News

AGM

Minutes are now on the site - see tab.

 

 

Captains are:

1st team - Brian Shipley

2nd team - Len Scott

3rd team - Jason Sanderson

Club Competition

This is in progress - 45 minutes each, colours can be obtained from the table at the club. The club secretary has taken an early lead...

Match Reports

 

2010 

Jason writes: Unfortunately I was only able to field 4 players for our trip to Slough. I personally was unable to make the trip and starting 0-2 down was always going to be hard work. Slough B ran out winners by the score of 4-2.

Credit to Ray Wild & Colin Piper for draws, then & especially for Chris in beating Mario Houska.

 

 Wycombe & Hazlemere B 3.5-2.5 Aylesbury B

I am indebted to Jon Melsom of the home side for the following:

Although not totally convincing W&Hz did just enough to ensure that the second division title didn't go the same way as the first division. An early boost to W&Hz came with the exchange of team sheets with acting captain Tim Puleston in the unexpected absence of Aylesbury captain Len Scott. W&Hz got an early edge on board 2 when Tim Puleston dropped a 'b' pawn in a fairly standard Queens Gambit position, and gradually ran out of decent moves for his first defeat of the season. And at half eight the default win was officially confirmed on Board 3. Andrew Challinger and Andrew Huxley then drew on 5 to leave the home side a half point from the league title. Alec Howe facing Joseph Walker was locked in a messy tactical game and Alec came out on top to avenge his previous defeat.  On top board Duncan Irvine and Jonathan Melsom were trying their best to avoid the dullness of their previous drawn game, though Duncan wasn't disturbed by the unsoundness of black's sacrificial attack and duly notched up his win.  So all square which left Andrew Hill to grind down Chris Stothert's stubborn resistance and clinch the win and the divisional title for W&Hz.

The mystery surrounding Len’s absence was solved when he revealed a previously unsuspected fascination for RAC vans. His team-mates were reportedly collecting to buy him a more reliable vehicle, though we have yet to see any evidence of this.

 

Bourne End B 2.5-3.5 Aylesbury A

 Not quite decisive, we went to the match knowing that 4-2 would win us the league, but any failure to win the match would likely gift the competition to Wycombe. With stunning timing, Hans lost his first match game in a number of seasons & Brian, Jamie & Eugene all by turns yielded draws. Your correspondent had been having nightmares earlier in the week about losing on time when material up in the decisive game. Presented with a level position, I was just playing on, looking for a slip. Jim pulled off his usual trick by walking a tightrope with the clock before levelling the match. With just rook & single pawn each, my opponent chose, fatally, to retreat his king when an advance was required & we had rescued the match.

This left Wycombe needing 6-0 wins in two matches to pip us to the title, but this chance disappeared the following evening when losing to Gerrards Cross.

 

Bourne End C 2.5-3.5 Aylesbury B

 Something of a narrow squeak, with Tim & Len pulling off the wins as Duncan, Chantelle & John held their opponents at bay.

 Aylesbury C played their rescheduled game against Slough B on Tuesday the 6th of April. Jason was away so took no part in proceedings. Chris Stothert deputised.

Slough could only field 3 players so were at a serious disadvantage from the start.

Aylesbury C ran out winners by 5-1.

Slough B 2-4 Aylesbury B

3 wins on the odd boards for Jamie, Tim & Len & draws for John & Ian Pagani more than offset Duncan's defeat.

Berkhamsted B 2.5-3.5 Aylesbury C

Jason writes:

Chris Stothert playing board 1 for Aylesbury avoided the excitement of his previous league game playing quickly into an ending against the veteran C. Tadiello. The players eventually agreed on a draw. Ray Wild playing board 3 for the away team won substantive material quite early on against Ian Fyfe eventually forcing a resignation there. Playing board 6 for Aylesbury was the young junior Simon Chappell. This was his third outing  for the C team season and he was able to put previous disappointments behind him by forcing a nice win against Arthur Godwin. I played board 4 against Nick Graham and it has to be said, the play was a little too defensive from both sides. After 23 moves we each had a little under 10 minutes of time on our clocks. By move 26 i had forced a draw by 3 move repetition. Sod going into that blunder prone time scramble stuff! Ian Pagani playing board 5 for Aylesbury drew his game with C. Bennett which sealed the win for Aylesbury giving us the magic 3.5 points. The last game to finish was the board 2 encounter between Aylesbury's Alec Howe and D. Gittins. Alec lost some material early on and although he put up some spirited resistance he eventually succumbed to a mating attack.

Aylesbury B 2-4 Wycombe & Hazlemere B

The two teams with 100% records met head-on. Alec Howe got his rook trapped & this proved decisive in his game. There was a rack of draws, with Duncan Irvine struggling manfully to come out with more against Jon Melsom. But Len's game proved the turning point as he saw the winning move a fraction after playing something else. The game point difference will make it very difficult to mount a comeback in the league.

