New venue

With immediate effect the club have a new venue. The new venue is the Belle Vue Social Club on Colne Bank Avenue (postcode is CO1 1UU).

We will still be meeting on Wednesdays at the normal time.

ECF 2018 rapidplay grades

The rapid play grades for Colchester players on the July ECF Grading List are:

Ref	Name	Age	Rapidplay	Previous
302172L	Voelker, Norbert		163E	170E
186371L	Stemp, Matt		159D	162E
314943C	Lee, Dominic		155E
140673F	Barnes, Nathan		154D	157E
274746H	Catabay, Michael		152E
299554C	Kjenner, Svein		152E	149D
301977A	Schnell, Felix		142F
213710A	Smith, Peter		114D	103E
117812L	Remmer, Brian		109D
227455D	Duff-Cole, John		108E	92F
293018D	Johnson, Mark		107A	113A
155695C	Daley, Phil		107E	115F
314944E	Bradshaw, Craig		102E
253530A	Johnson, Zoe	10	92D	108E
307566H	Catabay, Mae	8	76A	54A
298999C	Catabay, Asci	15	74A	51A

A number of players appear on the list (or have non-F grades) for the first time (or reappear after dropping off the list) - Dom Lee (going in with the 3rd highest rapidplay grade in the club following an unbeaten 2nd place in the Tony Locke Rapidplay and a number of wins in the NECL rapidplay league), Michael Catabay, Felix Schnell, Brian Remmer and Craig Bradshaw.

There were significant increases for Asci Catabay (+23), Mae Catabay (+22), John Duff-Cole (+15) and Pete Smith (+11).

July 2018 ECF grades

The July 2018 ECF Grading List has been published. The standard play grades for active Colchester players are:

Ref	Name	Age	Standard	Previous
316761G	Cesenek, Jan		201F
186371L	Stemp, Matt		196C	196C
302172L	Voelker, Norbert		176E	178C
139627E	Gooding, Ian		175C	170C
274746H	Catabay, Michael		169D	170E
299554C	Kjenner, Svein		164B	162B
140673F	Barnes, Nathan		161A	163A
301977A	Schnell, Felix		154C	152C
120924D	Wagstaff, Michael		147D	147C
286077G	Tihov, Emil		143E
250046C	Bellinger, Clive		135C	136C
117812L	Remmer, Brian		116C	114C
293018D	Johnson, Mark		114C	113C
155695C	Daley, Phil		110D	117D
213710A	Smith, Peter		103C	111B
227455D	Duff-Cole, John		103C	102C
253530A	Johnson, Zoe	10	82E
314944E	Bradshaw, Craig		73F
307566H	Catabay, Mae	8	66E
298999C	Catabay, Asci	15	48F

A few players have increased their grades with Ian Gooding (+5) having the most significant increase.

Zoe Johnson and Mae Catabay appear on the list for the first time; Jan Cesenek, Craig Bradshaw, Asci Catabay also get provisional F grades and appear on the list for the first time.

Emil Tihov gets his highest ever grade, his first grade as a Colchester player; slight increases for Svein Kjenner, Mark Johnson and John Duff-Cole also see them reach their highest ever standard play grade.

Colchester B round-up

Colchester B finished mid-table in NECL Division 1 with four wins, one draw and four defeats in the league. Their best results were a 2.5-1.5 win against Chelmsford A, a 4-0 win against Billericay A and a 3.5-0.5 win against Chelmsford B. The B team had a few problems getting players in some of the matches early in the season resulting in a few defaults on board 4.

