It was a baptism of fire for newly promoted Woodbridge tonight, who until recently had only had one season in the Suffolk league, way back in 1991-92. Woodbridge have a lower average rating than the top two teams in division two, and are on a par with the third rated team in that division. So with a total rating difference of nearly 1000 points, Woodbridge did well to come away with anything, although they put up a determined effort to get more than just half a point.
  Andy finished his game quite early, facing an English that he couldn´t quite manage to break down. Unlike Panagiotis, whose English lasted a little bit longer, and the defences to which he did manage to brake down. The remaining two games went the distance. Phil´s game ended in an interesting rook and pawn ending, in which his opponent had four pawns, all isolated. He put up stubborn resistance, and Phil had to be careful not to throw the game away, particularly as time was running dangerously low. Finishing last in a R&N ending, Bob was in a commanding position, with an ever increasing pawn advantage. After the knights were exchanged and facing a rook ending with a 4-0 pawn deficit, his opponent resigned.
  A good start for the team, showing that we have every chance of re- taining the title. You might be interested to know (in case you haven´t already noticed) that this is the first season that we have records for that Ipswich have only one team in division one, which means it´s the first time we know of when all teams in the division were from different clubs. Perhaps we should keep it that way, and rename division one, Suffolk Premier League. Just a thought.

Ipswich are but a shadow of their former selves. Without old stalwarts like Munson, Gregory, Wallis, Lunn, Cook, Mathewson etc, they are in danger of losing a team from the first division of the Suffolk League for the first time in their history - as far as we know at any rate, but at least since the Second World War. And while they have more or less dominated the League for most of the time since then, the last thing any of us want is for them to disappear. A rather unexpected consequence of Covid, but tonight they squared up against our A-Team with a rating difference ranging from 150 to over 300, but they put up a good fight nonetheless, with all games going the distance.
  Panagiotis was the first to finish in one of his faster games: after an hour´s play and 26 moves played, Panagiotis´s clock stood at 1:10. His opponent on the other hand was taking his time and responded to Panagiotis´s English with c5 and e5, which eventually left him with an isolated b-pawn. Panagiotis steadily increased the pressure on this weakness, while his opponent countered with a pawn advance on the King´s side. And it wasn´t a counter Panagiotis could afford to ignore, but eventually he was able to force the removal of all the heavy pieces leaving him with a straightforward bishop and pawn ending and several pawns to the good. His opponent resigned when it became clear that he could no longer prevent that removal.
  Phil put us two up, after facing a Queen´s Gambit in which his opponent put up a steady and strong performance. It wasn´t until the endgame that the balance turned slightly in Phil´s favour after he won a pawn. But the queen and bishop ending was far from won, and after the queens came off the bishop ending was never going to be easy. After some very careful play, Phil was able to advance his extra pawn to the 7th, which then settled things.
  Rod´s game was pretty much even throughout, both sides probing for weaknesses and both responding accordingly. As the game progressed, the two rook and one knight ending seemed pretty much level with no obvious pawn weakness on either side. But after a pair of the rooks came off, the initiative seemed to slowly pass to Rod´s opponent, which eventually proved decisive.
  Andy was last to finish after very long game - not so much long in moves, but in time. Andy faced one of the less common queen´s pawn openings, and both sides took their time, playing with great care. After an hour of play they were still on move 13, and by 90 minutes they had only progressed to move 16 - and both players had still not castled. It was another 15 minutes before the first exchange of pieces occurred, and while Andy appeared to have the initiative, it was far from clear how he would break through his opponent´s stubborn defence. In the end his opponent was hampered by the fact that for the last half a dozen moves or more, he was playing on the increments, and when Andy´s manoeuvring was finally going to win a pawn and break though those defences, his opponent resigned.
  A satisfactory result, which puts us one point clear of Felixstowe at the top of the table, with every prospect of us staying there.

Without three of our nominated squad, Manningtree A set off to Bury St Edmunds knowing that if Bury were at full strength, we could be in for a right drubbing. As it happened, Bury were without two of their nominees and the resulting battle was a lot closer than the score line would suggest.
  Phil put in an excellent "shift" as they say in football parlance, facing the same variation of the Alekhine Defence that he defeated his opponent with the last time they met, and thus maintaining his 100% record for this season.
  While things were not looking so rosy on the remaining boards, they were not without some hope. Rod´s Sicilian came under heavy attack after his opponent castled long and marched his king´s side pawns up the board. Rod put up stiff resistance, but with scattered pawns, an exposed king, and little room to manoeuvre, he was gradually running out of options. And unfortunately, his opponent took care to make sure that those options did eventually run out.
  Bob´s Réti began to share a vague similarity to Rod´s game, in that Bob faced a determined king´s side attack. Bob´s king however was less exposed and it looked at times as though Bob might have been able to survive. It was touch and go for a long time, but sadly for Bob, and the team, it proved to be less touch and more go.
  John was last to finish and threw away another half point - that´s the third time this season. In a queen and pawn ending, with his queen supporting a passed pawn in the middle of the board, his opponent could do no more than deliver a perpetual to prevent that pawn advancing. With the match 2-1 down John had a strange aberration that he could level it and interposed his queen to stop the perpetual. He immediately lost the pawn, and with it the game.
  This really does put the cat among the pigeons in division one, with Manningtree, Bury and Felixstowe all in with a chance.

