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Date:07/06/2025 3 Teesside Junior Champions for Thornaby!
Champions!
The Teesside Junior Championships took place at Yarm School earlier today with some of our young superstars doing very well in their age groups!
The Under 9 section was very competitive with 3 players on 4/4 going into the last round. Jayden Wang played Arya Jafari with both on 4, the pieces went off quickly and Jayden's league experience showed with some excellent endgame play to force the win. Joseph Hartill was the other player on 4 and he could only draw his final match against a player on 3.5. That did mean Jayden was the outright winner with 5/5 and Joseph was outright 2nd with 4.5/5. So a 1-2 for Thornaby club! Matthew put in another good tournament performance to finish on 3/5. He and Joseph will be in the same age section again next year, so a good building block for next year for Matthew to see if he can repeat last year's Under 7 triumph.
The girls Under 9 competition was also close with several girls on 3/4 going into the last round. Shanaya was paired against Zoyaa Soni from Yarm school who is already a regular winner of junior events. A great game from both girls saw Zoyaa get an early lead, but Shanaya came back with a dangerous attack with her queen looking menacing on h3. Zoyaa brought her pieces back to defend, but came back too far and Shanaya forced an unusual sort of reversed back rank checkmate with her queen on h1 and Zoyaa's king on f1 trapped by her own rook on f2 and queen on e2. The win saw Shanaya become the joint Girls Champion along with Oakley Richmond from Billingham South school (who is also coached by Chris). A good week for Oakley (and Chris!) who was part of the Billingham South team that joint won the CSC team tournament yesterday along with Throston school.
A measure of how tough these events are to win is that Tashil had never previously won one! This time however he did manage to put together a full set of 5 wins. He had several tough games along the way, especially in the 4th round against his regular nemesis Dara Jafari. Dara was slightly ahead on material, but Tashil managed to push a pawn to a position where it became dominant and forced a win from there. In the last round he played Throston school's Isabelle Little who was also on 4/4. Isabelle won all her games on board 1 in Throston's CSC joint team win yesterday, so another dangerous opponent. Tashil managed to get a good attack going early though and forced a checkmate with his queen on h7. Isabelle's consolation was that she did finish as the joint girl's champion. Meanwhile Mehek showed how much she has improved over the last few months with a respectable 2/5. It was one of those good 2's as she was on 2/3 and had tough draws in the last couple of rounds.
Full Thornaby Results
Under 9 Section
Jayden Wang 5/5 (Champion!)
Joseph Hartill 4.5 (2nd place)
Shanaya Chauhan 4 (Girls Champion)
Matthew Hartill 3
Under 11 Section
Tashil Lankapura 5/5 (Champion!)
Mehek Malik 2/5
Date:04/06/2025 Summer Series draw!
Top seed!
The draw for the first round of our "Summer Series" competition has been made. We have a very healthy for a summer competition 28 entries:
ROUND 1
Sam Stevenson V Steve Rodgers
Chris Swales V Jayden Wang
Josh Fisher V Mike Creaney
Phil Wales V Neil Sotheby
Malcolm Goldspink V Maurice Olum
Joe McGinnis V Sachin Saggar
Andrew Salter V Stephen Ollis
Ajay Selvan V George Butterworth
Janos Mehes V Jonathan Feasby
Rhys Orton V Richard Stevenson
James Tones V James Mann
Geoff Mann V Andy Austen
Wayne Mulloy V Alan Stockley
Reserve: Noah Mulloy
Half Point Bye: Alex Jamieson
The competition will be played every other week on our club nights starting on 10th June and it is a way of us getting competitive match practice in the off season.
The field is lead by Steve Rodgers who is the highest rated player in the event. However it should be very competitive with 9 players within 200 points of Steve and several other rapidly improving junior players who could also be in the mix.
This competition is partly about giving people a chance to take on higher rated player and stake a claim to play in the top divisions. Something that is very much emphasised by this first round draw. The top 3 boards have 3 of our fastest advancing junior players taking on the 3 players in the event who played for the Aces team last season. I'm pretty sure I'm more worried about playing Jayden than he will be about playing me!
Chris
Date:31/05/2025 Another title for Tashil!
Minor winner!
The Cleveland Individual competition finished earlier this week and there was another title for Tashil! 6 Thornaby players finished in the top 10 of the final standings:
1) Nikolas Tavoularis 5
2) Michael Smalley 3.5
3) Dominic Leigh 3
=) Tashil Lankapura 3
5) Chris Swales 2.5
=) Aryan Nalawade 2.5
=) Ajay Selvan 2.5
8) Matt Jackman 2
=) Steve Cole 2
=) Neil Sotheby 2
Cleveland Individual Champion : Nikolas Tavoularis
Cleveland Individual Major Winner (Under 1800) : Michael Smalley
Cleveland Individual Minor Winner (Under 1500) : Tashil Lankapura
Tashil has had a great season and was the top player from Thornaby. He finished 3rd overall to win the Cleveland "Minor" title for Under 1500 rated players.
Well done to Nik Tavoularis from Middlesbrough club for winning the competition for a 9th time! Well done also to Michael Smalley from Hartlepool for finishing 2nd and being the top Under 1800 rated player.
Thornaby were challenging strongly early on, but withdrawals from Matt and Sagar and GCSE exams for Aryan meant some of our strongest players didn't play all 5 rounds of the competition. Myself and Ajay both had tough draws, so 2.5 still represented good performances for us. Despite our title challenge faltering, it was nevertheless a good tournament for our club. Ajay and Aryan both achieved some notable results against the top rated players in the competition and 3rd place for Tashil is a great achievement!
Chris
Date:28/05/2025 Thornaby Dragoons Season Report!
Long-haired enigma?
It's the time of year when our captains do their season reports for our AGM. I thought I'd share this one. Being a captain can be a difficult task at times and I know that nearly all clubs in the league can struggle to get captains at times. To run 11 teams this season, we needed some new ones to step up. Neil was one of them and they've all done a great job. Neil had only played a few games towards the end of last season, but his enthusiasm and humour have always shone through this season!
SEASON WRAP-UP – Year One of the Thornaby Dragoons
What a season. Our very first as a team, and mine as captain. I started the year barely able to find the right boards, and ended it making Queen sacrifices so generous they bordered on philanthropy.
We came into the league as an unknown squad of misfits, veterans, rising stars and me. But what we lacked in experience, we made up for in enthusiasm, dodgy tactics and a weird amount of hair-related confusion.
Let's take a moment to thank the legends of the Dragoons:
• Maurice “The Boss” Olum, who took on Board 1 duties nearly every week and finished as our top scorer. Solid, reliable, and always a threat to promote at least four pawns at once.
• George “Jujitsu George”: Our long-haired enigma who got mistaken for a girl, played like a demon, and scored some huge wins—especially when it really mattered.
