World Seniors Team Championships – Triple Triumph for England

As reported by the English Chess Federation on their website, England won three world titles in the World Senior Chess Teams Championships in July in Acqui Terme, Italy. England’s men won both the World Over 50 Championship and the World Over 65 Championship, the latter with a round to spare. England Women won the Women’s World Over 50 Championship, making it a triple success. Here is the link to their report together with photos of the two men’s teams.   https://www.englishchess.org.uk/england-triple-world-champions/

Beckenham and Bromley’s Ian Snape played a significant part in the Over-65 win and won the bronze medal for Board 5 undefeated with 4½/7, which is a tremendous result.

The players had to battle with Covid as well as against their opponents.

Ian writes: In summary, the 65+ team (England 1) won gold with one round to spare ahead of Germany 1 and Israel 1. John Nunn (gold), Paul Littlewood (gold) and I (bronze) also won individual board prizes. Individual scores at Chess-Results Server Chess-results.com – FIDE World Senior Team 65+ Championship 2022 .

The playing venue was good. The hotel and Acqui Terme itself were both very disappointing. Covid was rife.

The 50+ team (led by Mickey Adams) also won gold but had a close race with USA.

I am sure all our club members will join me in sending Ian many congratulations on his splendid performance.

Dave Vigus

Beckenham beats Bromley

In this traditional season-closure event, Beckenham overcame Bromley in a 14-board match with the final result reading 8.5-5.5.

In the words of our organiser Malcolm Mourant: thank you to all those who turned up early last night and set out the tables and to those who put them away after the match. I think it was a good night – even though Bromley were well beaten. The result is now on our website at https://beckenhamandbromleychessclub.wordpress.com/beckenham-vs-bromley/

I hope to see as many of you as possible at our AGM on September 7th. An agenda will follow closer to the time.

Have a good summer break!

Our organiser Malcolm Mourant enjoying a bit of side action

Beckenham and Bromley 5 win the Tom Fuller Cup

We led a charmed life throughout this season.

We achieved just 19 points out of 32 available from the 8 matches. That, you might not expect would be enough to win the league, then the semi-final, and now, on 18th June, the final to bring the cup home to Beckenham.

Beckenham 5 and 6 were both in this league and since players could not in the early stages play for both teams, permutations were limited to meet the need to make an average of under 1500.

Wins from Dylan McAuliffe and Callum Hayes helped us on our way.

Anthony Barnett played Board 4 in every match. Nearly always outgraded, he scored 4.5 out of 8. Most importantly,  his grade enabled higher grades to play the other boards.  It must be Tony’s best season so far and this team would never have won without him.

Andrew Dovey and Martin Newman, boards 1 and 2, managed to draw 7 games out of the 14 games they played and their occasional wins were sometimes timely in taking us over the line.

Ian Mills on Board 3 for 6 matches deserves special congratulations. His five wins out of six represent a  performance grade of about 300 points more than expected.

My previous reports of matches have several times described our close encounters.

The final – against Lewisham 5 – was another classic!

Anthony was playing someone graded 300 points higher and eventually succumbed. Andrew’s game looked great until a single inaccuracy in a pawn endgame cost him dearly. We were two games down with two to play.

Ian’s position looked commanding. My game had entered less than two minutes each on the clock mode, with Andrew recording the moves. A draw would have lost us the match. I tried a desperate cheapo to save my drifting game. Wow! He missed it! I won his queen! He resigns! I am so lucky!

Ian calmly forces resignation to draw the match 2-2.

Tie-break board count is level 5-5, still drawn. Next tie break is to disregard the lowest board. We win 2-1. That was close!

Match card: https://ecflms.org.uk/lms/node/103573

So… a charmed life… but  over 8 games, I’d like to think we deserved it.

I’d like to thank here all those who played for Beckenham 5 this season. It really has been a very considerable  effort of the mind.

Martin Newman – 5th team captain

PS: My euphoria has been tempered by a picture on Lewisham’s Twitter of me receiving the cup, with the caption reading “Veteran Pascal Jasserand receives the trophy for Bromley”.  Poor Pascal being mistaken for a man in his late 70s!

Rosebowl: Annual Quickplay Championship 2022

17 club members turned up to this event on 25th May and so we divided into two groups. The top 3 from each group went through to the final round.

The result of the final round was a tie between John Duggan and Ian Snape and so we went to a playoff which John Duggan won at 10.45pm. 

It was a fun evening for all.

