English Chess Forum

The U-100 section was introduced mostly for the benefit of counties in the SCCU, in order to give county chess to players who wouldn't get into their counties' U-100 teams. These counties are mostly rather higher-populated than the MCCU counties, so more of them will feel the need to have U-100 teams.

IM Jack Rudd wrote:The U-100 section was introduced mostly for the benefit of counties in the SCCU, in order to give county chess to players who wouldn't get into their counties' U-100 teams.

I think you mean "who wouldn't get into their counties' U-120 teams".

Sorry to intrude into the MCCU area, but I think your comment is inadvertently rather misleading. There would have been no need to introduce a National U100 Division for the benefit of SCCU counties; we had already established an U100 competition at Union level. Having done so, we rather tentatively suggested to the ECF Council that this might be extended nationally, but as the proposer I asked Council representatives not to support the idea unless they thought there would, or at least might be, entries from their own Union areas. Council representatives did support the idea and their optimism proved to be justified.

This same sequence of events took place with the U125 Division (now the U120 Division) ten to twelve years earlier.

David Sedgwick wrote:

IM Jack Rudd wrote:The U-100 section was introduced mostly for the benefit of counties in the SCCU, in order to give county chess to players who wouldn't get into their counties' U-100 teams.

I think you mean "who wouldn't get into their counties' U-120 teams".

Oops, of course that's what I meant.

This same sequence of events took place with the U125 Division (now the U120 Division) ten to twelve years earlier.

This last part I did not know; it predates my time within ECF politics.

Moving back to the MCCU G Man's open team beat Leics on Saturday 8.5 to 7.5

After the past few seasons of losing every match, winning 2 and losing 2 narrowly to finish third is excellent progress

Good luck to Lincs and Derbys in the ECF stages Minor Championship

Do we have any ideas yet of the quarter final (or preliminary stages) line-ups for each grading band of the competition? I think some county teams have qualified already.

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:Do we have any ideas yet of the quarter final (or preliminary stages) line-ups for each grading band of the competition? I think some county teams have qualified already.

I believe the SCCU site is keeping track of this.

http://www.sccu.ndo.co.uk/matchbcf.htm

I believe the following could safely be added:

Open: W = Somerset
U-180: W = Devon
U-140: W = Hampshire

The two W nominees in the Minor will be Gloucestershire and Hampshire; I don't know offhand if they've played their match yet.

IM Jack Rudd wrote:The two W nominees in the Minor will be Gloucestershire and Hampshire; I don't know offhand if they've played their match yet.

Yes, on 1 December - Hampshire won 9-7.

The under 120 match between Staffordshire, and Worcestershire was today. Staffordshire were leading 8.5-2.5 when I left, with one board remaining. The start was delayed due to traffic congestion on the M6, whilst we could have insisted on starting on time, as it was outside of Worcestershires control, we decided not to.

As for myself, I enjoyed the experience, apart from I suffered a gut wrenching loss after I had played well.

We had the same problem in the U160, Warks were delayed by the M6 problems, so we started half an hour late

Venue nowhere near as good as the Bridge Club, we played rubbish and lost

Disappointing about the late change of venue, due to double booking. These things really dont help...and when you find out after you have set off that the venue had been changed it really doesnt fill you with great hope... Communications were not good. As a driver, I really would like to know where I`m going, preferably before I set off...not least, so I can plan my journey. The initial clues I received were that we were playing at a `church` on the A34 in Newcastle. Gee...
I`m really not keen on this game of `blind mans buff`.....
Anyway, we arrived..only to find the match start delayed by 30 mins...which again doesnt put you in the best frame of mind to play chess...but thats part of the county picture. Things can go wrong and often do, despite the best efforts of those concerned.
For me the actual venue was ok...a typical church Hall....the Baptists Church at Newcastle U Lyme. Reasonably well lit...good tables...space not bad...refreshments quite ok.
As for the match....a very close affair. It went down to the wire. With 30 mins left, there were about 6 games still in progress, the scores were level at 5-5. Warks seemed to have clock advantage in most games, with splits of about 20 mins v 7 mins roughly.
David Holts game looked almost a nailed on win. An outside passed QRP supported by R & B v N & R, with equal Ps on the K side. But it petered out to a draw.
David Kierman was struggling with a 2P disadvantage, but with both players having N&R it looked like it might hold, with luck... It was not to be...
Francis Moan was a P down playing N v R + other Ps, in an endgame that also looked like it might hold...not this time. He had got off to a bad start, but pulled back in the middle game...chances might have been missed.
Andrew Sainsbury had an interesting middle game, playing Q & B + Ps v Q & B + Ps... it looked fairly even and the draw was agreed.
Our top two boards were engaged in very close tussles... On top board Pablo (as black) had an intriguing position with 2Rs + 2Ns + 6Ps scattered & connected, across the board v Q + 2Bs + N (I think) + 6 Ps.
White threatened a mate which black could parry. He countered with mate threats, but unfortunately they unravelled and the game fell. A draw was certainly deserved, and very interesting for the spectators. Unlucky....
On board two, both had 2Rs and Ps. White was pressing on the K side with doubled Rs, and had a P advantage on the Q-side, where Black had some pressure. I had thought that Black might have given up the K-side P and doubled Rs for a Q-side assault, but the game drifted to a draw by repretition...probably a fair result.
We were fairly strong on the higher boards, and I had thought we might squeeze some advantage there, but many games were agreed as drawn in the first 2 hours or so...
I had a blustering game after playing d4 & c4...which black met with d5, e5...and the battle commenced.
Some errors on both sides led to an even middle game, but I grabbed the initiative when pinning Q against K, for the cost of 2Bs...
My middle game tactics continued to bear fruit and I grabbed more material with active play with my Q, 2Rs, & N all in hot pursuit of the white K position, which fell in a flurry of combinative play.
Our other win came from our captain, but I saw little of that game...
Congrats to Warks U160, but I think we should have done better......

Roger de Coverly wrote:

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:Do we have any ideas yet of the quarter final (or preliminary stages) line-ups for each grading band of the competition? I think some county teams have qualified already.

I believe the SCCU site is keeping track of this.

http://www.sccu.ndo.co.uk/matchbcf.htm

I assume that there are 5 different areas then? North, East, South, West and the Midlands?

David Blower wrote:

Roger de Coverly wrote:

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:Do we have any ideas yet of the quarter final (or preliminary stages) line-ups for each grading band of the competition? I think some county teams have qualified already.

I believe the SCCU site is keeping track of this.

http://www.sccu.ndo.co.uk/matchbcf.htm

I assume that there are 5 different areas then? North, East, South, West and the Midlands?

You assume correctly.

ETA: Ouch; out of all the away trips Gloucestershire could have got, that's got to be one of the worst.

David Blower wrote:I assume that there are 5 different areas then? North, East, South, West and the Midlands?

There are indeed five Unions: East Anglian, Midland Counties, Northern Counties, Southern Counties and West of England.

EACU places in the Open, Minor Counties and u180 will all be decided today when the four first teams meet at Newmarket for the final two rounds of matches.

This qualifying tournament provides the places for all of the above at the National stages.