• Andy Austin and Janos Mehes: Living proof that age is just a number. Janos, at 86, moved up and down stairs better than most of us and even stepped in last minute to save the team more than once. Andy's return late in the season showed us what steady nerves and experience can bring.
• Joe: New to the league, but bagged two wins including his first ever competitive victory. The future looks bright!
• Malcolm: A rock in the middle of the team. Never flashy, always dependable. A nightmare for even the strongest opponents.
• Ollie: Had a tough season on the board but stuck it out, learned from it, and got himself a win. That resilience counts more than any rating.
• And finally, me : Captain, motivational speaker, and part-time blunderer. I won a few, lost a few more, and invented some moves that may yet make it into a future chess rulebook titled “Don't Try This.”
We played 12 matches. Won 3, drew 6, lost just 3. Not a single forfeit. We finished 4th, just behind our own Thornaby Juniors, only 3 points off promotion. Not bad for the new kids on the block.
Special thanks to Chris for his behind-the-scenes support, pep talks, and encouragement throughout the season. And thanks to all the players who stepped up, turned up, and made this season such an enjoyable one.
Lastly, a shoutout to the real Board 5… the bar. The most reliable player of all.
Here's to next season. The Dragoons ride again!
Date:27/05/2025 200 up for Brian!
200 up!
The history pages of our website have been updated with this seasons scores:
http://www.thornabychessclub.co.uk/PlayerHistory.htm
http://www.thornabychessclub.co.uk/History.htm
Some milestones that I missed. Brian Ellis played his 200th game for the club earlier in the season! Only the 3rd player to pass that milestone for us. Joe McGinnis and Nick Tadd have both passed the 100 mark. All 3 are club legends and great stalwarts for the club!
Meanwhile, I'm going to be sitting on 99 games for the club for the next few months until the new season starts!
Chris
Date:20/05/2025 Francis blitzes to victory!
He was winning!
Yesterday was our Spring Blitz competition and it saw a field of 20 players fighting for the title. Some of our older players chose to skip this one in favour of the delights of "board 5" and I was disturbed at one point in the evening when I realised I was the oldest player in the event! 50 in July if anyone cares! It was still an exciting competitive tournament though and Francis did have some tough games, especially in the knockout stages.
The field was arranged into 2 groups of 10 players and then the top 4 in each group progressed to the knockout stages with the top group performers getting the more favourable draws and choice of colour in the knockout stages. Group A saw a great performance from Sam S to lead after 6 games with 5.5 points. Tashil drew 2 games, but beat me in the game that eventually decided the group winner and we both finished ahead of Sam in the end. Jonathan got off to a slow start, but came through in the end to get 4th place. The main danger was the rapidly improving Sachin who finished 5th in the group and did beat Jonathan in the 2nd round of fixtures. He couldn't quite pick up enough points in his other games.
Group B saw Francis win all 9 of his games to top the group. Toefl was also a comfortable qualifier with 7/9. His only other defeat was against Josh. The final 2 slots were very closely contested. 5 players were in contention right up until the last round of fixtures. Jayden needed a win over Alex in his last match, but lost to finish on 5. Faruk was also right up there and finished on 4.5. There was a 3 way tie for 3rd place in the group with Alex, Josh and Andrew all finishing on 5.5. The results between the players were the tie breaker and Alex missed out by the narrowest margin. Andrew drew with the other 2 and Josh beat Alex, so it finished 3rd) Josh 5.5,1.5 4th) Andrew 5.5,1 5th) Alex 5.5,0.5.
The quarter final stage saw group winners paired with the opposite group 4th and group runners up against the opposite group 3rd. As it happened all the winners and runners up progressed. I had a tough game with Josh who got a piece for 2 pawns up, but with his king exposed. With more time, it was probably a win for him, but the position was complicated to find the right defensive moves in a blitz game and I forced a win. Tashil and Toefl both won to set up a semi-final family showdown! The tie of the round though was definitely Francis against Jonathan. Jonathan had some chances, but the game finished a draw. That meant a reverse colour play off and Jonathan had the white pieces this time. Again he got into a good attacking position with plenty of threats, but Francis managed to force a win with his knight and queen around Jonathan's king.
In the semi finals, Toefl specifically asked me to mention that he was winning against Tashil! Time was starting to tick away though and he made some mistakes when down to less than a minute. Tashil excels in these situations and came out with the win on time, but with a much stronger position as well. Usually when I play Francis, I get slaughtered. I certainly would not be on the A team if only games against the captain were taken into account! This time it was closer and I got into a nice endgame position with 3 pawns and a knight against 2 pawns and a bishop and all my pawns on the opposite colour squares. I'm not sure it was totally winning, but it certainly wasn't losing. It did leave me more than a minute down on time though and when my time got below a minute, I made a couple of mistakes chasing the wrong pawns and somehow managed to end up losing my knight pinned against my king. It was comfortable for Francis from there.
The final was a great match. It looked even for quite a while. Tashil had some good attacking on the queenside, but Francis engineered a queen trade that left him in a strong position with his rooks and a bishop focusing down on an increasingly exposed looking king. The position was winning for Francis, but Tashil had 50 seconds to his 30 at this point. Tashil had to play more carefully though and in the end a frantic set of moves ensued that left Tashil running out of time with Francis only having 2 seconds left on his clock!
Chris
Results
FINAL
Francis 1-0 Tashil
SEMI-FINAL
Tashil 1-0 Toefl
Francis 1-0 Chris
QUARTER-FINAL
Tashil 1-0 Andrew
Toefl 1-0 Sam S
Francis 0.5-0.5 Jonathan (Francis won reverse colour play off)
Chris 1-0 Josh
GROUP STAGE
GROUP A
Tashil 8
Chris 7.5
Sam S 7
Jonathan 6.5
Sachin 5
George 4
Wayne 3
Matthew 2
Joe VS 2
Daniel 0
GROUP B
Francis 9
Toefl 7
Josh 5.5
Andrew 5.5
Alex 5.5
Jayden 5
Faruk 4.5
Noah 1
Clair 1
Joseph H 1
Date:13/05/2025 Tashil wins Spring Rapidplay!
Champion!
An excellent 26 players entered our Spring Rapidplay on Tuesday. After 5 rounds of intense competition, Tashil emerged as the champion! He's been close before, but this is the first time he's won one of our internal events outright. Key wins over Santiago and Jonathan in round 3 and 4 set him up. Then a draw in the final round with Phil who was only half a point behind at the time.
Tashil's last 3 opponents all finished on 4 in joint 2nd, so he did it the hard way! Alex was in 5th place on 3.5 and then there was a glutch of players on 3 in joint 6th including notable good performances from Sachin and Josh.
These days, Tashil is certainly a leading contender in any of our quick events, but it is still a fantastic achievement for a 10 year old to be able to win! Mike Creaney summed it up well "Excellent result from Tashil, maybe even predictable. A formidable opponent in Rapid play, be afraid in next weeks blitz!"