Thanks to everyone who helped set up the tables and equipment and put them away afterwards.

Malcolm Mourant

Ian Snape – England Seniors Over-65

We are delighted to report that our own Ian Snape finished joint first with two other players in the recent England Over-65 Championships with 5½/7. Ian was placed second on tie-break.

Following this success, Ian has been selected as one of five players to represent the England Over-65 1st Team in the FIDE World Senior Team Chess Championships in Italy in June.

Chess results page: https://chess-results.com/tnr633316.aspx?lan=1&art=4&flag=30

Many congratulations to Ian, and here’s hoping for more success for him and the rest of the England Team next month.

Dave Vigus – Club Membership Secretary

Captain’s report: Beckenham and Bromley 5 3-1 Medway 2

The good news is we won the semi-final but not as easy as the scorecard may suggest.  

Andrew Dovey lost a piece but fought back for a brilliant draw, the first game to finish. The second game to end was Anthony Barnett’s. With only 10 minutes left against his opponent’s hour, Anthony achieved a remarkable two-move forced mate position on the board which prompted a resignation.

This still left work to do as with a 2-2 result, a board count tie-break would have eliminated Anthony’s Board 4 win. 

My own position was doubtful. Relief was fairly speedy however as Ian Mills on the next board produced one of his best games to win the match. The computer tells him he had just one inaccuracy!

This left me playing with the match won (again), my sacrifice of two pawns for the attack never ultimately tested as my opponent offered a draw, hurriedly accepted.

We progress to the  Kent Finals Day in June to play a team from Maidstone or Lewisham who meet in the other semi-final.

Grateful thanks, by the way, to Alan Hanreck, a FIDE Master from Charlton, who oversaw the match for us for no personal reward. What a nice act of kindness!

Match card: https://ecflms.org.uk/lms/node/98753

Martin Newman – 5th team captain

Captain’s report: Beckenham and Bromley teams promoted in their first season at 4NCL Online

It couldn’t have gone better for our debuting teams in the 4NCL Online Division 5 in its 5th season.

Beckenham topped the table with six wins and a draw (13 points) and Bromley came in 8th place with +3, =2, -2 (8 points), just enough to secure the promotion to division to Division 4.

Final table: https://www.4nclresults.co.uk/2021-22/media/online/5th/prog-div5.html

I’d like to thank and congratulate every single one of you who played for our teams:

Farahmandpour, Ehsan
Glanvile, Nick
Harrison, Jack
Harrison, Tommy
Hayes, Callum
Jasserand, Pascal
Lewin, John H
Madden, Steve
McAuliffe, Dylan
Meric, Mikey
Mourant, Malcolm
Newman, Martin E

Rudy Padovan – 4NCL Online captain

Captain’s report: Coulsdon B 2-2 West Wickham B

Last night we played a very strong Coulsdon team (heavily outgraded on boards 2-4) and managed a draw.

Thank you Ian for playing and securing your win; didn’t see much of the game up in the rafters! But I assume you turned the screws on him from the point I saw to. He also had time to prep for the game as it was obvious to them you were going to be playing from the request we made, so you were playing with a potential handicap of sorts. Well done.

Jon and Roy: great performances against higher grades players and getting the draws. Really tough opponents: their board two current grade is 2025 to give some context.

Me: played possibly the highest graded player I have ever played in a league game and gave a good account of myself, but wasn’t to be, unfortunately, just losing out in endgame position from a passed pawn that I should have dealt with earlier.

Match card: https://ecflms.org.uk/lms/node/96029

Next fixture: 21/04, away at Old Whitgiftians

Andy Dovey – West Wickham B captain

Captain’s report: Beckenham and Bromley 2.5-1.5 Sidcup 3

I am very pleased to report a fourth win (2.5-1.5) for the team against Sidcup 3 in the Tom Fuller League.

A drawn match would not be sufficient to guarantee a semi-final place.

On the night, progress was not straightforward.

Andrew Dovey on the top board lost to the experienced and probably under-rated Dave Gilbert.

Martin Newman evened the score with a rare win… which left the last two boards needing to bring home the points.

Ian Mills was winning easily until giving his queen away in a brief mental departure.  He then miraculously secured a draw.

Anthony Barnett heroically won yet another game in his improved season.

This completes the preliminary six fixtures and guarantees us a place in the semi-finals of the Kent championships where we will meet a team from mid-Kent.

Match card: https://ecflms.org.uk/lms/node/84193

Martin Newman – 5th team captain

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