The player statistics (by board) are:

Board 1 (Total 3.5/9)
Michael Catabay	1.5/4
Jan Cesenek	1/1
Nathan Barnes	1/4

Board 2 (Total 5.5/9)
Michael Catabay	1.5/3
Jan Cesenek	1/1
Nathan Barnes	1/1
Svein Kjenner	1/1
Felix Schnell	1/3

Board 3 (Total 5/9)
Clive Bellinger	2/3
Nathan Barnes	1/1
Michael Catabay	1/1
Felix Schnell	1/2
Svein Kjenner	0/1
Pete Smith	0/1

Board 4 (Total 5.5/9)
Felix Schnell	1.5/2
Nathan Barnes	1/1
Svein Kjenner	1/1
Emil Tihov	1/1
Pete Smith	1/1
Default	0/3

Colchester A round-up

Colchester A finished in 3rd place (out of 11) in NECL Division 1 with six wins, two draws and two defeats in the league. Their best result was probably a 3.5-0.5 win against Brentwood A. The A team reached the quarter-finals of the knockout where, fielding no nominated A team players, they narrowly lost to eventual winners Chelmsford A.

It was very close at the top of the table, with Writtle, Chelmsford A and Colchester A all getting 25 board points. Chelmsford and Writtle had an extra match point, with Writtle A winning the title on board count. A single extra half point could have resulted in Colchester winning the title.

The player statistics (by board) are:

Board 1 (Total 7/12)
Matt Stemp	5/9
Ian Gooding	1.5/2
Nathan Barnes	0.5/1

Board 2 (Total 7/12)
Ian Gooding	4/6
Norbert Voelker	2/3
Jan Cesenek	0.5/1
Michael Catabay	0.5/2

Board 3 (Total 7.5/12)
Jan Cesenek	2/2
Nathan Barnes	1.5/4
Norbert Voelker	1/1
Felix Schnell	1/1
Michael Catabay	1/2
Clive Bellinger	0.5/1
Svein Kjenner	0/1

Board 4 (Total 9.5/12)
Michael Catabay	4/4
Nathan Barnes	2.5/3
Emil Tihov	1/1
Svein Kjenner	1/2
Felix Schnell	1/2

Colchester C round-up

Colchester C finished in 5th place (out of 6) in NECL Division 2 with three wins, one draw and six defeats in the league. Their best results were probably a 2-2 draw against league winners Clacton A and a 3.5-0.5 win against Baddow B. The latter result took place on the same evening as a B team match making it an even more impressive result as they were not able to use the highest-graded player eligible for the C team (as they were playing for the B team).

The player statistics (by board) are:

Board 1 (Total 6/10)
Felix Schnell	3/4
Svein Kjenner	2.5/3
Clive Bellinger	0.5/2
Emil Tihov	0/1

Board 2 (Total 4.5/10)
Felix Schnell	2/2
Svein Kjenner	1/1
Mike Wagstaff	1/3
Emil Tihov	0.5/2
Clive Bellinger	0/1
Pete Smith	0/1

Board 3 (Total 3.5/10)
Emil Tihov	1.5/2
Clive Bellinger	1.5/4
Mike Wagstaff	0.5/1
Phil Daley	0/1
Brian Remmer	0/1
Pete Smith	0/1

Board 4 (Total 5/10)
Brian Remmer	1.5/2
Clive Bellinger	1/1
Emil Tihov	1/1
Pete Smith	1/3
John Duff-Cole	0.5/1
Phil Daley	0/2

Tony Locke Rapidplay 2018

The club's internal rapidplay championship (Tony Locke Rapidplay) was held on Wednesday 30th May. The competition was won by Nathan Barnes (with a score of 4.5/5, matching his score from the previous year). Dom Lee, with an unbeaten 4/5 was second. Matt, Felix and Pete tied for third with 3/5. Ten players took part.

In round 1 Matt and Felix were the first to finish. Nathan got a slight edge in a queen-less middlegame against Brian's Grob, it took a while to get there but once the position opened up his more active rooks finished the game quite quickly. Craig sprung the upset of the round - he won a couple of pawns against Mark and that was enough to convert a potentially tricky queen and pawn endgame. The last game to finish was between Dom and John which reached a knight and four pawns each endgame. The position looked drawn but Dom was down to his last few seconds and looked like losing on time. However, an illegal move from John meant Dom gained two minutes and a draw was agreed.

