2022 Welsh Premier and Welsh Under 1850 Leagues

The WCU are hoping to restart both the Welsh Premier League (6 boards) and Welsh Under 1850 league (4 boards).

A squad of players maybe formed from more than one club playing together subject to the following restrictions

All players must be registered members of the Welsh Chess Union (or other National Association (eg ECF))

Squads for the Premier League will be a maximum of 15 and for the Under 1850 a maximum of 10. Players can be nominated for both Premier League and Under 1850 FOR THE SAME CLUB / TEAM but cannot be named in the squads of different teams.

The entry fee, number of rounds and format will be decided once the likely number of teams is known.

Please send expressions of interest to Kevin Staveley (homedirector@welshchessunion.uk). Closing date – 31st October 2022 stating the following information

NAME OF TEAM

TEAM MANAGER’S NAME with email address and MOBILE telephone number (This is so we can contact you on the day of the match if needed)

NUMBER OF TEAMS: Premier League _______ Under 1850 ______

Further details will be sent to those who express an interest in November.

 

 

HRH Queen Elizabeth II RIP

The Welsh Chess Union offers its condolences after the death of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.

Our thoughts are with the family at this very sad time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Photograph courtesy of The Royal Family / Twitter. Photograph by Jane Bown CBE]

 

Welsh Seniors, Welsh Under 18 and Late Summer Congress Results

2022 WELSH SENIORS CHAMPIONSHIP

1st Charles F Morris 4.5 £200
2nd Duncan Williams 3.5 £100
3rd =

Rudy van Kemenade

Mark Adams

Liam Penny

3 £17 each

 

2022 WELSH UNDER 18 CHAMPIONSHIP

1st =

Ellison Smith

Yuxuan Wu

Highest placed

in Open

£20 each

 

 

2022 WELSH LATE SUMMER OPEN

1st Jose Camacho Collados 4.5 £200
2nd =

Jason Garcia

Daniel Kozusek

4 £90 each
1900 – 1700

Dillan Duke

Sam Jukes

3.5 £15 each
Under 1700

Juston Morgans

Deio Parry

Callum Smith

Ellison Smith

Yuxuan Wu

2.5 £6 each

 

 

2022 WELSH LATE SUMMER MAJOR

1st Alun Smith 4.5 £175
2nd Mohamed Binesmael 4 £100
3rd = Ahmed Binesmael

Rhys Davies

Gavin Jones

Gregory Lloyd

David Reid

3 £10 each

Chess in the Hays, Cardiff 28th August 2022

There will be a day of chess at Hayes Island, Cardiff on Sunday 28th August, All are welcome!

 

Open Olympiad 2022 Report

Wales Open team Olympiad Report, Chennai 27 July-10 August

Adam Hunt

The team for this event was 1. Grzegorz Toczek (2287) 2. Jonathan Blackburn (2176) 3.Tim Kett (2197) 4. Alex Bullen (2106) 5. Allan Pleasants (2024). We all travelled independently to India and the majority arrived on Wednesday 27th, the day before the opening ceremony. Our hotel for the event was the 4 star Regenta RS Central, which was an approximate (all travel timings in India are definitely approximations!) 45 minutes from the airport.

As soon as you arrived in Chennai it was clear that the organisers and state of Tamil Nadu had put a huge amount of work into organising and promoting the event. All competitors and accompanying persons we met at the airport by (FIDE rated!) volunteers who helped with visa issues and transportation to the various hotels and the roads were covered with posters, statues and balloons advertising the Olympiad. Myself and Allan, along with a number of the ladies team went to the Opening ceremony the following day which was a spectacular event. The prime minister of India Narendra Modi was the special invited guest!

The main logistical issue of the first few days was that Grzeg’s bags hadn’t travelled with him to Chennai and were stuck in Mumbai. This got sorted, but only much later in the event.

Round 1: Wales vs Spain

A great first round pairing. It put us in the top playing hall (Boards 1-27 in the Open section) and a chance to experience the Media interest around the Indian teams before the first round. India had three teams playing, of which India 1 were always fixed on board 1 (or so we thought) and there was a massive scrum of photographers before the first move was made. As for our game, I was genuinely disappointed with the final score, as for a long time it looked like we would get something from the match. Grzeg (sans laptop due to the missing bags) played into the actual ‘Shirov gambit’ in the Philidors defence. Crazy or genius?! Well, the game drew a significant amount of interest and a good chunk of Chess24 commentary from Leko and Svidler on it and at one point myself and England Open captain Malcolm Pein thought Shirov was in trouble…… (Malcolm wrote some nice words about our first rounds efforts in the Telegraph)

Shirov-Toczek

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Position after 14…c5!?

