ANOTHER DRAWN MATCH

The match with QUB was drawn. It took place at the impressive Queen`s University venue. 

With such a good Chess venue and the possibility of funding, it looks like Queen`s Chess Club have a potentially very promising future.

Here is a short video taken at the venue just before the games started, did not get much video footage as my game was the last to finish.

Rookie`s Report on the match is below.
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1.Callum Ormerod 0-1 Ray Devenney
2. Ian Woodfield 0.5-0.5 Sam Flanagan
3. Samuel Ngieng 0.5-0.5 David Ruben
4.Milad Fozooni 1-0 John McKenna
5. Bernard Mc Caughey 0.5-0.5 Bemard Jaffa
Total 2.5-2.5. + Bonus: 3.5-3.5.

What names to conjure with - how to make puns with those names? 

I had to " burn hard" the midnight oil to think of one for the draw between the 2 Bernard's!

In this "column", Calum's defeat against unbeaten Ray could not be omitted, however " callous" that might be! 

As for Fozooni's victory over previously unbeaten John, "fools only" rush in where angels fear to tread! 

As I said to the judge, "yes, mi lud", the puns are that bad! 

The chances of a positive result on Board 3 rather than a draw were " ngoing, ngoing, Ngieng "! 

Before the match, I wondered if QUB 1 " would field" Woodfield but they did and his draw with Sam tied the match. 

Martin Kelly AKA Rookie

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Names in the Bible are very interesting, they all signify something, like NABAL for instance.

1 Samuel 25:25 Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal: for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him: but I thine handmaid saw not the young men of my lord, whom thou didst send.

DRAWN MATCH

The match between Belfast South and the Lions was drawn.

Here is a postion from my game against Ross Harris. I am white and I have just played Kc6 to Kd6, unwittingly giving away a lot of my advantage, according to my computer programme.

Is it possible for black to draw this game? It is quite difficult when you only have a few minutes but it may still be possible.

Rookie`s report is below.

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1.Ray Devenney 1-0 Calum Leitch.

2.Sam Flanagan 1-0 Ross Harris.

3.Bruce MacLean 0.5-0.5 John Bradley.

4.John Bryars 0-1 Sam Moore.

5.Bernard Jaffa 0-1 Richard Gould.

Total: 2.5-2.5. + Bonus: 3.5-3.5.

C S. Lewis teams - Have you seen their wardrobe? Not up to our sartorial elegance, but the Lions were, in the mane, worth the draw!

On Board 4, John made a kamikaze move, which samurai Sam Moore, I believe, exploited to win.

Omagh goodness, John Bradley from Omagh showed his Tyrone Power by drawing with Bruce- a Brucey bonus.

Ray D. was ready to resign, but played a peach of a move against Leitch to win his queen- life's a bitch!

Next, Gould fooled Bernard into thinking he would win on time; alas Richard hung on to win. Finally,

Ross suffered a loss to Sam, 'cause Sam was the boss in the end.

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Luke 14:31 Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?

32 Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace.

MULDOONS 3 BELFAST SOUTH 2

Tonight`s match againt Muldoons ended with a 3-2 victory for Muldoons.

Below is an interesting endgame position from my game against Nicholas.  It is white to play, what is the best way to continue? I did not see it during the game.

Rookies report is below.

1.Ray Devenney 1-0 Gareth Annesley. 

2.Sam Flanagan 0.5-0.5 Nicholas Pilkiewicz. 

3.Bruce MacLean 0-1 Stephen Wood. 

4.John Bryars 0-1 Danny Mallaghan. 

5.Chris Armstrong. 

Total 2-3. + Bonus 2-5.

I've mulled over this game- we're down but not out! 

We're now second in Division 1. 

After an hour, we were 2-0 down. 

First, Dan the Man had a plan which beat John. 

Then, I hoped Bruce would cruise to victory, given his great start to the season- so I hoped Steve wood lose but he won. 

Des was in a daze as Chris was not amiss at forcing Des to offer a draw. 

