Magnificent Malone make brave Bangor wannabees for another season

Report by Rookie; pics by Dennis the Menace

BD	MALONE	VS	WANNABEES
1	S.FERRIS	0.5-0.5	P.MCGUIGAN
2	N.GREEN	0-1	A.MCCONNELL
3	S.FLANAGAN	0.5-0.5	P.MCLAUGHLIN
4	D.RUBEN	1-0	W.MCGRATTAN
5	N.MCFARLAND	0-1	R.PROCTOR
6	A.BECKETT	1-0	B.BELSHAW
	TOTAL	2.0-3.0
	+BONUS	2.0-5.0

AT GROOMSPORT, 29/4/2010
BOARD 6 NOT PART OF THE OFFICIAL LEAGUE MATCH

Having promised to eat his hat if Wannabees won league division two, Malone “cap”tain, Martin Kelly, cap in hand, turned up with his team at the idyllically-situated Groomsport Church Hall to play Bangor Wannabees in the top of the table clash. Kelly cleverly switched his two S.F.s - Sam Ferris and Sam Flanagan - around from their usual board order to flummox the opposition. On board one, Sam’s draw against a stronger opponent was as “ferris” as his anxious captain could have expected. The next game to finish saw Proctor “gamble” and succeeding in a risky opening on board five and Neil turn “green” after losing on board two. Suddenly, Wannabees only needed a point from the last two games to win the league. By this stage, Kelly had returned from watching Liverpool lose and his quiz team win in the nearby pub. On board three, Paul McLaughlin, behind on material, offered his short-of-time opponent a draw, which was eagerly accepted. With an explosive finish on board three, David’ was “ruben” salt into Wannabees’ wounds as he grabbed a win to guarantee Malone are division two champions, despite losing twice to Wannabees this season.

TEAM	PL	W	D	L	PTS	%
MALONE	14	10	1	3	67.0	75
WANNABEES	14	10	3	1	66.5	82
WINSTON	14	8	2	4	60.5	64
BOMBARDIER	14	8	1	5	55.0	61
FORTWILLIAM	14	6	4	4	54.0	57
HENDERSONS	14	3	2	9	34.5	29
RANDALSTOWN	14	0	4	10	28.0	14
RAVENS	14	1	3	10	26.5	18

The packed hall, Bangor supporters to a man (apart, that is, from guest star Dennis the Menace), were very sporting in defeat as they joined in the group photo taken by our Dennis.

Finally, the Catalan opening is bound to get a revival in popularity after Anand’s second win with it over Topalov in round four.

Denis Bond RIP

Colin Fenton sends the following sad news:

Denis Bond, former member of Craigavon chess club, died recently on the 11th April. It's at least fifteen years since I last played him. He was mid to late forties when he passed away.

Will Anand “topalov” chess throne?

After defeat in round one of the world chess championship in Sofia, Bulgaria last Saturday (see game below), it appeared Topalov had the “Indian sign” over the world champion, but on Sunday Anand fought back to win the second game - so expect exciting times over the next fortnight or so!

I was very busy last weekend, playing in the Phillip Hogarty Memorial Rapidplay in Dublin on Saturday and the QUB Blitz at the Parlour Bar, Belfast on Sunday night. The Dublin event was won by Kilkenny’s Ryan-Rhys Griffiths on 5.5/6, a half-point ahead of Colm Daly, Oissine Murphy and Stephen Moran (the latter beat me in round one). The Ulster scores were: G. Annesley and D. Mallaghan (3.5), P. Morrison (2.0) and M. Kelly and C. Murphy (1.5). The David and Goliath prize of 50 euros went to our own Phillip Morrison (1051). He was able, wearing his red beret, to “beret” his opponent, Dubliner Jack Killane (1860)! Gareth “Ainsley Harriot” Annesley acquired his new nickname after the controller misprinted his surname on the results sheet!

Stephen Scannell and Lukasz Kwiatek scored 4.5/5 at the QUB Blitz on Sunday, a point clear of Eamonn Walls. Scannell was lucky to beat Kwiatek in the playoff as the latter’s flag fell when a queen up! Shane Keers (3 points) said “cheers” when pipping Martin Kelly and Karina Kruk on tiebreak for the under-1600 grading prize, while Pearse O’Brien and Chris McDonald took the under-1200 and best newcomer prizes respectively (“old McDonald had a form” advantage over his opponent in the playoff!).

Finally, here are details of two tournaments coming up soon. First, contact Vincent Bissett at 00 353 16903195 about the Malahide Millenium Tournament at the Hilton Dublin Airport Hotel on May 1-3. (website www.malahidechessclub.com). Secondly ring Mark Newman at 91-456638 to enter the Summer Tournament at Civil Service C.C., Maynard Sinclair Pavilion, Upper Newtownards Rd., Belfast running on Wednesday nights from 5/5/10 to 29/9/10.