Full Results:
1) Tashil Lankapura 4½
2) Santiago Palencia 4
Phil Wales 4
Jonathan Feasby 4
5) Alex Jamieson 3½
6) Sachin Saggar 3
Chris Swales 3
Malcolm Goldspink 3
Joe McGinnis 3
Toefl Lankapura 3
Josh Fisher 3
Maurice Olum 3
13) Faruk Serin 2½
Jayden Wang 2½
15) Alan Stockley 2
Wayne Mulloy 2
Zhuoyi Lin 2
Sam Stevenson 2
Andrew Salter 2
Amit Chauhan 2
21) Richard Stevenson 1½
George Butterworth 1½
23) Joe Vera-Sanso 1
Shanaya Chauhan 1
Noah Mulloy 1
26) Daniel Ayre 0
Date:06/05/2025 Comets Capture Cup!
Club stalwart!
Thornaby Dynasties 2-3 Thornaby Comets
Toefl Lankapura 0-1 Phil Wales
Tashil Lankapura 1–0 Maurice Olum
Geoff Mann 0-1 Bill March
James Mann 1-0 Alan Stockley
Sam Stevenson 0–1 Malcolm Goldspink
We played Thornaby Dynasties last night in the Under 1500 rating cup final. A fantastic achievement for the club to get 2 teams into the final! It was a very close match with us coming out on top with a 3–2 win.
I was first to finish. The game seemed quite even until the endgame when I had a rook, bishop and five pawns to Sam's rook, knight and four pawns( one of them totally isolated). Sam went on the attack with his rook and knight but when I threatened to take his knight with my h pawn, he moved it leaving me to pin his rook and king with my bishop. Sam realising his blunder, resigned.
Alan was next to finish. After an uncharacteristically bad opening, Alan fought back to enter the endgame with a rook and five pawns against a knight and five pawns. Unfortunately, he allowed a fork on his rook and king. Alan tried to push a passed pawn but it was easily covered by James' knight leaving him free to mop up Alan's remaining Pawns with his king. Alan resigned when it was clear James was able to convert.
Phil was next to finish. When I checked mid-game he had his usual solid defensive position which looked fairly even. He'd castled long and managed to get a pawn storm against Toefl's king which worked out well for him in the end!
Things were going badly for Maurice after a complicated swap of pieces which saw the queens off the board, Maurice ended a knight down. Tashil didn't let up and after an uncomfortable match, Maurice resigned. While this was going on, Bill beat Geoff to win the match. When we told Maurice he said, "Why didn't you tell me earlier and I would have resigned sooner!"
Bill's game against Geoff seemed even until they swapped some minor pieces leaving Bill able to push pawns through the centre, creating a passed pawn on the d file. He also had unopposed pawns on a and b files, supported by his king. Bill converted the d pawn and captured Geoff's remaining piece and although Geoff fought to the bitter end, Bill eventually got checkmate. It was nice for it to be Bill who got us over the line. He's been in the club since 2009 and is a real club stalwart!
I would like to thank the team for their commitment to this Cup run. Every eligible member played at least one game and over four matches we only lost five boards, two of them against a very tough Dynasty team in the final! Well done guys, you all deserve it!
Malcolm
Date:06/05/2025 Aces agony in cup!
Board 4 win!
Thornaby Aces 2.5-2.5 Great Ayton A
Chris Ross 0.5-0.5 Virgil Szekely
Francis Batchelor 0.5-0.5 Steve Booth
Matt Jackman 0-1 Andrew Smith
Sam Greig 1-0 Martin McLoughlin
Chris Swales 0.5-0.5 Kegan Harrison
Thornaby Aces missed the cup final by the narrowest possible margin after a close semi final with league champions Great Ayton. The Aces were close to full strength with our 3 big 2000+ rated hitters on the top 3 boards and Sam travelling in from Sunderland to play on board 4.
Chris S was on the back foot for most of the game on board 5, but managed to neutralise the position into a queen and pawn endgame that looked like a dead draw with perpetual check options for both players. Both players decided that agreeing the draw rather than playing out the inevitable result was the best way.
Francis and Steve had another entertaining game with chances on both sides. Steve got his queen forward onto a dangerous square and to the untrained eye it looked like Francis might lose a piece. He needed to use his time well to find the moves to stay out of trouble and in the end the game finished a draw.
Chris R and Virgil had a tactical even looking game on board 1. Chris was briefly a pawn down, but it always looked likely to finish a draw.
Sam put us 2.5-1.5 up in the tie. He was the exchange down, but plenty of compensation with passed pawns and Martin in cramped position. He managed to push his pawns forward and get the win.
Matt missed a tactic towards the end of his game, but played on as Andrew was in time pressure. The advantage was too big though and Andrew converted the win.
So the final score was 2.5-2.5, but Great Ayton went through on the 3 blacks rule. Well played to them as they were missing a couple of players, but they are not the champions for nothing and always tough to beat! Good luck in the final!
Date:04/05/2025 Megafinal Success for Thornaby!
Champion!
It was another great day for the club at the Teesside Megafinal earlier today. 21 players from the club took part
and altogether we had 3 champions, 12 medallists (including at least 1 in every age category) and 16 children qualify for the regional finals in Manchester.
In the Under 8 section, Henry Bishop (so good they named a chess piece after him) was the joint champion with 5/6. Shanaya was runner up to in the girl's section (to a girl from York) with 4/6. While Joseph, Matthew and Azaan all qualified for the regional finals with 3.5.
The Under 10 section had some very strong league level players on the top few boards going into the last couple of rounds. Tashil lost to his big rival Dara Jafari (who went on to be the only player in any age category to finish on 6/6) in round 5, but still finished joint 2nd with 5/6. The legendary Jayden Wang also finished on 5/6 despite being at the younger end of the category and Agam Vats also finished on 5/6.
In the Under 12 section, Kaira was the girl's champion with 4/6. George qualified for the regional final with a tactical quick draw in the last round!
The Under 14 and Under 18 sections were combined for pairing purposes and the draw was stacked with league players and a very high standard. That made it all the more impressive that Josh (who is still in the Under 14 section)managed to lead with a perfect 5 points after 5 rounds. He lost in the last round, but it made no difference, he was still the overall Boys Megafinal champion. Josh's loss came to well known local player Alice Sturman who has played in the A division for Redcar in the past. Like Josh, Alice finished on 5/6 to be the girl's champion. Eva was playing in her first event and finished 2nd of the girls. Zhuoyi, Rhys, Avanish and Ajay all finished on 3.5. That was enough for 3rd place in the Under 14's for Zhuoyi and joint 3rd place in the Under 18's for Rhys, Avanish and Ajay. Although he finished behind Josh, Redcar's Callum Hodgkiss finished on 4.5 to win the Boys Under 18 title.
Well done to all of our players who took part. The Megafinal is the pinnacle of local junior chess and especially in the older sections full of very strong players. There were also several top players from the Yorkshire Junior chess circuit in attendance in all age categories, so even our players who didn't quite make it to the next stage played very well. All of our 21 players either qualified or were within 1 win of qualifying.