The game continued 15.Nd5 c4 16.Nxc4 bxc4 17.Bxc4 Bxc4 18.Qxc4 and here Black needed to play 18..Bd6! with some advantage. Unfortunately Grzeg blundered at a critical moment and allowed Alexey a pretty final checkmate:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grzeg has just played 26…Qd7??

White to play and win

Jon and Tim also had promising positions on boards 2 and 3, but both succumbed in the time ‘scrambles’ (time control was 40 moves in 1hr 30 + sec per move then extra 30 mins) to their higher rated opponents, leaving Alex battling on, ultimately unsuccessfully against Jaime Santos Latasa on board 4.

After the games had finished we got shuttled back to the hotel on the buses. The trip was approximately 30 minutes each way. After dinner (Captain was in general very happy with the food over the 2 weeks!) we reconvened to the rooftop lounge to look over the games.

Round 2: Wales vs Mozambique

Down to earth with a bump after the first round and our first visit to the ‘Scum hall’ as Michael Healey, Women’s captain christened it in his highly entertaining blogs on the event. The Olympiad was separated into two playing halls and this one was much bigger (and not all that bad really) although toilet and refreshment facilities were inferior. Unfortunately you weren’t allowed to travel between the halls so we missed out on seeing a lot of the top players in action but good motivation to pull ourselves back up!

 We expected a difficult match here, as in the previous round the bottom two players had drawn with 2400+ opponents. Grzeg had a tactical skirmish with CM Paiva in a Sicilian on Board 1, but in the end did well to hold a draw from a difficult looking Middlegame position. Tim didn’t really get any advantage out of the opening in a Dragon although generated good winning chances in the endgame as the last game to finish. Ultimately our Black games were the match winners as Allan found himself in trouble on Board 4 but found a brilliant save whilst Jon executed a cute tactic on Board 2 for the only decisive result…..

Chirinza-Pleasants

As you can see White has just played 53.a7 but here Allan found 53..Qxh3! 54.Qb8 hxg3 55.fxg3 Rxa7! 56.Qxa7 Qxg3+ with a perpetual check.

Vasco-Blackburn

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here White’s kingside has been compromised and Jon played 31… Qe4! 32.Rde1 Rxh3+ 33.Kg1 Rh1+! 0-1 (Qh4-h2 mate will follow)

Round 3: Wales vs Paraguay

 

 

 

 

Board 28 so we just missed out on returning to the top hall. Our most disappointing performance of the Olympiad?! Probably in my view. Jon went for an overoptimistic sacrifice in the Slav and never really got any compensation. Alex got his knight trapped and Allan collapsed in a roughly equal knight and pawn endgame. Grzeg looked like the only realistic points scorer, but eventually got ground down by his strong opponent in a rook and pawn endgame where he had some holding chances.

Round 4: Wales vs Bahrain

 

 

 

 

In the end we came out with a good win from this match. The effects of still not having his bags, clothes and files were still affecting Grzeg but here, after completely outplaying his opponent, he missed a one move tactic towards the end which turned the game on its head. However, Alex and Tim got their first wins of the event and Allan completed things on Board 4 with what looked like a smooth game.

Round 5: Wales vs North Macedonia

 

 

 

 

A fine result despite being heavily outrated. In fact, if anything we were disappointed, mulling things over in the rooftop bar later that we didn’t win this match. Jon’s preparation here (as it was for much of the event) was excellent and his young opponent didn’t get anywhere in the French Tarrasch. Alex played an enterprising piece sacrifice in the Caro-Kann which sank his opponent into deep thought. In the end it wasn’t sufficient for more than a draw. Tim’s game was the first where ‘Bus Prep’ came into play. In general, the players prepared for their games in the morning and came to see me with any questions or for suggested lines before lunch. Here we used the half hour journey to the venue to analyse on my magnetic set some fairly critical line in the 6.Bc4 Najdorf that Tim was going to play. We got the position on the board after 14 moves and Tim found himself well ahead on the clock However his young opponent found a good reaction under time pressure and managed to force a drawn rook and pawn endgame.