Rookie

Queen’s clip Hawks’ wings

UCU League Division One

Team	Played	Won	Draw	Lost	Points	%
RVH Hawks	16	12	1	3	81.0	78
QUB	15	13	0	2	76.5	87
Fisherwick	14	6	2	6	51.0	50
The Away Team	16	3	2	11	33.0	25
Lagan	15	1	1	13	24.5	10

Both scheduled matches this week in division one ended in 5-2 wins - for QUB over Hawks and for The Away Team over Lagan.

As Hawks were 7.5 points ahead going into this, their last game, a draw would have won the title over QUB. As it is, the latter can win the title by beating Fisherwick in a postponed match which QUB have claimed by default. League controller David Houston will require the wisdom of Solomon to solve this one. Will David “sling” their claim out (yes, it’s a biblical pun!) And force them to play Fisherwick or will he award them the title by default (“de fault” of “de” Fisherwick team)? Meanwhile, Lagan “sank” without trace against The Away Team to finish last, even if they win their delayed game against Fisherwick.

Rookie

TAT successfully sails through stormy seas

Last season the QUB B team won the Division 2 title, but “artistic differences” between the team members and QUB supremo, Chris Millar saw the second-tier champions cast adrift and enter the top league as The Away Team, having gathered a few “reinforcements” along the way. Not the most inspired of name choices but the acronym TAT seemed to sum up well this rag-tag bunch under Captain “Beard” (think here of “The Caine Mutiny”).

With their top-rated player only at 1800 the little frigate TAT was always going to find it difficult against the big battleships of QUB, Fisherwick and RVH. A relegation battle with Lagan, long-time experts in avoiding the drop, was on the cards. And so it proved.

Going into the final round of scheduled fixtures this week, TAT was leading Lagan by 2 points with the two teams due to face each other at the Boat Club on Wednesday. However, both teams had postponed games against Fisherwick, and first TAT shared the spoils with an under strength Fisherwick on Monday night.

This now put TAT 5.5 points ahead of Lagan, going in to their Wednesday night encounter. If TAT could win the match, then Lagan could not catch them, whatever the riversiders did in their postponed match with Fisherwick. However, if Lagan could win, then the most they would have to do to stay up would be to draw against Fisherwick.

For much of the three-hour battle, it was too close to call. Board 1 was always a careful manoeuvring encounter between Lagan captain Jonathan Brown and Danny Mallaghan and was the first game to finish. A half-point each. On board five "the Sultan”, despite a valiant rearguard action eventually had to surrender to Peter May, rated only 32 points lower than TAT’s top board. Cal Leitch, only able to play because he had been marooned in Belfast because of the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud (and according to Beard unable to travel by boat to England because he suffers from sea-sickness ?!?), always held the initiative despite Sam Moore’s efforts to drain all the pieces off the board, but in the end even a risky exchange sacrifice by Leitch couldn’t prevent a classic Moore draw. With the score 2-1 in favour of Lagan, attention turned to boards 2 and 3 where the TAT players had both been under heavy bombardment. Now with about 10 minutes of the session to go, Des Moreland (apparently recruited late in the season because his captain believed him to have a “double o” like that other famous naval man James Bond) seemed to have weathered the storm and although he had double isolated e-pawns, they seemed to give his pieces more open lines and he secured a winning endgame. 2-2. On board 2, Damien Lavery had ventured the obscure gambit 1 d4 Nf6 2 g4 and had spent most of the game doing some desperate ducking and diving (but he’s good at that – experience aplenty). After spending all game avoiding William Collins’ depth-charges, Lavery finally launched a torpedo to sink his opponent amidships. 3-2 and finally the good ship TAT could sail back into its summer harbour safe and sound.

The Away Team	vs	Lagan
Danny Mallaghan	0.5-0.5	Jonathan Brown
Damien Lavery	1-0	William Collins
Des Moreland	1-0	Tom Esmonde
Calum Leitch	0.5-0.5	Sam Moore
John McKenna	0-1	Peter May

But where was the TAT captain during the final week’s events? In the brig? Will the mutineers be court-martialled despite their heroic efforts?

TAT offensive

Two members of The Away Team (or TAT), Danny Mallaghan and Richard Gould, lived up to their billing by travelling south to the Leinster Championships, held at the Academy Plaza Hotel, Dublin over the 16-18 April weekend.

Danny was competing in the under 2000 Majors, while Richard was second seed in the under 1600 Challengers. Both players remained unbeaten until the final round, when both succumbed to the eventual winners of their sections. Gould still won 3rd prize while Mallaghan secured a grading prize.

