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Last revised: 13 October, 2004.

Isle of Man Chess Association

Southern Chess Club

Competition Results Season 2002 / 2003

IOM Chess Association Blitz Championship - 3rd April 2003

A week after finishing joint first in the Manx Chess Championship, John Costello scored a clear win in the IOM Chess Association Blitz Championship held at the Hilton Hotel. John finished ahead of quickplay specialist Chris Beards and 2001 winner Francis Thoday, with co-Manx champion Jonathan Waugh fourth.

In Blitz each player has five minutes per game to make all his moves, which can lead to frantic finishes and damaged chess clocks! The two Costello-Beards matches ended drawn after incredible time scrambles. Costello lost one game to Thoday, but won all the rest. Beards outplayed Thoday in their first game, and held on for a draw in the return in the last round to clinch second place.

Other highlights included Waugh taking a win and a draw from Beards, and Alan Robertson having successive wins over Thoday and Waugh. With so little thinking time, winning positions can quickly be lost, and Alan Ormsby was to suffer more than once.

Leading scores; 1/. John Costello 10 (out of 12); 2/. Chris Beards 8½; 3/. Francis Thoday 8.

Monday 31st March 2003 - Southern Chess Club Club Championship.

Francis Thoday retained the Southern Club Championship with a maximum of 5 points from 5 games.

Runner up was Richard Sargent (4) who defeated Mike Ware (3) in the final round in a game of wildly fluctuating fortunes. Mike had the better of the opening, looked set to win then lost a piece in the middle game. Richard then let Mike in with a chance of a draw by repetition of moves, but Mike tried for a win which failed and after the forced exchange of Queens and the sacrifice of a Rook, Richard had 3 unopposed Queen side pawns which could not be stopped.

Other scores:- Brian Keig 3; Bob Talbot & Jamie Wright 2; Juan Watterson 1.

Monday 24th March 2003 - Southern Chess Club Chairman's Trophy

Result (to be confirmed) :-

John Hodgson retained the trophy for the second year in succession with 4½ points from 5 games.

Other scores:- Juan Watterson 4; Brian Keig 3½, Andrew Kent 2; Ken Orry 1.

Monday 17th March 2003 - Southern Chess Club Club Championship.

Francis Thoday won against Mike Ware to take the lead and virtually clinch the Club Championship Title. In a long equal game which should have been drawn, Mike made an error in the pawn ending and Francis "stole" the game.

Richard Sargent moved into equal second place beating Bob Talbot in another equal game that perhaps Bob could have drawn by repetitive moves part way through.

In the final round, Mike and Richard will now play each other for "second place".

Leading Scores:- F Thoday 4; M Ware, R Sargent 3; B Keig 2.

Monday 3rd March 2003 - Southern Chess Club Club Championship.

Francis Thoday and Mike Ware are both undefeated and lead the Club Championship 5 round Swiss tournament after 3 rounds.

Scores:- F Thoday, M Ware 3; R Sargent 2; B Talbot, B Keig, J Wright & J Watterson 1.

The Stephen Maggs Memorial Cup - Second leg, 13 February 2003

The second leg of the Stephen Maggs Memorial Cup was played at the Douglas Chess Club on the 13^th February in a team event where the two senior chess clubs in the Isle of Man meet to play for the Cup donated by Stephen’s mother, Mrs Jean Maggs. Twice a year, this event brings together the players from Douglas and Southern Chess clubs for as much a social gathering as a serious chess competition. For most of the Southern Club players this was their first opportunity to play at the Douglas Club’s new venue, the Derby Suite at the Hilton Hotel, which was an excellent venue.

