi-final to battle it out next Thursday at the club to decide the winner.

Neil Miners is now looking for Snodland's 'Game of the Year Award' for the 3rd year running. If you have a game that is worthy of the game of the year that has been played for the club then hand in the score sheet to either Neil Miners of David Lettington where it will be considered against other games to decide the award.

One Final reminder to all is the '2nd SNODLAND RAPIDPLAY CONGRESS' which is held at the Wolfe Centre in Holmesdale School, Malling Rd, Snodland, Kent ME6 5HS on SATURDAY 18th JULY. Early entry is advised as spaces are limited. This congress also holds the 'KENT INDIVIDUAL RAPIDPLAY CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP.' This tournament promises to be strong, fun and plently of money prizes and general prizes at the end. A link to the official website and more info at: http://www.snodlandcongress.blogspot.com/

Recent Progress

2009-02-24T14:40:00.002Z

Snodlands prestigous A-league is going very well indeed and has some very interesting line ups. Matthew Bunn is leading the league but still has some very tough games (notably against David Fowler and Bob Fenn who we know to be "hard to beat" players and who are still in the running for the title). David Fowler doing very well also who is still a main challenger for honours at the end of the season. Most notable progress has been Len Hammond who has had some brilliant results in the league and is emphatically shining in the league. A brilliant turnout for him. Some very unlucky results from Nick in his games where from what is told he had the advantages in his games but very unfortunately lost, but still is by every means a very strong player has to be considered as that.

A few results in the Harvey has swindled our way and vice versa. We won against Tonbridge 2 at home 4.5 - 1.5 which was very convincing and brilliant results from all players.

We very unfortunately lost against the ever strong maidstone where we looked strong on every board but in the end swindled their way to overcome us 3.5 - 2.5. However a fantastic contribution from Soriah Williams on board 6 beating Brian Stock and also to Nick and David Fowler also for their results. Tyrone Jefferies, Henry Williams and Matthew Bunn were believed to be either winning or materially ahead in their games which they unfortunately lost to very strong opponents indeed.

However bouncing back from the unfortunate match against Maidstone, we beat Weald of Kent where indeed we were the fortunate and lucky ones. The match finished 3.5 - 2.5 to Snodland but the last two games more or less finished at the same time (about 3 minutes before both players times were up, and lead to a very quickplay finish) Snodland were 1.5 - 2.5 down where David Fowler beat Henry Cove on time and thus levelled the match, very shortly afterwards Matthew Bunn beat a strong David Warrick on board one on time but was a whole Bishop up and if more time required I think the game would have favoured Matthew and the Bishop. So a result Snodland were satisfied with.

Elsewhere in the En Passant Snodland 1 lost to Folkestone which made certainty that Snodland 1 Could not go through, However credit must be mentioned to David Nicholls who drew to Jim Bayford 185 which was thought to be a fantastic result for Snodlands board 1. And also to Tyrone Jefferies who won and who has believed to of had a brilliant season in terms of his results. David Fowler once again being his solid style drew to Chris Siebert who is a good player and again we very rarely see David Fowler losing. A Fantastic season for him also with many wins and draws and the one we always want to see, very few losses.

Also a victory for the En Passant team where we again overcame Tunbridge Wells 4-2 a brilliant result from David Fowler, Chris Marshall and Matthew Bunn who all won on boards 2, 3 and 4. Tyrone and Nick also achieving draws, while David Nicholls unfortunately lost. We all know the results he can pull off but even with Grandmasters, not everyone can pull off the results they want because chess nowadays is becoming so much more flexible and stronger. Saying that David is 9 times out of 10 on the stronger side of things than most of his opponents.

As always more to follow soon

Snodland's 5th Anniversary

2009-01-14T16:40:00.003Z

On Thursday the 18th of December Snodland celebrated its 5th year as a chess club. To celebrate we had Steve Giddins come down to do some coaching to an eager audience. Before starting Steve very kindly presented some awards for everybody that participated in the success of winning the Harvey Cup last season.

