Broadstairs Chess Club’s Thanet and East Kent League matches for the 2023/24 season came to a victorious end on Tuesday 18^th June 2024 with the Club winning the final of the Mick Croft Cup at and against Sandwich 3.5 to 1.5.

Congratulations to the team captain Paul Carfrae and to Manoj Natarajan, Chris Stampe, Samuel Marsden, and Paul Verrall. Broadstairs had played and knocked out Bridge and Margate in the earlier rounds with the help of Jasper Jeffs who wasn’t available for the final.

As we approach  the conclusion of various internal competitions and the club AGM next month (5.8.2024) which will bring to an end  the season, it becomes a time to reflect and of course to think about and plan for the 2024/25 season.

Overall, it was a successful season with the club fielding chess teams in the Miller Cup, Hargreaves Shield, Steele Cup, Walker Cup, and the  Mick Croft Cup. The Hargreaves Shield was again won by Broadstairs.

There is a lot to reflect on and to prepare for the AGM so more on that in a future website post.

Thursday’s away game at Margate saw Broadstairs playing their final Millar Cup match of the season. Circumstances conspired resulting in Broadstairs having to concede the bottom 1 boards and start the match 2 – 0 down against their local rivals Margate, who were firm favourites to clock up their first Millar Cup win of the season.

With lower overall ratings on 4 of the 5 boards, it would take something special for the Broadstairs team to achieve any kind of success.

The early signs were surprisingly promising for Broadstairs who quickly gained a pawn advantage on both Boards 4 and 5, Michael Jenkinson’s game on Board 5 was the first game to finish with an agreed draw. Although a pawn up with only the Kings and Pawns on the board, it was not possible for Michael to convert this advantage to a win. A draw against an opponent with almost 300 rating points higher was a great result in the circumstances.

Manoj (Board 1) and Samuel (Board 2) quickly secured wins to maintain their run of results with their respective and impressive success / win rates of 75% and 81%.

With the match all square at 2.5 points each, the most unlikely result of a Broadstairs win looked to be on the cards. Paul Verrall had a winning position and a clear time advantage against his experienced opponent Colin Gregory on Board 4 and Andrew Flood was hanging on to his position on Board 3, although a pawn dawn but with potential and drawing opportunities.

Then chess disaster struck for Broadstairs on Board 4 when, with only minutes left on his clock, Colin manoeuvred his Knight to check and fork his opponents King and Rook, to quickly change a lost game to a won game and secure a vital point for Margate. Board 3 was an agreed draw through perpetual check.

Although a Broadstairs 4 – 3 loss on the night, the closeness of the result will probably prove valuable in keeping Broadstairs of the bottom spot when all the teams have completed their games at the end of the season, and who would begrudge Margate their first win in an enjoyable and close match.

 

 

On Monday night (18th March 2024) Broadstairs Chess Club welcomed back to the club our previous club secretary, for the celebratory Robert Page Rapid Play Tournament 2024. Robert (Bob) Page was Broadstairs Club Secretary for 27 years between September 1994 – September 2021 until he left Broadstairs to relocate to be closer to family. Bob had been a chess club member at Broadstairs since 1986.

John Couzens another former club member from 1990 – 2021 took part in the competition as well as Reg Pidduck, our President and long standing current club member since 1975, as well as Paul Carfrae who has been a club member for 30 years.

In all 19 people including guests and members played in Tournament over 6 rounds, and all played at a “rapid pace” showing some outstanding chess skills. As reminisced in the Bradstow Mill bar afterwards, the field of players included three former individual Kent Champions (Bob Page, Manoj Natarajan and John Couzens) who were Tournament winners in the famous and never to be forgotten 50th Thanet Chess Congress in 2019 which resulted in Broadstairs Chess Club being able to boast of having four individual Kent Champions in a single year.

The Robert Page Rapid Play Tournament 2024 produced an impressive and worthy winner in Samuel Marsden with a winning score of 5.5 points out of a possible 6, beating two of the former Kent Champions and only dropping half a point against Paul Carfrae who skilfully carved out a draw with opposite coloured bishops in the only drawn game of the evening. For us oldies it is amazing to think that Samuel’s lifetime and age is less than half of the years that Bob was at the club in his role of Club Secretary.
David Marsden (Samuel’s dad) also had a great tournament finishing joint fourth with 4 out of 6 along with Bob Page and Clive Le Bague.

Paul Carfrae finished third with 4.5 points out of 6 and Manoj Natarajan was the runner up with 5 points out of 6, only losing the one game against Samuel.

The top 10 finishers were.

Samuel Marsden   5.5/6,    Manoj Natarajan  5/6,   Paul Carfrae 4.5/6,

Robert Page          4/6, David Marsden   4/6, Clive Le Bague   4/67.

Geoff Foxon  3/6, Steven Blay 3/6, Reg Pidduck 3/6, Paul Verrall  3/6

Broadstairs Chess Club’s fourth match against Bridge in a month resulted in a narrow 3 – 2 Mick Croft Cup win and an overall encounter of honours evens. Bridge registered wins in the Millar Cup and the Walker Shield competitions, with Broadstairs triumphant in the Hargreaves Shield and the Mick Croft Cup.

The match saw another first to finish impressive win by Samuel Marsden with Black on Board 2 that gave Broadstairs a 1 – 0  lead before Bridge fought back to lead 2 – 1 with Broadstairs defeats (Paul and Nik ) on Boards 1 and 4.

Bob Cronin’s victory evened things up, so the result was dependent on the Board 3 match between Andrew Flood and Zachery Stonier. A poor opening by white saw Broadstairs go a piece down (Knight for Pawn) but resulted in an exposed Black King.  Black though had a clear advantage and superiority going into the middle game. One weak backwards move by Black allowed the momentum and attacking play to switch in favour of Broadstairs and the White pieces attacking the King and threatening mate or loss of Black’s Queen to the extent that Black resigned and Broadstairs progressed to the next round with the narrowest of wins 3 -2.

Broadstairs	Result	Bridge
Paul Carfrae       (1747)	0 -1	(2194) Richard Eales
Samuel Masden (1742)	1 – 0	(1670) Mats Nordgren
Andrew Flood    (1638)	1 – 0	(1521) Zachary Stonier
Nik Loginov        (1436)	0 – 1	(1500) Zhang Hanshuo
Bob Cronin         (1405)	1 – 0	(1417)  Graeme Boxall
Total (7968)	3 – 2	(8302)