Spirit of Atticus

Division 2, Third Weekend (Rds 5 & 6)

2012-02-16T17:12:00.001Z

by John Carleton De Vere Sunningdale Park in February We arrived at the southernmost venue in the 4NCL panoply determined, as promised, to show what we could do to ignite our season and begin in earnest the big battle against relegation. The snow cover gave the grounds of Sunningdale Park a Christmas-card feel on the crisp sunny Saturday morning that awaited us but provided an extra worry

Division 2, First Weekend (Rds 1&2)

2012-02-16T09:00:00.000Z

by John Carleton De Vere Staverton Park Captain: John Carleton The memories of a year earlier when the 4NCL adventure began for the Spirit of Atticus came flooding back when we were greeted this year, as then, by a beautiful

The Northern 4NCL 2nd Weekend, 15-16 Jan 2011

2012-02-16T08:17:00.008Z

by John Carleton Wychwood Park, Crewe It was a big sporting weekend in Crewe with Port Vale the visitors to Gresty Road on Saturday to play the Alex [The match of hate as it is known locally since Stoke's fairly recently acquired lofty status]. Fortunately, two of our stars [heading for the other major sporting event in Crewe] Andy and Mike

The Northern 4NCL First Weekend

2010-11-16T19:39:00.003Z

by John Carleton Redworth Hall John Carleton The first weekend of the newly formed northern branch of Britain's most prestigious team tournament got under way at Barcelo Redworth Hotel, beautifully appointed albeit bewildering in its internal geography, on the outskirts of Darlington. With only the lists of registered players to guide us we anticipated a possible rough ride from

4NCL & The Spirit of Atticus

2010-09-07T11:54:00.004+01:00

John Carleton We are pleased to announce that a 'Spirit of Atticus' team has been entered for the new Northern 4NCL which has been advertised on our website over the previous few months. We regard the Northern 4NCL as an exciting development which will hopefully grow in the forthcoming years and will counter the southern drift which has gradually afflicted the mainline event. We also see the

Collusion or Conspiracy?

2010-08-30T20:24:00.010+01:00

Fischer v Korchnoi, Curacao Candidates 1962 There have been many accusations of collusion, either of players deliberately losing (often to help a friend get a norm), of players agreeing draws or teams agreeing to throw matches to prevent another from winning an event. Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis claim that Soviet players colluded in world chess championships held from

Arctic Securities Rapid: Anand and Carlsen lead with 2.5/3

2010-08-29T09:03:00.002+01:00

The first half brought the result many expected: the World Champion and the world's highest ranked player won both their games against their lower-ranked opponents, and drew the encounter against each other. But it was not all smooth sailing. In his game against compatriot Jon Ludvig Hammer Magnus stared disaster in the face. First day report with poignant videos by Europe Echecs. This

Ratticus Norvegicus

2010-08-22T23:30:00.010+01:00

There are an estimated 70 million rats in the UK, which roughly equates to one for every person. They're often seen in places where rubbish is lying around, in drains, sewers and outbuildings. They're also found in rural areas and are becoming a serious nuisance. They have also contaminated some areas of Liverpool. As well as creating structural damage, rats pose a health risk because of the

2010-08-20T13:31:00.002+01:00

The Filipino lawyer for a woman who filed a paternity lawsuit claiming that Bobby Fischer was the father of her daughter, has criticized how tissue samples were obtained to perform the DNA tests. The test, which reportedly came back negative on Tuesday, was ordered by the Supreme Court of Iceland as part of a dispute over Fischer’s estate. Bobby Fischer died in January 2008 at the age of

NH Chess Tournament: Rising stars v Experience

2010-08-20T09:24:00.003+01:00

In the sixth round, The Experience team once again outscored the Rising stars, closing the distance to 15.5-14.5. Nakamura beat Ljubojevic to come within a half point of Rising Star leader, Giri. Gelfand continues to stamp his authority, this time beating Howell, and van Wely scored his first NH Chess win after sixteen tries. In the fifth round of the NH Chess Tournament the Rising Stars

Reflections on the EGM

2010-08-17T18:41:00.008+01:00

Dear Chessfriends, My reflections on the recent EGM of the Club are obviously going to be a great deal shorter than those of Club members who managed to sit through the meeting to the end. But here we go. I raised an important question at the start of the meeting regarding how the proposed Constitution had come to be be moved at this time. I had raised the same question with the Secretary in an

After 38 years

2010-08-17T18:12:00.003+01:00

Following an EGM on 19 July 2010, the club has split and been destroyed by a clique of spineless individuals calling themselves a committee. Concerns for the welfare of remaining members should be of interest to all chess players. For the record, I remain in full support of John Carleton, David Robertson and others who have taken a principled and courageous position regarding the dispute with

Fair Competition

2010-08-17T17:43:00.006+01:00

Dear Chessfriends,Herein I would like to consider two or three strands of Widnes' current practice, principally from season 2009-10, which are quite disturbing for those who support normal notions of transparency and fair play.A) On paper Widnes 1 have the strongest squad in the MCA. Thus the performance against them is likely to be crucial for any side aspiring to win the championship. One

Obituary: John Eric Littlewood (25 May 1931 - 16 Sept 2009)

2009-09-20T10:27:00.016+01:00

FIDE Master and highly regarded member of our chess community, John Littlewood, has died aged 78. John, about to start his game in the MCA Lightning Championships 2008John was born in Sheffield in 1931, the fourth of eleven siblings. He started playing chess at aged 13 and at 16 joined local clubs finding almost immediately that despite not playing chess for very long he could beat almost

