Chess Pages of Mike Donnelly

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) *

Archive of book and CD reviews 1998-2006.

7. DATABASE & TEACHING SERVICE

8. MY STUFF Games, results and chess problems. *

9. LINKS

Chess sites *

Chess problem sites

10. OPENINGS REVIEWS AND OTHER ARTICLES

11. NEW AND SECOND- HAND CHESS BOOKS Tony Peterson. Specialist in rare and secondhand chess books and magazines. Very large stock . Contact details.

IM Sergey Bystrov. Specialist in a wide range of Russian books plus some non-Russian books. Now offering a greater range. Contact details.

12. MY ARTICLES ON OTHER SITES/ON-LINE MAGAZINES.

(a) Correspondence Chess News (CCN).

(b) BS-CHESS.

(c) Thomas Johansson's site

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. MUSIC!

15.WING TSUN

Wing Tsun Kung Fu (Coventry).

Visitors since May 2001.

Hello!

I little bit about myself: I live in the historic city of Coventry, England and 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, WingTsun martial art, and various types of music but especially "Classique" and "Passion" events (hard dance and trance music) at the local Careys and Emporium Clubs.

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 2491 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.

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MONTHLY ARTICLES SUMMARIES *

This month I focus mainly on the Alekhine Defence but also provide another example of play from the 4 NCL with a different opening.

Many years ago Alekhines Defence was my favourite defence to 1.e4 but has long been held as slightly inferior to most other options for Black. The recent adoption by no less than Magnus Carlsen, plus the recent publication a number of good opening texts, instead show it is a fighting defence. Black can achieve a solid game if White does not try for too much in the opening or can even aim for the full point if White tries to prove the early development move Nf6 is inadequate.

Local player and Regional Master Andy Baruch has long played the Alekhine and I have seen him score many fine wins against some very high standard over-the-board players. I have also recently tried it in some IM level correspondence games and it has held up even under such intense scrutiny

Monthly article 1: Is a high level game from Andy played in the 4 NCL. In this game a difficult practical decision had to be made about a transition into an ending. Good judgment was shown in this decision and a fine win resulted.

Monthly articles 2 and 3: These games are both miniature wins from Andy and show how powerful a counter-attack can be developed if White does not play too precisely in the early opening/middle-game.

Monthly article 4: Is one of my games from the Slade Milan International Invitation Tournament held in memory of this fine otb and correspondence player. In it a tough struggle occurred against Senior International Master Asquith. By a strange coincidence Jerry recently appeared on TV specialising on the player Alekhine in Master Mind.

Monthly article 5: Continues the theme of last month of providing 4NCL games. In this case Joey Stewart annotates a most interesting sicilian defence game in which a great opportunity was missed.

Note: Databases of games for downloading and which are associated with the main games of the monthly articles will resume when articles are published that involve significant opening theory features.

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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!

	SCCA Magazine
	The SCCA magazine is published quarterly and consists of 24xA4 pages packed with correspondence chess news, articles, reviews and games.
	SCCA members receive the magazine as part of their annual subscription (£8). This entitles them to download pdf files (the e-mags) from a secure area of the SCCA website.
	If you prefer to receive a printed copy of the magazine, an extra £5 per annum covers print costs and UK postage and you get the four issues mailed directly to you.
	The SCCA magazine is unbeatable value! You can try a complimentary copy by contacting the membership secretary.

NEWS AND NOTICES *

Slade Milan Memorial International Invitation Web Server Tournament (June 24) : Slade Milan won the British Correspondence Championship no less than 6 times in the 1950s and 60s. He resided in Stockport where he also played otb chess at a high level for instance on board 1 for the incredibly strong Stockport club. This memorial is a category 9 event (suggested by SIM John Vivante-Sowter also of Stockport) and features 3 GMs, 9 SIMs and 3 IMs from Europe, Central and South America and Russia. The average rating is 2471 and ranges from 2329 to 2603.

Current leaders (with just 1 games remaining) are : GM Muller (GER 2606) and GM Raykin (RUS 2523) 8 (final scores); SM Klausen (NOR 2486) 7.5; GM Haugen (NOR 2556) 7 etc 14 players.

I conclude my remaining games in quick succession with a win versus SM Williams (ENG 2509) in which I finally win against Chris's KID; a loss to GM Muller (GER 2606) in which I was quietly outplayed in all departments, a draw against SM Firnhaber (GER 2518) in which I save the game unusually a pawn down with bishops of the same colour, and a draw against SM Asquith (ENG 2426) in which I hold a slightly inferior Alekhine defence for nearly 50 moves. This brings my final score to 6.5/13 which is very slightly under par at an IM norm for this Tm. My current 7th place may be influenced by the result of the last remaining game should SIM Chris Williams win.

7th European Team Championship Finals (June 24): Is now in full swing in which I represent England on board 2 facing 2 GMs, 10 SIMs and 2 IMs (plus one untitled player) in a category 11 event where 11 out of my 14 opponents outrate me!

Current leaders are : SM Cesetti (ITA 2543) 9 (GM norm and final score) ; IM Scherer (SUI, 2505) and SM Zebre (SLO 2506) (both SIM norms and final scores) etc. 15 players.

My latest results are a solid draw as White against the highest rated player I have met so far SM Blass (ISR 2611) and a disappointing loss as black against IM Scherer (SUI 2505) where I fail to hold an ending of 2R+pawn versus my R+Kt+P on one side of the board and where my opponent used 33 days for a 70 move game!! This brings my current score to 5.5/12 and a current 7th place about to rating performance.

4 NCL (June 24): Local team Warwickshire Select are to be congratulated on being promoted to division 1.

This web site (June 28): (a)The Chess Problems and Studies section has undergone extensive updating and corrections; (b) The list of published games has been updated as it approaches 600-not all wins by any means plenty of interesting loses and draws (see the My Stuff Section).

Next main update due on: September 24 2010 when regular monthly articles will resume due a number of non-chess commitments .

(minor updates may occur before September)