With the Douglas Club having the higher rated players, their victory was inevitable, but not without a few surprises. On the top board, Neville Gill defeated Francis Thoday, the game shown below is annotated by Neville.
White: Neville Gill; Black: Francis Thoday
1	d4	Nf6
2	c4	e6
3	Nc3	Bb4
4	Qc2	d5
5	cxd5	exd5
6	Bg5	0-0	The usual line is 6.........h6 7.Bh4 c5.
7	e3	c6
8	Bd3	h6	White threatened 9.Bxh7+, a move easily overlooked.
9	Bh4	Re8
10	Nf3	Nbd7	Although the opening was a Nimzo-Indian, the position reached is really a Queens Gambit Declined Exchange variation.
11	0-0	Bxc3	So that if 12.Qxc3, a later Ne4 will attack the Queen.
12	bxc3	g5
13	Bg3	Ne4
14	c4	Nxg3
15	hxg3	Nf6
16	Ne5	Ng4	Here, 17.cxd5 is a decent move, but I could not resist sacrificing the Knight.
17	Bh7+	Kg7
18	Nxf7	Qf6	Francis displayed excellent judgement by playing this move very quickly. If 18......Kxf7 I was planning something like 19.Qg6+ Ke7 20.Qg7+ Ke6 21.e4
19	Ne5	Nxe5
20	dxe5	Rxe5
21	cxd5	Rxd5	After 21......cxd5, White would have an obvious advantage.
22	Rad1	Bf5?	Loses at once. Correct was 22......Be6! 23.Bd3! with the idea of e4 and f4. If Black could somehow survive the attack he would eventually win on the other side with his 3 to 1 pawn majority.
23	Bxf5	Rxf5	Black's original intention was 23.....Qxf5, only now realising that White has 24.e4.
24	Rd7+	Kh8	Black resigned without waiting for 25.g4 1-0
For some reason, Francis Thoday has always been a difficult opponent for me! This is only the second game I have ever won against him. It was even harder than usual this time because I had been in the fresh air all day (an outside job with Securicor) and I felt shattered. Neville Gill.

On board 2, John Costello finished off Richard Sargent in clinical fashion after Richard had taken a “poisoned” pawn mid-way through the game.

White: Richard Sargent; Black: John Costello

1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3 Bf5 4.Bd3 Bxd3 5.cxd3 Nc6 6.0-0 e6 7.a3 a5 8.Re1 Be7 9.e4 dxe4 10.dxe4 0-0 11.e5 Nd5 12.Nc3 Nxc3 13.bxc3 Qd7 14.Bb2 a4 15.Qd3 b5 16.Qxb5 Rfb1 17.Qe2 Rb3 18.Qc2 R8b8 19.Reb1 Na5 20.Nd2 Rb6 21.Bc1 Nb3 22.Nxb3 axb3 23.Qe2 Qc6 24.Bb2 Ra1 25.h3 g6 26.Kh1 Ra4 27.Qd3 Qa1 28.Qd1 Bxa3 29.Bxa3 Rxa3 30.Rxa3 Qxa3 31.Ra1 Qb2 32.Ra8+ Kg7 33.Qf3 Qc1+ 34.Kh2 Qg5 35.Ra1 Rb8 36.Qe2 Qf5 37.Qb2 Qe4 38.Ra3?! Qc2 0-1

The surprises came on boards 3 and 5, Glenn Cross, one of the favourites for this year’s Manx Championships, losing against Bob Talbot on board 3.

White: Glenn Cross; Black: Bob Talbot

1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nf6 3.Nc6 e6 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.Bg5 Be7 6.e3 a6 7.Rc1 h6 8.Bf4 dxc4 9.Bxc4 b5 10.Bd3 Bb7 11.0-0 0-0 12.Ne4 Rc8 13.Nc5 Bxc5 14.Rxc5 Nb4 15.Bb1 Nd7 16.Rc1 Nd5 17.Bg3 N2f6 18.Ne5 Nd7 19.Qd3 N4f6 20.Nc6 Qe8 21.e4 e5 22.d5 Bxc6 23.dxc6 Nb8 24.Qc3 Qe6 25.Bxe5 Rfe8 26.Bxf6 gxf6 27.Qg3+ Kh8 28.Qf4 Kg7 29.Rc3 Rh8 30.Rfc1 Qe5 31.Qd2 Rcd8 32.Qc2 Rd4 33.a3 Rhd8 34.Rc5 Qxc5 0-1

Richard Mylrea losing against Brian Keig on board 5.