Aylesbury A 4.5-1.5 Gerrards Cross A

Almost there, but almost an embarrassment. The embarrassment was that I had written to the league secretary during the day about the undue effect that a single default might have - for example, by the Gerrards Cross top board against either ourselves or Wycombe. And sure enough, Jim sat until 8.30 with not a sniff of an opponent, having himself barely escaped a lengthy stay on the A41. The games that did take place were tense affairs. Jamie was caught out in the middlegame & it was a relief when Brian conjured a win from a fairly mundane position. Hans had a huge queenside, but with pawns from d7 to h7 & a bishop & rook trapped behind them & his opponent's pawns on d5 & e5, it wasn't comfortable viewing. No doubt it was all in hand. Eugene's row of draws continued; was he better? - we don't know. Nick was gifted a pawn on move 2 & took a further 2 hours 45 minutes to grind out a winning ending. The margin at the top of the league returns to 1 match point & 8 game points in our favour. A 4-2 win will be needed at Bourne End in the middle of next month to secure the championship.

Slough 0.5-5.5 Aylesbury A

A vast win in a match which looked very close for most of the evening. Starting the evening level in the league with Wycombe & a lead of just 2.5 game points, a big win was called for & the team delivered in style. Nick sacked a knight to expose his opponent's king & despite misplaying the attack, mopped up. Eugene's draw stemmed the Aylesbury attacks, but Hans' extra rook did what extra rooks do. Jamie ground until Brian Atkinson could cope no longer, our Brian won with the slowest attack seen in years & Jim predictably won with his flag hanging.

Wycombe & Hazlemere C 2.5-3.5 Aylesbury B

Very close, but a win nonetheless, to maintain the team's 100% match record. Duncan Irvine & John Moore's wins offset Alec Howe's defeat, with Jamie, Tim & Len finishing level.

Aylesbury C 3.5-2.5 Bourne End C

Jason writes: Abigail Mangaray playing top board for the home team produced a very polished performance in seeing off Neville Belinfante. It has to be said I'm far more at ease when she's available for selection. Ray Wild playing board 4 for Aylesbury locked horns with Tim Jones. These two who know each others games extremely well, battled long and hard before agreeing a draw. The game of the night had to be that between Aylesbury's Chris Stothert and Joe Arthur on board 2. Chris lost a piece early on andthe game took a very open tactical turn. Much deeper into the game Joe decided to capture Chris's h pawn with his Knight. In doing so he had seen a back rank rook check leading to the win of Chris's Rook. As he captured the pawn Joe shouted for all to hear "GOTCHA" Unfortunately for him, Chris had seen further into the combination and after the loss of his Rook played a simple discovered check winning Joe's queen! fantastic stuff.  Chris was easily able to convert this advantage into a win. My own personal nightmare season continues with a crushing defeat to Cliff Schornak on board 5. I was never able to get any air for my pieces and suffering severe time trouble i succumbed to a mate in 1! You really have to see those. Young Alec Howe playing board 3 for Aylesbury lost a piece in the opening to Fred Day and to be honest never really recovered. However he played on valiantly forcing Fred to deliver mate with Queen and Bishop. With the match score at 2.5-2.5 it all came down to the encounter between Aylesbury's paul Davis and Jim Brown on bottom board. It was a long hard struggle with Paul heading into the latter part of the game a pawn to the good. The game was eventually decided when Jim hung his queen and swiftly resigned. A much needed victory indeed.

Aylesbury A 3.5-2.5 Bourne End A

Crumbs, Brian! Hans quickly neutralised any threat from Roger de Coverly. Your secretary was not looking forward to this match, having lost to Dave Turner quite recently, but after surviving a rather torrid opening, accepted a draw just as time trouble loomed. Spectators noted that DT was losing a pawn, but the position was a tricky one for both sides (+0.5, according to Fritz). Jamie ground an impressive draw against Manfred Egby, but Harry Iyengar, making a reappearance looked out of sorts & went down to Kevin Hawkins after his queen had been forced into rather too much exercise. Then we had the expected flurry of activity on top board. At this stage, everything went a bit fuzzy; your correspondent was under the impression that Jim had lost his unblemished record for the team. But captain Brian, after an unpromising middlegame, was still blitzing against Steve James & with Steve's flag hanging, forced the return of 2 pieces for his connected passed pawns & then won what remained of his queenside. Then we found Jim & Andy Smith analysing downstairs, with our man exuding his usual glow of success. The dream is still alive...