We were four and a half points adrift of Bury as we set off for Ipswich tonight, knowing that a big win was needed if we wanted to keep pace with them at the top. And while we achieved that it wasn´t without a lot of effort.
  Panagiotis finished first, and by some margin at that. There had been no more than an hour of play when he stood up from the table with all the pieces returned to their home squares. He had deployed a Sicilian, and after his opponent lost a tempo or two with a dubious knight excursion in the opening, Panagiotis moved quickly to punish it without mercy.
  It was well over another hour before Andy made it 2-0. He was always pretty comfortable throughout his game, and it´s not so much that his opponent played badly, but that Andy was able to capitalise on his slight but definite positional advantage and steer the game his way.
  Phil put us three up, having played the exchange variation of the Ruy Lopez. It developed into an in- teresting endgame, with a rook each and a bishop of opposite colours. Also Phil was a pawn down, with a 3-2 majority on the king´s side and a 4-2 minority on the queen´s side. He decided to invest in his King´s side and soon had a 3-0 king´s side majority, while his opponent did likewise on the opposite wing. At one point it looked as though Phil had blown it by blocking his bishop´s cover of the light suares, allowing his oponent´s pawn to advance to the seventh. If truth be told it was a game that was won, then drawn and then lost by both players. But fortunately for us, it was Phil´s opponent who made the mistake before last, swinging the pendulum our way.
  John brought up the rear facing a quiet Italian Game that left his opponent with a pair of isolated and doubled pawns on the b-file, which became a natural target. It developed into a position fraught with danger from some advancing central pawns, which had the potential to completely turn the tables (not to mention deliver mate) as well as raise the blood pressure. In the end it was John´s advancing a pawn (necessarily supported by the b pawn) that slowly but surely moved up the board and delivered mate the move after it was queened.
  A very satisfying result for us, and we now have to wait 24 hours to see how Bury fare against Felixstowe, who we face in two week´s time. If we can get one point more than Bury do, we will exchange positions in the table.

This is lining up to be a very interesting and exiting conclusion to the season. While we were playing Felixstowe tonight, our title rivals Bury St Edmunds were taking on Woodbridge, and there was only half a point between is. Our respective results put us neck and neck, but before we face each other in the final decider, we have to swap tonight´s opposition as we face Woodbridge and they take on Felixstowe.
  With Felixstowe weakened by the absence of two of their regulars we had hopes of nudging ahead of Bury tonight, but it wasn´t to be. And nor was the heating. Since we have been relocated to the main hall, the heating, if anything, has been too high, but tonight with freezing temperatures and sleet outside, it was decidedly chilly inside. Maybe that explains why some of the games seemed to be getting off to a slow start. By half time there didn´t seem to be a lot between any of them, except that board one was starting to heat up.
  Panagiotis seems to revel in complications that baffle us mere mortals. Was that a piece sacrifice? Well if it was, it wasn´t taken. With each move by both players the position seemed to get more baffling. And how did he manage to come out of it all a piece up? However he did it, the play after that was a lot easier to follow, and it was some time before Panagiotis was able to seal it.
  In the meantime Andy had completed his fight. It had started relatively quietly, then in a relatively open position Andy started advancing his c-pawn to the point where it appeared it could be lost. The attempt to win it immediately however was a mistake, Andy gave up the pawn and his queen to pick up two rooks and a bishop. After that it was only really a matter of time.
  The last two boards were by far the slowest, both were slow and steady strategic struggles. And while Phil was the next to finish, it took over two hours of play before the first pieces come off the board - the lion´s share of that time consumed by his opponent. Before that first exchange Phil´s position was looking somewhat cramped, his opponent having a significant special advantage. But Phil bounced back and suddenly he looked by far the better off, and was about to win the exchange when his opponent ran out of time. Part way through the game Phil´s opponent found the noise of the dehumidifying pumps in the lobby distracting and requested they move further away from the door. It seemed a little ironic coming from a club that used to play league matches in a pub.
  The question now was, could Rod make it a clean sweep? There were a few times in his game where it looked as though he would, but his opponent always seemed to find just the right move at the right time, even though most of his pieces seemed to be stuck on the back rank. When Rod finally got both of his rooks on the seventh we thought that the end was nigh, but all he got out of it was a pawn, which was his main advantage after all the pieces had came off. The pawn ending was still enough to win, but as is so often the case in such endings, if you miss the winning line, it can bite you hard.

A narrow win that puts us 2½ points clear of Bury. But we´re going to have to wait two weeks before Bury play their penultimate match against Felixstowe to find out the size of the task that faces us in the final match against our title rivals.
  With everything to play for it´s going to be a very exciting close to the season, although the advantage has got to be with Bury.
  If Felixstowe can take just half a point from Bury, we will need two and a half points from Bury to retain the title, if Felixstowe can´t, we will need three. Only if the Bury-Felixstowe match is drawn, can we afford to draw also, although we would also need a draw even if Felixstowe were to win with 2½ points. But if Felixstowe were to win 3-1 (as they did in their first encounter with Bury) then Bury would need to beat us 3-1 to overtake us.