White: Richard Mylrea; Black: Brian Keig

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nc3 d5 3.Bg5 e6 4.a3 Be7 5.Bxf6 Bxf6 6.e3 0-0 7.Nf3 Nd7 8.e4 c6 9.e5 Be7 10.g3 c5 11.dxc5 Nxc5 12.Nd4 a6 13.f4 Qc7 14.Bd3 Nxd3 15.Qxd3 Bd7 16.0-0-0 Rac8 17.Kd2!? b5 18.b4 Qc4 19.Rhe1 Rc7 20.Qxc4 Rxc4 21.Nf3 Rfc8 22.Nxb5 Rxc2+ 23.Kd3 Bxb5+ Kd4 24.Bd8 and mate next move! 0-1

At this stage the clubs were level at 2-2, but the experience of Jonathan Waugh playing against newcomer Jamie Wright on board 4, plus a walk-over (Note A) for Alan Robertson resulted in a 4-2 victory on the night and 9-3 on aggregate for the Douglas Chess Club.

(Note A) Southern Club players not available:- One in Australia, one ill, one "cruising" on the Fog-bound Ben Mychree? and one wine-tasting with the Junior Chamber of Commerce. ZUGZWANG

During the first two weeks in January, two Rapidplay competitions were held, all-play-all, 25 minutes per player per game.

The winner of the IOM Chess Association Dennis Hemsley rapidplay was Jonathan Waugh with 5 points from 5 games. Alan Ormsby was a close second on 4, and John Griffin, Alan Robertson & Chris Beards finished on 2 points.

At the Southern Chess club, Mike Ware & Richard Sargent finished equal first on 5 points, Dennis Hooper & Bob Talbot 3 points, Brian Keig & Jamie Wright 2 points.

16 December 2002 - SCC Handicap Tournament Final result

Juan Watterson won the Southern Chess Club Handicap competition with 4½ points from 5 games. He needed a victory against Dennis Hooper in the final round and duly won. As Juan said, "first to make a mistake loses....." The deciding game was as follows: White: Juan watterson Black: Dennis Hooper:- 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd 4.Nxd4 Bc5 5.Nxc6 bxc6 6.Nc3 Nf6 7.Bg5 Be7 8.Qf3 d6 9.g3 Bg4 10.Qf4 Qd7 11.Be2 Bxe2 12.Nxe2 Qe6 13.Nd4 Qc4 14.e5? Nd5 15.Qe4 Bxg5 16.exd6+ Kf1 17.Ne6+! Kg8? 18.Qxc4 Re8 19.0-0 Rxe6 20.Rfe1 cxd 21.Qxc6 Nb4 22.Qc8+ Resigns 1-0
Rest of the game results not available
			Leader board
Juan Watterson	1-0	Dennis Hooper	Juan Watterson	4½
			Dennis Hooper	3

Jamie Wright		Mike Ware	Bob Talbot	3 ?
Brian Keig		Richard Sargent	Jamie Wright	3 ?
John Hodgson		Ken Orry
Ron Williams

9 December 2002 - SCC Handicap Tournament Round 4

Juan Watterson won the top of the table match after Bob Talbot's King side attack failed with the loss of a piece. Juan eventually Queened a pawn and checkmated Bob just before Bobs time ran out. Jamie Wright had 90 minutes against Mike Ware's 5 minutes and Mike duly lost (on time I think). Richard Sargent must have had a hard day at the office and blundered badly twice playing Brian Keig, and Brian won easily. Dennis Hooper and John Hodgson had walk-overs. The championship will be decided next week with four players in with a chance, but Juan Watterson with his half-point lead is a definite favourite!