Grzeg’s game was a real shame. Again he outplayed his opponent, this time an experienced GM in the Yugoslav attack in the Sicilian Dragon, again a position we had studied a little bit that morning. With his opponent under time pressure Grzeg won a piece, and with it, as the last game to finish it looked like the match. However strong players don’t give up easily and his opponent created a devilish trick which saved the game.

Toczek-Stanojoski

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here Grzeg had intended the winning 47.Nf5! setting up unstoppable threats. Unfortunately, he played 47.c7? which allowed 47…Bb1+ 48.Ka1 e4+ 49 Rb2 Bd3+ 50 Ka2 Bb1+ with a perpetual.

Round 6: Wales vs Faroe Islands

 

 

 

 

The last round before a much-needed rest day and despite a much higher rated team on paper, we felt we had a good chance as they were underperforming. Alex had a tough game on Board 3, suffering a worse position out of the opening that he couldn’t hold. Allan had a very interesting fight on Board 4 where he had a good chance in the complications around the time control. However his opponent managed to stabilise the position and converted his extra pawns. Jon on board 1 got a very good position out of the opening in a Saamisch Kings Indian and at one point had a winning advantage. He missed the crucial idea and Ziska’s active pieces won the game. Tim on Board 2 was our only points scorer and did so with a fine attack….

Nielsen-Kett

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here Tim played 25..Bh3! and White cannot defend against the mating attack. The game continued 26 Qxe5 Bxg2 27 h4 Nh3+ 28 Kh2 Nf4! 29 Bb3+ Kh8 30 Be6 Nxe6 31 Bxd4 Nxd4 32 Rad1 Qh3+ 33 Kg1 Qh3# 0-1

After this Tim, along with his wife Sarah and Olivia went to the traditional ‘Bermuda Party’ before the rest day. On the rest day itself some of the players went to do some sightseeing whilst others (and me!) decided just to rest up at the hotel. The hotel itself had some nice features; a lovely rooftop swimming pool, small gym and complimentary yoga sessions. It was also attached to a large mall which a number of the team ventured out to on occasion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Round7: Wales vs Mauritania

 

 

 

 

 A close game in the end, with Alex and Grzeg coming up with important wins. Grzeg played a Scandinavian, caught his opponent with a tactical trick winning an exchange and never looked like not winning. Alex found a pretty zugzwang in the endgame which did the job

 Cheikna- Bullen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here Alex played 39…Ba7! and White will run out of moves. The game continued 40.h4 Bb6 41 b4 but this is rather desperate and after 41…axb3 42 Bb2 Bc7 Black went on to win.

Round 8: Wales vs South Africa

 

 

 

 

Despite being outrated on every board this was another close game that could have gone either way. There was a sharp fight on the top board in a Sicilian Najdorf where Grzeg chose 6.h4!? Black equalised and was pressing but White held firm. On board 2 Jon had the black side of another French tarrasch and gambled with a pawn grab which looked risky, but the engine thought was ok. Unfortunately a couple of inaccuracies led to trouble. Tim on board 3 again got in some ‘Bus prep’ and played an old line against the Najdorf. Probably a good choice against his young opponent who used a lot of time…

Kett-Barrish

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here black has just played 12…b4 which allows 13.Nd5!? exd5 14.e5 with a strong attack

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Final position after 31.Rd1+ 1-0. Here black cannot avoid 32.Rd8 winning a piece

Round 9: Wales vs Myanmar

 

 

 

 

A good result against a young team. Boards 2, 3 and 4 all won hard fought games. With Tim’s win he moved to 5.5/8, within range of an FM title for which, in the Olympiad you need 65%. At the debrief in the bar at the end of the day strategy was drawn up. Tim would need either one draw from one game or, if he lost against Estonia a win in the final round…..

Round 10: Wales vs Estonia

 

 

 

 

In the end we decided to rest Tim against a strong Estonian team. Alex outprepared his opponent and got a good game, which I thought for some time he was going to win. However his opponent fought strongly and a draw was finally achieved. Grzeg was disappointed with his final game of the event, when his experienced opponent outplayed him through a Benko gambit. Allan lost a Modern defence when the position opened and the tactics favoured White. Jon followed another Tarrasch from a previous round and was probably winning but again the opponent battled strongly and just achieved a draw.

