The week began with a solid draw by WN6 against West Bridgford 3, who are chasing promotion. Ross and Arjun picked up the wins.

WN1 didn't fare quite so well against Long Eaton, losing 3–2. I got a quick win against Dave Brown, but there were only two draws in support (John Collins and – rather luckily – Julien).

Things picked up on Thursday, when WN3 travelled to Newark 2 and came back with a 2½–2½ draw. With University 3 losing the day before to the bottom team, WN3's position at the top of Division 3 is looking quite secure.

But Friday was the big finish. WNA, despite missing Julien, disposed of Derby & Mickleover A 3–1, with wins for David and Jonathan. Daniel even contrived to get a draw when his opponent failed to mate with king and two bishops vs. king – proof that it pays to learn your basic endgames. WNA continue to hold a mid-table position, and should stay in Division 1.

WNB, meanwhile, also posted a 3–1 win against Long Eaton B. John Crawley and Nikolai scored the wins. This result pushes the team back into first place in Division 3.

David had an atrocious time trying to find a full team for WN1's match against Ashfield, working his way right through the first and second team squads and still only finding four players. In the end he had to snatch John Crawley from WN6, when a stronger player might well have been able to take advantage of a weakness on Ashfield's bottom board. Instead, the team fell to a 3½–1½ defeat, and Division 2 looms.

Worse still was the unfortunate effect on WN6. Andrew Garside was drafted in as a late replacement for John, but nobody remembered that he was already tied to WN5. That meant a 2½–1½ win against a University 4 team with only three players was turned into a 3–1 defeat.

The other teams more than compensated though. Nikolai took WN3 to play Nomads 2 and was the only winner in a 3–2 victory that puts the team solidly at the top of Division 3 – four points clear. Tracey's WNC also won, with a convincing 3½–½ demolition of Long Eaton C.

What we really need now is two committed 150+ adults for the first team. Anybody know anyone?

The Corus tournament ended with Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian tying for first place. Aronian had the steadier progress, whereas Carlsen did it the hard way, losing to Anand and then beating Kramnik with Black to rejoin the lead.

There is no doubt that this was an amazing achievement by a 17-year-old. It's hard to think of anything comparable by such a young player. Unofficially Carlsen now moves into the top 10, and just about everyone sees him as a future World Champion. Of course, a host of other young stars, foremost among them Radjabov and Karjakin, might have something to say about that.

A quick summary of the club's results at this year's Nottingham Rapidplay. Not too hot at the top, but prizes were won lower down. All the details are on the NCA web site.

In the Open, Julien Dudognon just missed out on second place, scoring 3½/6. Ian Kingston scored 1½ and David Levens brought up the rear with ½.

Major: Jonathan Day 3; John Collins 2

Intermediate: Robert Willoughby 3½ (Grading Prize); Daniel Lin 2½

Minor: John Crawley 4½ (U80 Grading Prize); Michael Zhang 4½ (Junior Prize); Dave Dunne, Predeep Nehra 4; Andrew Garside, Aarav Gupta-Kaistha, Ross Mackay 3½; Keshav Nehra 3½ (Ungraded Grading Prize); Eamonn Lim, Vijay Maharajan, Arun Maini 3; Tracey Clegg 2½; Neel Kothari, Aman Ruparelia 2; Saaras Mehan 1½; Jordan Nicholson 1

Great chess at Corus was mixed with one of the daftest scandals ever, when Ivan Cheparinov refused to shake hands with Nigel Short at the start of their game in the B group. Apparently, Cheparinov – Veselin Topalov's second – was protesting at comments that Short had made which the Bulgarians felt amounted to an accusation of cheating by Topalov at the 2005 World Championship tournament. Some felt that Silvio Danailov, manager of both Topalov and Cheparinov, was behind it all, trying to find out how the organisers would react if something similar to occur in the Topalov–Kramnik game to be played two days later.

Anyway – Short, never one to back down in such situations, called in the arbiter after Cheparinov twice failed to shake hands, citing a FIDE recommendation that players who don't shake hands should lose by default. The arbiter eventually agreed and awarded the game to Short.

Cheparinov appealed and was awarded a replay on a technicality, provided he apologised in writing, which he duly did. Short was adamant that he wouldn't play, but did finally appear. After the now mandatory handshake, the Englishman outplayed Cheparinov in fine style.