			Current leaders
Bob Talbot	0-1	Juan Watterson	Juan Watterson	3½
Dennis Hooper	1-0	Ron Williams w/o	Dennis Hooper	3
Jamie Wright	1-0	Mike Ware	Bob Talbot	3
Brian Keig	1-0	Richard Sargent	Jamie Wright	3
John Hodgson	1-0	Ken Orry w/o

2 December 2002 - SCC Knockout Championship Final

Mike Ware is the new knockout champion, defeating Richard Sargent in a 15 minute decider after the first game was drawn after nearly 3 hours play. The first game was cut and thrust all the way, but nothing too aggressive, but in the 15 minute decider, Richard made two bad blunders early on and Mike jumped in for a swift "kill".

11 November 2002 - SCC Knockout Championship Round 3 (semi-finals)

Richard Sargent
	1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 b5 5.Bb3 Nf6 6.d3 h6 7.a3 Bc5 8.c3 d6 9.h3 0-0 10.Ng5? See Diagram The game continued 10...... hxg5 11.Bxg5 Bxf2+(a) 12.Ke2(b) Bg3 13.Qf1 Bf4 14.Bh4 Bh6 15.Nd2 (a) perhaps a less aggressive line Rb8, Bb7, d5, Be7 would have been better. (b) if 12.Kxf2, then Nxe4+ 13.dxe4 Qxg5 and Black is a pawn up with a superior position. The game continued with Richard a piece up, and inevitably this led to victory.
Dennis Hooper


Brian Keig
	The position shown is from "memory" the morning after the night before! In the opening, in order to gain positional superiority, Brian sacrificed 2 pawns with a third pawn sacrifice not being accepted by Mike. As time was running down with about 7 minutes each on the clock, Mike played his Rook to d2 forcing the exchange of Rooks. Brian made the biggest of blunders playing Kc4, Mike played Rxd3 and Brian resigned. If Brian had exchanged Rooks, post match analysis suggested that he could have won! Mike now plays Richard Sargent in the Final.
Mike Ware

SCC Blitz Championship 4th November 2002
All Play All, double round. 5 minutes per player per game.
Position	Player	Points
1	Richard Sargent	12½ / 14
2	Mike Ware	10
3	Juan Watterson	8½
4	Bob Talbot	8
5	Jamie Wright	6½
6	Brian Keig	5½
7	John Hodgson	3½
8	Carl Heggarty	1½
Francis Thoday officiated the Blitz tournament this year and Richard Sargent took full advantage to win the cup after scoring 8 / 8 at the half way stage, with Juan on 6½ and Mike 5½. Richard dropped 1½ points on the run in to the finish, losing his first and only game to Juan! but held on to win the title. ZUGZWANG

SCC - 16th September 2002 - Stephen Maggs Doubles Open Tournament

Open to all members of any club on the Island. Pairings announced on evening when entries closed. During play, consultation between members of pairings is not allowed. Timings to be announced on evening of play.

This was another speed competition with the added complication of having a partner who invariably played all the wrong moves! or took too long to make his move! the result being another game lost!

Despite all the pitfalls, eight intrepid players braved the maelstrom which resulted in a tie for first place between Brian Keig / Juan Watterson and Francis Thoday / Jaimie Wright, each pair winning 4 points from 6 games. Equal second (Last) were Richard Sargent / Ron Williams and Bob Talbot / Dennis Hooper each pair winning 2 points from 6 games.

Game statistics:- For 3 years running, Francis and newcomers to the club have finished in first place, this years new members being both Jamie and Juan! Brian and Juan won 2 games against Francis and Jaimie! Richard and Ron should have lost all their games but won two on time!