Steve showed us some fantastic games with the Kings Gambit (one memorable game with Shirov at a very young age smashing his opponent as white with the gambit). He mentioned it was an opening that is do or die, as it can become very promising but very exposing. Also mentioning that Mark Hebdon is a fantastic expert of the Kings Gambit and can demonstrate just how lethal it can be.

After some examples he then moved on to some puzzles etc where the audience could chip in, in what they were thinking. Overall it was a fantastic night, well celebrated and with the success the club is having of late, we hope next years anniversary will celebrate even more successfull aspects of the season.

A bit of good luck cancels out a bit of bad luck

2008-12-07T14:48:00.002Z

Snodlands team 2 travelled to far away Thanet yesterday and came away with a 3-3 draw in which considering the circumstances must fill Snodland with some breathing space.

Many events made availability for the match very difficult and could muster just 5 players available to travel to the sea-side club. Thanet having won both there 1st two matches (one notable result being a 5-1 smashing over Hastings) meant that they were looking in great shape and very strong indeed.

Having won the toss Snodland chose to have white on odd boards (sensible as there was no board 6) and played some fantastic chess.

Chris Marshalls game with Keith Findley finished 1st with a draw. Same grade, same board, same strength, meant it was a respectable result.

Len Hammond played a well faught battle who looked winning to begin with but unfortunatly lost when his opponent gradually took the upper hand, but a great effort

Matthew Bunn won a very complicated game against Bob Pooley on board one, full of mind numbing variations and did well to win, both having very little time making the match 2.5 - 1.5 (to Thanet)

David Fowler reached a position in the endgame where he had the extra pawn in a 6 v 7 pawns, 2 rooks and a king endgame. It looked very cramped up at the end and as well having little time agreed a draw which was a fair result Making the match 3-2 to Thanet

Last game to finish Tyrone Jefferies winning eventually on time with an inferior position however in the game it was said he was on top for a majority and might just have made up for the bad luck we had before the game.

However Snodland as the "current reigning champions" of the Harvey cup have started the season with a result that the team is happy with considering only having 5 players. Imagine what we will accomplish with 6.

Below as requested is board one's game Matthew Bunn's (118) game versus Bob Pooley (127)

Results

2008-12-07T14:16:00.002Z

A number of En Passant matches have already been played, and for the clubs 1st season in the En Passant competition we have battled and come away with good results. More details to follow.

Below is an excellent win from Snodlands David Nicholls on board one against Folkestones John Atherton.

Impressive win David! David has been in very good form this season marking some fantastic wins against his higher rated opponents. Other players have achieved some steady and reliable results Chris Marshall and David Fowler just to name a few. Nick Allen has continued his good string of results, keen and determinated he is and hence the reason he is putting in some good performances. I'm sure if this commitment from the members of the club continues, we can achieve many more things to come.

More details of all matches to come shortly

Recent Progress

2008-12-07T13:52:00.002Z

The A-league has been running well with some interesting results and games. Matthew Bunn and David Fowler still unbeaten while Chris leads the A-league having played 7 of his 10 games. All to play for still and despite who wins, there will be a new champion come the end of the season.

A LEAGUE P W D L Pts
1 Chris Marshall 7 3 2 2 4
2= Tyrone Jefferies6 3 1 2 3.5
2= David Fowler 4 3 1 0 3.5
4= David Lettington5 2 2 1 3
4= Matthew Bunn 3 3 0 0 3
6= Bob Fenn 4 1 1 2 1.5
6= Nick Allen 4 1 1 2 1.5
6= Len Hammond 3 1 1 1 1.5
6= Matt Gazes 4 1 1 2 1.5
10 Doug Smith 4 1 0 3 1
11= John Simons 4 0 0 4 0

Sad News

2008-11-29T12:47:00.002Z

A very close friend of Snodland Chess Club and of the entire nation of chess has very sadly passed away. IM Bob Wade was a credit to British Chess, a true talent, and a fantastic coach to say the least. He had an outstanding and devoted commitment to chess and that passion inspired many alike. I for one say and I believe I speak for everyone that he will be sorely missed.