Ray's played so well so far that I was hopeful in his game against Annesley- and slay him, he did. 

Sam, a pawn up, needed a win to secure a match draw, but Nick managed to Nick a draw to win the match 3-2.

Joel 3:14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision:

BANGOR VERSUS BELFAST SOUTH

Thursday`s match with Bangor could easily haved ended 3.5 - 1.5 for Bangor.  I arrived late for my game and ended up in serious time trouble.

As you can see in the video, the Bangor club are using mechanical clocks which make it difficult to know exactly how much time you have when the flag starts to fall. You reach a stage when it looks like the flag is about to fall immediately.

Rookie`s report is below.
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1.Alan McConnell 0.5-0.5 Ray Devenney;

2.James O'Fee 0-1 Sam Flanagan;

3.Walter Wilson 0-1 Bruce MacLean;

4.Richard Morrow 1-0 David Ruben;

5.Gary Johnston 0-1 Neil Green.

Total 1.5-3.5. +Bonus 1.5-5.5.                                           



I climbed into Sam's old banger to get to Bangor last night. 

Wobbly Walter Wilson wilted to defeat but Bruce couldn't lose.

On Board 1, Alan was falling behind a pawn down but held out for a draw against Ray. 

David was full of sorrow after losing to Morrow. 

The scores were level with time trouble in the last two games. 

Fee, fi, fo, fum, O'Fee was not a happy chum as Sam, 2 Queens up, got him to resign with 15 seconds left. 

All hinged on the bottom board where Neil must have been eating his greens as his stamina outlasted Gary's, who lost on time. 

Martin Kelly.

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1 Cor 7:29 “The time is short.”

NAIVETY TEST

This is a position from my last game in the IOM. It turns out the position is a lot more interesting than I first imagined.

It is so interesting I have now called it an "NAIVETY TEST for club players.

I am black and it is black to play, black is close to queening a pawn. 

How would you assess the state of play? Should it be a win for black or a draw?

What is black`s best move?

In the "Naivety test" I got a rating of "Extremely naive."

Someone may find this an interesting postion to play against their computer programme.

This is the full game showing the position above. I naively assumed by pushing the f pawn I would win the white rook, then it should be easy to use my rook to cut the white king off from the h pawn, and win the game.

As you can see this was extremely naive.

Play chess online

This is how the game should have went according to my computer programme. The move I missed was Rook back to e8 on move 69. As you can see my naivety cost me a forced mate in about 20 moves.


I think this game gives an overall view of my present ability. In most of my games I do not get caught out in the openings. 

However my play in the middlegame and endgames is seriously lacking in proficiency.

Need to commence some very serious middle and endgame studies.

Ecc 12:12 And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

ANTI CHEATING MEASURES AT IOM TOURNAMENT

Here is a short video showing a few of the players being  electronically scanned as part of the anti cheating measures at the Isle Of Man tournament.

Different people are chosen at random every day as part of the security strategy.

Proverbs 28:18 Whoso walketh uprightly shall be saved: but he that is perverse in his ways shall fall at once.

THE THREE HEADED DOG

Someone in N.Ireland has published a book using the brilliant title, "The Three Headed Dog." 

Incidentally, the book has a strong link to the Isle Of Man!

It would make a great title for a chess opening. Maybe GM Simon Williams will be able to conjure up some suitable attack line for his next video series and give it this name.

In my game today a position was reached where you could almost visualise a three headed-dog on the board. You just have to image the horse`s heads are dog`s heads, on c3, e4 and f5, all in a diagonal.

Here is another position which should have arisen in my game today, if I had been a much better player.

A three-pronged attack by white featuring the Knight, Bishop and Queen. Alas, I failed to see it. 

It is black to move.

Here is a real position from my game today, which almost melted my head trying to find the best way to continue. 

I did not find the computer`s best way but fortunately I did find the second best way.

It is white to move, I will post my Computer programme`s best move in the comments section along with my second best move.

Ecc 12:12 And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.