And then there was Topalov–Kramnik (ironically, Kramnik was on the appeals committee that reprieved Cheparinov). Neither player offered his hand, so the handshake issue didn't arise. Then, at move 12, Topalov unleashed an amazing piece sacrifice discovered three years previously by Cheparinov and kept under wraps by Team Topalov for a suitable occasion. He went on to win what might well be the game of the year, featuring as it did not just the amazing novelty, but also a wonderful queen sacrifice.

While all this was going on, Magnus Carlsen took the sole lead in the tournament, only to be pegged back in Round 9 when he was caught by Lev Aronian. Kramnik, Adams, Radjabov and Anand are just half a point behind.

With WNA, WN2 and WN4 all playing on the same night, and many key players not available, the three captains spent last week trying to sort out the best way to distribute the various personnel. WN4 got priority – as leaders of Division 4, facing the third-placed team (Grantham 2), they had most need of a strong performance. As it turned out, Grantham were a player short, but they also had a genuine first division player on top board. Boards 1 and 5 balanced out and the other three games were drawn, keeping Grantham at bay in the race for promotion.

WN2 had the next claim on players as they fought to secure safety from relegation. Mansfield 2 and Radcliffe & Bingham 1 seem certain to go down, but the sooner WN2 are fully clear, the better. Predeep won the critical game, offsetting a loss on Board 1 and gaining another 2½–2½ draw.

WNA went to Chesterfield with the three regulars (Julien, David and me), but with only Tracey to fill Board 4 – probably a step too far. We faced exactly the same set of players who beat us 4–0 in the opening fixture, but Julien clearly strengthened the side. Tracey lost, but David won very nicely, leaving Julien and me to try to claim the points. I failed to make anything of a tiny endgame advantage, but Julien's position was so unclear that I couldn't take the draw that was on offer. Of course, this led to a blunder in the time scramble, but fortunately my opponent reciprocated and the draw was achieved. Julien by this time had won a piece, but had only seconds left – the draw offer, from an opponent almost as short of time, had to be taken. Still, a 2–2 draw was more than satisfactory against the champions.

The first top-flight tournament of the year, Corus, is under way in Wijk-aan-Zee, The Netherlands. The A group has the top three players in the world (World Champion Anand, ex-Champion Kramnik, and ex-FIDE Champion Topalov) as well as 11 other big names. Seventeen-year-old Magnus Carlsen shares the lead with Levon Aronian after three rounds with 2½ points.

The B and C groups are also very strong, and often more exciting. The 13-year-old Chinese girl Hou Yifan beat England's former World Championship finalist Nigel Short in Round 3 of the B group – a quite crushing defeat.

There is live coverage at the official site as well as at Chessdom, while ChessVibes has various video reports.

Two home matches tonight, both involving a little juggling.

WN6–WN7 is in the fixture list the other way round, but way back at the start of the season the two teams played their first fixture with the wrong colours, thus making that match WN7–WN6. So this match put things right. WN6 looked a lot stronger on paper, and so it proved: 3–1. But nine-year-old Jonathan Wild registered his maiden league win for WN7, which gives him bragging rights in the Wild household, as brother Tom missed a clear win against Ross Mackay and went on to lose.

The main event was WN3–Ashfield 3. A discussion about who was going to play on Board 3 and thus be rendered ineligible for WN4 was short-circuited by throwing Tracey Clegg into the vacant slot, with the captain stepping down. It proved a smart move, as although Tracey lost, everybody else won, simultaneously keeping WN3 on top of Division 3 and preserving WN4's playing resources – all the balls still in the air, as it were.

I don't what it is about WN2, particularly in the first half of the season – for some reason the team (no matter who is in it or who the captain is) has the knack of picking up points that they have no right to get. The latest example was the 2½–2½ draw against Gambit 2 on Tuesday night.

This wasn't a minor upset either: the team was conceding an average of 27 grading points per board, which should mean a 4–1 or 3½–1½ defeat.

And spare a thought for Predeep, as captain – no matter which board he plays on, he always seems to catch the opposition's best player.

Arun Maini scored 5/9 in the Under 12 section at the London Junior Championships at the end of December.

There were two matches on Monday night – WN5 were at home to WN4, while WNA were away against Long Eaton A.