Rest In Peace
IM Bob Wade

Find the right Solution

2008-10-31T16:25:00.004Z

The Caterham Congress 2008 was held last weekend (24th/25th/26th of October). One member of Snodland (Matthew Bunn) entered the Major section and scored well with 3 out of 5! In one of his games against Nigel Colter he completely dominates the game but fails to find the right continuation on move 26 to finish the game off. In the end a draw was agreed but can you find the right continuation after 25...g5??

White to move, how can white continue?

This is the full game below. Matt plays 26.Qd2 which is weak

A League so far...

2008-10-24T00:04:00.005Z

The A-league has got off to a kicking start with interesting games and plenty of opportunity. Here are the standings after 6 weeks:

A LEAGUE P W D L Pts
1= Tyrone Jefferies 4 2 1 1 2.5
1= David Fowler 3 2 1 0 2.5
3= Chris Marshall 4 1 2 1 2
3= Matthew Bunn 2 2 0 0 2
3= David Lettington 4 1 2 1 2
6= Nick Allen 3 1 1 1 1.5
6= Len Hammond 2 1 1 0 1.5
8 Doug Smith 3 1 0 1 1
9= Matt Gazes 2 0 1 1 0.5
9= Bob Fenn 2 0 1 1 0.5
11= John Simons 3 0 0 3 0
11= Henry Williams 0 0 0 0 0

So with plenty of games to go Tyrone and David Fowler lead the A league with games and points adrift.

Matts Minder

2008-10-23T23:04:00.001Z

A few months ago I played in the Thanet Congress (major section) and gained valuable experience for the rest of the season. I learned a lot just by playing people of higher standard and one of the main things I have learned from that tournament which has held me in good stead for the rest of the season is that position is more than power!

Matt

Snodland named Small Club of the Year second year running!

2008-07-29T21:31:00.001Z

Snodland Chess Club have been named the English Chess Federation's Small Club of the Year for the second year running.

This is the first time that any chess club had been awarded this national title twice.

More details to follow..

1st Snodland Rapidplay Chess Congress

2008-07-25T19:38:00.005Z

The 1st Snodland Rapidplay Chess Congress was a great success, with four players tied for first place on 5/6.

FM Martin Taylor managed to beat IM Jovanka Houska, FM Martin Walker and Ian Snape on tie-break, earning the title of Kent Individual Rapidplay Champion 2008 in the process.

More details can be found on:

http://www.snodlandcongress.blogspot.com/

Snodland win National Title

2008-07-25T19:37:00.001Z

Snodland Chess Club have won their section of the National Chess Club Championship, beating Forest of Dean 4-0 in the Final...more details will follow.

Ben wins B-league title.

2008-06-25T15:22:00.004Z

Ben Stokes produced a brilliant winning streak to win the B-league title on tie-break over his dad, Malcolm.

Ben's triumph came after he beat Malcolm, who until then had looked unstoppable, and then managed to beat all his remaining opponents, leaving both Ben and Malcolm on 8/10 with 8 wins and 2 losses each.

Ben Stokes, B-league champion.

Bob collects another trophy!

2008-06-25T15:09:00.004Z

Bob Fenn beat David Lettington in a very exciting final of Challenge Cup. The opening was quite cagey and tense until Bob missed a trick and allowed David to win the exchange.

However, Bob went on the offensive straight away and didn't allow David to get his pieces into the action and the game soon swung towards Bob.

After defending for many moves, David couldn't hold off the attack and soon ended up in a losing position. It was the first time that David had ever been beaten in the Challenge Cup, his unbeaten run lasting nearly 3 years.

Bob's win in the Challenge Cup this year came on top of his win in the A-league last year, so he has a different trophy on the mantlepiece now!

Bob collects the Challenge Cup from Councillor Chris Smith, the Mayor of Tonbridge & Malling.

Henry collects A-league title

2008-06-25T15:01:00.003Z

Henry Williams beat David Lettington in their individual game and so took the A-league title for 2008 with a score of 9/10, making an unbeaten run of 8 wins and 2 draws.

This means that there has been a different winner every year of the club's most prestigious title.

Above, Henry collects the A-league title from Chris Smith, the Mayor of Tonbridge & Malling.

Snodland win Kent Cup!!

2008-05-15T12:03:00.003Z

The Snodland 1st team scored the narrowest possible victory in the Final of the Kent "Harvey Cup".