This was it, the crunch match of the season, the one that would decide who would finish top. Would Manningtree retain the Trophy or would Bury take it for only the third time this century? Bury were slight favourites, being half a point ahead and needing only two points from this match to stay there, but for only the second time this season Manningtree had their top team out. Had Bury managed the same, things could have been very different. In fact they very nearly were different, the final score does not reflect the games at all.
  All boards started as either an English or a Queen´s pawn opening, but all developed quite differently. It was steady as you go for Andy and Panagiotis, but Phil was swiftly on the receiving end of what might be called a hack attack, while Rowland was offered a pawn in the opening which developed into a very dangerous attack on his king´s position hampered by an undeveloped king´s side (if that sounds odd it´s because Rowland castled long). At the mid point things were not looking very hopeful - our top boards looked pretty much level while our bottom two looked either lost or hanging by a thread.
  When Rowland finally got his king´s bishop into play (and with it his king´s rook) there was a sudden flurry of exchanges in which Rowland emerged a piece up. He immediately offered it back for a mate in four, although the fourth move was difficult to see from the start, and his opponent took the piece probably thinking that the best Rowland had was a perpetual. And who wouldn´t accept a perpetual when you´re a piece down? This was both a surprise and a relief, although the pressure was still on as Phil was hanging on by his fingernails and 1½ points from the top two was still looking a big ask.
  There was a lot of hopping up and down from the board to check on the state of the others - the tension was mounting - no draws could be offered or accepted by either side without the pre-requisite number of points in the bag. After nearly three hours of dogged defensive work, Phil had finally managed to secure a position that effectively neutralised the attack, but it was several moves after his initial draw offer was rejected that his opponent accepted that he could make no further progress.
  For some time board one was looking drawn, but without a clear win coming from board two, and with board three looking doubtful (to say the least) Panagiotis knew he had to press for the full point. He had one advantage at the mid-point of the match, having twice as much time on his clock, and that had now stretched to four times. He played as he always does, extremely actively, while keeping a close eye on his defences. In a queen and bishop ending he had managed to achieve a pair of connected passed pawns in the centre and slowly but surely advance them up the board. Panagiotis is certainly one of those who follows Emanuel Lasker´s edict, "when you see a good move, look for a better one" and he so often finds it. Instead of another pawn advance he made a couple of moves that looked as though he would lose his bishop, but a queen check resulted in instant resignation as mate would immediately follow.
  The Division One title was now ours, and for the fifth time in eight seasons! Andy could relax, and probably would have done had he been aware of the other results. Or maybe not, By now he had a definite edge. For quite some time he had his opponent tied up defensively, but the ending with bishop and two rooks, also had seven pawns each, which if successfully blockaded would make penetration virtually impossible. Andy carefully advanced his pawns and king, while keeping his opponent´s rooks and bishop tied to defence. His patience paid off and against stubborn resistence, he eventually broke through in the centre.
  The margin was much more than we could have hoped for, so let´s hope we have similar good fortune in the final of the Division One Rapid Play Cup in two weeks when we face the team that knocked us out of the Cup last season - Felixstowe.

The opening match of the 2022-23 Suffolk County Chess Association League season saw our B-Team head off to Ipswich while it was still light. On paper you could hardly get more evenly balanced teams for this opening match, you would therefore think that we would be happy with the 2½-1½ result. Truth is, it would have been 3½-½ had John and Simon not both thrown away half a point in the closing stages of their games.
  The match did not start too well either. Ipswich Town were playing at home, so not only was there considerably more traffic, there was also considerable less parking. And while David, Simon and John were lucky to find a vacant spot not far from the venue, Graeme encountered considerably more difficulty, resulting in him arriving about quarter of an hour late. On top of that, street parking charges, which used to end at 6:30pm, now extend to 8:00pm, so we had to learn how to feed the machine and pay for an hour. Thank you Ipswich Council
  David put us ahead after an hour and a half in a comfortable game where he won a piece and the queen for two rooks. He continued carefully and surely to steer his game to victory. Graeme followed next, getting his revenge for being swindled in their previous encounter last season. He responded to his opponent´s Sicilian with 2.f4 - a somewhat uncommon strategy, but it certainly worked tonight.
  In common with his last encounter with his opponent, John revised the sharper lines of the Italian  Game, and also in common with their last encounter, he faced the quiet variation. If anything John seemed to have a slight edge, but after carefully considering each move, he quickly played a pawn advance attacking a knight he thought was pinned. It was a trap and instead of winning a couple of pawns, he lost the exchange. Even after that however, the rook v knight ending with just an f and h pawn each, the game could probably have been saved, but with only two minutes available, John allowed his knight to get trapped and that was that.
  All eyes were now on Simon, whose Queens Gambit Declined was quite equal in the opening but, after winning the bishop pair and with both bishops pointing at the queenside, he develop enough threats to gain a 2 pawn advantage. The ending featured Simon´s R&B v his opponent´s R&N, but Simon had a pawn on its way to the queening square, with nothing his opponent could do to stop it. Unfortunately Simon overcomplicated things, and in time pressure, allowed black´s more active knight and king time to create enough threats for him to lose the initiative. Equally unfortunate was that when Simon´s opponent grabbed one of his rear pawns, Simon missed the opportunity to pin his opponent´s knight against his rook, and come away with the exchange. Instead, Simon advanced his pawn a little further. It was a costly mistake and with it went any chance of winning the game.
  And while all this was going on, Ipswich Town were taking Bristol Rovers apart, although the crowds had all disappeared by the time we made our way home.

Manningtree B drop another half point, by gaining an extra half point over the result previously published for this match. No, that´s not a riddle, it happened this way. Graeme was comfortably on top of his game and heading for his second win in two matches. He then slipped up and threw away certain victory. Graeme´s dejected response to having to accept his opponent´s draw offer led the Bury captain to assume that he had resigned, and recorded the score accordingly. We should therefore have got 1½ points from this match, not just one. That´s three half points the team has blown in just two matches - we can only hope that is not a pattern for the rest of the season.
  On the plus side, although having a significant rating difference, David held off his opponent and achieved a commendable draw, leaving the team in second place, just half a point clear of Stowmatket who they meet in their next match.