Dealing with the domestic affair first: WN4 posted a 5–0 win to strengthen their position at the top of Division 4. WN5 now need some good results to get out of the relegation zone, but that's perfectly possible.

WNA's match against Long Eaton A was important for the team's season. Having played only four matches in the first half of the season, scoring four points, it was important to get at least a draw to prove that we are a serious Division 1 team in the D&DL. Fortunately, we were at close to full strength, and we were relieved to see that Long Eaton were missing both Kishan Lakhani and Geoff Gibson.

Michael Keetley was first to finish, winning with a neat sacrificial attack after Anjali Lakhani had declined the opportunity to force a perpetual in favour of trying to win. I then received a draw offer after my attempt to carry a small advantage into the endgame resulted in a completely level position. After a quick look round I decided that Julien had good winning chances, so I took the draw.

David's game against Ray Evans looked like it was going to be a frantic time scramble, but David circumvented that possibility by blundering away material. So in the end, it all came down to Julien's game against Dave Brown. Dave had played the Exchange Variation against Julien's French Defence, so it all looked pretty dull for a while. However, the position finally came down to a good knight vs. bad bishop ending that Julien could hardly lose and would probably win. Eventually, this position was reached:

White to move

It appears that after 1. Kc2 Ke3 2. Bc3 Kf2 3. Kb3 Black must give up the a-pawn. Indeed, after 3... Nb6 4. Bxa5 Nd7 White can draw, but it's not easy. However, instead of 4... Nd7 Black plays 4... Nxa4! (Julien had seen this), when after 5. Kxa4 Kxg3 Black wins quite easily. The bishop cannot both stop the h-pawn and protect the f-pawn, and the king is too far away to help.

The game itself took a more straightforward path: 1. Kc2 Ke3 2. Kc3 Ke2 3. Kxc4 Kxe1 4. Kd5 (4. Kb5 also fails, as the Black h-pawn queens first and prevents the White a-pawn from queening) 4... Kf2 5. Ke5 Kxg3 6. Kxf5 h4 7. Kg5 h3 8. f5 h2 0–1

The 2½–1½ win pushes WNA up to a comfortable mid-table position, but the next match is away at Chesterfield, who beat us 4–0 in the opening match.

I was surprised to find when I turned out to play last night that it's been almost four weeks since anybody has played a match for the club – hence the lack of things to say.

Don't forget that any member is entitled to blog here. If you don't have an account, just send me an email and I'll set one up for you.

... WN5 captain Krishna Parmar is a SpecSavers franchisee. She's just opened her third branch, which happens to be in The Square, Beeston. I popped in this lunchtime and Krishna gave me a guided tour – it's all beautifully laid out, with lots of high-tech gadgets, and a far cry from the tacky double glazing showroom that used to occupy the site.

I've sent this out via email, but just in case that went wrong...

Our annual Christmas quiz will take place on Monday 17 December – the last club night before the Christmas/New Year break. As usual, this is a fun night for players, family and friends – no chess-related questions!

To spice things up a little, we've invited members of Ashfield CC to join us. The club's honour will be at stake!

The fun starts at 7:30 p.m. Please bring party food and/or soft drinks.

There will be no junior session that night.

Not since I joined the club four years ago have our teams ever managed to lose every match played in a week (except for those odd weeks with only one or two matches). This week, though, we managed it without any trouble at all.

Monday was especially disappointing. There's no doubt that the defeats suffered by WN7 (4–0 against West Bridgford 2) and WNB (3–1 against Foremarke A) were always likely, given the strength of the opposition, but WN5's match against Gambit 4 was a toss-up that we could have won. Unfortunately, the coin landed the wrong way: 3–2 to Gambit.

The Handicap KO match between WN Daydream and Radcliffe Rapscallions was another close thing. Losing two of our original three players on the day of the match was just typical of what happens when your luck is out. Nevertheless, Lucien Holliday stepped in at the last minute to score 2/3, and if only Phil Burley's flag hadn't fallen in the last game (when he was a queen up), we'd have tied the match and gone through on tie-break. Instead, Radcliffe won 5½–3½.

On to the away matches. The fixture list handed WN1 and WN3 matches on the same night against University 1 and University 3. But of course we've hit the run-up to Christmas, and it seems like everyone has a concert or play to rehearse and both teams were desperately scrabbling around for players. Consequently, WN1 were thumped 4–1 (nice win by David), while WN3 were edged out 3–2 by University 3. John Collins overturned a 40 point grading deficit to win his game, but the rest of the University team were just too strong.