Gerrards Cross B 1-5 Aylesbury B

Len writes - This was a match of many firsts. William Claridge-Hansen, the promising young Junior, played his first ever senior game for the B Team, on board 4 and won it in double quick time after his opponent lost a piece in the opening. Len Scott battled against Joe Priestley without much headway, so Len offered a tactical draw knowing that 2 other boards were winning, which was agreed by Joe. Jamie Tilston, the impressively strong junior, playing his first game for the B Team, placed a great deal of pressure on Joe Yoemans on board 1, the pressure told in the end when Jamie forked Joe's King and Queen. Duncan Irvine, also playing his first game for the B Team, played skilfully in a tactical battle, out foxed Doug Forbes and won after coming out of the middle game a piece up. Ray Wild continues to play very securely and despite looking much better at times than Colin Walker, could not mange to get the whole point and a draw was agreed. John Moore was last to finish, against Charles Harris, in what proved to be a complicated tactical middle game, but John managed to win a piece and hold on for victory. This decisive 5-1 victory puts the B Team joint top of Div 2 along with Wycombe & Hazlemere B with 6 games left and both still to play each other twice.

Wycombe & Hazlemere C 5-1 Aylesbury C

Jason writes - Malcolm Instone forced a very quick win against Ian Pagani on board 4 which was followed by win for young Elliot Klyne against Aylesbury's Aymen Omar on baord 6. I played a terrible opening against Andrew Eastwood on board 3 and was made to pay dearly for my mistakes. I resigned on move 27. Ray Wild was next to fall on board 3 against Mike Woodcock.

Chris Stothert fought a hard battle with Mick Porter on board 1. The Aylesbury top board found himself in an ending with his Bishop against Mick's 3 extra pawns. he was unable to hold making the score five to nothing. saving some face for the away team was Paul Davis on board 5, scoring Aylesbury's only point of the evening against Harvey Klyne.
 

Wycombe & Hazlemere A 1.5-4.5 Aylesbury A

So the first team avenged their only defeat since May 2008. Things started going well for us quite early on, as Gerald Pierce left the mainline of a French Tarrasch only to encounter Nick's Greek gift bishop sacrifice (second one of the season - Ed.). The rest of the match went to the wire. Both Brian & Hans were beneficiaries of the clock, though Brian was clearly winning, while Jamie went down the same way. Once Jim had thrashed through 10 moves or so in his last minute, turning a dubious position into a convincing win in the process, Eugene was free to offer a draw in a position where he held an advantage. They won't want to upset us like that again.

Aylesbury B 3.5-2.5 Aylesbury C

 

Here's Jason's take on the match:

A closer final score than was expected, especially as The C team Capt felt obliged to ease the shortage of B team players by giving away two of his star turns, Abigail Mangaray and Chris Stothert.
Ian Pagani playing board 6 for the B side failed to show which gave the C team a welcome early point. It was just a little unfortunate that junior Simon Chappell failed to get a work out. Duncan Irvine an Aylesbury player of some 20 years ago and just coming back to the game took his chance for the C team on board 4  with a convincing win against B team capt Len Scott. Tim Puleston and John Moore playing 1 and 2 for the B team had relatively convincing wins against Alec Howe and Ray Wild playing 1 and 2 for the C team respectively. Chris Stothert managed to overcome the C team new boy Paul Davis on board 5, continuing his fine season. I played against the chess twisting tactician (is he allowed to say this? -ed.) Abigail Mangaray on board 3. Unfortunately for her she misplayed a very dangerous looking sacrificial attack early on and I recovered to find myself a piece and a pawn up in an endgame. Unfortunately i found the pressure too much giving back the piece with a crass blunder and we eventually agreed upon a draw.

Berkhamsted A 0-6 Aylesbury A

A bit of a pounding, really. Our thanks to Tim, who was told of a home default after he had left home. Welcome to debutant Jamie Tilston, who ground out an impressive point. Steve Law might have played on against Hans, but did not fancy continuing an ending material down. Otherwise, it was mostly one-way traffic.

Aylesbury B 4.5-1.5 Berkhamsted B

Aylesbury B make it 6 in a row!

 With board 6 already being conceded they started the match one game up. John was the first to finish with a swift draw. Len managed to win a piece very early and pushed home his advantage to win easily. Ray won the exchange before storming his pawns up the King side, the pressure was too much for his opponent and in fact managed to mate him, which gave Aylesbury the win with the score at 3 ½ to ½ . Tim could not get the full point as a pawn sac by his opponent gained him enough counter play to secure a draw by perpetual check. Chris had a very interesting game, being an exchange down for quite some time, he managed to tie down the opponent's rook completely and with his aggressive play just failed to take the full point, which may have been down to time pressure, but he missed a crucial move just before the end. This made the final score 4 ½ to 1 ½ and the B Team march on to play fellow club members Aylesbury C on 2nd Feb.

Wycombe & Hazlemere B 5-1 Aylesbury C

Ouch. Draws for Captain Jason & Ian Pagani, but the expected steamroller worked on the remaining boards.