Precise victory!
Redcar B 2-2 Thornaby Dragoons
Eddie Curphey ½–½ Phil Wales
Oliver Williams 1-0 Neil Sotheby
Joseph Dodds ½–½ Andy Austen
Stanley Allan 0-1 George Butterworth
Well, that's it. Our last match of the season—and what a way to bow out. Fourth vs second, our Thornaby Dragoons facing off against Redcar B. With Thornaby Juniors breathing down their necks for second place, it was up to us — Reluctant heroes in an underdogs tale — to ruin Redcar's promotion party. Did we do it? Well…
On Board 1, our top-secret weapon Phil Wales was unleashed to replace "the Boss", Maurice, who had earned a well-deserved rest. Phil faced Eddie Curphey in a tightly contested battle. It looked like a war of attrition with neither side giving an inch. And after a tense standoff, peace was declared—½–½.
Meanwhile, on Board 2, I had high hopes of glory and perhaps a cheeky pint from the Juniors if we secured promotion for them. Sadly, I was completely outclassed by Oliver Williams. By move 7, I was already lost in the wilderness without a map, torch or clue. I then blundered my queen in a move I'm now calling “The Neil Special” and promptly resigned. A proud moment. 0–1.
But hope was not lost.
Board 3 saw the return of the wise warrior, Andy Austin, dusting off his league chess boots after a break. He faced Joseph Dodds and, thanks to some sharpening with our resident veteran Janos, held a steady draw. A solid return for Andy, and the kind of gritty performance we needed. ½–½.
And finally, on Board 4, enter Jujitsu George, the golden-haired assassin against Stanley Allan. After begging to play as Black—because apparently, the pieces just feel more “him”—he went up against Stanley Allan (who, weirdly, looks a bit like George's younger brother). George, normally known for blitzing through his games took his time for once… maybe it was the family resemblance causing some sibling-ish rivalry, maybe it was my impassioned pre-game speech about honour, pride, and helping the Juniors. Whatever it was, he delivered. 1–0 to George, and the only win of the night for the Dragoons! I was very please with this performance as I struggled against Stanley in the home game only to end in a stalemate, so seeing George precisely give up his queen knowing that victory was his if taken and then watching him promote his pawn and finish in a great mating pattern while also taking his time was a treat to watch. Hopefully this is a sign for next season!
Final score: 2–2 draw. A valiant effort. Redcar go up, but not without us giving them a bloody nose!
Date:29/04/2025 Juniors finish season on a high!
Fabulous Season!
Thornaby Juniors 3.5-0.5 Billingham Dominators
Faruk Serin 0.5-0.5 Paul Scott
Jayden Wang 1-0 Nicola Harrington
Kaira Nalawade 1-0 Nicky Britton
Josh Fisher 1-0 Sean Cooke
A good finish to the season for the team with a win over Billingham! The scoreline was a little flattering as the match looked close (I thought probably 2-2) for a long time.
Josh got a piece for a pawn up and continued to press his advantage. Sean said that Josh played really well and it was like playing against a much higher rated player.
Faruk got into a mess right from early in the opening. A bit of an opening trap. He defended well to only come out 2 pawns down. I still thought it looked pretty hopeless with the queens off, but he managed to push a pawn and create enough problems to come out with a draw.
Jayden was a pawn up and then another pawn up. He ended up forking queen and rook to finish it off.
Kaira was a pawn up for a long time, but it didn't look decisive. The next time I looked she had 2 queens on the board and it was all over! A good win for Kaira, she's been on a bit of a losing run, partly thanks to some tough games in the Cleveland Individual, so this was a good confidence booster. She said talking to Francis about avoiding blunders a couple of weeks ago helped her in this one!
Redcar's draw on Thursday meant we finished 3rd in the table and just missed out on promotion on goal difference. Nevertheless, that is a very good season for the team which is primarily a development team for us. From that point of view, the season was undoubtedly a roaring success for the core squad of 6 players! All of Jayden, Josh, Zhuoyi and Faruk could play C division regularly next season. Kaira and Tristan got more experience and improved over the season and both finished around 50% in the D division which is very good for their age. Jayden finished as 2nd top scorer in the D division with 8.5, just half a point behind Maurice. A fabulous season for an 8 year old! We certainly knew what a talent he was then, but before the season started he hadn't won or even drawn a single league game in the ones he played at the end of last season!
Chris
Date:2904/2025 Challengers finish with a win!
Board 3 win!
Thornaby Challengers 3-1 Billingham Synthonia Belasis
Steve Rodgers 1-0 Paul Frank
Mike Creaney ½-½ Brian Whitaker
James Urwin 1-0 Paul Weightman
Joe McGinnis ½-½ Keith Harrison
I suppose a routine win for the higher rated team, Brian was surprised that he wasn't on board four, but as is usually the case he offered a draw after just 20 moves with the position with hindsight only +0.34 for me, naturally I couldn't see the end in sight so agreed. I have seen Steve's game and it was just a routine positional win for him, didn't see any of James or Joe's games, but I think that they were fairly routine too.
Mike
We got a full board 3 report from James!:
Paul was playing as white & opted for the Jabava London opening. We played into a semi-slav position. The first real point of the game was Paul's decision to push f3, which allowed me to play knight onto H5 to attack his dark sqaure bishop with no where to retreat. Paul responded whth a H4 push & we swapped the knight & pawn pieces. I tried to kick away his knight on a5 with an f6 pawn push and he responded by pushing g4 to attack my light square bishop, we both captured accordingly. When I decided to capture his pawn on e5 there was an opportunity for a past pawn for Paul, but this would come with the risk of doubly attacking the h4 pawn with check that would take away his castling privileges - fearing this, Paul prioritised getting his king a queen side castle by playing Qe2. I pushed my e4 pawn and secured a strong centre & Paul castled, allowing me to capture on g4 with my bishop with check, leaving me 2 pawns up. A few more moves were played that had my 2 rooks on the F file - however Paul successfully countered to get a pawn back. The game became a tense situation where Paul was on the attack but a constant back rank mate kept things at bay from an aggressive attack. Once I brought my knight back over to complicate the position further Paul retreated back with this queen & ultimately blundered away his knight. After this Paul decided to resign the game, factoring in only 20 minutes left on his clock and much left to play.
A good season for the Challengers in the B division. They were up there with the top few teams all season. They ultimately finished in 4th place, but with a big 7 point gap to 5th! Our reliable and experienced duo of Mike and Steve both finished on 7.5 points and were amongst the leading scorers (joint 3rd place) in the B division.
Date:29/04/2025 Destroyers hold champions!
Quick win!
Thornaby Destroyers 2-2 Hartlepool D
Ik Madueke 0-1 John Marsden
Tim Hind 0-1 Graham Marshall
Sachin Saggar 1-0 Nick Henderson
Nick Tadd 1-0 Harry Henderson
A nice finish to the season for the Destroyers getting a 2-2 draw with the D division champions. It was a quick match, with all 4 games over by 8:15. Even the Juniors were all still playing!
