was concluded on Wednesday 25th July. A competitive event which eventually went the way of a most deserving winner. Many thanks to all those who took part and to Clive Davies who carefully compiled all the results of this years championship so that they could be displayed on this website. Yet again there were many decisive games and those who were still in with a chance of winning the title were certainly not lacking effort to capture the coveted accolade of club champion.
The top board clash saw Andy Ross attempt to batter down the defences of leader Warren. A Sicilian ensued and Andy looked to have promising position early on as Warren remained somewhat passive. Yet as is typical of the Sicilian defence once the counterplay manifests itself it comes fast and hard! Andy unwisely exchanged in the centre and the pressure on Warren's defences was lessened. After that Warren countered and won a pawn. Andy attempted to muddy the waters somewhat by sacrificing a piece for pawns but overlooked Warren's threats including a back rank mate. The Ross defences crumbled thereafter and Warren followed up his attack remorselessly. Andy finally capitulated on move 35. A fully deserved victory for Warren and many congratulations go to him for winning this years club championship. The game is shown below:
On board two I decided to mix things up as early as possible to get Clive out of his opening preparation. Unsettled, Clive ended up in a rather unpleasant position and decided to exchange off queens which left his pawn structure somewhat crippled. Thereafter the rush to control the open d-file was made with us both doubling rooks on the file. After their exchange it came down to a knight v bishop ending with me having the horse. Clive's position appeared to be teetering as I managed to win a pawn. Although my knight still seemed the superior piece I could not find the correct way to proceed. Clive eventually got his king active and forced off the exchange of pawns till I was left with one. Although I tried a few tricks Clive remained resolute and finally got to a king and pawn ending that was drawn.
On board three Andy Bagley showed his class with the white pieces by first gaining much space before attacking on the kingside and forced poor Neil into a desperate position. This he could not defend and Andy picked up the point.
On board four John Wells finished off a good championship with a fine win over Keith. This bodes well for the forthcoming chess season.
On board five Dominic Gallgher got back to winning ways with a smooth victory over Andy Parker.
The final leaderboard was as follows:
NAME |
GRADE |
TOTAL |
Warren Dennison |
157 |
5 |
Clive Davies |
168 |
4 |
Andy Bagley |
149 |
4 |
David Hirst |
149 |
4 |
Andy Ross |
144 |
3 |
John Wells |
113 |
3 |
Dominic Gallagher |
93 |
3 |
Neil Bolton |
91 |
2.5 |
Keith Riach |
135 |
2 |
Alex King |
80 |
1.5 |
Andrew Parker |
74 |
1.5 |
Congratulations to the 2012 Rose Forgrove Chess Club Champion........Warren Dennison. A fine performance and now he will be set the task of performing a simultaneous against club members in the next few weeks. Nice one Warren!