Manningtree B set off on their third consecutive away match of the season to face one of the two strongest teams in this division - on paper that is. And by the same token, Manningtree B is one of the two weakest sides in this division, so we were thinking that if we managed to steal a point or two we would have done well. Of course we were helped by the absence of Stowmarket´s board one, but coming away with a two and a half point win was a terrific achievement. And no thanks to the traffic at the Copdock interchange that delayed us all, although only Adrian was delayed enough to lose time on his clock. It is pretty clear that the re-designing of the lanes and lights there has been a great success; the flow of traffic at peak times has been reduced by at least 50%.
  Another thing that was pretty clear tonight was that as the games came out of the openings they were all pretty unclear. And what was also unclear was whether the black and white players on each board were playing the same openings. In the end of course, the games progressed and were finished in board order, which is not unheard of, but we´ll mention it anyway.
  Graeme did an excellent job heading up the team in what appeared to be a very complicated game. After some middle game simplifica- tions Graeme thought he stood slightly better, so when he was offered a draw he was very tempted to turn it down. On second thoughts he  decided  to accept it on the grounds that if he played on he´d quite likely blow it.
  John was hampered by an undeveloped white squared bishop, which consequently kept his queen´s side rook out of the game. With heavy pressure on his king´s position his defensive options were limited, but it was the oversight of a two move mate that ended things.
  Simon´s game was quite a hair raiser, with all sorts of complications, but he managed to hold his nerve and after a long struggle (much of it a pawn down) he entered the ending the exchange up. His queen and rook against queen and bishop proved too strong for his opponent, and when he was facing a mate in two he also resigned.
  On board four, things were looking somewhat uncomfortable for Adrian, and they would have been a lot more uncomfortable had his opponent paid a little more attention to his defences before grabbing more material. And like the two boards above, this game ended with a two move mate, but on this occasion Adrian´s opponent didn´t see it and was actually mated.
  We came away very satisfied with this result, but with Ipswich B upsetting Sudbury 3-1 at the same time, it makes the table very difficult to read. We have a game in hand and are one point off third place. That game in hand is against Sudbury, who will no doubt be thinking the same, except they need three points to move up to third.

We thought we were really going to struggle in this division this season. After all our record in division two has not been very good of late, and as well as that we have the second lowest average rating to deal with. But as the season approaches half time, we are mid-table with a match in hand, and every chance of grabbing another point or two before Christmas to keep us there. But let´s not get carried away, with only 1½ points separating the bottom four teams, anything can happen, just ask Argentina, France, Spain, Belgium or Germany in Qatar.
  Tonight we were heavily out gunned on all boards, with an average rating difference of over 150 points, but Bob got us off to a good start, facing the same opponent he had faced just two weeks earlier in the divisional rapidplay. He kept his cool, and kept things level, which was pretty much what he did two weeks earlier, and gained us a very valuable half point.
  Rod wasn´t far behind, although his game looked rather precarious at times. He faced a classic c4, d3, English that resulted in virtually denuded ´a´ and ´b´ files, and Rod had to tread very carefully. It took a lot of hard work, but when the draw was finally agreed it looked very much like that was all we were going to get.
  John was the most heavily out-rated tonight, but he nonetheless put up a good fight with the white  pieces in a game that was by no means one sided, and it took his opponent a long time to wear him down. In the end however, it was the clock that defeated him, although his position by then was pretty much lost anyway.
  Simon responded to his opponent´s queen´s pawn opening with a Pirc, but was soon at a growling disadvantage for the whole game after his opponent castled long, and steadily increased the pressure on Simon´s king´s position. Simon sacrificed his c-pawn to gain some space and piece activity but that didn´t help and he lost the exchange. It looked curtains for Simon, as it had done for quite some time, but just as his opponent´s rook was about to wrap up his pawns, along with the game, he chased one pawn too many and Simon suddenly found that with his bishop and queen dominating the dark squares he was able to invade, leading to an extremely unlikely and very fortunate checkmate.
  Two points from the highest rated team in the division was just the tonic, for without them we would be sitting at the bottom of the table, at least until our next match against Sudbury. We may never sit higher than this for the rest of this season, top of the bottom half so to speak, so the whole team deserve a good pat on the back.