Round 11: Wales vs Jersey

 

 

 

 

A favourable pairing in the last round, especially for Tim who needed a draw for the FM title. What we didn’t know is that his opponent needed a win for a norm/title himself, so despite getting our Bus Prep in again and finding himself in a good position the tactical 30 move draw offer (you couldn’t offer before this) was rejected. Jon and Alex were again Rocks with the Black pieces and I was delighted for Allan and what looked like a very smooth win on Board 4. Tim’s game was the last to finish but his opponent erred in the endgame and not only therefore did Tim achieve his FM title but the team finished with a good win.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In summing up thankyou very much to the team and the Welsh Chess Union for their support. The spirit in the team was excellent and everyone chipped in with important results throughout the event. We finished 96th, which funnily enough was our initial seeding. The attitude and organisations of the Indian Chess Federation was fantastic. Up at the top of the tournament congratulations to Uzbekhistan and Ukraine for winning the Open and Womens sections respectively and there were other great individual performances including Ireland’s Connor Murphy with a GM Norm and England’s David Howell who won the gold medal for his board 3 performance.

2022 Glorney Gilbert International Report

This year it was the turn of Wales to host the tournament. The continuing Covid pandemic prevented us from booking a venue for an over the board tournament and so we held a hybrid event, whereby each nation gathers its players together in one central venue and they then play on line, under supervision. This format provided a number of technical problems, all of which were adequately dealt with by our arbiters, Adrian Elwin and Peter Purland.  As in previous years, we were restricted to the four home nations, which meant a six round all play all competition.

Once again, Nicholas Evans acted as team manager for all of our teams and he did an excellent job, greatly encouraging and enthusing all the players, enabling them to enjoy the tournament. John Thornton kindly helped him with the post match analysis.

Nicholas writes, ”After a difficult couple of years it was lovely to see so many friendly faces back in person during the hybrid set up for this year’s Glorney Cup. Wales had some very tough opposition in the form of strong English, Irish and Scottish teams, but battled very heartedly throughout. Although we may have struggled to win a few matches, there were some fantastic signs for the future, with all the players taking on lots of advice and implementing these ideas in their later games.”

Covid 19 continues to exert its evil influence. We were restricted both in the number of players available and in their quality, so much so, that we were unable to field a Gilbert team. Matters were made worse when two players decided to withdraw two days before the event was due to begin and I was left scrabbling around for non- existent reserves. We defaulted on a total of six occasions for the Robinson and Stokes teams. (The tournament rules allowed two reserves for each team. We had just one reserve for the Glorney team.)

The Glorney team did much better than last year, drawing two matches against Scotland and Ireland. The two younger teams were massively out graded and predictably came fourth by a long way. The Stokes team managed to draw its last match against Scotland, but all the other matches were lost. Our best individual performance was by Ellison Smith, who scored 3.5 out of six. Ifan Rathbone-Jones scored 2.5 out of four on top board for the Glorney team and David Belochkin scored 2.5 out of four for the Stokes team. The final positions were as follows:

Glorney                England 23.5, Scotland 14.5, Ireland 12, Wales 10.

Gilbert                  England A 16, England B 13, Scotland 4, Ireland 3.

Robinson             England 27, Ireland 22, Scotland 16.5, Wales 6.5.

Stokes                  England 27, Scotland 21, Ireland 17.5, Wales 6.5

The final scores of our players were:

Glorney                I.Rathbone-Jones 2.5, C.Guha 1, D.MacDonald 1, E.Smith 3.5, Y.Wu 1, B.Szakmany 1.

Robinson             T.Davies 0, E. Challoner 2, K.Bagga 2, R. Sequeira 1.5, T. Ryan 0.5, A. Kulkarni  0.5.

Stokes                  E. Kong 2.5, F.Nasir 1, K. Enoch 0.5, L. Davies 0, D.Belochkin 2.5, L. Zheng 0.