Nick won in just 14 moves! A very quick win for him. After a solid opening from both players, he drew out his opponents queen and that left a 1 move checkmate!
Sachin continued his good second half to the season with another win. That gave us the point. Tim found the experienced Graham Marshall too difficult. Ik was disappointed with his game on board 1. He was previously on 4/4 in the D division.
The Destroyers finish the season in 5th place. It was a consistent season for the team. Only 7 players were used in the squad and 6 of them scored either 3 or 4 points. Alan, Ik and Charles were joint top scorers with 4 points each! However, the highlight of the season was definitely the 3-1 win with all 3 Hind's getting the points!
Date:28/04/2025 B52s lose at Hartlepool!
Fun End!
Hartlepool B 3-1 Thornaby B52s
Kevin Waterman 0.5-0.5 Stephen Ollis
Dave Kelly 1-0 Rhys Orton
Mark Priest 1-0 Neil Sotheby
Nick Henderson 0.5-0.5 Josh Fisher
The last game of the season for the B52s ended with a defeat. We had several players unavailable, but still managed to put up a decent fight.
Neil was confident going into his endgame, but blundered a rook playing what he thought was a devastating rook move! I was, but for him unfortunately! The dreaded bishop a long way forward coming back again is something we've all lost to before!
Josh blundered a rook when well ahead, but still managed to get a draw. Rhys had a tough game against Dave who has some decent results in the A division this season and Rhys found it too big a mountain to climb.
Stephen gave me a full report "I played the Milner Barry Gambit and got a nice position out of the opening and although a pawn down and engine equal, I definitely had the initiative for the rest of the game. I created a passed pawn and had prevented him from castling, but couldn't see a way through. I missed a couple of opportunities according to the engine. I sacrificed a knight for two pawns thinking I had do something otherwise I was just down a pawn after he castled (a blunder apparently) but he didn't take it (also a blunder) and when the dust settled we had equal material, but I had a better pawn structure and a more advanced passed pawn. He offered a draw and I thought the position looked slightly better for me but also complicated. Although I was ahead I think it would have gone on a long while and fair chance I'd make a mistake. All in all, an interesting game and a fun end to the season!”
There are some rearranged games for other teams to play before we know our final position, we're currently 5th. Overall it was a decent season for our 4th team. Exams and other things have made it difficult to get out teams from the core squad, but we proved to be very competitive in this division when we had anything like our best team out!
Chris
Date:26/04/2025 Josh wins at last!
Champion!
The April library Rapidplay was down slightly on attendance with it being the Easter holidays and some of our older children having GCSE's coming up, but we still had 18 entrants and there was no shortage of quality!
Josh has gone close to winning several events in recent months (he's often lost in 1 of the last 2 rounds after a strong 100% start) and it was nice for him to finally get over the line! He was the top rapid rated player who was there and spent the whole competition on board 1. A great performance to beat Jordan, Nate, Zhuoyi, Jayden and Sam who all have league experience and are all very good players at this level.
Josh took the £20 first prize. Zhuoyi and Jordan were up there all the way through and drew with each other in the last round to finish in joint 2nd. Eva played well to finish on 3 and win the girl's title. This was the highest entry we've had with 6 girls taking part and Shanaya and Freya were both still in contention going into the last round. There were also chocolate prizes for Jayden and Freya for winning their respective age groups.
Great practice for everyone. Next week is the Teesside Megafinal (the biggest junior event in the area) and Thornaby is sending our largest and strongest ever team. There are 25 children from our club and library sessions taking part and we wish them all well. Hopefully they will all enjoy the day regardless of results!
Leading results:
Josh Fisher 5 (Champion!)
Zhuoyi Lin 3.5
Jordan Broadbent 3.5
Eva Harris 3 (Girls Champion!)
Jayden Wang 3 (U9 Champion!)
Freya Hind 2 (U11 Champion!)
Sam Stevenson 2
Nate Broadbent 2
Charles Hind 2
Henry Bishop 2
Clair Hartill 2
Shanaya Chauhan 2
Raihan Malik 2
Connor Broadbent 2
Date:23/04/2025 Century for Thornaby!
True stalwart!
On Tuesday, James Tones became our 100th member this season! A new club record! James is the epitome of a typical member of the club. He'd played a bit online, but not played competitive chess before. He's tried the club for the last 3 weeks, won some games, lost a lot more games, enjoyed it and decided to join. He's probably going to try the D division next season and see where it goes from there.
It was also great to see Andy Austen back at the club. Andy has been absent for several months now battling illness, but he is back to full fitness. Andy has been missed, he is normally an ever present on club nights. A former clubman of the year, a true stalwart of the club and another player who highlights what the club is all about!
Our high membership has meant we have run a record 11 teams in the league this season, ranging from our elite A division "Aces" team to our D division teams which are open to any member to have a go at league chess. There is a nice pathway through the club now as we have multiple teams in every division of the league. This season, Aryan has made his way from D division to A division in less than a year!
Our membership is very diverse. Our youngest member is 7 and our oldest is 91 and there are several players in every decade in between. Our individual ratings range from 600 to 2200, so almost anyone can find a competitive game. You can find out more about many of our members here: http://www.thornabychessclub.co.uk/Players.htm
Although we of course like to do well in our matches as well, Thornaby is primarily a social/family friendly chess club with a "chess for all" ethos. We do have all standards of player. Come and give it a go!
Next up 200! Although that might be too optimistic even for us!
Date:22/04/2025 Phil finishes top scorer!
Top Scorer!
Thornaby Dynasties ½-3½ Thornaby Comets
Sam Stevenson 0-1 Phil Wales
Jordan Broadbent 0-1 Bill March
Richard Stevenson 0-1 Malcolm Goldspink
Nate Broadbent ½-½ Nick Tadd
The league season drew to a close last night with a 3½ to ½ win over Thornaby Dynasties. They were unable to field any of their top four players which left a somewhat one-sided match. I'm sure the Cup Final against the same team will see a much more competitive match!
Nate was making his debut for the Dynasties and had a very topsy turvy match with Nick which swung backwards and forwards, but finished up as a draw. A good start to league chess for him.
Congratulations to Phil who is the C Division top scorer with 8½ from 12 matches, mostly played on Board 1. His efforts have played a big part in our comfortable second place and promotion from the C Division!
I'd like to thank all the players for making the captaining of the team so easy this season. With eleven active members of the team, I've never had any trouble fielding a competitive team. Let's look forward to 2 weeks' time when hopefully we will be lifting the Cup!
Date:22/04/2025 Cadets hold champions!
Quick Win!