Crosstables can be found at the tournament webpage, part of the LCU blog. If you look closely, you’ll see Danny took a half-point bye on the Saturday night. The reason was to enter a poker tournament at the Fitzwilliam Club, where he survived to the final table, proving once again that chess players can make more money playing poker than chess. Grrrr.

To postpone or not to postpone-that is the question!

Yes, everyone is talking and blogging about the latest postponement of that match-no, not the Anand-Topalov World Championship Match in Sofia, Bulgaria due to open tomorrow, but the vital Malone-Wannabies UCU division two decider which will now go ahead in Groomsport next Thursday 29/4/10, thanks to the sportsmanlike and generous gesture by the Malone captain to accept the suggestion of Bangor’s Garry ”Kasparov” Johnston. By the way, thanks for all the recent comments, good or bad, by fellow bloggers, although I hope Dennis the Menace is not trying to “mussel” in on my territory of pun-master! You will notice in the Parlour Bar, Elmwood Avenue, Belfast this Sunday night at 7.15pm, while playing the QUB April Blitz (see http://chess.club.qub.ac.uk/qubblitz.htm), that the “shot of the month” behind the bar is-you’ve guessed it-“Dennis the Menace”!

It’s a case of “Sofia” and no further for Viswanathan Anand, current world champion, who has been struggling to get there from Frankfurt due to the Icelandic volcanic ash cancelling his flight. The organisers have got themselves into a bit of a “lava” over the delayed arrival of the world champion to play their own countryman, Veselin (definitely no puns here!) Topalov and there are still conflicting reports over whether the weather will wither hopes of starting on time! By the way, I’ve heard of a new quiz programme in Iceland called “Ash the family”!

Finally, back to the antiques road show as I wheel out another of my old gems from the “Irish News”. Fittingly for the lambing season , it’s about Paddy Lambe again. When Paddy lost a game, I wrote: ”Lambe gets the chop”, whereas when he won, I noted: “Lambe is outstanding in his field”!

Rookie

Summer Tournament

With the League season nearly at an end, players' attention will switch to the Ulster Chess Union Summer Tournament. Last year the usual venue at Civil Service was not available to the UCU and we were fortunate that at the last moment the North Belfast Chess Club stepped in to the breach.

After lengthy negotiations by UCU Board Member Geoff Hindley, we are able to return to the Maynard Sinclair Pavilion this summer. The tournament is scheduled to run every Wednesday evening from 5th May to 29th September, except for the week of the UCU AGM (likely to be held on 2nd June at North Belfast).

Expect more details to be available soon at the UCU website.

UCU Leagues on a knife edge, by Rookie

Both leagues are going down to the wire. With 13 games played, three and a half points separate first and second in each league (see up to date tables at the UCU website). League one leaders RVH Hawks “soar” above second-placed QUB, who are just feeling “sore”. The big two meet at Queen’s next Thursday in a final showdown, postponed games permitting.

League two leaders Malone face second-placed Bangor Wannabees in a delayed match at Fisherwick some Wednesday in the near future. I shall publish the date as soon as possible. Interestingly, the Bangor captain stated one of his players couldn’t play from now on, as he did not play chess during the summer for religious reasons! Meanwhile, Randalstown overtook RVH Ravens to avoid the wooden spoon by drawing on Tuesday past against RVH Hendersons. Though without a win all season, Peter Wilson’s team did not ”peter” out. With players like Frenchman,David Baras, they did not “embarrass” themselves!

Now for a “tale of two cities” - Dublin and Belfast, which host quickplay tournaments on the weekend of 24/25 April 2010. First, on Saturday 24 April, the Phillip Hogarty Memorial Rapidplay takes place at Academy Plaza Hotel, off O’Connell St, Dublin. For details, ring Darren McCabe at 00 353 87-6938736. It is named after a former ICU President, who died in a tragic road accident on New Years Day 2008 at the age of 19.

On Sunday night, from 7.15-10.45pm,on 25 April,the popular fun tournament, the Bar Blitz, takes place again in the Parlour Bar, behind Queen’s Students Union. Let’s hope I’m not “blitzed”at it, if I hope to do a report on it. Just turn up for it. Check out more details at http://chess.club.qub.ac.uk/qubblitz.htm.

When Paddy Lambe played Adrian Skelton in Belfast years ago, I commented in the “Irish News”: ”make no bones about it; they have threatened muttony if I write anymore about them”!

Finally, here is possibly the most analysed game of the 1950s between two men who had been or were about to be world champions. There was a lot of blood spilt, metaphorically speaking, in Bled!!