Amisha Parmar is once again representing England, this time in the Under 16 Girls section of the World Youth Championships in Antalya, Turkey.

Round 1 took place on Sunday, with Amisha winning against an unrated Turkish opponent, Gulnur Helin Karagoz. Her second round opponent is somewhat tougher: the 9th seed, Salome Khazhomia of Georgia (Amisha is seeded 34).

Round 2: Amisha lost. I can't tell you who her next opponent is because the web site is currently giving the boys' pairings for Round 3 in error.

Round 3: An Italian – drawn. Round 4 looks easier: a low-rated Turk.

Round 4: A correct prediction – Amisha won to go to 2½ points.

Round 5: A strong WFM opponent proves too much.

Round 6: An unrated Brazilian with the unlikely name Jessica Drobrzenski – drawn: 3/6.

Catching up after the rest day and being away at the 4NCL...

Round 7: Another draw, this time against a local player: 3½/7

Round 8: Defeat against an Iranian player: 3½/8

Round 9: An unrated player from Qatar, and a win: 4½/9

Round 10: Defeated by one of the many Indian players: 4½/10

Round 11: A pairing that neither player would have wanted – Amisha faced the other English representative, Jessica Thilaganathan. Game drawn; final score: 5/11

Another first round exit, this time for WN Daydream against the Radcliffe Rapscallions. Having finally assembled a team on Friday evening, I set off for a weekend of 4NCL chess happy to have got another job out of the way. Then, on Monday morning, the problems started. Not one, but two of the three players had to pull out – and for perfectly good reasons. So in came a couple of substitutes (Paul Mould and Lucien Holliday) at a moment's notice to join Phil Burley in the team.

It almost worked. Lucien rose to the occasion and scored 2/3, and had Phil not lost on time in the final game, his extra queen would have won the game and tied the match. As the lower-graded team, the Daydream would have gone through. Instead, it ended up 5½–3½ to the Rapscallions.

Our usual tendency to do well in the Handicap KO seems to have deserted us in Round 1. On Tuesday, WN Illusion lost 7–2 to Gambit Boys, although that might have been fairly predictable. Anand Bhajantri picked up both points – a fine performance.

Then on Thursday, last season's beaten finalists, WN Nightmare, travelled to Mansfield for a repeat of the final. Unfortunately, my form hit rock bottom and I managed to repeat my 0/3 showing. David made 1½ and Robert scored 1 (unfortunately missing an instant win against Jon Tait), so after semi-final and final appearances the Nightmare bowed out early for the first time.

WN Fantasy have a bye to Round 2 and are still in need of a captain. Meanwhile, WN Daydream have a chance to join them in the second round on Monday night.

I had a feeling that we were going to be outgunned in this one. Breadsall's team is basically a small group of Ashfield players with the addition of the very strong Paul Madden on top board. We were close to full strength, but that still left us vulnerable and needing the 50:50 games (in grading terms) on Boards 2 and 3 to go our way.

Things got off to a bad start when Daniel got caught in a powerful attack and lost to Derek Jarvis on bottom board. However, I was doing well against Steve Burke and David's position against Richard Webster looked balanced. I couldn't see enough of Julien's game against Paul Madden to tell what was going on.

Then, for the second time this season, I contrived to fritter away my advantage, and a draw seemed the only prudent way out. Fritz later showed that I had a tactical shot in the final position that would have let me play on with some advantage, but I didn't see it at the board.

David and Julien fought on while I went to the bar. When I returned, both games were in desperate time scrambles – David losing and Julien winning. However, time essentially ran out for Julien in a knight vs. bishop endgame, and he had to head for a draw by reduction of material rather than risk losing on time.

There are two tournaments coming up on the first weekend of December. The first is the Derbyshire Junior Individual Tournament, which all West Nottingham juniors are eligible to play in because the club plays in the Derby & District League. That's on Saturday 1 December at Spondon Chess Club (Acordis).

The day after sees the Derbyshire Rapidplay, at the same venue. This is open to anybody.

Details of both events can be found via the DCA web site, and entry forms are available at the club.