Thornaby Cadets 2-2 Hartlepool C
Avanish Batra 0-1 Michael Smalley
Rhys Orton 1-0 Mark Priest
Zhuoyi Lin 1-0 John Marsden
Faruk Serin 0-1 John Marshall
A good finish to the season for the Cadets against the C division champions. All of their team were over 1400 rating and all have played regularly this season, so they were not taking it easy. As the Cadets were safe from relegation or promotion, I rested Ajay and Joseph to give others a chance on the higher boards. Ajay had a club championship game to play and Joseph has GCSE's coming up.
In form Zhuoyi finished first. He played an aggressive opening with black and put his opponent on the back foot right from the start. A checkmate followed after around 20 moves and less than an hours play.
Faruk ended up 2 pawns down after a tricky opening. He couldn't get back into the game from there.
Rhys played an excellent game. It was level most of the way, but a couple of clever knight moves in quick succession put him a rook up and it was all over.
Although Avanish lost, I would say this was probably his best game of the season. Michael is probably the best player in the C division and up to 1668 in the ratings (an increase of around 200 points in the last year which is a lot for an adult!) and definitely playing at least at a 1700+ level now. Avanish went toe to toe with him for most of the game and for over 3 hours and it was only a small error towards the end that allowed Michael to win a piece and go on to win the game. If ever there was a good loss, this was it!
The Cadets finished the season in mid-table in 4th and have been very competitive in all their matches. A very solid season which would have been even better if Aryan hadn't moved up to the B division after Christmas. Nevertheless, this is the highest the Cadets have finished since it became an all Under 18 team. The core team of Ajay, Joseph, Rhys, Aryan and Avanish all proved they are good players at this level. Ajay was the teams top scorer despite being on board 1 all season. Zhuoyi, Jayden, Eva and Josh all picked up results when called on as reserves and the future of the team looks bright!
Chris
Date:16/04/2025 Away win for Destroyers!
Captain win!
Billingham Synthonia Dominators 1-3 Thornaby Destroyers
Paul Scott 0-1 Alan Stockley
Nicola Harrington 0-1 Tim Hind
Nicola Britton 0-1 Nick Tadd
Sean Cooke 1-0 Freya Hind
First finished was myself on board 2 against Nicola. I felt like I calculated well and took my time. Over the course of the season, I have found that blundering your queen isn't always the best move! A nice bishop move trapping her queen against the pawns guarding her king allowed me to bring my rook down for a checkmate.
Second finished was Freya. She had the short straw really as Sean has improved a lot over the last couple of years and is playing at a higher level than his current rating. At first it seemed like a very tight game, however the next time I looked she was down by a rook and a bishop. Freya lost, but more importantly, enjoyed her game!
Third to finish was Alan in an extremely tight and well fought game. Alan entered the endgame with 5 pawns to 4, managing to capitalise on this to promote to a queen. Even after this he faced a strong resistance, and a lesser player might have stalemated. Alan, is not a lesser player!
Last to finish was Nick. Again a tight game, but his opponent walked her king in between Nicks pawns, boxing herself in. Nick took full advantage of this and finished it off mercilessly. Nick said "I set a trap, like a spider in my web!" He may have laughed evilly, but that could have been my imagination!
Tim
Date:16/04/2025 Challengers held at Great Ayton!
Endgame win!
Great Ayton C 2-2 Thornaby Challengers
Jim Rogers ½- ½ Steve Rodgers
Andrew French ½-½ Mike Creaney
Connor Wilson 1-0 Phil Wales
Peter Archer 0-1 Joe McGinnis
Out grading your opponents is preferable, but doesn't guarantee anything. I was first to finish which is usually the case when my opponent offers me the draw and when I can see no advantage. Here I didn't like my position and Andrew said he didn't like his either!
Phil played his worst game of the season (in his own words!) and went a Rook down, but persevered and tried a few threats that looked good but were easily parried if Connor played correctly, which he did!
Joe's game looked to be drawn to bystanders, Peter put too much store in his passed pawn which was protected by his King but blockaded by Joes own monarch and Joes queenside majority was going to create a passed pawn of his own, so Peter needed to jettison his pawn and get over and deal with it, but he wasted a tempo delaying and so was unable to stop the creation of a passed pawn and the end was nigh.
Steve last to finish looked to be better and I was sure he would win eventually, but he burned a lot of time trying to find the best way to achieve that and Jim wasn't going to idly stand by and so with almost no time left Steve had to engineer a drawn position.
It was also good to see non-playing captain Pete Townson arriving hotfoot today from Spain to check out his team!
Mike
Date:15/04/2025 Maurice confirmed as top scorer!
D division top scorer!
Thornaby Dragoons 3.5-0.5 Thornaby Hurricanes
Maurice Olum 1-0 Manuel Lopez
Malcolm Goldspink 0.5-0.5 Amit Chauhan
Rosie Irwin 1-0 Eva Harris
Joe Vera-Sanso 1-0 Bertie Mellis
From a Hurricanes point of view:
-I didn't see what happened in Bertie and Joe's. It was level all the times I looked.
-Manuel came in to be our board 1 sacrifice against the Dragoons Mr 100%! He said he enjoyed the game and tried his best! Always likely to be tough against Maurice who is now confirmed as the D division's top scorer this season. That's despite playing board 1 in every match he's played. Well done to him!
-Rosie played a solid French defence game (probably the best game I've seen her play) and Eva missed a discovered check tactic to go the exchange down. She got her bishop pinned later in the game, but it was already slipping away by then.
-Amit was a piece for a pawn down, but battled on to save us from the whitewash!
The Hurricanes have a bye in the last week of the season, so they are our first team to complete their season. Tough for the team overall and they finished 7th in the D division. Lots of positives though. The core team of Sam, Eva, Bertie and Shanaya have all got better over the course of the season and have all achieved individual success. Most notably Shanaya became the CCA Ladies Quickplay Champion and Sam became the Thornaby Junior Chess Open Champion during the course of the season.
Chris
Date:15/04/2025 Aces through to semi finals!
Aces debut win!
Thornaby Aces 4-1 Billingham Synthonia Synners
Chris Ross 1-0 John Garnett
Francis Batchelor 0.5-0.5 Stephen Cole
Matt Jackman 1-0 Keith Harrison
Chris Swales 0.5-0.5 Brian Whitaker
Aryan Nalawade 1-0 Dave Elsdon
The Aces were at full strength for this one and ran out comfortable winners.
Chris S finished first against former Thornaby legend Brian. The board quickly locked up and pieces went off and in the end he was relieved to be offered a draw as Brian's bishop looked to have more play in the endgame.
The match was tied up when 3 games all finished fairly close together. Francis felt he was ahead for most of the game, but couldn't find a way through against Steve Cole. Chris R defeated the A division's leading scorer this season John Garnett. It was a slow strangle style of game and Chris said John would have had a futile miserable hour if he'd played on, but he chose to resign instead! Aryan was making his A team debut. A meteoric rise in his first season at the club! He didn't disappoint and after what looked like a slow start managed to get a piece up. He was always going to win the endgame from there.