Next week is the first round of the knockout, 90 minutes per player per game, normal chess at last!! ZUGZWANG

SCC Lightning Championship	9 Sept 2002
All play All. 10 seconds per move.	1	Francis Thoday	6 / 6
Adjudication after 20 minutes.	2	Richard Sargent	5
	3	Dennis Hooper	4
	4 / 5	John Hodgson / Brian Keig	2
	6 / 7	Ron Williams / Jaimie Wright
In the first speed competition of the season, Francis Thoday retained the Lightning Championship with a convincing display of faultless speed chess that is his forte!. Going into the final round, joint second position was held by Richard Sargent and Dennis Hooper, both on 4 points, with Richard defeating Dennis in the final round to take second place. Most players agreed that after the summer lay-off from chess, it was certainly a bit much to get the brain cells working at full speed (or at all) for this opening competition. None-the-less, some enjoyable open chess was played, many illegal moves made, and a large number of pawns promoted to Queens! The event ran smoothly, with Frank Maher the arbiter. ZUGZWANG

Competition Results Season 2001 / 2002

The Stephen Maggs Memorial Cup - Second leg, 2 May 2002

The first leg played earlier in the season resulted in a 5-1 win for the Douglas Club, but in this return match the Southern Club established a convincing lead of 3-0 with first Bob Talbot, then Richard Sargent winning their games. The next game went to Jonathan Waugh after a blunder by Mike Ware who had earlier turned down Jonathan's offer of a draw. In the final two games the Southern Club managed ½ point and ran out winners on the evening by 3½ to 2½, but the aggregate score of 7½ to 4½ over the two matches played meant that the Douglas Club retained the Cup.

Board	Douglas CC	Result	Southern CC
1	B Neville Gill	½ - ½	W Francis Thoday
2	W John Costello	1 - 0	B Frank Maher
3	B Jonathan Waugh	1 - 0	W Mike Ware
4	W Alan Robertson	0 - 1	B Richard Sargent
5	B John Griffin	0 - 1	W Bob Talbot
6	W N/A	0 - 1	B Brian Keig (W/O)
	RESULT	2½ - 3½

ZUGZWANG

Monday 22nd April 2002 - Southern Chess Club Club Championship.

Francis Thoday won the Club Championship 5 round Swiss tournament by the narrowest of margins ½ point from three of last years runners up, Brian Keig, Richard Sargent and Mike Ware. Going into the final round Francis and Mike were in the lead with 3½ points each, and depending on the final round results, a five way tie for first place was possible. Mike lost against Richard, Brian won his game, but Francis gained the half point necessary by drawing with Frank Maher.

Final scores:- F Thoday 4; B Keig, R Sargent, M Ware 3½; F Maher 3; R Talbot 2½; D Hooper, R Williams 2; J Hodgson 1; I Thoday 0.

ZUGZWANG

Monday 18th March 2002 - Southern Chess Club Team competition.

Two teams of four players played in the format of each player playing against each of the opposing team, time limits 20 minutes per player per game.

I haven't got to mention the final result was that Frank Maher's team won against Mike Ware's team, but the player's of the evening were BRIAN KEIG and BOB TALBOT who both deservedly won all their four games! Well done to Brian and Bob.

ZUGZWANG

Wednesday 30th January 2002 - The Isle of Man Chess Association Vincent Watterson Rapidplay tournament, at 15 minutes per game, started with Neville Gill being held to a draw by Mike Ware but thereafter Neville forged ahead to take 4½ points from 5 games. This gave him victory over John Costello by 1½ points with John Griffin, Frank Maher and Mike Ware drawing for third place.

When both players are left with less than a minute to finish the game, some frenetic play takes place. One pair were observed to play three consecutive moves without realising that one of them remained in check throughout. Perhaps justice was done when the offending player subsequently lost.

TROMPOWSKI

Monday 28th January 2002 - In the Southern Chess Club Handicap competition, Richard Sargent finished the winner by the closest of margins as the top six players finished within one point of each other. Last year Richard finished first equal with three other players, so, once again the handicapping system has turned out to be very successful. The final result hinged on the result of a postponed match between Mike Ware and Francis Thoday which Mike won, leaving Richard with a half point lead.

