Details

Written by: sjb

Category: Club News

Published: 30 November 2021

A difficult night for both Atticus Teams. With a number of players falling ill on Sunday and Monday, both teams were just about able to fill their boards. David Odunaiya was very generous in stepping in at the last moment for his first game in almost 3 years. 

Aigburth put out their strongest line-up of the season and were deserving winners on the night. Although strangely enough the result puts Atticus 2 at the Top of the League due to their superior board count. Highlights of the night was a good draw for Steve Kee against Roger Williamson and another victory for Andrej Stancak.

Atticus 1 also had a couple players step in on the day, with both Nathan Haddy and Steve Winstanely getting late calls. The team fought bravely and may easily have won the match as Charlie Kennaugh had the advantage over Mike Stone going onto the Final Moments.

 

29th November 2021 19:30
Atticus 2			1925	2.0 : 5.0	Aigburth 1		1908
1	L	Kee, Steve	2155	0.5 - 0.5	L	Williamson, Roger G	2253
2	L	Stancak, Andrej	2080	1 - 0	L	Lee, Steven	1990
3	L	Boumphrey, Luke S	2118	0 - 1		Eisen, David	1848
4		Odunaiya, A David	2028	0 - 1	L	Pearcey, David F	1825
5	L	Banerjee, Sanjoy K	1728	0 - 1		Pimblett, Anthony J	1758
6		Burge, Steve J	1713	0.5 - 0.5
7		Cannon, Geoff	1650	0 - 1		Kane, Brendan D	1773
board 6 aigburth john woolf

 

29th November 2021 19:30
Atticus 1			1840	3.0 : 4.0	Hoylake 1		1654
1	L	Kennaugh, Charles W	2155	0 - 1		Stone, Mike	2035
2	L	James, David J	2140	1 - 0		Stoddart, Mike	1675
3	L	Rothwell, James P	1885	0.5 - 0.5		Vasiev, Bahkti	1668
4		Rooney, Derek	1698	0.5 - 0.5		Tatar, Radu T	1555
5		Webb, Tom EC	1653	0.5 - 0.5		Carroll, Michael	1540
6		Winstanley, Steve	1510	0 - 1		Threlfall, Jack
7		Haddy, Nathan		0.5 - 0.5		Battersby, Matthew	1450

 

Details

Written by: sjb

Category: Club News

Published: 24 November 2021

Atticus 2 survived an enthralling encounter v Hoylake tonight. Atticus were without Dave Stuttard, a late withdrawal through illness. Fortunately Geoff Cannon was able to step in on board 7 at short notice.

BOARD 6   Hoylake's Jack Threfall did well to fight back from an inferior position in the opening, he managed to find a nice tactic to equalise the game and might have had the edge going into the end game.

BOARD 3  Luke seemed to be well in control and with a forcing mate attack, somehow his opponent managed  to expose Luke's King forcing an early resignation.

BOARD 5 Sanjoy is in fine form at present and surrounded Mike Carroll's King from early on. Mike could not castle and despite great resistance he eventually lost out.

BOARD 1  Steve seemed be doing well but having turned down Mike's draw offer, his position became inferior. Mike had 2 Rooks and a bishop against Steve's Queen and bishop. MIke eventaully went for a 3 move repetition but may well have overlooked the win under time pressure.

BOARD 2  Another steady game by Andrej giving his opponent little opportunity. Andrej was eventually down to 3 minutes but delivered a fine end game victory.

BOARD 7 Geoff played a very solid game and the postion was very equal but as the clock was running down into the final minutes he made an unfortunate blunder and had to resign.

BOARD 4 This match was the last to finish and the match result depended on it. Early in the game Brian had forced Radu Tatar's King onto the 4th rank but could find no obvious finish, Radu was able to retreat his King back to safety and then launch major threats against Brian's King. In the frantic final moments both players were forgetting to press the clock (on different occasions) adding to the the amazing tension! Brian's extra pawn and fine end game knowledge provided the victory with both players under 60 seconds. 

 

 

 

 

Details

Written by: sjb

Category: Club News

Published: 19 November 2021

 

Atticus 2 continued their good start to the season with another convincing win, this time against Waterloo.

Some very interesting matches but Atticus always looked to have the advantage.

Board 7  A very solid performance by Sanjoy which gave Graham Solomon little chance to get any activity.

Board 6  Brian Ewart looked to press home his attack but Scott Bradshaw held firm and still had a good material advantage when a draw was agreed.

Board 5  Dave Stuttard went  all in with a brilliant winning tactical attack against the normally very solid Mike Connor.

Board 4  Luke's position seemed very level and continued well into the end game before his opponents clock got the better of him.

Board 3  David Lawson went for a nice  Kingside attack which eventually gave him a good avantage going into the end game.

