News - Page 5

 

FM Dave James

21st May 2006 - Atticus player, FIDE Master and first team captain Dave James has come joint first in the 2005/6 MCA Division 1 'Player of the Year' competition. Dave, unbeaten throughout the season scored an excellent 10½/14 with 7 wins and 7 draws against very strong opposition, as one would expect on board 1 or 2. Martin Cooksey (Aigburth CC) also scored 10½/14. For further details of Dave's results click here.

 

In late May Dave flew to Turin to attend the 77th FIDE Congress as Welsh FIDE delegate. The Congress was held concurrently with the World Chess Olympiad which started on 20th May and ended 4th June. For results, team scores, games and more click here.

 

To see a few photos and comments about the FIDE congress click here.

 

 

MCA Division 5 Player of the Year.

21st May 2006 - Atticus player and 5th team captain 2005/6 Paul Benton (pictured right) has become joint winner of the MCA 'Player of the Year' competition. Paul played in all of his team's matches during the season scoring a massive 9 out of 12. He also played 3 games for Atticus III achieving a 100% record and also played 1 game for Atticus IV, also scoring 100%. A magnificent achievement! For further details click here.  

 

Final scores/positions 2005/6

21st May 2006 - Now that the final tables for division 1 have been released we have the complete picture regarding league positions for all Atticus teams. At the MCA AGM on Tuesday 22nd May Atticus were presented with the Silver Rook and John Ripley trophies together with individual player shields. These will be distributed as soon as possible to those concerned.

 

 

MTel Masters, 11th May - 21st May

21st May 2006 - Topalov performed miraculously to comeback in this event last year and this year he again came from a negative score to win his last four games and finish in clear first. In the final round Topalov defeated Bacrot to edge ahead of Kamsky, who drew with Svidler.

 

Kamsky took clear second for an impressive result. Anand should have equalled him but he was in time trouble again against Ponomariov. This caused him to miss a clear win with 37..g2! and the draw left him in third place.

 

Svidler finished on an even score. In his final two games he declined to push on with slight advantages. The Russian got compensation by playing a great game to beat Topalov in the sixth round. Ponomariov and Bacrot floated at the bottom of the table during the entire event. Ponomariov missed a chance to play spoiler when he turned a win into a loss against Topalov in round eight.

 

Topalov and Ponomariov are the only players in the field who aren't joining their national teams at the Turin Olympiad.

 

Final table from MTel 2006

 

Games in PGN

 

Atticus Summer Handicap Tournament 2006

8th May 2006 - This tournament is open for members and non-members and is taking place every Monday (excluding Bank Holidays) from 7.30 - 10.30pm. This is a casual event, games will not count for grading and you can play as little or as much as you like. See the Summer Tournament page for more info. For details and some photos of last years event, click here.  Luke Boumphrey and Brian Ewart are running this jointly again.

 

Jessica Badger

8th May 2006 - Atticus player, club member and former British U12, U13 and U14 girls champion Jo Badger gave birth to a baby girl Jessica (8lb 5oz) on 1st May. Congratulations and best wishes to Jo and family from everyone at Atticus Chess Club. During last season Jo played 12 league games for Atticus IV winning against Chris Wentworth (Atticus III), Peter Holian (Hoylake), Richard Devonport (Skelmersdale) and Ken Jones (Wallasey). Jo also drew twice against MCA veteran RJ Platt (Formby).

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4NCL

1st May 2006 - The final round climax saw Wood Green 1 and Guildford ADC 1 bring out the big guns. GM Judith Polgar Elo 2711 making her 4NCL debut on Bd2 for Wood Green 1 alongside regular GM Mickey Adams Elo 2720 on Bd1. Photos here. Full match details available on the 4NCL site with games. The BCM site also features a nice report here.  

 

Turin Olympiad 2006

1st May 2006 - FM Dave James (Atticus CC) will be attending the 77th FIDE Congress as Welsh FIDE delegate. The Congress is being held concurrently with the World Chess Olympiad in Turin, Italy which starts on 20th May and ends 4th June. Official site. Details of the British players selected for Turin are available. England, Wales and Scotland have announced their squads. Ireland are going but no details are yet available on their website http://www.irishchessunion.com/ (26th April).

 

Welsh Championships 2006

18th April 2006 - Atticus player Jonathan Blackburn Elo 2208 competed in this event which took place over the Easter weekend, scoring an excellent 4½/7 and coming joint 5th. Other results: 1st  John Trevelyan 5½/7, 2nd= James Cobb, Leighton Williams, Richard S Jones 5/7, 5th= Alan Spice, Jon L B Blackburn, Tim Kett, David Bennion 4½/7 more..

 

14th April 2006 - Following the FIDE presidential board meeting in the United Arab Emirates an announcement was made of the unification world championship match between FIDE champion Veselin Topalov and Vladimir Kramnik, who beat Garry Kasparov for the classical title in 2000.

 

Reunification match between Kramnik and Topalov

The twelve game match will run from Sept 21st - Oct 13th in Elista, the capital of Kalmykia. The $1million prize fund will be split evenly between the players regardless of the outcome.

 

Both players know each other well. They've competed together in a variety of events including Corus, Dortmund, Linares, Melody Amber Blindfold and so on. If you want to work out the stats or just see what they can do to each other, download this PGN of 56 games.  They've had many draws but also many decisive results, both players using their attacking flair to the full. There current FIDE ratings are Kramnik 2729 and Topalov 2804 (source: FIDE April 2006 ratings)  

 

There are however a number of concerns over the match and FIDE Presidential candidate Bessel Kok, who initiated the reunification process back in 2002, has his say here.

 

Meanwhile, Wikipedia have biographies of both players, click here for Kramnik's and here for Topalov's. For more information about the town of Elista, the proposed venue click here and of the Kalmykia region here . Also alongside, a sample of 15 games between the two contenders.

 

New Games

10th April 2006 - Jonathan Blackburn's fascinating game v FM John Littlewood (Liverpool 1), Division 1, 3rd April 2006 here. Jonathan, if any of the moves are wrong please email me! Also John Carleton's annotated win v FM John Littlewood (Liverpool 1), Division 1, 14th February 2006 here.

 

Final scores/positions

10th April 2006 - Details about final points totals and places are patchy to say the least. We know that Atticus 3 and 4 have completed all their games and the Division 2 table is complete thanks to Dave Farley. We still await details for Division 1 and Division 5. When those results come in a more up to date set of tables will be posted.