Board 3 had the biggest rating difference, but Matt was last to finish. Keith played well and the game looked even for a long time, but in the end Matt came through to get the win.
Thornaby face the league and cup holders Great Ayton in the semi finals in what should be an excellent match!
Date:15/04/2025 First win for Isaac!
First win!
Thornaby Juniors 2-1 Thornaby All Stars
Faruk Serin 0-1 Alex Jamieson
Jayden Wang 1-0 James Tones
Isaac Machin 1-0 Daniel Ayre
The Juniors had a bye this week, but I like to keep things ticking over with friendlies where possible. Unfortunately, Sam had to drop out of the Hurricanes which meant Bertie moving up and Richard not available for this friendly either, so it was played with 3 boards. It would have been difficult anyway, as there were quite a few Juniors in club championship action.
-Isaac is a great attacking player and he won quite quickly with a devastating attack! A first standard length game win for Isaac.
-James came to the club for the first time last week. I haven't even signed him up yet, but he was keen to have a go at a proper game. He said the clock and the recording the moves confused him a bit, but he muddled through! Always likely to be a tough game against Jayden who is the 2nd top scorer in the D division.
-2 very good players on board 1. It was a long tough game, but Alex came out on top in the end. He's only back for 1 week over Easter, but we'll hopefully see plenty of him over the Summer again. He's playing regularly at University, including in a recent York against Sheffield match.
Chris
Date:15/04/2025 B52s pipped by Darlington!
B division debut draw!
Thornaby B52s 1.5-2.5 Darlington C
Iain Mellis 0.5-0.5 Dominic Leigh
Stephen Ollis 0.5-0.5 Richard Harris
Avanish Batra 0.5-0.5 Peter McKay
Joseph Machin 0-1 Mark Turner
A good effort from the team against much higher rated players in most cases. Iain and Stephen drew against 2 1700+ players who are very much regulars in the A division.
Joseph lost a piece fairly early in the game and with the queens off, there was little left to play for.
Iain was playing my “nemesis” and felt he was slightly ahead for most of the game, but was happy with a draw in the end.
Peter is a very solid player and this was a good result for Avanish on his B division debut. He was a pawn down in an endgame involving pawns and knights, but managed to hold the position well after a long battle.
Stephen felt he was slightly ahead, but made a mistake in time pressure. He sportingly agreed a draw when his opponent was ahead on the board, but down to 30 seconds on the clock.
All in all, it was a good effort from the team against some tough opponents.
Chris
Date:09/04/2025 Aces finish on a high!
Lucky Shirt!
Darlington B 1-3 Thornaby Aces
Nick Webb 0-1 Francis Batchelor
Dominic Leigh 0-1 Chris Swales
Richard Harris ½-½ Brian Ellis
Stephen Halliday ½-½ Mike Creaney
The last league game of the season and there was no possibility of any change in league positions. The Aces still finished 4th, but it was nice to beat the 3rd place team in our last game of the season. Darlington have split their squads more evenly this year and their "B team" is stronger than the name suggests!
Mike was first finished. A "late substitute to the upper echelons once again" in his words! It followed a similar course to his last A-team effort with a promising kingside attack, but ultimately not enough firepower in that vicinity. His opponent then launched his central counterplay doubling Rooks on the d-file and Mike was then on the defensive, but he managed to nullify the position and with Rooks off & soon to be Queens off a draw was agreed.
Chris was playing his "nemesis" Dominic Leigh for the 5th time in the league in the last 3 seasons. The career head to head was previously 3-1 to Dominic and for most of the game, this looked to be heading towards 4-1. Dominic was 2 pawns up after a mistake by Chris on move 15, but was starting to get a little low on time with the position still reasonably complicated which may have influenced what came next. A complete blunder decided the game. Chris moved his queen to get it into a better position, but also to attack Dominic's rook. Although he initially saw it, he ended up playing the second move of his analysis first leaving Chris was an unassailable lead. Chris said "I was wearing my lucky shirt for the first time in a while and it must have worked. You rarely get 1 move blunders like this in the A division!"
Brian was playing against the Caro Kann exchange variation and tried to upset his opponent's rhythm with an unusual move early on. The sort of move a computer doesn't like, but difficult to find the correct counters if you're not a computer! Richard played it well though and Brian was just countering his threats whilst positioning his pieces for a surprise attack. He gained some momentum and the position looked fairly equal in the end. With both players approaching the time control, Brian accepted Richard's draw offer.
Francis had one of his usual trademark complicated position with pieces spread all over the board. Nick was certainly on the defensive though and a King side pawn push from Francis broke open the position. Nick resigned with mate or catastrophic material loss inevitable.
Both teams were resting players, but still nice to get a win. The cup starts next week and the Aces go into it in good spirits!
Date:09/04/2025 Tough night for Dynasties!
Board 1 Draw!
Billingham Synthonia Irons 3-1 Thornaby Dynasties
Graham Glass ½-½ Geoff Mann
Dermot O Higgins ½-½ James Mann
Martin Curry 1-0 Sam Stevenson
Graham Edwards 1-0 Richard Stevenson
With two wins needed to avoid relegation and gaining back a poor goal difference, tonight was too much for the team.
It started off bad when star player Tashil could not make it due to illness, so Richard stepped in last minute and meant everyone else stepping up a board.
Sam was first finished and lost against a tricky opponent. I saw Sam was looking good with two rooks against a rook and a knight but the horsey proved too much and Sam resigned.
James was next finished on board 2. James played well and offered a draw with a pawn and rook each. I think there was a chance to push the advanced pawn through but it would have been risky.
Next finished was Richard and I think time got the better of him. I kept looking over and it looked fairly equal but his opponent managed to get the better of him. Richard was down almost 200 points on rating, so a great effort.
I finished last. We both cancelled each other out until my opponent pushed pawns down the board. I managed to be up a bishop put 3 pawns down. He managed to manoeuvre his rooks into possible check mate so I sacrificed my bishop to stay in the game. A mistake when pushing a pawn by my opponent made me break his connected pawns and there was no way of passing so a draw was agreed.
We still have the under 1500 cup final, but not a great league season. Let's see what next season brings and hopefully a shot at the D division title!
Geoff
Date:08/04/2025 First win for Bombers!
Routine win!
Thornaby Bombers 2½-1½ Billingham Synthonia A
Steve Rodgers ½-½ Steve Cole
Mike Creaney 1-0 Stuart McLaughlin
Brian Ellis 0-1 Darren Donnison
Joe McGinnis 1-0 Dave Elsdon
A first win of the season for the Bombers! Anyway a win is a win albeit against an under strength Billingham, but we couldn't field a first choice team either. Top board was last to finish and after our Steve equalized his early pawn deficit, the draw was always on the cards well to me at least.
My game was a fairly routine affair after Stuart allowed me two pawns start, then exchanging them for a piece and finally leaving a Rook en prise, I have been known to convert many of those position.