The match against Weald of Kent was drawn 3-3, with Snodland winning 10-11 using the "board count" tie-break method. The result was incredible, considering that Snodland were 3-0 down after the first three games were finished. An amazing comeback!

This is a superb achievement in what is only Snodland's second season of competitive chess.

The overall match result was:
Snodland 1 vs Weald of Kent 2
1. David Nicholls 1-0 James Hart-Dyke
2. Matt Bunn 0-1 Albert Brown
3. David Fowler 1-0 David Warrick
4. Nick Allen 0-1 Mark Horner
5. Neil Miners 0-1 Mike Scott
6. Matthew Gazes 1-0 Dominic Oram

Well....you can't win them all!

2008-05-15T11:47:00.002Z

Snodland teams reached the Semi-Finals of the Kent "Tom Fuller Cup" and "Intro Cup", but on these occasions we were not able to win, losing to 2.5-1.5 against Beckenham and 3-1 against Charlton.

Praise goes to Mark Buffey and James Mateo for winning their individual games.

Jovanka scores well in Europe

2008-04-28T21:52:00.002Z

Club honorary president IM Jovanka Houska is scoring incredibly well in the European Individual Championship, held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

After 7 rounds, Jovanka is on 5 points, just half a point off the lead. Yesterday she scored an excellent win over IM Monika Socko, who is rated more than 100 Elo points higher than Jovanka. There are 4 more rounds to go.

The games can be followed on www.eicc2008.com/en

Challenge Cup Quarter Finals

2008-04-24T22:56:00.002Z

All the games in the Challenge Cup First Round were fairly clear cut.

The Quarter Final draw is:

David Lettington vs Tyrone Jefferies

Douglas Smith vs Matt Bunn

Neil Miners vs Bob Fenn

Matt Gazes vs David Fowler

The games are due to be played on 8th May.

Snodland reach two finals in two days!

2008-04-22T21:16:00.003Z

Wow! Two great results in two days!

Snodland beat Hastings in the U100 section of the National Club Championship to reach the final.
The team won 2.5-1.5, with David Lettington and Matt Bunn winning and David Fowler gaining a draw.

Matt Bunn scored a good win against the experienced Hastings player and David Fowler then achieved a draw against his young opponent.

This meant that David Lettington or Matthew Gazes only needed to draw to put Snodland through on board count. David's opponent had an opportunity to make a risky sacrifice, but decided to play safely and then grabbed a pawn which allowed David to make a counter attack that eventually gave him the initiative.

The following day Snodland beat Lewisham in the Kent County Chess Association's Harvey Cup to reach the final. The match was tied 3-3, but Snodland won on board count. The Snodland winning players were David Nicholls, Henry Williams and Matt Bunn. More details later....

A-league & B-league results

2008-04-19T09:38:00.005Z

After some interesting results, the latest league positions are as above.

The A-league results this week were:

Matt Bunn 0.5 - 0.5 Neil Miners

Ben Stokes 0 - 1 David Lettington

Matthew Gazes 1 - 0 Len Hammond

The B-league results this week were:

Ben Edwards o - 1 Arjun Toor

John Morgan 0 - 1 Malcolm Stokes

Arjun Toor 1 - 0 Ben Stokes

Malcolm's win means that he maintains his perfect score and his rating performance is more than double his actual grade.

IM Bob Wade visits club

2008-04-19T09:25:00.006Z

The chess club were lucky to have IM Bob Wade visit and deliver some coaching.

After demonstrating some opening variations in the Italian Opening, Bob went on to tell us how he helped Bobby Fischer prepare for his 1972 World Championship match versus Boris Spassky, including showing us some handwritten letters from Fischer himself.

Bob also spoke about his time in Cuba when he played chess against Che Guevara amongst others.

Bob then played a simultaneous display against 6 players, with Matt Bunn managing to beat Bob and Douglas Smith gaining a well deserved draw. Bob won the other 4 games.

Latest league positions

2008-04-11T20:46:00.003Z

The leading A-league and B-league positions are as follows:

In the A-league, the two leading players are yet to play each other. In the B-league, Malcolm needs two more wins from four games to win the title.

