Wolverhampton Chess Club Newsletter Issue 1 2006/7
| Editorial: The winter season is now in progress and here’s a progress update. All teams are doing well. I had the idea of putting a newsletter together for club members to be kept up to date with club results and club news. In conjunction with the club’s website and this partly promotes the website too in the interests of those who don’t yet know of the club website. The newsletter is paper based but also displayed as a similar web version here. |
WDCL Div.1 - |
WDCL Div.2 - |
WDCL Div.3 - |
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| Wolverhampton A (3rd position with 7 points just 2 points behind Warley Quinbourne who are currently top but have played 1 more match. Our A team has played 4 fixtures and has won 3 of these and drawn the other so it is off to a pretty good start. Unbeaten this season with a points total of 7 having conceding only 1 point from 8 with their draw against Lichfield A. John Mangwengwende has played in 3 of these and has really strengthened up the team. In two of the matches he played on board 3 - you don't get too many Board 3's with a 171 grade! Of the registered first team players Peter Thompson, Mike Townsend & John Mangwengwende are all undefeated, whilst Parminder Sanghera, Martin May & Frank Wood have each conceded just one loss in this competition. The A team’s latest win came against Stourbridge A Nov 23 with a scoreline of 5-1 after Peter Thompson’s board 1 win of his adjourned game.. |
Wolverhampton B (2 wins out of 6 matches) The B team have 4 points from 6 games and now Steve Wilson at the helm as captain again. CAPTAIN’S CONTRIBRUTIONS PLEASE
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Wolverhampton C regained top spot with a Win over Halesowen B 07/12/06 and led by 1 point. As of 18/12/06 Rushall are top. We’re close behind in 2nd place in what’s shaping up to be an exciting race for league supremacy. Rushall B beat Lichfield B 18/12/06 in their 6th match of the season and have 10 points. The C team as of Dec 9 have also played 6 matches and accumulated 9 match points losing 1, drawing 1 and winning 4 matches. Team wins include victories over Brewood B, Lichfield B, Walsall Kipping and Halesowen B. Our 9 points from 6 matches already surpasses our entire points total for the whole of our previous Winter season and we still have 6 fixtures to play. Match writeups : Stafford B v Wolverhampton C 23 Nov 2006. This C team match was the first with our new captain Richard Dawson in charge. Steve Wilson had done a fine job for our first 4 matches but has now agreed to look after the B team that was struggling to find a permanent captain. With Rob Parker, our usual board 1 absent Gary White filled on board 5. We were outgraded on all 5 boards but weren’t defeated. We approached the match with 6 points as did Stafford. Stafford had beaten the Rushall team 4-1 quite an achievement considering Rushall B beat Wolverhampton C by 4-1 when we visited Oct 2 2006. Rushall B outgraded us by a considerable margin and apparently were in Division 2 last season. Bob Koshnevis, Barry Lewis and Paul Walters drew on boards 1, 3 and 4 respectively and Richard Dawson secured our only win of the night on board 2. |
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All club fixtures, results, match news on club website at http://wolverhamptonchess.atspace.com/ |
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| Cannock League Div 3 | Dudley League Div 3 | ||||
Gary White is captain of our Wolverhampton team. There are few matches in the Cannock League compared to other leagues. Wolverhampton have played 2 matches so far. Our first match was a decisive win over Cannock St Mary’s 3½ - ½. Rob Parker drawing for us on board 1 ensured we didn’t lose on any boards. Our next match incurred a visit from the Rushall team and they won 3-1. Paul Walters gained our sole win of the night on board 3 against Kevin Moore graded 80. This was our club’s second encounter of the Winter season with Rushall and the first occasion Paul drew for the C team. |
Barry’s back as captain and the team’s doing well. One loss from 4 matches. The loss came against Warley Quinbourne in our first match of the season. Two great wins against Boldmere St Michaels 4-0, Halesowen 4-0 and Mercia with a 3-1 scoreline to us so far. Note: Dudley league results don’t often appear so we don’t yet know he we’re doing relative to other teams. |
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| BDCL Div.2 – | BDCL Div.4 – | ||||
Wolverhampton A |
Wolverhampton B (position, progress etc) Two losses and one win from 3 matches. 7/12/06: Our home match playing Westminster led to a shortage of regular B team players and necessitated a C team secondment. Barry Lewis played board 5; Paul Walters played on board 6 in his first Birmingham league match and secured a decisive win. D Bird and Jeff Fox drew on boards 4 and 2 respectively and thus the scoreline 2-4. CAPTAIN’S CONTRIBRUTIONS PLEASE |
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| Miscellaneous | WDCL Trophy's: | BDCL Trophy's: | |||
Noise: Chess club life has social aspects too but sometimes during matches noise levels can be such that players can be adversely affected. Concentration is more taxing and noise can lead to sub-optimum play and sometimes blunders at the expense of points. Gags may be an extreme measure and club funds may not extend to a Decibel meter. It would great though to always have quiet for the entire duration of matches from 7.30pm onwards. WDCL Rule 5g: Basically says that a player may play a total of three times in a higher division but on playing a fourth time in any of the higher divisions than he/she shall be tied to the higher division team in that he/she played for on the fourth occasion for the rest of the season. This rule mainly applies to WDCL B and C teams and just thought it’d be prudent to mention it for those who aren’t aware of this rule. |
U110: A team organised and captained by Barry won against a strong Rushall team at home playing in the first round of the WDCL U110 competition. Kelvin Jones faced Peter Broomhall on board 1 and drew. Rob Parker also drew against Syd Allen on board 2. Colin Haughton and Paul Walters both won their matches on boards 3 and 4 respectively. An excellent match win that ensures progression to round 2. WDCL : Pittaway Cup (knockout) CAPTAIN’S CONTRIBRUTIONS PLEASE |