So why is it that Long Eaton always show up with just about their best team when they play us? Maybe it just seems that way.

Anyway, last Monday's match still looked like a reasonable chance to collect two points. David took on Ray Evans in order to give Julien a good chance of beating Kishan Lakhani, and Julien duly obliged. I finally managed to beat Dave Brown (third time of asking), so surely we could pick up at least a half point from the other three boards?

Sadly, no. Michael had an off-day, dropping a pawn against Andy Robins and getting ground down; John seemed to be doing OK against Anjali Lakhani, but then lost (possibly tired after the County Championship, and definitely nursing a cold); and David couldn't quite hang on in the last game to finish. Another traditional 3–2 defeat.

Details

Typical: no sooner is the blog back online than I find myself with no time to write anything. Getting stuff ready for the County Championship was the problem, and I still have the aftermath of that to deal with, but here's a summary of results since the last results post.

So here we go:

22 October
WN4  4½–½  Gambit 4
WN7  0–4  West Bridgford 3

23 October
Navigation 1  3–4  WN2

24 October
Ashfield 4  3½–1½  WN5

29 October
WN1  ½–4½  University 2
WN5  2½–2½  Nomads 3
WN6  1–3  West Bridgford 2

30 October
Navigation 2  1½–3½  WN3
University 4  3–1  WN7
We were also scheduled to play two teams in the D&DL Cup and Plate on this date, but with five teams already playing in two nights the overload was too great and we withdrew from both competitions

5 November
WN2  3–2  Newark 1
Nomads 3  2½–2½  WN4

9 November
WNB – Spondon C to come
WNC  1–3  Foremarke B

12 November
WN1  2–3  Long Eaton
WN3  3½–1½  Newark 2

14 November
Grantham 2  4–1  WN5 to come
Ashfield 5  2–2  WN7

Some of you know that the club has two regular members of Nottinghamshire's 4NCL (Four Nations Chess League) teams – David Levens and me. I thought it might be interesting to describe the 4NCL and a typical 4NCL weekend.   more »

In case you missed the note on the WNCC home page: En Passant was temporarily suspended because we used more bandwidth than the free blog allowed. We've now upgraded to a more suitable package, so that shouldn't be a problem in the future.

After just 3 matches in both the Derby and Notts. leagues I find myself not doing too well. Of course I've been playing some pretty strong players, but 3 of the people I've lost to I had never lost to before!!

However, the main point of interest for me was my Notts. league match against Janos Wagenbach [grade 142] . A few months before this game I realised that though I teach both the 2 Knights Defence and the Giuoco Piano with some success, and have even written a little book on the two openings and their many variations, I hadn't played either for years. At the British Championships, held in Gt. Yarmouth, I decided to at least start playing the Giuoco Piano.

Against Wagenbach I essayed the line that we teach in county coaching sessions. 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3! [and NOT Nc3?!] The idea is to challenge for the centre. 4...Nf6 5.d4!? and here Wagenbach, unusually for him, took a good 5 minutes to reply. Eventually he played 5...Bd6? a very poor move and I quickly gained the upper hand.

The point is, that though my opponent is a very experienced player with a respectable grade, he clearly did not how to deal with this line which can be very dangerous for Black at this level. Give it a try sometime! David

You know you're onto a good thing when the opposition turns up looking much weaker than expected – and with only three players. Belper B were the unfortunate team, conceding bottom board and a heavy grading difference on the other three. Julien had little trouble on Board 2, and while I could have finished things more efficiently my game was never anything other than an easy win. David, unfortunately, had one of those nights. Final score WNA 3–1 Belper B.

WNB were much more vulnerable: outgraded overall when you consider that Derby & Mickleover C's Board 3 was graded 128 only a year ago. However, John Crawley held the draw fairly easily, and Andrew, Jonathan and Steve won without too much trouble for an excellent 3½–1½ win.

Could WNC make it a hat trick? Not quite. John Charlton, playing his first match, lost quickly. Ross won, but Michael Zhang for once couldn't register a win and had to settle for a half point. Unfortunately, Tracey had dropped a piece, and there was to be no let-off: 2½–1½ to Lichfield B.

The ECF Grand Prix is something I don't pay much attention to, other than to see whether any local players are doing well in the various sections so that I can report the information in Notts News. But somehow, for the first time, my own name appears on the leader board.