Challenge Cup Preliminary Round results

2008-04-11T20:29:00.003Z

There were some surprise results this week. In the Challenge Cup Preliminary Round;

Arjun Toor 1-0 John Morgan.
Despite John's good form, Arjun scored a good win.
Henry Williams 1-0 Malcolm Stokes.
Malcolm put up a good fight but lost ot his higher rated opponent.
Ben Edwards 1-0 Jason Boyes.
Young Ben progresses to play his school coach Neil Miners.
Nick Allen 0-1 Matt Gazes.
Matt fought on when material down and beat his higher rated opponent in a complex endgame.

The competition is down to the last 16, all games to be played on 24th April.

Snodland Teams Progress

2008-03-28T21:17:00.005Z

After some fantastic matches with other clubs in Kent, Sussex and Essex, all of Snodland's teams have scored great results in the Kent County Chess Association and National competitions. At the time of writing, the Snodland 1st team stands second in Mid Kent "Harvey" league, the 2nd team stands second in the Mid Kent "Tom Fuller" league, the 3rd team stands 2nd in the Mid Kent "Intro" league, and the 4th team stands 4th in the same league.

The final league positions will be announced in the next few days, and if the positions remain the same, then 3 of Snodland's 4 teams will have reached the Kent Semi-Finals. This a fantastic achievement for a club that is only 4 years old and only started playing competitively last year.

Snodland have also reached the Semi-Finals of the National Club Championship "U100" section and face a tough match with Hastings in a couple of weeks.

Special mention goes to:

Matthew Gazes and David Fowler for their fantastic records this season. They have chalked up over 15 wins between them and only one loss!

Neil Miners for holding a draw whilst material down and with only seconds on his clock, to score the vital half point need to beat Hastings in the Harvey Cup.

David Parkins for a neat checkmate to give the 4th team a draw against Weald of Kent.

Soriah Williams for a brilliant combination to her crush her opponent when playing Maidstone.

Matt Bunn for scaring his opponents with aggressive, uncompromising opening play.

John Morgan for consistent improvement and taking a big lead in the B-league.

Everyone at the club has made a fantastic contribution to our successes so far this season. Hopefully there are lots more victories to come!

A League Showdown 20.12.07

2007-12-23T10:53:00.000Z

David Lettington and Matt Bunn clash heads in the A League. A great game between two chess generals, looked to be going Davids way until some great sacrifices from Matt forced a well deserved draw. Maybe King to d5 (instead of h4, move 47) to support the a file passed pawns could have placed the advantage back with David?

A League Results Table

2007-12-08T12:35:00.000Z

Latest results...David takes A-league lead

2007-10-07T12:33:00.000Z

The latest results are as follows:

A-league:
David Lettington 1-0 Dean Thompson
Nick Allen 1-0 Matt Gazes
Len Hammond 0-1 Henry Williams

B-league:
Neil Miners 1-0 Tim Gazes
Arjun Toor 1-0 Jason Boyes
Ben Edwards 1-0 John Morgan

So, David Lettington takes a clear lead in the A-league, and Henry Williams got his season off to a winning start. There was shock result in the B-league, as the leader John Morgan lost to newcomer Ben Edwards. Well done Ben!

Matt scores a quick win.

2007-10-02T20:00:00.000Z

Here is a quick win from Matt Bunn in the recent Crowborough Rapidplay tournament.

The first eight moves are pretty even, but 9.Ng5 is not very useful and Matt takes full advantage with a quick build up on the Kingside. 14.Bd2 is a clear error, as 14.f3 or 14.h3 are necessary. The unnatural looking 15.Nge4 is better than Nf3 as Matt unleashes a devastating series of blows culminating in 18...g5 which forces his opponent's resignation.

Simultaneous display - Saturday 27th October

2007-09-29T13:03:00.000Z

FIDE Master Steve Giddins is set to give a simultaneous display at Snodland United Church on Saturday 27th October, 2.45pm start. Steve will play up to 20 opponents, if you would like to play, please e-mail david_lettington@hotmail.com . There is a fee of three pounds to play. Spaces are limited, so get in early!