Brian had an advantage then inexplicably went very wrong towards the endgame, I think even Darren was surprised to get the win! Joe's game went from worse out of the opening to desperate to winning. He'd be better explaining it himself, a very strange turn of events!
Mike
Date:08/04/2025 Honours Even in C Division Derby!
Attacking Performance!
Thornaby Comets 2-2 Thornaby Cadets
Phil Wales 0-1 Ajay Selvan
Stephen Ollis 0-1 Rhys Orton
Alan Stockley 1-0 Faruk Serin
Neil Sotheby 1-0 Eva Harris
Both teams were a little under-strength, but the ratings suggested it should be 4 good competitive games and it was:
-Stephen got a decent position in the opening, but miscalculated and blundered a piece against Rhys.
-Eva got into a bit of a mess in the opening and Neil capitalised with a strong attacking performance.
-Ajay and Phil ended up in a 5 pawns each endgame, but Ajay's passed pawn on the a-file was decisive. In hindsight, Phil felt he shouldn't have swapped queens off.
-Alan and Faruk were last finished. Alan got a piece for a pawn up, but said it was still a tough game to eventually finish it off.
A point for the Cadets keeps them 4th and now means they are mathematically safe from relegation from the C division. Especially with Aryan moving up to play in the higher divisions at Christmas, that represents a good solid season for the team. Their highest ever C division finish. The Comets had already sealed promotion to the B division.
Chris
Date:02/04/2025 B52s stay 5th!
Easy night!
Billingham Synthonia Belasis 2-2 Thornaby B52s
Paul Weightman 0-1 Aryan Nalawade
Default 0-1 Iain Mellis
Darren Donnison 1-0 Santiago Palencia
Brian Whitaker 1-0 Ajay Selvan
The Billingham players are all in the 1500's for rating and all very experienced. There was some confusion with the Billingham team at the start. Their named board 2 did show up, but only to tell Paul that he couldn't play! So that was a good start for us and an easy night for Iain!
Santiago and Ajay found their experienced opponents too tough and fell to defeat. Aryan beat Paul in the plate semi-final recently and another win here made sure of a point for us.
The overall match draw keeps us in 5th place, 1 point ahead of Billingham with 2 games to go.
Chris
Date:01/04/2025 Knights gallop continues!
Solid game!
Thornaby Challengers 1-3 Middlesbrough Knights
Steve Rodgers ½-½ Paul Perrett
James Urwin 0-1 Nikhil Bhandari
Phil Wales ½-½ Brian Myers
Joe McGinnis 0-1 Alfie McMonagle
A 12th win in 12 for the Middlesbrough Knights who are confirmed as the runaway champions of the B division.
Steve "Mine was a solid game from both players game even all the way through. Nothing to see here!"
Phil "Same with our game, we exchanged ourselves down to an even endgame, so I was glad for a draw."
Joe "He blundered late in the opening, giving me a chance to win the exchange, but in keeping with my current form I didn't even see it. I was too passive in the early middle game, allowing him to get his attack going first. He won a pawn, leaving my king more exposed than his, and I was on the defensive from then on. He was able to get all his pieces into the attack, I had to give up my queen for a rook to avoid an immediate checkmate, but it only delayed the inevitable for a few more moves."
A decent effort from the Challengers, but this strong Knights team will take some stopping.
Date:01/04/2025 Juniors Destroyed!
Acting captain!
Thornaby Destroyers 4-0 Thornaby Juniors
Alan Stockley 1-0 Jayden Wang
Ifeanyi Madueke 1-0 Josh Fisher
Sachin Saggar 1-0 Tristan Green
Nick Tadd 1-0 Kaira Nalawade
Juniors would have gone top of the League with a win in this one, but unfortunately for them, they came up against a brick wall!
Sachin finished first so I didn't see much of his game. Looked pretty even actually for most of it - then suddenly they were shaking hands - it was all over.
I finished shortly after. Kaira took her time and played a very tight opening. She castled King side but I did have most of my pieces pointing that way. She had an opportunity to exchange a Knight for one of my Bishops, which would have kept equilibrium; Instead moved it backwards. Not a bad move at the time but proved costly in the end. At this stage I hadn't decided which way to castle because I was hoping for an attack on my other Bishop on f4 which she duly obliged by moving a Knight to r4. This allowed me to move the said Bishop to n3 and she took it. I took back with the Rooks Pawn thus opening up that file. I then castled Queens side. That allowed me to have an all out attack on her castled King. This attack could not be repelled - game over !
I was able to catch the end of the other two games. Ike was well ahead in the end game but missed a couple of opportunities to finish it off, and Josh then made some superb moves and made it quite uncomfortable for Ike before he regained his composure to win.
Alan and Jayden both had Rook and 5 Pawns each endgame. I think Alan's greater experience got him to be able to promote first, but it was close!
A first defeat for Thornaby Juniors since the opening day of the season and it was an emphatic one!
Nick (acting Captain on the night for Tim)
Date:01/04/2025 Honourable defeat for Hurricanes!
Whitewash Saved!
Thornaby Hurricanes 1-3 Hartlepool D
Sam Stevenson (1345) 1-0 Mark Priest (1486)
Eva Harris (1335) 0-1 Ashton Woodward (1430)
Bertie Mellis (1066) 0-1 John Marsden (1416)
Shanaya Chauhan (901) 0-1 Graham Marshall (1402)
When I saw Graham Marshall was playing on board 4, I knew it was going to be a tough match! All 4 of their players are over 1400 rating which obviously makes it a strong team in a division with a 1500 rating cap!
At about 9pm, the Juniors had already lost 4-0 and the Hurricanes were 3-0 down. My resignation letter as junior coach was half written, but Sam saved the day! Just joking, in truth our team played very well in this one given the rating differences.
Shanaya was first finished. As always, she played a solid opening, but Graham managed to break through on the queenside and gain a big material advantage.
Eva played an excellent game against Ashton. I had a good view of this one from where I was sat playing my Cleveland Individual match. Eva had good momentum for a lot of the game and created more of the threats against a player who is on form (11 wins 3 losses for the season). It went to an endgame with 4 pawns, a rook and a knight each. If anything, I thought Eva was winning at this point due to piece activity, but her pawns were a little less connected. Next time I looked however, it had swung decisively to Ashton. He was 2 pawns up and Eva had lost her rook.
Bertie also gave as good as he got for most of the game against a 1400+ player. John said Bertie had played well and both players said it was the best game they'd played this season. It was complicated with pieces all over the place. The sort of position Iain likes which obviously also suits Bertie! At the end, Bertie had a rook and a knight and pawns against a queen and pawns and it still looked like either player could win, but John managed to find a checkmate involving a pawn blocking Bertie's escape square.
Sam saved the whitewash! Another good win against a 1400+ player for him. I didn't actually see or hear how it finished. It looked very even all the times I looked.
So a defeat, but good performances all round against some very solid club players and the team at the top of the league!