It appears that I'm in 6th place in the 174-150 section, based on my results at the British Championship. This is obviously just an early season fluke, based on playing a relatively large number of games at the start of the season. As I'm only 11 points ahead of 10th place I can expect to drop out of the top 10 quite quickly, although I do have another 54 points to be added if the Leicester Congress is included.

The scoring system is quite odd. For each event, you score a number of points equal to your percentage score for the event plus the number of games played. Your best seven results are counted. This actually allows a player with a grade just under 160 to manipulate the system, since the cutoff for many Open tournaments is around that mark. For example, my grade is 155. If I play in an Open and do well (compared with my grade), scoring 50%, I score 55 points (assuming no byes). However, if I play in a Major (U160) I can score more Grand Prix points even if I don't play very well – 3/5 would get me 65 points, even though it would probably be a worse performance. This option isn't open to a player graded 170 or so. At this early stage, the majority of the top 10 are graded in the 150s.

Anyway – if you click the link above in six months' time I'll be very surprised if my name pops up. Meanwhile, Roger Walker (Belper, Mansfield) is leading the 124-100 section and Alex Combie (Newark) is 10th in the 149-125 section.

Three unblogged matches this week. WN2 kicked things off with a good win against Mansfield 2. On paper it looked very even, and things could definitely have gone wrong. John Collins won quickly despite being lost at one point, and Nikolai was also in big trouble before bringing the point home. Score: 3½–1½.

WN4 faced Radcliffe & Bingham 2 away from home, with Robert and Nikolai in action two nights in a row after also turning out for WN2. Both secured draws (as did Steve Thacker), leaving Eric Williamson and John Crawley to win on the bottom two boards. Another 3½–1½ win.

WN6 took on the erratic University 4 but found them in one of their stronger moods. Ross Mackay scored the only point as the team lost 3–1.

To Ashfield, with only three of our top five available and hoping that the opposition would be one or two players light. Our luck was in.

The first lucky break was that Mike Alcock was engaged on duty in the D&DL. Then Andy Toothill got lost (on the way to a home match!) and lost nearly half an hour to Robert on Board 5.

First to finish was Julien, effortlessly despatching Richard Webster in the latter's favourite English Opening. Then Robert was offered a draw on Board 5 and things were looking very good. I had the advantage against Steve Burke, and David seemed to be on top against Glenn Halfpenny. John's position didn't look quite so good, but a match win seemed more likely than not.

Unfortunately, I lost the thread of my game and accepted a draw in an unclear position which turned out to be quite bad for me. But neither of us could figure things out in the post mortem. David missed a tactic and lost, but by this time John had fought back in a complex rook ending. His opponent, Derek Jarvis, was in his habitual time trouble, but he found a way to repeat moves and John had no option but to take the draw.

Nevertheless, this feels like a point won rather than a chance missed, because we were giving away a lot of grading points on the bottom two boards. It could have been a lot worse.

Match details

I arrived a little late to the Ashfield match, having first visited two other Ashfield chess site venues.  So I was last to start - but first to finish ... with yet another draw.  At least this meant I could watch what was happening on the other boards.

Nikolai won his game next, and Robert was a piece up in his.  Eric seemed to be pressing hard but had used up alot of time.   Robert won his game with no apparet problems, which meant we need half a point from two games to win.  Unfortunatley Eric had lost a pawn and his attack had evaporated.  Another pawn went and he resigned in lost position.   John's game on board one looked  very promising though, and after he won a piece the end wan't in doubt.  A nice Queen manouevre towards the end led to a further piece win and his opponent's resignation.

John and Robert are on a winning streak it seems!  

Lots of players making their debuts in tonight's home matches. One – Emma Bentley – is actually quite an experienced player (ECF 71), but this was her first game for us. She won a piece early on as WN5 cruised to a 3–0 lead against Radcliffe & Bingham 2 (Ashton Alfred and Michael Zhang also won). The top two boards had more of a struggle, but Barry Redburn missed a mate in one to hand Eamonn Lim a win, and Len Morrell couldn't convert an extra pawn against Anand Bhajantri, leaving WN5 easy winners: 4½–½.