Women’s 2022 Olympiad Report by Mike Healey

Wales sent a last-minute fairly youthful and inexperienced team to Chennai. A target of 50% seemed reasonable given our seeding, but once it dawned that many teams were either ungraded or vastly undergraded, with FIDE-supplied GM coaches and pre-tournament training camps, as well as several teams very possibly doing strange things with their board orders, this presented more of a challenge. The only real disaster was Tunisia, when a possible 4-0 collapsed to 1-3; otherwise results went much as expected. Even in lost matches there were no real blowouts – India 2 in round one was indicative of the lack of luck from the first half of the tournament. Thanks to a strong finish, despite most of us losing a fair chunk of elo, 50% was achieved. More importantly, I think all the players gained experience in one way or another.

Olivia Smith on one was a rock, offering great opening preparation and determination. Even when she dropped points (two draws, two losses), she was frequently either ahead or no worse for vast majority of the game. She was also happy to help preparing the others for their games. Hopefully next tournament she will get more of a chance to test herself against the stronger players, because she can clearly dispatch those beneath her with relative ease.

Kim had a few personal worries off the board and a difficult start, but pulled herself together admirably and took her chances when they came. She also improved her time management massively as the tournament went on. She can take a lot of pride from this tournament.

Hiya showed great promise, especially against stronger players. Every game was an interesting fight, which much appealed to my own style of chess. Thanks to a late squad rotation, she had to play with more blacks than anyone. With more experience in handling positions with small advantages, she could easily have doubled her points total. Games against Malta and Iceland in particular showed great grit, while India 2 and Ethiopia were a delight to witness first hand.

Khushi was the revelation of the tournament: keen to learn, she readily took ideas and new opening lines into a sponge-like brain. She also has quite the poker face at the board, quietly working things out. Sadly she often had the pressure of a result heaped on her young shoulders, and her final tally perhaps reflects this. Her complete inexperience of this level and time limit was belied by her frequent honour of being last to finish. I also suspected at times she was facing the strongest player on board 4!

Sarah only played one game, but survived an incredible 2.15 hours. Unfortunately we told her under no circumstances to move her f-pawn, which sadly meant she missed a glorious chance for a dominating position against Malta! She also captained the side to victory against Namibia. 

The strong Welsh finish (WWLDW) and ability of the four players to return to the board without complaint, shuttling back and forth day after day for four hour+ games with little respite, is surely a good indicator to the team’s capability and determination.

Overall the team was a tremendous pleasure to captain, and made my life generally very easy. Should this be the core of future Welsh teams, I think the raw material to work with is quite promising!

Mike Healey    

Laura Staveley RIP

On Sunday, 31st July, Kevin’s mother, Laura (Staveley), suffered a severe catastrophic stroke. At this present time Laura is lovingly been cared for by the doctors and nurses of the Royal Glamorgan Hospital where she is visited by close family only.
 
Kevin and the whole family express their grateful thanks to the staff of the Royal Glamorgan Hospital for this care and devotion.
 
Understandably this means that Kevin needs to devote his time to this, but would like to reassure players that events at the end of August and early September will take place as planned.
 
Sadly, Laura Staveley passed away peacefully in her sleep on 9th August. She will be very sorely missed as she often attended weekend chess tournaments helping out with refreshments.
 
The Welsh Chess Union wishes to send our deep sorrow at Kevin’s loss and assure him that our thoughts are with him at this very sad time.

Laura’s funeral will take place at Coychurch Crematorium, Bridgend, on Tuesday 30th August at 1.15 pm.

It will be preceded by a short service at the home (57, Treharne St)

Following the Cremation service there will be a reception at St George’s Hall, Cwmparc, upon return.

 
 
 
 

Follow Wales at the 2022 Olympiad

Follow the Open games live here

Follow the Women’s games live here

Follow Open Round by Round scores on Chess Results here

Follow Women’s Round by Round scores on Chess Results here

Read Mike Healey’s regular blog on kingstonchess.com

Last minute place in 2022 British Championships

The WCU is entitled to nominate one player for this event which is a 9-round Swiss to standard FIDE time limits taking place from Saturday 13 August to Sunday 21 August in Torquay. 

Any player interested in the nomination should contact Peter Bevan internationaldirector@welshchessunion.uk  by the end of Saturday 30 July. 

More details can be found on the event website: Chessable British Chess Championships – 2022 .

The WCU may be able to contribute toward the entry fee but otherwise nominees will be expected to meet their expenses of taking part in this event.