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SENIOR International Master (ICCF); Regional Master (ECF). |
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(* denotes new content since the last update.) 1. MONTHLY ARTICLES * Number 1 View now.*
2.ARCHIVE OF MONTHLY ARTICLES (from Aug 2003)* Old archive (Aug 1999-July 2003).
5. COVENTRY CHESS CLUB (formerly Whoberley CC) The club has teams with a wide range of strengths in the various local leagues and has won every Cup and League competition at some point in the last few years. Contact details. 6. BOOK AND SOFTWARE REVIEWS (from 2007 to date) Archive of book and CD reviews 1998-2006. 7. DATABASE & TEACHING SERVICE 8. MY STUFF Games, results and chess problems. * 9. LINKS 10. OPENINGS REVIEWS AND OTHER ARTICLES 11. NEW AND
SECOND- HAND CHESS BOOKS
12. MY ARTICLES ON OTHER SITES/ON-LINE MAGAZINES. (a) Correspondence Chess News (CCN). (b) BS-CHESS.
13. PERSONAL TRAINING BCF Regional Master Andy Baruch (formerly Whoberley board 1) is now available for face to face personal training in the Coventry, Warwickshire and surrounding areas. Players ranging from beginner to County level who wish to improve should contact Andy by clicking here
14.WING TSUN
Visitors since July 1 2012.
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Hello! I little bit about myself: I live in the historic town of Kenilworth (very close to the medieval castle) in Warwickshire, England. I work as a Technical Manager at a biotechnology company that manufactures hydrogels for woundcare, monitoring electrode, and cosmetic applications. Previously I was a research scientist working in a diverse number of scientific areas (publication list). In my spare time I enjoy chess, the culture of the Ancient Greeks, Wing Tsun martial art (currently grade 11), and various types of music.
Over the last decade or so I shifted from playing over-the-board (otb) chess to playing both otb and correspondence chess. The last few years has seen an even greater concentration on correspondence chess (current rating of 2472 ICCF rating history * ). Until recently I occasionally still played some otb chess in the local league (at a somewhat reduced level of approximately 2090 from my highest many years ago of about 2300, grading history ).
I will attempt to offer a wide range of chess material on this site including game and opening based articles, games for downloading from famous players I have known or competed against, chess problems and some current and past results. This will include both otb and correspondence play. In addition to more advanced articles I will also occasionally provide articles for beginners to mid-club strength of player. -------------------------------------------------------------- MONTHLY ARTICLES SUMMARIES * There are two major classifications of chess games. The first is "positional" where play resolves around, for instance, control of and occupation of a weak square to make inroads into the opponents position. This then leads to further gains such as greater space control or the initiation of a kings-side attack. Positional tends to be equated with longer terms ideas. In contrast, the second classification of "tactical" tends to be associated with the short term and sometimes explosively so. In these situations the normal rules of chess are sometimes not followed and for example a pawn can be worth more than a queen. Players themselves may be considered as positional or tactical in their style. An example of the former being Capablanca and of the second Tal. It is very interesting to note, however, that Capablanca was an outstanding tactician on those occasions when his games became "complex", as opposed to his usual simplification style. Tal , although not often as his tactical skills were so dazzling, could also play in masterly positional style and beat Botvinnik is some games in this manner to become World Champion. At lower levels than these famous personalities many players choose openings to suite their styles for instance gambits for tactical players or the Reti for positional players in an effort to enhance their results. Whilst it is possible to identify games that feature almost exclusively one or the other of these classifications in reality most chess games feature both tactical and positional concepts. It would therefore seem the optimum way to improve ones game is to attempt the difficult task of becoming competent in both areas. This month we feature two games submitted by Norman Stephenson. Norman is a many times Teesside Champion, has regularly qualified for the British Mens Championship, and has also won the British Veteran Championship. He has proven able to pass on his understanding of the game to others since, for instance, all Junior players he has coached have been selected to play for their country. This understanding is reflected in the excellent annotations to the games. Monthly Article 1: Is a game from the British Mens Championship with a very unusual feature of containing no less than four exchange sacrifices. Overall the game may be viewed as one where superior positional play defeats a player of tactical style. Monthly Article 2: Is an inter-club game from the Teesside region, which is one of high standard and competitiveness, where in contrast to the first game better tactical play defeats weaker positional play. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- All material for downloading from this site is zipped. Use WinZip or similar to extract. Monthly articles are in .pgn format (from May 2000, previously in .txt format) whilst games for downloading are in .pgn format (or .cbv occasionally ). Contributions, suggestions for articles and comments to improve this site are welcome: mail me!
Russian Correspondence Chess Association Tournament (April 25) : The 2011 Gold Tm is a category 11 event, the highest I have played in, with 15 players from various nations. There is 1 GM, 10 SIMs, 1 IM and 2 untitled players with rating ranging from 2616 to 2396 and an average of over 2500. After a flurry of wins SIM Giuseppe Pezzica (ITA 2546) shoots to the table top and scores a GM norm with 9/14 (final score); dropping to second after leading for over a year is IM Lebedev (2396, RUS) on 8/14 (final score and an SIM title) now joined by SIM Efendiyev who scores yet another win by beating GM Tiits. My latest results is a draw against SIM Pezzica (ITA 2546) bringing my total to 4.5/12 with two games remaining hence will fall short of the requirements for even an SIM norm of 7/14. ICCF Rating (April 25): The latest set of results in RCCA Gold, all reported in this rating period, means that my rating drops from 2486 to 2472. Although this is only 0.8 % below my highest rating ever recent games are indicating my triple checking system is no longer holding up against the computers users. 4 NCL (March 25): Warwickshire Select, a team comprising local players and captained by team member Andy Baruch, just lost 3:5 against the very strong team White Rose sporting 3 GMS on the top boards. This is despite the amazing result of a level score against the GMs so WS must now join the relegation pool that fights to avoid demotion to the second division. Ward-Higgs 2012-13 (March 25): Playing for Warwickshire in this Division 1 English inter-county event I have been drawn against GM Richard Hall (2640) and currently rated 13th in the World. Richard is a former British Correspondence Champion and I played him quite a few times at otb and correspondence chess back in the 1970 and 80s. Not surprisingly the games are reaching theoretically important and critical positions as they move from the opening to the middle-game. Personal Training (Feb 25): Players wishing to improve should now contact Regional Master Andy Baruch on his new e-mail address (see section 14 of this site). (minor updates may occur during each month) | ||||||
Chess
Pages of Mike Donnelly
Tony
Peterson. Specialist in rare and secondhand chess books and
magazines. Very large stock . 
IM Sergey Bystrov. Specialist in a wide
range of Russian books plus some non-Russian books. Now offering a
greater range.
