Two weeks ago, Grantham 1 suffered an unexpected defeat at the hands of West Bridgford 1 in their match in the Nottinghamshire League. Now, just two weeks later, the return fixture gave Grantham a swift chance for revenge. Nigel Birtwistle and his team took the opportunity with both hands to come away 3½ to 1½ winners and extend their lead at the top of the Nottinghamshire League Division 1 table.
Ivan has posted some of the individual games on his excellent blog which you can find here
Grantham 1
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3½
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1½
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West Bridgford 1
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N Birtwistle
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½
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½
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R Richmond
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C Mangione
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1
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0
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T Walker
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J Dilley
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½
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½
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R Hearne
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N Payne
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1
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0
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R Webster
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I David
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½
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½
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R Truman
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Grantham 2 travelled to Gambit 2, now playing at the aptly named Lincolnshire Poacher public house, in their latest match in the Nottinghamshire league. As ever the match was played in a relaxed and convivial atmosphere. Although outgraded on boards two to five, Grantham came away with a defeat by only 3:2. Special mention should go to Chris Cumbers who drew against an opponent graded some 45 points higher. Jo Scarborough from the Kings School continues to get valuable match experience as well as extra chemistry lessons from Chris Cumbers in the journey to the venue! (Team members can expect a quick test on transition metals before the next match). The match still leaves Grantham 2 in a promotion spot in second place in the league table.
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Gambit
2
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3
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2
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Grantham
2
|
|
D
Sudar
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½
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½
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I
David
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J
Tassi
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1
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0
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B
Mason
|
|
K
Roper
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0
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1
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C
Holt
|
|
H
R Edwards
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½
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½
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C
Cumbers
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J
Gardner
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1
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0
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J
Scarborough
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Grantham 1 suffered a shock defeat at the hands of West Bridgford 1 to record their first loss of the season in the Nottinghamshire League. After winning 6 matches in a row with the loss of only 7.5 points, the defeat came as a surprise given that Grantham outgraded their opponents on 4 of the 5 boards.
Nigel Birtwistle and Claudio Mangione drew their games on boards 1 and 2 and Paul Cumbers won on board 3. Unfortunately, Nick Payne and Ivan David lost on boards 4 and 5 to leave the result as 3:2 to West Bridgford.
West
Bridgford 1
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3:2
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Grantham
1
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R
Richmond
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½:½
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N
Birtwistle
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T
Walker
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½:½
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C
Mangione
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R
Hearne
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0:1
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P
Cumbers
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R
Webster
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1:0
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N
Payne
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R
Truman
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1:0
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I
David
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Grantham 2 played host to West Bridgford 2 in their latest match of the Nottinghamshire League 2 season. Unfortunately, the New Year celebrations seemed to have taken their toll on West Bridgford as they only turned out with 3 players and so defaulted the bottom two boards. On board 1, Ivan David struggled to eek out an advantage and in the final endgame position it is a matter of debate that his opponent should have resigned (you can read more about that on Ivan's site here ). Trevor Palmer and Ben Mason both drew their games comfortably to leave the final score as 4:1 and leaves Grantham 2 in second place in the league.
Sunday 15th of January sees the 23rd Nottingham Rapidplay tournament taking place at Nottingham High School. For anyone wishing to take part, the entry form may be downloaded here - Entry Form
If you enjoyed any of the BBC coverage of 'The Master Game' then you should seek out the channel of Sirb0b1 on Youtube. This game from 1986 between the youthful John Nunn and Nigel Short is a classic of strategy and tactics in the Ruy Lopez (Spanish Game)
Two club members run and post to their own sites. Ivan David has the terrifically entertaining 'Grantham Chess World' Site at http://grantham-chess-world.blogspot.com/ which contains results, games and analysis. Trevor Palmer has set up http://www.dforchess.com/. The purpose of the site is to publish two books he has written, 'Chess for Ordinary Mortals' and 'The Stonewall Attack'. The first book he hopes to be a helpful guide to 'below average improvers', contains 67 illustrative games from his past and present. Although the great majority are from his earlier years in Leicestershire chess circles, there are more recent ones since he joined Grantham CC from Nottinghamshire League matches
I have set up a new link section on the side of the page for permanent links to both sites
