Round 9
65+
Northern Moves of Finland were supposed to be a pushover, but it didn’t seem that way. John Quinn was rested in order to ensure his silver medal on board 1.
Brian Ewart was given an 80th birthday present a day early of a win by default – we don’t know why. The other three games went well into the endgame. Paul Hutchinson and I eventually won, but Brian Hewson was last to finish in the whole section.
THUS – our second 4-0 victory!
1. Russia – 18 from 9 matches (16 teams in total)
2. Sweden 1 – 14
3. Germany – 14 on tie break
4. Finland 1 – 13
5. Switzerland – 11
6. England – 10 originally ranked 7th
7. Rochade – 10
At the prizegiving, Brian Ewart got another unexpected birthday present – his score of 3.5/7 (including the win by default) won him the Silver medal for the reserve board. He would probably have won the game he received the point by default for.
Rating PR Rating gain Score
John Quinn 2105 2398 53.2 5/7
Paul Hutchinson 2124 2173 14.6 5/8
Brian Hewson 2074 1890 -14.0 3.5/7
Stewart Reuben 1983 2017 7.6 3.5/7
Brian Ewart 1882 1820 -14.3 2.5/6
50+
ENG 1 lost 1-3 against the Czech Republic. Andrew Ledger put in a stellar performance, beating GM Pavel Blatny. His game is well worth visiting.
ENG 2 lost 1.5-2.5 against Croatia 2, who outrated our team on every board. Sheila drew on board 1 and Majid Mashayekh achieved his first win on board 2. Sheila found an excellent sacrifice to force a draw.
1. Russia – 17
2. Croatia – 17 on tiebreak
3. ECHM SLO – 13
6. ENG 1 – 9 originally seeded 5th
13.ENG 2 – 2
Rating PR Rating gain Score
Andrew Ledger 2343 2374 0.42 4.5/7
Andrew Lewis 2294 2127 -1.5 2.5/7
Dave Ledger 2134 2096 -0.38 3/6
Jonathan Nelson 2183 2201 -0.02 2.5/6
Stephen Ledger 2000 2093 0.63 3.5/6
Sheila Jackson 2046 2147 0.91 3.5/8
Majid Mashayekh 1875 1907 0.01 1.5/8
Peter R Wood 1884 1852 -0.54 1.5/8
Julie Dennis 1629 1561 -0.74 0.5/8
Remember both teams had the bye, which are not included in the analysis.
To determine the actual rating change, multiply the Rating Gain or loss by 20; except in the case of Andrew Ledger. His k factor is 10 as he was once rated over 2400.
My actual rating gain was 7.6 according to the table. The October FIDE List should show my rating going up by 8, rounded to the nearest whole number, to 1991. Fluctuations of 20 points are neither here nor there …
— Stewart Reuben
Round 8
65+
ENG 1 lost 3-1 to Russia, but John Quinn succeeded in winning against 70 year old grandmaster Yuri Balashov. John had underestimated an exchange sacrifice by the Russian, but then the GM made a gross blunder. Sadly, Paul Hutchinson lost for the first time in this event. Brian Ewart also lost. I haven’t had time to analyse my game, but may have made a losing blunder on move 32. Of course, if I was already lost, that wouldn’t have mattered.
This means that Russia have won the gold team medals.
50+
ENG 1 lost 0.5-3.5 against the all GM team of Croatia. Andrew Ledger had the only draw. This means that Croatia and Russia are still neck to neck.
ENG 2 lost 0.5 to 3.5 against a strong Austrian team. But Julie Denning showed remarkable fortitude in her game. She had lost the previous 7. This ended up as an endgame with the opponent having Q N and 2 pawn on the same side of the board as Julie’s 3 pawns. She also had an extra passed pawn on the other side of the board. Eventually her opponent, rated 500 points higher, conceded the draw.
There was more good news. Today Mick Stokes arrived after his time in hospital in England. I was able to secure for him his team badge, produced by the organisers before he had to withdraw.
— Stewart Reuben
Round 7
65+
An excellent result today, but I saw little of the play as I was busy with my own problems.
