Cumbria Chess Association

Future events

June 2010

14th South Lakes Open Chess Congress
held on 11th, 12th, 13th June 2010 at the Cumbria Grand Hotel, Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria.
Full results and photos on the Tournaments page.


Cockermouth B are promoted to Division 1
The division 2 playoff games between Cockermouth B and Kendal A were played on 6 June 2010 at Keswick Conservative Club. Kendal played white on odd boards.
The final result was Cockermouth B 2.5 Kendal A 1.5. Full results.
Congratulations to Cockermouth on getting a second team into division 1; hard luck Kendal who played brilliantly all through the season only to lose the Whitaker Cup final and now this playoff in the last two matches.

May 2010

CCA Chess League 2009-2010
These league tables are the final positions.
This season's champions are Windermere in division 1, Kendal win division 2 south and Cockermouth are division 2 north champions.
The division 1 leader board is on the Div1 results page.
In division 1 and division 2 south we operated a Scottish Premier league system. All teams played each other once and after that the divisions split in two with the top teams playing each other again, though reversing the venue, and the bottom teams playing each other again.
Since there were 7 teams in division 1 this year the top 4 got 3 extra games, making 9 in total, while the bottom 3 got 2 extra games and played one less match in the season. In division 2 north each team played the others twice, home and away.
There will be a playoff between Kendal and Cockermouth B for promotion to division 1. No team will be relegated so there will be 8 teams in division 1 next season.


The Whitaker cup champions are Sasra
Whitaker Trophy Final played at Keswick Conservative Club on 28th April 2010.

Kendal, who won the toss and played white on the odd boards, outgraded us on all 4 boards so had a handicap of 1.5 meaning they had to win 3-1 or better, so as we won 2.5 - 1.5 the net score was 2.5 - 0 to SASRA.

It was a night where we always looked like we had a chance to get the 1.5 pts we needed, but the actual result was rather less predictable.

For much of their games James and George looked to be in serious trouble, however I looked like a win could be possible and Mark looked capable of at least a draw.

George's opponent was a pawn up and had the opportunity to take the g7 pawn and then the rook on h8, giving him the overwhelming advantage of rook and 2 pawns, for some reason he went playing on the king side and lost the opportunity, George was still a pawn down but in a Q+R+pawns ending it was entirely possible to hold to a draw.

Meanwhile Mark still looked capable of getting at least a draw but James was down some serious material, there was some imbalance in the game as James had queen against 2 rooks and some checking opportunities, however his opponent had a passed pawn on the seventh protected by a bishop and a rook about to play check on the 8th. Not long after seeing this position I noticed that the game had finished, I expected James to have lost, but could just about have believed that he had found a perpetual check, no, to my utter astonishment he had won, his opponent had allowed James to pin, fork and skewer his way to winning both rooks.

Not long after this George finished and mouth the words 'I won', I didn't see how this finished but I understand it was an outright blunder by his opponent.

So we stood 2-0 and the cup was in the bag.

In my game my Colle opening had gone very well. I then played what I now know was an unsound bishop sacrifice on h7 (it looked like a Greek bishop set up but he could actually have played his king to g6, f6 and escaped into e7, I may have got his rook for the cost of bishop knight and pawn but he would have been able to grab my h2 pawn) as it happens he retreated his king back after the line Bxh7+ Kh7 Ng5+, and my attack led to me being able to play a nice series of checking combinations with knight and bishop to win his queen for my knight. I then drifted a bit and got myself tangled up and had to give up my queen for bishop and rook, I was still ahead on material, effectively exchange and two pawns but having spent over 40mins trying to calculate out lines on the initial bishop sac I was short of time, had the match depended on it I would have played on, also had it been a Saturday match then the extra 30mins would have been sufficient for me to play on and win (horrible blunders permitting), so I accepted his draw offer.

Mark, who had played his usual French defence, still had the draw in hand until he blundered giving his opponent the win. It was a shame as until that point Mark had comfortably held his own, and may even have had a slight edge for most of the game.

So an excellent finish for Sasra to what has been a tough season.
Wes Bell (Sasra)
Match results on Cup results page.

Links to other Chess web-sites

• Northern Counties Chess Union
• ECF Chess Cube
• Northumberland Chess Association
• Scottish Junior Chess
• Leeds Junior Chess Club
• UK Web Chess Guide
• ChessWorld