Final scores: R Sargent 4, F Maher & F Thoday 3½, B Keig, R Talbot & M Ware 3.

ZUGZWANG

Douglas Chess Club Open Blitz (Maggs Memorial) 13 December 2001.

Venue: 106 Bucks Road, Douglas. Format: Double round all-play-all. Arbiter: Neville Gill. (In the results table "5-1" means 1 point won against player 5)

Pos Player Grd Rd 1 2 3 4 5 A B C D

1 Costello, John 163 4-2 6-2 2-2 5-1 3-1 8 10 1578 158

2 Maher, Frank 127 5-1 3-2 1-0 6-1½ 4-1 5½ 10 1316 132

3 Waugh, Jonathan 143 6-1½ 2-0 5-2 4-1 1-1 5½ 10 1284 128

4 Griffin, John 105 1-0 5-1 6-2 3-1 2-1 5 10 1274 127

5 Ware, Michael 114 2-1 4-1 3-0 1-1 6-1 4 10 1174 117

6 Robertson, Alan 108 3-½ 1-0 4-0 2-½ 5-1 2 10 954 95

Grd = Manx Grade A = Player score B = Number of graded games played C = Total grading points D = Grading performance for tournament Note: Blitz games are not included in the end of season Grading List.

Isle of Man Chess Association

Dennis Hemsley Rapidplay competition 28 / 29 November 2001.

This week there was a break from classic time chess in the Monarch Trophy to playing at thirty minutes per game in the Dennis Hemsley Rapidplay competition. Run on two successive nights the tournament was fairly evenly contested right to the finish.

At the end of the first night Mike Ware was the only one to have won both his games. However, on resuming play he lost to Alan Ormsby who moved into the lead by half a point with Jonathan Waugh recovering from a bad start by winning his three final games.

Going into the fifth and last round Alan led Jonathan by a point and had to at least draw his final game against back marker Frank Maher to be sure of victory. It was a very tight contest with Alan having to give up a bishop in the endgame to stop Frank queening. This left Alan with five pawns against two and a bishop but Frank was unable to secure more than a draw.

Alan ran out the winner with four points out of five followed by Jonathan on 3½ with John Griffin, Alan Robertson and Mike Ware all tying for third place.

TROMPOWSKI

Isle of Man Chess Association

Dennis Hemsley Rapidplay competition 28 / 29 November 2001.

Alan ran out the winner with four points out of five followed by Jonathan on 3½ with John Griffin, Alan Robertson and Mike Ware all tying for third place.

TROMPOWSKI

Isle of Man Chess Association

Dennis Hemsley Rapidplay competition 28 / 29 November 2001.

Alan ran out the winner with four points out of five followed by Jonathan on 3½ with John Griffin, Alan Robertson and Mike Ware all tying for third place.

TROMPOWSKI

Handicap Tournament crosstable after 3 rounds (19 Nov 2001)

Pos	Player	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Score
1	Sargent, Richard	8+	9+	5+	3
2	Maher, Frank	4+	3=	9+	2½
3	Thoday, Francis	10+	2=	7+	2½
4	Thorpe, Chris	2-	12+	10+	2
5	Ware, Mike	11+	6+	1-	2
6	Cadamy, Sam	7=	5-	12+	1½
7	Hooper, Dennis	6=	8+	3-	1½
8	Keig, Brian	1-	7-	11+	1
9	Talbot, Bob	12+	1-	2-	1
10	Tinkler, Geoff	3-	11+	4-	1
11	Hodgson, John	5-	10-	8-	0
12	Williams, Ron	9-	4-	6-	0

SCC Handicap Tournament Round 3 19 November 2001

	Richard Sargent (2)	1-0	Mike Ware (2)
	Dennis Hooper (1½)	0-1	Francis Thoday (1½)
	Frank Maher (1½)	1-0	Bob Talbot (1)
	Geoff Tinkler (1)	0-1	Chris Thorpe (1) w/o
	Ron Williams (0)	1-0	Sam Cadamy (½) time
	John Hodgson (0)	0-1	Brian Keig (0)
Swiss tournament of 5 rounds. 90 minutes per player per game but higher graded player to have time reduced by 90 seconds for every grading point difference per IoMCA gradings, maximum reduction 80 minutes.