WN7 were all new to league chess, and they put up a good show against Navigation 3. Saaras Mehan fought exceptionally hard but was ground down in a long endgame; David Somers went astray in a tactical exchange; and Matthew Pethick somehow contrived to lose from a position two pieces to the good – I suspect tiredness played a role. However, Ruth Chadwick got stuck in and won a pawn to gain an excellent position – whereupon her opponent gifted her a queen. Navigation won 3–1, but once the youngsters have had a season's practice it will be a different story.

1. c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e6  3.d4 Bb4  4.e3 c5 5.Nf3 0 - 0  6.Bd3 d5  7. 0 - 0 d x c4 8.B x c4 b6 9.Qe2 ( stops Ba6 ) Bb7 10. Rd1 c x d4 11.e x d4 B x c3 (This is risky; Black should at least wait until White has played a3 before making the exchange.)  12. b x c3 Qc7 13. Bd3 ! (An enterprising sacrifice which it is dangerous to accept, but Darga was not doing well in the tournament and needed a win.)  Q x c3 14.Bb2 Qb4 15. a4 ! (Threatens Ba3 - it is noticeable how a3 becomes a valuable square for both B and R.) Rc8 16.Ne5 Qd6 17. Ra3 Nc6 18. Bb1 Rd8 ?    ( Ba6 was suggested as better: if  Q xB then  N xN ) .

19. Ng4 N x N? ( Black MUST play Nd5 to block the B diagonals ) 20. Q x N  f5 ( if  20. ........Ne5 then 21. B xh6+ K xB  22. Qh5+  Kg8  23. Rh3 Ng6 24. Ba3!)  

21.Qh5 (threatening Rh3) g6 22. Qh6 (threatens d5 ) Qf8 23. Qe3 Qf6 24. Ba2 Rd6    25. Qe2! ( This is a very impressive quiet move, protecting the B on b2, and also the R from moves such as Ne5 ) Rad8 26. d5! Qf7 (for if e5, then d x N is check!) 

27.Rad3 Ba6 (or e x d 28.R x d R x R 29.R x R R xR 30.B x R Q x B 31.Qe8 mate)

28.d x e Qe7 29.R x R  R x R   (  if ......B x Q  30.R x R+  N x R  31.R x N+ Q x R.  32.e7 mate)   30. R xR! Resigns.

(The final beautiful point. If 30. ..... B x Q then 31.R x N Ba6 32.Rc7 Q x R  33. e7 dis. ch. Bc4 34. e8Q mate )

A triumph of the diagonals! We sat there for several hours  watching this unfold, and working out the tactics.

Uhlmann won the tournament ahead of Portisch, and a couple of years later they both became Grandmasters, and later World Championship Candidates. Both are still alive; Uhlmann is 72 and Portisch 70, and they still play in local events. John Collins 

Chess was different then. There were no personal computers, and hence no internet. The world was divided by the Cold War, and the majority of the world's great players came from the Soviet Union. Britain was a backwater in chess terms, with very few international masters and  even fewer international tournaments: I had never visited one of these.

I had learnt chess and become fascinated by it at grammar school [with David Levens as it happens], and at Christmas in 1958 I was a student. In those days the goverment actually paid me around £300 a year to go to university and, as the alternative was National Service in the army, it was positively no contest. Before Christmas I had worked sorting parcels for the Post Office, so I was feeling quite affluent and, when my friend David Rumens suggested a day trip to the Hastings Tournament, I was enthusiastic. A day return ticket from Charing Cross to Hastings was cheap then and so we alighted on a freezing December day and took a bracing walk along the front to the tournament venue, the optimistically named Sun Lounge.

Normally the Soviet Chess Federation sent a couple of players: they themselves didn't have any choice in the matter, but this year for some reason, probably political, this had not happened. However, the organisers had succeeded in securing two rising young masters from Eastern Europe: Uhlmann from East Germany and Portisch from Hungary. I had heard of them and seen one or two of their games in magazines [no internet then remember]. I don 't know what they made of the conditions in the playing hall, which were, let us say, not the best. Heating was rudimentary, and Portisch actually played throughout in his leather overcoat. Also smoking was com monplace in those days, among spectators and players, and a thick fug of tobacco smoke pervated the room as we sat down to watch the demo boards. Players from the Eastern b loc did not mix with westerners, and there were some stern-looking men from their respective embassies to see that this was so. Why do I remember this, my first master tournament, with such clarity? Well, sitting there on that December afternoon I was priviloeged to watch Wolfgang Uhlmann play the following elegant game, which I have never forgotten.