Things started fast tonight, in spite of the temperature in the hall, which was cold enough to freeze the … (you know the rest). To summarise the first six moves; on Board 4, the queens were off and David had castled queenside, on Board 3, Bob was facing an opponent who played a4, d4, e4 and h4 and showed little interest in castling, and on Board 2, Graeme encouraged a very sharp game with an early f4 Sicilian. In spite of all this, some heavy thinking followed, for with the exception of board three, by half time all of the clocks had a time ratio of 2:1, but only on David´s board was that time ratio in our favour.
  Rod, on Board 1, was in a quieter looking game, but was quite quickly on the defensive on the queenside in an Indian defence setup. He unfortunately had to give up his ´a´ pawn to avoid worse positional or tactical outcomes, and after that found himself defending a simplifying position a pawn down. Knight endings are somewhat rare and difficult to manage, but in the end it was white´s six v five pawns marching down the board that proved too much to deal with.
  Having played a4 and h4 in his first few moves, you could be forgiven for thinking that Bob´s opponent was a complete novice. Subsequent moves proved otherwise as this suddenly morphed into an un- expectedly dangerous all out attack on Bob´s king´s position. With f, g and h pawn advances opening up all sorts of lines for white, Bob was unable to get counter-play going on the queenside in time to create problems of his own. Eventually the pressure told and when his queen got trapped he had to give it up for a rook and pawn, but resigned shortly after when mate could only be postponed with further loss of material.
  David´s opponent did well to overcome several early weaknesses (a more vulnerable king and doubled pawns) and equalise. David kept the game level, but gave his opponent a lot to think about that meant he had twice as much time as his opponent as the end- ing approached. After his opponent pushed David´s king aside and took control of the seventh rank, it looked very much like David was stuck for options. But after his opponent grabbed his ´h´ pawn, David dropped his own rook back to the first rank and that rook was trapped. And if it wasn´t for a passed central pawn that´s where it would have stayed. The rooks were accompanied by bishops of opposite colours, and rather than allow that central pawn to cause him trouble, David began a series of checks, and rather than risk getting mated his opponent accepted the draw.
  Graeme´s game with white was a real cracker with both players having bishop pairs, rook pairs, queens and lots of open lines, there were more mating threats to calculate than you´d usually see in a whole team match. Rather than counter a threat, it seemed that each threat was answered with another, which was in turn answered with another. Computers will probably show both players had winning combinations at various points, but the constant calculation required by both players was huge. Both players played extremely actively and it was a joy to watch, but ultimately black´s passed pawn down the centre proved decisive.
  After our previous result against Saxmundham, we were rather disappointed to come away with just half a point, but half a point is better than none. At the half way stage we stand two points clear of our relegation rivals Ipswich, and a point above a surprisingly under-performing Stowmarket. There is still a lot to play for next year.

With the repairs to our regular playing room ongoing, we played in the main hall tonight. Nothing wrong with that, except for the trek up and down the stairs to the equipment cupboard.
  At the start of the season we considered Ipswich B to be the team to beat to avoid the wooden spoon in this division, although it now seems like Stowmarket are vying for the privilege. It´s still far too early to call of course, and tonight´s result shows just how easily outcomes can turn. After an hour or so of play we were a pawn up on all boards except board three, and it looked as though we had a very good chance of putting five whole points between us and Ipswich B, with four points an almost certainty. Alas, fortune was clearly with the visitors tonight.
  John was the first to finish, and after an early exchange of queens John had managed to build up a clear advantage, to the point of being two pawns up in a rook and bishop ending. But while John had a two pawn surplus, what he didn´t have was much time. His opponent had a good half hour advantage, as well a very active bishop and rook - the sort of position that´s quite difficult to win and very easy to lose. Taking the cautious route John accepted a draw, which was fine because things were looking rather good on the other boards.
  Rod was engaged in a very lively game on board one, and like John he too accumulated a two pawn advantage. He had to tread very carefully however, as the pieces surrounding his king´s position were looking highly suspicious. As it turned out, it was his opponent´s simplifications that diffused the situation and gave him the second pawn. And with that we were a point ahead.
  Looking at the remaining two boards it looked as though a comfortable win was in sight. Bob´s game had appeared more or less level throughout, but in the ending, his passed (although isolated) h-pawn and his bishop v knight gave him a clear edge. Like John´s position, this was going to be a difficult one to win, but unlike John, Bob wasn´t short of time so he went for it. Advancing his h-pawn, which left his bishop undefended, it looked as though Bob had found a brilliant bishop sacrifice to queen the pawn. Alas it was a complete blunder, demonstrating how easy it is to lose positions like this.
  There must have been something in the water that night, for Graeme had been playing quite faultlessly, weakening his opponent´s position and piling the pressure on his opponent´s king´s position. At the crucial moment Graeme missed the winning continuation, and within minutes of Bob losing his bishop, Graeme blundered one of his rooks. No one was expecting that, especially not Ipswich. However, we are still one point above them and we both have four matches left. And as this is a six team division, we both have exactly the same opponents left. This is going to be interesting!

Well how about that, draws all round - but no theoretical ones here, they were all hard fought battling ones. Taking the games in board order;
  Graeme did very well to defend against a dangerous looking kingside attack from his opponent who played a French defence, expanded on the kingside and castled queenside. In the end the attack petered out without the help of a light squared bishop.
  Bob as black played a kind of Modern opening and forced his opponent into an exchange sacrifice but then gave it back, and things traded down to king and sole pawn each.
  Simon faced a sharp Benoni that got crazy early on. His opponent made an exchange sacrifice that wasn´t too good, but in the end his very active bishop pair was as good as Simon´s rook and knight, and they agreed a draw with Simon very low on the clock.
  David played a solid game with black and seemed to have the advantage at times. With queen, rook and a bishop on the board, low on time, and somewhat exposed kings for both players, they agreed a draw with David giving a series of checks that white´s king needed to keep evading.
  All things considered a very satisfying result that keeps us mid-table, although both team below us have a game in hand. This could be brewing up for a very interesting conclusion to the season when we face Stowmarket in our final match.