John Quinn had an excellent win with the black pieces against IM Jan Rooze of Belgium. Brian Hewson, I and Brian Ewart all drew. My opponent played 1 e4 c5 2 Ne2. I was advised about 60 years ago to ignore this aberration and treat it just like 2 Nf3. Of course I didn’t and was nearly lost by move 7. But a desperate rearguard action salvaged the draw and won us the match. Our reward? Russia tomorrow who have maximum match points of 14.
50+
GER Women 1 ENG 1 3. The English team put in a smooth performance. Their reward tomorrow? To play on board 1, also against Russia.
Czech Republic 3.5 ENG 0.5. THE Czechs had two GMs in their team. But Sheila Jackson had another excellent result, drawing on board 1 with black.
Petra Nunn has now been out of hospital for a couple of days and is returning home on Friday, accompanied by John Nunn.
Mick Stokes had intended to play. But he was hospitalised as well, in England, before the event started. Nothing daunted, he arrives Wednesday afternoon for a holiday and in time to see us win two matches against Russia?
— Stewart Reuben
Round 6
65+
We resoundingly beat 4-0 CM Murado Sredice, a Croatian team. Actually thy put up good resistance for such weak opposition. Brian Ewart was first to win when his opponent carefully put a rook where it could be taken with check and promptly resigned, It wasn’t totally clear that he was losing prior to that. This clearly upset my opponent, who promptly sacrificed a piece unsoundly. Paul Hutchinson won a quite difficult game where he achieved something unusual. His opponent was in zugswang with about 7 pieces each on the board. Brian Hewson was last to finish, but won convincingly. The best move his opponent made in the last 20, was resigning.
50+
ENG 1 won convincingly 3-1 against Ireland. ENG 2 lost 3-1 against Agder, a Norwegian team. Sheila Jackson won relatively quickly on board 1. Julie Denning had excellent chances in her game. She may have been winning at one stage. Then she slipped up in a complex endgame and lost.
— Stewart Reuben
Round 5
50+
England 1 won 4-0. But sadly this was against England 2. The match was closer fought than the scores suggest. The second team made the first work for their victory. In particular, Sheila Jackson had chances of drawing against Andrew Ledger until running into nasty pin.
65+
I rested myself again against Rochade Bielefeld revival of Germany. That was in the hope of getting to visit Petra Nunn in hospital, but that was not to be. John Nunn says she is now walking – with difficulty and they hope to return to England on Friday, provided the doctors give their support to this.
Both John Quinn and Paul Hutchinson drew on the top boards. Sadly Brian Hewson and Brian Ewart both lost. The game needs careful analysis, but Paul may have been winning the rook and pawn endgame.
Summarising the results after 5 rounds of 9, the only real indicator is W-We. That is W is the score achieved and We the score expected of the player, according to his/her rating.
England 50+ 1 (remember, both 50+ teams have played only 4 matches.)
Andrew Ledger 2/4 -0.51
Andrew Lewis 1/3 -0.77
Dave Ledger 0.5/3 -0.41
Jonathan Nelson 2/3 +0.61
Steve Ledger 2/3 +0.44
England 50+ 2
Sheila Jackson 1.5/4 +0.12
Mashid Mashayekh 0.5/4 -0.31
Peter R Wood 1.5/4 +0.16
Julie Denning 0/4 -0.76
Engand 65+
John Quinn 3/5 +1.03
Paul Hutchinson 3/5 +0.46
Brian Hewson 1/4 -1.02
Stewart Reuben 1/3 -0.02
Brian Ewart 1/3 -0.76
Losinj is a pleasant island, but rather difficult to get to. It required two flights, a taxi ride, followed by a ferry and finally another taxi. It is end of season. It is billed as a ‘Family Hotel’ and there are many very young children here. Perhaps a piquant contrast to us seniors.
— Stewart Reuben
Round 4
50+
Germany Women 2 England 2nd Team 2
Peter Wood won with some difficulty on board 3. That compensated for Julie Denning’s loss on board 4. Sheila Jackson and Majid Mashayekh both drew, although the latter was winning at one point.
ENG 1 had the bye and that counts as 2-2 in the international team system.