Game, Set and Mate

2009-07-04T16:28:00.005+01:00

Whilst watching the predictable looking match between sister’s Serena and Venus Williams from Wimbledon and trying to fill the gaps doing something ‘useful’ on the web, I came across this article on the Indian Chathurangam website.Anand prefers Tennis to ChessWorld Champion Viswanathan Anand might have been a Tennis player depriving India of its first Grandmaster, but for the alarm clock. He also

Fischer's Fury

2009-04-11T21:26:00.028+01:00

First published in 1969 'My 60 Memorable Games' is a collection of Fischer’s games from the 1957 New Jersey Open to the 1967 Sousse Interzonal. The book includes nine draws and three losses, has been described as a 'classic of objective and painstaking analysis' and is regarded as one of the great pieces of chess literature. Original cover design (Simon & Schuster 1969) Bobby FischerBatsford

When opportunity knocks

2009-03-29T10:43:00.024+01:00

One of the greatest attacking players of all time the creative Latvian Grandmaster Mikhail Tal had a genius for posing problems for his opponent with tempting ways to go wrong, combined with a gift for producing hair raising complications. Botvinnk was amazed by Tal’s intuitive skills and also by his ability to calculate complex variations.Latvian Grandmaster Normunds Miezis, a visitor to England

Avoiding silly mistakes

2009-03-28T14:26:00.029Z

In recent years amateur players have made a habit of doing well against, or even beating titled professionals. This is to do with sheer determination, hard work and a commitment to improved personal achievement. After 35 moves Black had easily managed to neutralise any 'ideas' presented by his - ahem - Grandmaster opponent Nigel Davies, reaching the position below, a level R+P ending. Black:

Conduct at the board

2009-03-27T13:59:00.009Z

Last year at the British Championships in Liverpool hundreds of juniors took part in a magnificent festival of chess alongside adults in a wide variety of events. Their behaviour particularly at the board was impeccable, even the U8’s and U9’s managed to sit quietly and courteously, listening to instructions before play and showing tremendous self control throughout their games.In contrast,

Grandmaster intuition or lack of it

2009-03-26T16:01:00.022Z

Nigel Davies has taken to posting his wins against amateur players in local league matches. Perhaps as a GM he is proud of such achievements, who knows. To balance the books see this small example of how easy it is for a professional player to come to grief .... against an amateur. Referring to player intuition he says, 'It is interesting that a player's 'intuition' normally improves with age (

Death by ringtone......well not for me

2009-03-25T15:18:00.043Z

During last year’s EU Championship at the World Museum in Liverpool Nigel Short resigned his game in round 2 against Keti Arakhamia-Grant when his Nokia phone rang. A few quiet words were exchanged at the time, no arbiter was called to the board and Nigel signed the scoresheets well aware of the rule (12.2b) If a player's mobile phone rings in the playing venue during play, that player shall lose

The digital switchover continues

2009-03-16T13:21:00.027Z

It’s good to see another chess club take the step to digital technology. Prescot & Knotty Ash have now followed Formby and Atticus (and perhaps others too?). The TV digital switchover started last year and by 2012 the analogue signal will be switched off. And it’s not just in TV, the world is going digital. You might not think this affects you but it does. In many large-scale events such as

Georgiev's 20km walk....for chess

2009-02-25T13:34:00.007Z

After a month of training – mainly walking and saunas – Kiril Georgiev was ready to take the challenge and play a simultaneous exhibition against 360 opponents. For every move the Bulgarian GM had to walk half a kilometer, and after six hours of play had made only eight moves.After 14 hours and 8 minutes (according to some sources 14 minutes) Georgiev won his last game, thus achieving 284

A bolt from the Black!

2009-02-10T21:32:00.010Z

Take a minute to look at this position. White has just played 22.Qxb7 and looks to be in complete control, a rook and two pawns up. Faced with the ‘inevitable’ Black finds a move that ends the game immediately. Can you see it? The game was played in the 1974/5 Hastings Masters between GM Rafael Vaganian from Armenia and GM Albin Planinec from Slovenia.Answer: 22…Qc7+! 0-1 A classic deflection

Wijk aan Zee final round

2009-02-01T10:36:00.014Z

All eyes have been on the hard fought and incredibly close A group at this year's Corus. Six players share the lead with 7/12. Magnus Carlsen, who finally won a game has joined five others including Levon Aronian in the lead. But quietly and with tremendous fighting spirit, 'veteran' GM and British favourite Nigel Short has taken the B group by storm suffering only one loss to the lack-lustre

Boris Spassky in Gibraltar

2009-01-31T21:52:00.009Z

by Stewart Reuben, photo by Zeljka Malobabic of Monroi People often say to me, “Grandmasters are very stand-offish.” My response is usually, Have you ever approached one?” “Oh, no I couldn’t do that.” “Well,” I respond, “Is it not you who is being hard to talk to?” One of the glories of the Gibraltar Chess Festival is that not only play takes place in the Caleta Hotel, but also that is where most

7th Gibtelecom Chess Festival 2009

2009-01-30T20:57:00.021Z

Born in 1970, Gary Quillan from Merseyside (pictured left below) is a very experienced and popular member of the English chess scene. He has been the strongest untitled player in the country for some time now (he could become an FM any time he likes, of course, having a rating well in excess of 2300); he has a couple of IM norms to his name.Gary plays for Waterloo Chess Club who compete in

High quality, entertaining league chess

2009-01-28T15:24:00.050Z

The Najdorf is one of the most complex of all chess openings. It remains one of Black's most popular responses to 1.e4 and is named after the Polish-Argentinian GM Miguel Najdorf 1910 - 1997. The oldest and easily the sharpest response by White is an immediate 6. Bg5, generally countered by 6...e6, followed by 7. f4, hoping to exploit the pin on the knight. The most well known response by Black