Blitz Championship - All Play All, double round. 4½ minutes per player per game.
5 November 2001	Pos	Player	Score
Francis Thoday retained the Blitz Thoday	1	Francis Thoday	16½
Bowl with Mike Ware taking runner up	2	Mike Ware	15
spot. The three new junior members	3	Frank Maher	11½
did well in this competition, which can be	4	Chris Thorpe	10
a mind boggling / head spinning experience.	5=	Sam Cadamy	8
	5=	Richard Sargent	8
chessmaster	5=	Geoff Tinkler	8
	8	Dennis Hooper	7½
ZUGZWANG	9	Brian Keig	5½

Stephen Maggs	17 Sept 2001
Doubles Open Championship	Sam Cadamy / Francis Thoday	1	3½ / 4
All play all with partners	Frank Maher / Ron Williams	2	3
"Newcomer" Sam Cadamy with his "experienced" partner Francis Thoday formed a steady partnership to scrape through to win the trophy by half a point from our two most senior players Ron Williams and Frank Maher. As Frank would say, it's no good coming second as people only remember the winners, but everyone who played was a winner in this competition because the games lasting only 15 minutes per side and with each player playing alternate moves, proved to be very entertaining and closely fought with no mercy shown. The other partnerships were Chris Thorpe and John Blindell, Richard Sargent and Dennis Hooper (both previous winners) and last but not least Bob Talbot and John Hodgson. So for the third year in a row, Francis's name will be on the cup! ZUGZWANG

SCC Lightning Championship	10 Sept 2001
All play All. 10 seconds per move.	1	F Thoday	6½ / 7
Adjudication after 15 minutes.	2 - 3	R Sargent	5
		M Ware	5
	4	F Maher	4½
Francis Thoday retained the Lightning Championship with another fine victory. Francis and Richard Sargent were both undefeated after five rounds on 5 points, but Richard made bad moves in his last two games against Francis and Mike Ware and was punished accordingly. Frank Maher had a slight advantage against Francis in the final round, Frank having 3 pawns and a rook to Francis's 2 pawns and rook, when the game was timed out after 15 minutes. The adjudication was finally agreed at a draw, but if the result had gone Franks way, he would have shared equal second place on 5 points. Further analysis of the probable result may follow later. I cannot finish without saying well done to the other four players, newcomers Chris Thorpe and Sam Cadamy, Ron Williams on the mend from heart surgery and last but not least Bob Talbot. ZUGZWANG

Competition Results 2000 / 2001

The Stephen Maggs Memorial Cup	Inter Club matches Douglas V Southern Club

16th May 2001 - The second leg of this annual club competition was played at 106 bucks Road, Douglas. The first leg played earlier in the season at the Cherry Orchard, Port Erin, resulted in a resounding win by four games to two for the Douglas club. As the result is decided on aggregate scores for the two matches, it was important for the Southern club to win by a margin of at least 2 games.

	Team Match Listing (W=white, B=black)
	Board	Douglas CC	Southern CC
	1	B Neville Gill	W Francis Thoday
	2	W John Costello	B Chris Beards
	3	B Jonathan Waugh	W Frank Maher
	4	W Alan Robertson	B Mike Ware
	5	B Myriam Bounya	W Richard Sargent
	6	W John Griffin	B Brian Keig