Croatia 7 lead Russia narrowly on tiebreaks, Steiermark (Austria) are placed third with 6. ENG 1 9th with 3/8 and ENG 11th with 2.
The two English teams are paired together in Round 5.
65+
We lost 1.5-2.5 against Germany. John Quinn, Paul Hutchinson and Brian Hewson all drew. I was comprehensively outplayed.
Thus we now have 4/8.
Finland 1 lost narrowly to Russia 1.5-2,5. Thus they have 8/8 ahead of Sweden 1.
— Stewart Reuben
Round 3
65+
England had a resounding victory against Austria. John Quinn won convincingly on board 1. Paul Hutchinson had an edge with the black pieces. He was uncertain whether he could make an effort to win, when his opponent simplified matters to resigning when he thought, incorrectly, that he was losing a rook. I had an interesting game where I stood slightly better and might have offered a draw, were it not that there is a no draws in less than 30 moves rule. But my opponent left a pawn en prise and it was then an easy win. Brian Ewart lost on time in the inferior position.
Thus 3-1 against Austria, a team ranked slightly below us.
Russia leads with 6 points from 3 matches, with Finland and Sweden 5. We are in a whole group with 4.
50+
1st team
Sadly both Andrews, Ledger and Lewis lost against Austria. Dave Ledger and Jonathan Nelson drew. Thus this 1-3 result reversed the 65+ result.
The second team lost 0.5-3.5 against Steiermark (another Austrian team). Peter R Wood was the lone scorer on board 3.
Croatia and Russia drew. They jointly have 5/6. ENG1 2 and ENG2 1.
— Stewart Reuben
Round 2
Highlight of the day’s play was Sheila Jackson’s win on board 1 of ENG 2 50+ against Spain. She says she had a wonderful tactic on move 23 netting a couple of pawns. However, the team scored just 1/4.
The ENG 50+ 1st team faced the very strong Croatian team of GMs. Only Jonathan Nelson succeeded in drawing. But the delight on his face during the middlegame said it all.
ENG 65+ were beaten very convincingly by Finland, who had 2 GMs in their line-up, 0.5-3.5. Paul Hutchinson had a very good and interesting draw by repetition with the white pieces on board 2 against GM Heikki Westerinen. I was outplayed on board 4. Brian Hewson lost his way somewhat fairly early on, but resisted until the end. John Quinn made a rare tactical error on board 1 against GM Rantanen. Eventually the GM sacced the exchange to get a bevy of passed pawns.
— Stewart Reuben
[50+ England Second Team (and Stewart) left to right – Peter R Wood, Majid Mashayekh, Stewart Reuben, Julie Denning (Captain), Sheila Jackson]
Round 1
ENG 2 50+ had the bye in round 1. In these team tournaments that counts as a 2-2 draw. Thus they are the only team with 2/4 in round 1 and are floated down to Spain in round 2. They had lost, with some difficulty to ENG 1 in round 1.
Both ENG 1 50+ and ENG 65+ won 3-1 in Round 1.
The 65+ was very clinical. Brian Ewart was first to win and John Quinn next, Norman Hutchinson bailed out to a draw in order to ensure that we won and Brian Hewson also drew.
The ENG 1 50+ win over Spain was nail-biting. Andrew Ledger won an interesting game with 2 rooks against a queen. Dave Ledger lost, but Jonathan Nelson and Steve Ledger (the team captain) won. Steve had particular difficulty in a game where he was rook for knight and pawn up.
Scores of determined by match points. At the end of the tournament, only if two or more teams have the same match score do the game points become important.
— Stewart Reuben
We are off and the first round is underway as I write. I was always taught one should never start with a downer, so I didn’t.
Sadly Petra Nunn had a serious accident on the beach on Monday. She is currently in hospital and may not be able to play in the rest of the event. Thus we effectively have just 14 players – 5 in ENG 1 50+, 4 in ENG 2 50+, including two women, and 5 in ENG 65+. That team is playing Ireland in the first round. We are ranked 7 of 16. I stood down for the round, which is why I am able to write this report during play. ENG 2 50+ had the bye in Round 1 as that team is the lowest rated of the 11.
It is early days to report on the state of play – so more later …
— Stewart Reuben