With Stowmarket thumping Ipswich the previous evening, we thought that our hopes of keeping pace with them, and thus having any chance of overtaking them in the final match of the season was gone. We didn´t expect to get much from top of the table Bury tonight, and with the equally strong Saxmundham to face in our penultimate match, it looked as though only Ipswich provided us a buffer against finishing bottom. How wrong we were, but we should have been even wronger!
  John finished first after only 12 moves. At move 9 of his Nimzo-Larsen he was as good as won, even his opponent thought so. A pawn up, about to win another, a dominating centre and a queen ready to pounce, what could go wrong? His opponent thought for over half an hour on his predicament and in desperation decided to sacrifice his queen for a bishop and rook. John however decided he would rather keep his pawn structure and his extra pawn because the Q,R&N v 2R,B&N looked far from clear. A disastrous decision, accepting the sacrifice was in fact forced; refusing it would lead at best to the loss of a piece, or as it turned out, the loss of the queen. Two blind spots and John missed them both - that´s what could go wrong.
  Simon´s game went according to plan, with his trusty Caro Kann, which his opponent didn´t seem too familiar with. He achieved a good position from the opening with a couple of extra tempos to allow him to expand on the queenside and use the semi-open c file. After the exchange of light squared bishops and a pair of knights he managed to lock in a backward b pawn on b2 and raise the pressure on its defenders. His opponent tried to find some counter-play on the kingside but without a light squared bishop none really existed, and after navigating some fairly tricky tactical exchanges involving hanging rooks, Simon emerged three pawns up with all rooks somehow still on the board. After trading rooks it was a straight forward, if slow, conversion.
  Graeme finished next, and the score remained level. He had played the Scotch Game and he found himself positionally very strong by the middle game. As the clock ticked down he felt confident of at least getting a draw, and his thoughts were confirmed when his opponent offered him one. After initially declining, a few moves later Graeme returned the offer. Graeme could rightly feel quite proud to hold his higher rated opponent, but ten minutes after the game his opponent pointed out that Graeme missed the opportunity to win his rook….and thus the game! Oh well! Still, not winning is a whole lot better than losing.
  While the score was still level, it looked a bit touch and go on the final board. Rod had been playing most of the game with two pieces for a rook and pawn and by the time he reached the ending he was reduced to passivity with his two bishops tied down to preventing a pawn advance, a rook penetration or a king penetration. And with time running low, and a second score sheet at the ready, the game looked like going on for ever. Rod´s opponent tried every avenue he could to break through, but Rod kept his nerve as well as his defences. It looked as though a draw was inevitable, but there was something his opponent could try - exchange his rook for one of the bishops and advance pawns on both wings, hoping that the remaining bishop would be unable to cover both queening squares at the same time. And after exhausting all other avenues, that is exactly what he tried. It was a do or die attempt, and for a moment it looked as though it might succeed. It didn´t.
  To our surprise this two and a half point win put us in the top half of the table, with just two matches to go. You would think that we would be very pleased with that, well we are, but it could so easily have been four!

Had Bury repeated the performance they had in their earlier fixture against Ipswich, tonight´s half point would have been enough to guarantee our survival in this division. As it happened, Ipswich turned the tables (quite literally) and now Bury are half a point off the top and we´re dangerously close to the bottom. One point from our final match against Stowmarket will do it, but that´s easier said than done, especially if Stowmarket bring out their top team.
  Probably best not to dwell on the games too much, for while the score indicates quite a thrashing, this wasn´t true for the games themselves. Bob and Simon both had winning chances in their games, John should have got at least a draw, while Graeme´s Latvian produced the usual fireworks that could have gone either way.

We needed just one point from tonight´s match to guarantee that we would stay off the bottom spot, and we achieved that with room to spare. In fact, another half a point tonight and we would have finished third in the table! Mind you, it didn´t look anything like this promising during the first hour when it was hard to see where that vital point was coming from. David was a pawn down and Graeme was weathering a blistering storm, while Bob and Simon didn´t look anything better than level where anything can happen.
  Then the breakthrough came. Simon had cleared the board of pieces and entered a rook and pawn ending with a clear advantage. However, when the rooks came off it looked touch and go in the pawn ending with white and black pressing on opposite wings. Fortunately in the ensuing pawn chase Simon had counted moves better than the spectators and gave us that crucial point.
  David followed next having kept that pawn deficit to manageable proportions, and barring blunders it never looked like ending in anything other than a draw. Meanwhile on board one, it was quite an achievement that Graeme lasted as long as he did. He was under tremendous pressure from the start, hampered with severe underdevelopment and dangerous threats from several directions. He soaked it up and survived it all to reach a rook and knight ending, but at the cost of several pawns, and when the knights came off it was a text book win for his opponent in the rook and pawn ending.
  Bob brought up the rear, in a game that looked for some time to be heading for a draw.  Pawns were locked on files a-e, and the positions on the other files looked eminently defendable by both side. However Bob´s pressure along the f-file eventually paid off after his opponent overlooked a devastating bishop penetration that lost him the exchange, and shortly after, the game.
  Our hopes were quite high that we would get at least the point we needed tonight, but we didn´t expect to actually win the match in the process. This repeats the score of our earlier encounter with Stowmarket and we could hardly have been more delighted.