The matches were scheduled for a maximum of 90 minutes per player, and within 3 minutes of the start, Douglas had won the first game, John Costello winning in 6 moves against Chris Beards. As both players left immediately after the game finished, no report is available but from the position of the pieces on the board, this was how the game went:- 1. d4 Nf6 2. Bg5 h6 3. Bh4 g5 4. Bg3 Ne4 5. e3 f5 6. Qh5++ 1-0
Much later, each club won a game each with John Griffin already well in front, sacrificing his queen to mate Brian Keig, and Frank Maher winning against Jonathan Waugh with a king side attack leading to mate soon after. (see game of the week for the game score card).
Myriam Bounya applied constant pressure against Richard Sargent's stubborn defence to eventually gain a pawn on the thirty third move. A draw was agreed as Richard was about to regain the pawn sixteen moves later which would have left neither player any chance of a win. After looking closely at the game (twice), it seems that Richard missed a golden opportunity to win the game on his forty second move. (see game of the week for details)
The 90 minutes time ran out for the two Douglas players Neville Gill and Alan Robertson who automatically lost their games against their opponents Francis Thoday and Mike Ware respectively. In both games the winners had two pawns advantage, Mike Ware's pawns being united passed pawns which should have eventually resulted in Mike queening one of the pawns.
Result: Douglas 2½ - Southern 3½
Overall aggregate: Douglas 6½ - Southern 5½ ZUGZWANG

2nd May 2001 - Thoday and Gill take speed chess titles

The first Manx blitz chess championship was carried off in grand style by Francis Thoday who also doubles as this paper's (IOM Courier) squash correspondent. He won with a remarkable score of 17 wins out of 18 games.

Blitz is played with each contestant having five minutes for the complete game. The championship attracted an entry of ten players and all contestants played each other twice, colours reversed. This resulted in a total of ninety games being completed in the one evening. Major congratulations must go to Neville Gill who was arbiter for the championship and ensured that everything ran smoothly.

Francis led from the start being the only competitor to win both his first two games. He was never headed and increased his lead when the others began to take points from each other. The only defeat he suffered was at the hands of John Costello who finished third, four points off the mark.

Chris Beards put in a splendid effort to finish second, pipping John Costello by half a point.

After an evening of frantic pace some of the entrants looked somewhat punch drunk but all declared it a memorable success.

Results:- Blitz: 1, F Thoday 17; 2, C Beards 13½; 3, J Costello 13; 4 J Waugh 12.

Three nights later the lightning championship was run off and again consisted of double rounds. Lightning is played at ten seconds per move and so can be even more frantic again as contestants never have the opportunity to give due consideration to their moves no matter how complicated the position.

This time Neville Gill both participated and conducted the competition and he proved also to be the top scorer, being held to two draws by the holder of the title, Francis Thoday in their individual games. Francis finished second on seven points, two behind Neville, with Jonathan Waugh filling third spot a further point off.

Results:- Lightning: 1, N Gill 9; 2, F Thoday 7; 3, J Waugh 6; 4, C Beards 4. TROMPOWSKI

SCC Club Championship	23 Apr 2001
(5 Feb - 23 Apr 2001)	1	F Maher	5 / 5
M Ware, R Sargent, B Keig, J Hodgson	2 / 3 / 4 / 5		3

Frank Maher, our Competition Secretary who has done an excellent job organizing the club events this season, won the final event, the coveted SCC Club Championship, in fine style. In his final game against Dennis Hooper, he continued in his "rapidplay" winning way by "Blitzing" Dennis off the chess board.&

Pos	Player	Grd	Rd 1	2	3	4	5	A	B	C	D
1	Costello, John	163	4-2	6-2	2-2	5-1	3-1	8	10	1578	158
2	Maher, Frank	127	5-1	3-2	1-0	6-1½	4-1	5½	10	1316	132
3	Waugh, Jonathan	143	6-1½	2-0	5-2	4-1	1-1	5½	10	1284	128
4	Griffin, John	105	1-0	5-1	6-2	3-1	2-1	5	10	1274	127
5	Ware, Michael	114	2-1	4-1	3-0	1-1	6-1	4	10	1174	117
6	Robertson, Alan	108	3-½	1-0	4-0	2-½	5-1	2	10	954	95