 

I can't quite decide whether we gained a point or lost one, given the strength of some of the teams in Division 2 this season.

Ashfield were boosted by Glenn Halfpenny on Board 1, but can't expect him to be available for long. I was expecting to face Bob Taylor, but he dropped a board and found Lateefah in determined mood. She outplayed Bob on the queenside and won very nicely. That offset a quick loss for Predeep in his first match as captain, but a solid draw for Jonathan Day and a regulation win for John Collins put us one up.

My game fluctuated, but at move 21 I found myself practically forced to sacrifice a knight for two pawns and an attack. The position became very unclear, and with both players short of time it was difficult to calculate all the variations. The key moment came when I had a choice of three promising continuations, none of them clearly good or bad. With unerring accuracy, I chose the worst option and Glenn found the refutation – a desperado sacrifice to expose my king and leave me a tempo short of safety.

Match details

Bad light stopped play - well nearly.  During the match at Long Eaton thelighting failed on three separate occasions, leaving us in total darkness for a few seconds.  This had no adverse effect on our play and at no time did the result seem in danger.  I drew first after playing an uninspiring French defence (exchange variation).  Nikolai was several pawns up in his game and was next to post a win.  Eric, playing for the first time in six months, looked as though he might be in trouble with an opponents pawn on his 7th rank but Eric defended well and a draw was agreed.  This left Robert to finish.  An exchange to the good, ahead on the clock(!), his Bishops dominated the board and a win never looked in doubt. The finish was a nice mate that no-one watching had spotted, only Robert.

N Davies    0    R Willoughby    1

J Swift       0.5  P Burley           0.5

A Bentley   0    N Berdunov      1

W Bryce   0.5  E Williamson     0.5

Off the mark in Division 1 – our first points (either game points or match points!) of the season.

It was a tight affair, as you'd expect when the teams were separated by a total of just three grading points. We got off to a good start on Board 3 – Michael's opponent gifted him the exchange when faced with the loss of the pawn.

David got into his habitual mess on the white side of the Kan Variation of the Sicilian Defence, and it didn't help that he was giving away 30 grading points as well. At the time control he was 45 minutes behind on the clock with a bad position, and he duly lost.

With the match level, my position was quite lost while Daniel seemed to be winning. Fortunately for me, my opponent missed the clear winning line and opted for an endgame a pawn up in which I always had defensive chances because of the presence of opposite-coloured bishops. Eventually, he lost his way sufficiently that I had a minuscule edge when the draw was agreed.

Daniel was left with the job of bringing the points home. An invasion of major pieces did the trick.

Viswanathan Anand survived a scare in the penultimate round against Alexander Grischuk to win the World Championship on Saturday. There's no doubt he deserved it - he played the best chess and was the only undefeated player.

Now we can look forward to him defending the title against Vladimir Kramnik next year.

Well. That was unexpected!

On Monday we were scrabbling around for players. David couldn't get hold of Gavin, Michael couldn't play and we were pretty sure Amisha wouldn't be available after her exertions in Croatia.

But it all turned round. David caught up with Gavin, who was available, and then Julien Dudognon walked into the club on Monday night, less than two weeks after arriving in England. With a FIDE rating of 2059 he was instantly drafted into the team, and suddenly we had a decent looking side.

Of course, things never run really smoothly for WN1. Gavin got his wires crossed and was expecting a pickup at quarter past seven, not quarter to, so we had to flirt with legality to get to Mansfield 10 minutes late. John Collins was already playing when we got there, but although (apart from John) we'd all lost time on the clock, we were pleased (ecstatic, actually) to see that Jon Tait wasn't playing. A 50-50 match suddenly looked very winnable, and it became even more so when Sean Foreman walked into a trap against me and resigned less than 20 minutes after I'd sat down.

From there on, things always looked good. Gavin's draw was a little surprising, but David and Julien were clearly on top, and John looked to have compensation for his pawn deficit. Julien posted a win on his debut, John made his compensation count, and David wrapped things up at around 10:00 p.m.

One more thing: Mansfield's horrible, dismal venue has had a facelift and is now probably the smartest club in the league: comfortable chairs, spacious tables, carpeted floor, good lighting, no noise. We might even start to enjoy playing there...