We finished joint bottom in the U1800 last year, joint bottom with Bury St Edmunds that is. And after tonight we still share the same position in the table. Mind you, we were very lucky, and Bury can be forgiven for feeling a little robbed.
  Not on account of Simon´s win however. He faced a Dutch in which black played an early g6 - unusual, but not unheard of. Simon developed a strong positional advantage, which led to the win of a piece, after which the result was never in doubt. It was as well to get the score line off to a good start because things were not looking so good for the rest of the team. John was clearly losing, while the positions were quite unclear on the other two boards, mainly because they both appeared to have pieces on virtually every square of the board.
  As the smoke began to clear on David´s board it was clear that he was in trouble, for not only had the smoke cleared, but so had all of his queen´s side pawns, and he faced a pair of connected, passed pawns on the fourth rank, both with a rook behind them. Neither of them reached their queening squares, but at the cost of a rook, and David struggled on for some time with a rook deficit before the inevitable end came.
  John continued his run of poor form by blundering a knight on move seven. He was under the impression he was facing a sort of Italian Game with a different move order, and made a rookie error. He spent the rest of the game trying to keep the queens on the board but when the end arrived it was his opponent´s turn to blunder by giving back the knight. Mind you, he did at least have an excuse, he was by then playing on the increments, unlike John, who had spent five minutes on his blunder.
  With the score unexpectedly level, the fate of the match now rested on board one. There was still an air of weirdness about the position here, as if it had been  constructed  for a film set by  someone  who didn´t know the moves. We had reached move forty (or thereabouts) and still not so much as a pawn had been sent off. Bob´s opponent had more space and flexibility, so Bob decided to give up a pawn to give himself some air. A fairly rapid exchange of pieces followed until just a pair of bishops remained. It was still a bit strange however, as Bob´s bishop was imprisoned behind an immoveable pawn wall isolated on the queen´s side and could do nothing more than rattle around there. It didn´t really matter for Bob´s king was sufficiently placed to block any infiltration on the King´s side and a draw was agreed, which also of course, drew the match.
  Not a bad start for us in this Cup, and with Ipswich beating defending champions Woodbridge 2½-1½ this could be a very close competition.

Things weren´t exactly going to plan in the week leading up to this match. A train strike struck and Plan A gave way to Plan B. The train strike was unstruck, so back to Plan A. An unexpected hospital trip then forced us to adopt Plan C, which thankfully survived the night. Woodbridge are the current holders of the U1800 trophy, and last season they hammered us 6½-1½ in the process of getting it. This season however they are without their erstwhile board one, who went above 1800 at the start of this season, no doubt partly due to this hammering. That´ll teach ´em.
  Simon finished first, facing a Dutch in which he sacrificed a pawn for an awesome positional advantage. Unfortunately he then missed the tactics to press that advantage and had to settle for a tame draw. Adrian followed soon after having worked his way through a game that seemed pretty much even throughout. It was a good result considering his opponent´s current form. With the match level, the remaining two boards were interesting. That is, it didn´t look like either would end in a draw.
  John came out on the Queen´s Gambit a pawn down, but with four bishops and two queens spread across an open board it was a minefield. And it was John´s opponent who stepped on one first, a big one too, and so well hidden that even John didn´t know it was there. He only realised the size of that mine during the twenty minutes or so that his opponent spent thinking how to respond to it. Faced with either a devastating loss of material or a mate in three, he chose the latter as there was perhaps a faint chance that John would attempt the mate with the wrong piece.
  At this point it looked a distinct possibility that we could avenge last year´s disasters and win this match 3-1. Graeme´s game was fairly even for most of the time, but as the ending approached things were definitely looking better for him, for although his opponent had the bishop pair, Graeme´s rook was far more active and looked likely to pick off a pawn or two at will. His opponent however proved very resourceful and threatened danger down the open f-file and things started looking very complicated indeed, and not helped by the fact that both players were entering their last five minutes. Graeme pressed for the win he thought was his, but he underestimated his opponent´s very active king, which cleaned up his pawns in the middle of the board, and almost before he´d realised it, Graeme was facing a 4-1 pawn deficit. Nothing more could be done, and we went away from our second U1800 match with a second 2-2 draw.
 We were temporarily top of the table after this, but Bury gave Saxmundham a hammering the following evening, so we will have to be content with second place, for the time being at least.

The observant among you will have noticed that the date for this match is a palindrome, which coincidentally is also true of our last two results in this competition. After two successive 2-2 draws we have finally got a win, and risen to second place in the table, swapping places with Ipswich with just a slender half point in it.
  In common with our last visit to Ipswich, Ipswich Town were playing at home. However, this time there was no excess traffic and no shortage of available parking. Presumably Town fans are not as interested in the Papa Johns Trophy as they are League One. Or perhaps they regarded the France v Australia clash on TV a more attractive proposition. Whatever the reason we arrived in Ipswich very early, having built in an extra ten minutes, which turned out to be unnecessary.
  Bob finished first due to a slip up fairly early in the game, and so had plenty of time to observe the remaining boards. Once again Adrian put in a solid performance, keeping his significantly higher rated opponent under control and gave the team a valuable half point. John was next, and after a fairly complicated Nimzo-Larsen, and with both queens deep in opposition camps it was John´s opponent who slipped up and lost his rook, along with any chance of either continuing his own attack, or defending his king.
  With the match now level the final result rested on Simon. His was a somewhat unusual game in which his opponent´s first six moves were all with pawns. Simon handled the situation very well and it wasn´t long before he had a significant positional advantage. As the ending approached Simon missed a killer that would have netted him at least a rook and pretty much crippled his opponent´s defences. However he managed to keep his advantage, and as he pressed that home he was offered a draw on three separate occasions. It ended with two queens versus one king, but his opponent played on until mated, no doubt hoping for a very slim chance of stalemate.
  A satisfying result, and a similar one in our return match against Woodbridge in two weeks will put us in a good position to challenge Bury for the top spot.

It was a perishing night tonight, with temperatures well below zero, but the broken pump on the church central heating had been fixed, so this week we didn´t have to play in our coats. It didn´t help with the team performance however, as we suffered our first defeat this season in this competition, and missed out on taking the top spot from Bury. Although we are technically top jointly with Bury, but only until next month when Ipswich and Bury play their game in hand over us.
  Probably best not to say too much about tonight´s performances, apart from Simon´s that is, who had to defeat the train strike before he could tackle his opponent, and he managed it with just twelve minutes to spare. And another commendable performance from Simon over the board, giving us a very welcome point, and thus avoiding a wipeout.