Terrill Trophy: The Terrill trophy is played as a Knockout competition with teams handicapped according to the BDCL division they play in. In the A team's first match of the season it managed a win 4 - 2 against Tamworth (Both teams were in the same division so there was no handicap either way.) The next round was played December 12 away against Olton C with a -1.5 handicap. Wolverhampton A lost to Olton on this occasion 3½-2½ with 2 adjourned games being agreed as draws. BDCL : Townshend and Barrington Trophies CAPTAIN’S CONTRIBRUTIONS PLEASE |
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Wolverhampton Chess Club Website is now built and well developed at http://wolverhamptonchess.atspace.com/ You can find all fixtures on the site for all our teams with results and full scores for the vast majority of matches, match news, club news. Members section, Events, Club History dating back to 1895, gallery and much more. There’s an idea for an website members contact list too. If you’d like to include your details, such as Email address and or phone number please Email : Paul at [email protected] or if you have any newsletter feedback, comments please email. Thankyou for all captain’s contributions. |
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An unpleasant away match lock in. Perhaps some male chess players wouldn't mind being locked in a chess venue with Kosteniuk or Mary Sebag to play fantastic chess against these WGM's of course but without light it'd be difficult to play even blindfold chess. Anyway, one of our club members was locked in a venue after playing an A team match. This must have been a traumatic and frightening experience. Peter Thompson's personal account of such an experience follows. "The details of my imprisonment and escape from the Birmingham Club venue are as follows: After the away match against Birmingham A was completed, I announced that I was going to the toilet before we returned to Wolverhampton. Off I went and when I emerged from the gents, I realised that the corridor was in complete darkness. I thought to myself 'Oh God, I have been locked in'.
I started to feel my way along walls, unable to see anything and with no knowledge of the inside of the building. I yelled out twice "Is there anyone in the building?" There was no reply. As I could find no light switches, I returned to the gents to put on the light which I knew I could find, but it gave little help with the pitch black corridor. Carefully feeling my way along to make sure that I did not bump into anything or trip over anything, I eventually found a door which opened into a large hall, which was also quite dark. I went to a window and could see a car parked with its lights on, so I knocked on the window to attract attention. Frank, Parminder and John came across so I told them that I believed that I had been locked in the building.
The others were unsure what to do, so I said that I was going to break out. I considered the window, trying to open it, but it did not open. I considered throwing a chair through it, but did not like the look of the approx 5 foot drop on the outside. With the help of the car headlights, some more light was available, though the height of the windows restricted it. I felt my way around the room, still unable to find any light switches. After a while, I found a double door, which was locked. I decided that this would have to do and started to attack the door with the sole of my shoe. Pausing for breath after every 4 or 5 strikes, it was clear that the door was made of solid wood. I was therefore hopeful that it was an external door.
During one pause for breath, I went over to the window and Frank said that he had made contact with the Birmingham Club Secretary, who would be back at the club in 15 minutes. By this time, I had weakened the door somewhat and decided that I would be out of the building well before the Secretary arrived. I struck the door with my foot about 12 to 14 times in all and could feel some play in the lock, so I put my shoulder against it 3 times and it broke open. A bolt fell from the top and slithers of wood fell from around the lock and the bolt.
I then realised that I had only succeeded in breaking into the kitchen. I entered and considered a second wooden door with cleaning materials in front of it, before walking to the other end of the kitchen. There was more light from the road on this side of the building and I was able to make out an unlit fire exit sign. The door opened easily, so I went through into another dark area. There was just sufficient light to see a second fire exit sign and a push bar on the door. I pushed the bar and the door opened.
As soon as I stepped out of the building, I realised that a torch was being shone in my direction. I walked towards the light and a man asked me if I had broken into the building. I told him that I had broken out of the building and explained what had happened. I said that this was a Health and Safety matter and that I was far from happy. He sympathised with me over that. It turned out that he lived next door and had come outside to investigate the banging noise. Strangely enough, he also asked me if I was using a video camera, so I told him that I had no camera equipment on me. He was keen to secure the building, so I explained that I had exited via a push bar fire exit, which could only be secured from inside the building.
We walked around to the car park to where Frank, Parminder and John were waiting. There was still no sign of the Birmingham Club Secretary so we sat in the car until he arrived some five minutes later. When he went across to the main entrance to the building, I verified with Frank that he was a chess player and said that I intended to bend his ear over what had happened. I went across and said that I was not at all happy about being locked in the building and that the Birmingham players had been negligent over Health and Safety Duty of Care. He seemed to accept this without argument and wanted us to go inside the building to switch off lights and secure the doors. We found the fire escape quickly enough, but it took some time to find the double doors which I had broken open. The club Secretary noticed that they were clearly damaged at the top. After this, we returned home.
The next evening Barry rang to discuss the incident and afterwards told me that Birmingham Chess Club was going to pay for the necessary repair work. I said that if they tried either to get me or Wolverhampton Chess Club to pay, I would have had to sue them under the Health and Safety legislation, as they were clearly negligent. Additionally, they had failed to properly secure the building, as I was locked inside it.
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