Round 2's main talking point was Pete beating the much higher-graded Felix. There were also wins for Nathan, Phil, Matt and Dom. The first two rounds had all been based on seeding with the top 5 seeded players (Matt, Nathan, Felix, Dom and Mark) playing against players from the other half but only two players - Matt and Nathan - had won both their games. This meant that round 3 would see the top two seeds play each other. A blunder in the early middle game saw Nathan lose a piece for no compensation; however, active play in a QRB5P v QR5P endgame along with an awkwardly-placed White king saw Nathan get a couple of pawns and then the bishop. Pete laid a successful opening trap against Craig; Felix recovered from his round 2 loss by beating John; Mark against Brian saw a rematch of the club championship quarter-final with the same result; Phil and Dom's game went to the wire with Dom having a very strong attack but only six seconds on the clock to Phil's 20 seconds, Phil tried to find a defence and lost on time.

Round 4 saw the two unbeaten players drawn against each other. A long game went to a fairly even knight and pawn endgame. Nathan had two minutes on the clock to Dom's one but offered a draw to preserve his tournament lead rather than risk going wrong. Matt resigned after blundering a piece against Felix; Pete beat Phil to win his third game in a row and bring himself into contention for first place; a hard-fought game resulted in a draw for Mark and John; Brian beat Craig meaning that everyone had at least a point.

Going into the final round, Nathan was in the lead with 3.5/4; Dom, Felix and Pete were half a point back. Mark and Matt's game resulted in a queen and pawn endgame where Matt always had an advantage, these endings can be tricky to win as both sides have to be wary of the other's queen. This was Mark's second queen and pawn endgame of the evening but Matt's extra pawn proved sufficient. Brian beat Phil when he managed to bring his rook down to the 7th rank after a fairly even struggle. John versus Craig saw John pick up his first win, to go with his two earlier draws. Dom and Pete went into an even endgame where Dom had a rook and five pawns against Pete's bishop, knight and four pawns. A risky knight incursion resulted in Dom being able to trap the knight and force an exchange of his rook for Pete's two pieces, the extra pawn was then decisive. Nathan forced a transposition from a Sicilian to a symmetrical English in his game against Felix, and the typical queenside pawn advances resulted in a clear edge. The finish to this game can be seen below.

[Event "Tony Locke Rapidplay"] [Site "?"] [Date "2018.05.30"] [Round "5"] [White "Barnes, Nathan"] [Black "Schnell, Felix"] [Result "1-0"] [WhiteElo "157"] [BlackElo "155"] [Annotator "Barnes,Nathan"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "b1r2rk1/4np1p/1q1pp1p1/Rp6/1P1PP3/1QN1P1P1/6BP/R5K1 b - - 0 1"] [PlyCount "3"] [EventDate "2018.05.30"] [EventType "rapid"] {The pressure on the b5 pawn and the control over the a-file give White a definite, but not yet decisive, advantage.} 1... e5 $2 {Putting pressure on White's central pawns and trying to take advantage of the fact that Black's queen and White's king are on the same diagonal.} 2. Ra6 $1 {Forces the queen to move off the diagonal and means White will win material - the knight on e7 is loose, the pawns on b5 and d6 are both attacked and Black is tied down protecting the bishop on a8.} (2. dxe5 $4 {is clearly very bad} Qxe3+ 3. Kf1 Rxc3 $19) (2. d5 $4 {is just as bad}) (2. Rxb5 $2 Rxc3 3. Qxf7+ Kxf7 4. Rxb6 $17) (2. Nxb5 $2 Nc6 3. Bf1 Nxa5 4. bxa5 $15) 2... Qb8 $2 {[%csl Ra8][%cal Ra6a8,Ra1a8] and realising the error immediately Black resigned without waiting for White to move.} (2... Qb7 $142 3. Ra7 Qc6 4. Rxe7 Qxc3 5. Qxc3 Rxc3 6. d5 Rxe3 (6... Rc4 7. Rea7 Rcc8 8. Bf1 Rb8 9. Rd7 Rb6 $18 {Black is completely tied down and will eventually lose material.}) 7. Rea7 $18 {and Black has some, but not enough, compensation for the piece that is now lost.}) 1-0