While we remain in second place after this defeat, it´s only because we have played more games than the rest. Last year we finished joint last, and if we´re not careful, we could repeat that performance this year. Although this wasn´t one of our best performances, neither was it our worst.
  Playing top board, Simon got into trouble after his queen got trapped. He struggled on for a while, but without an equally disastrous slip up from his opponent, the piece for a queen deficit could only end one way. John had achieved dominant control of the queen´s side and should really have won this, but a serious blunder on the king´s side threw all his hard work away. No blunders on David´s board, well not by him anyway. He did a great job in first, preventing his opponent castling and then depriving his opponent´s king of much cover. He played his advantage to the end picking up another impressive win. There was an early exchange of queens on board four, and as the game progressed it looked very much like the initiative was with Adrian´s opponent. Adrian defended well to make the final score a little more respectable.

We did not have high hopes for our chances in this competition this year, but if we´re not careful, we could end up at the bottom. Mind you, there´s only one point between us and second place, so we could save our blushes with a couple of decent results in our final two matches.
  We won´t say too much about tonight´s games, except that Adrian did very well, keeping a level head, and a level position, but poor David was far from level, following John´s example of three weeks earlier by blundering his queen within half an hour of play to the same opponent. Graeme looked reasonably OK for most of the game, but looks can be deceptive, and Simon put in a great performance, and had at least a draw in the ending with his two knights against his opponent´s rook. But disaster struck when he blundered one of the knights, and though he put up a spirited rear guard action, his opponent refused to return the blunder, giving us our worst result in this competition since 2017.

It was nice to be able to travel to a chess match in the light, especially when it´s a place like Saxmundham. And it´s even nicer when you come away with a big win.
  Before so much as a pawn was exchanged on any of the other boards, John´s game was over. His opponent had overlooked the loss of the exchange, but as can often happen in chess, when you make a mistake, you can follow it up with an even worse one, and that is what happened here, and why the game was so short.
  The other games were quite the opposite, they all went the distance. Adrian was looking good on his board; the exchange of a pair of minor pieces had left him with the bishop pair and an extra pawn. It looked as though he was going to win a second pawn as he ramped up the pressure, but his opponent played actively and sacrificed a piece for the pawns around Adrian´s  king.  It was an  unusual  position  with Adrian´s king imprisoned on the a-file by two enemy rooks that were threatening mate, and Adrian´s extra bishop playing a defensive role. Adrian was faced with a choice, either repeat moves or get mated.
  Simon finished next after a very long struggle that resulted in a rook and pawn ending that was definitely in Simon´s favour - material was level but Simon controlled the open file and had the better pawn structure. However it was a very tricky rook and pawn ending in which Simon´s opponent proved very resilient, and even though his rook was forced onto a passive defensive role he advanced his queen´s side pawn majority without his king´s support while Simon concentrated his efforts on advancing his king´s side pawns. It was a strategy that very nearly cost Simon the game - and would have done if his opponent had seen a pawn by-pass manoeuvre.
  Bob brought up the rear following an open and very active encounter. His opponent had surrendered a pawn and mounted a direct attack on Bob´s f2 pawn, in which he could have taken the pawn and rook for bishop and knight. Bob was offered a second pawn, but he picked it up much later, having negotiated the complications of the middle game and emerged with a clearly won rook and pawn ending.
  In spite of this result, and the fact that it puts us second in the table, our overall record in this division is still below 50%. However, a similar result in two weeks against Ipswich will remedy that situation a little and keep up from repeating last year´s performance at the foot of the table.

We were kind of hoping we might just finish this season´s U1800 division on 50% but Ipswich clearly had other ideas. However, unless something goes seriously wrong it will be Bury who carry home the U1800 trophy this season and we could end up at the bottom again.
  The highlight of tonight´s match was without doubt taking place on board two. After Graeme had agreed a relatively early draw and both Adrian and John were ground down in much longer struggles, Simon was carving out another impressive win to make him the team´s highest scorer this season. It was attacking play from both players, but with Simon clearly on top his opponent figured he stood a better chance swapping off rooks for a bishop of opposite colour ending. He didn´t, although he did continue playing a queen down, no doubt in the faint chance that there might be a stalemate. There wasn´t.

A terrific result in which everyone contributed something to the final score. And it was great to see Rowland back, making his first appearance for us this season. And if we can repeat this performance in the league next week we´ll be in with a good chance of winning the double, something we have done only once before back in 2016-17.

Without our regular top two boards it was always going to be a tall order to overcome Felixstowe and take the double this year. Although it was a close thing, so well done to the team, but who can deny Felixstowe their first top division trophy in nearly fifty years.

Our chances in the Division Two Rapid Play Cup were always going to be slim, even if we had our full nominated four available, so tonight´s result came as no surprise. Mind you, Saxmundham didn´t have it all their own way, we managed to hold them 2-2 in the first round before they got into their stride in a second half and sent us packing. And if you´re pondering the board order, it´s down to the somewhat random nature of rapid play ratings, based as they are on a small number of results spread over several years.

The last time we entered this competition was five years ago, and we were knocked out by Bury 5-1 on that occasion. So a slight improvement then? Perhaps, although the two teams we very different back then. In fact Jaden Jermy was Bury´s bottom board in that match, and B-Team regular David Welsh managed to hold him to a draw.
 This competition used to be the Cup competition in Suffolk in which every club entered a team, much like the FA Cup in which every club enters even though the vast majority have no chance of winning it. The opportunity of killing a giant was the motivation. It would be nice to see that spirit return.