Board 2  Andrej looked to the have the edge against Colin Horton but time became a crucial factor and a draw was agreed.

Board 1  Steve Kee will feel aggreived as he had managed to get himself into an almost winning position against IM Gary Quillian but Gary found the right moves to take the point as time became the crucial factor.

 

Details

Written by: sjb

Category: Club News

Published: 18 November 2021

 

A brilliant performance by the Atticus 1 team last night, unfortunately with the top 4 boards unavailable and a number of Atticus 3 reserves also unavailable, 3 players were recruited in the very last moments from the Atticus 4 squad. Thanks to all of them for standing in particularly Howard Sleeman who was only contacted a few hours before the match.  Although Aigburth were also missing some players,the Atticus team were outgraded by an average of 70 points per board.

Natasha May got the team off to a brilliant start with a 15 move miniature, Howard fought well to gain a draw against Sean Kane.

Chris Wentworth sacced a piece for active play and turned down a draw in trying to force the win against Anthony Pimblett. Anthony with fine defensive play was eventually able to turn things around in his favour.

  Derek Rooney continued his fine season with a win against Brendan.  Ben and Nick eventually found themselves in inferior postions against their very experienced opponents.  The match hinged on the last game on Board 1 between James Rothwell and Aigburth captain Steve Lee. As the seconds disappeared Steve had more to think about with his King being more vulnerable in the centre. As the pieces crashed around the board at both ends, James finally came out on top to give Atticus a well earned draw.

Details

Written by: Sanjoy Banerjee

Category: Club News

Published: 06 October 2021

After a long break following the COVID-19 pandemic, it was great to see everyone down at the club again for the first league fixture of the season.

Atticus 1 will need to adjust to life without their top board for the first half of the season, but in spite of the scoreline, the games were very evenly contested.

Luke and Nick Martin were first to finish.  An interesting line in the Caro leading to a draw by repetition.  Dave Stuttard and James Rothwell also shared the spoils before the first decisive result came as Brian won well against Nick Griffin, making his competitive debut for the club, in an aggressive line of the King's Indian.

Andrej then extended the advantage with a fine win against Dave James, and Derek and Sanjoy agreed a draw in a tight game in the Cambridge Springs.  The match was sealed when Steve Kee and Charlie agreed a draw, in a game where Steve looked to have a slight advantage.  And Steve Burge rounded off a good evening for Atticus 2 by edging out Steve Philp in an interesting game where both players were on the front foot, but white was ultimately stronger.

 

 

Details

Written by: sjb

Category: Club News

Published: 21 September 2021

BRIEF OUTLINE OF POINTS DISCUSSED AT AGM notes from Secretary Steve Kee.

1: Club fees: We decided that the basic ECF membership fee: £18 is payable for all members (as it always has been), and that working members pay £27 club fees on top of that (totalling £45). Non-working pay 0 extra. 

2: Early ECF registration seems more important to the MCA this year, so it was decided that I help out our new treasurer, Chris Wentworth, by taking the role of ECF registration officer.

3: We discussed the importance of publicising our club, and we have a new post, publicity officer, which Sanjoy will run.

4: The role of webmaster may or may not be a significant one, and Sanjoy will help those of us who, for whatever reason, struggle to post on our site.

5: We have a new treasurer of course, and that is Chris Wentworth.

6: Post-AGM, we discussed finding a more suitable and deserving role for Luke Boumphrey, and we asked him if he would like the role of Designated Club Coach - a natural and enjoyable role for him, which he would be delighted to take.

Committee

Chairman   John Redmond

Secretary    Steve Kee

Treasurer    Chris Wentworth

Club Coach   Luke Boumphrey

Website and Publicity Officer Sanjoy Banerjee

ECF Registration Officer Steve Kee

Captain Atticus 1   Nick Martin

Captain Atticus 2  and 7200 League   Steve Burge

Captain Atticus 3, 6000 League and KA CUP  Tom Webb

Captain Atticus 4   Chris Wentworth

Captain  JR CUP, Lightning, Wirral League   Steve Kee

 

 

Details

Written by: sjb

Category: Club News

Published: 14 September 2021

The Atticus AGM will take place at The Cross Keys on September 20th at 19h30. If you have any particular issues you would like to raise with the committee please contact Club Secretary Steve Kee.

Details

Written by: sjb

Category: Club News

Published: 10 September 2021

 

The Atticus Captains meeting took place last night. All the Team Captains took part and the following squads were agreed, including all the listed players for the teams. All players mentioned below have said they were keen to play this season, if anyone else would still like to join up please contact one of the Captain's or Secretary asap.

Atticus 1

Nick Martin Captain,John Redmond,Nick Griffin,Charlie Kennaugh,Dave James,James Rothwell

Atticus 2

Steve Burge Captain, Steve Kee,Dave Stuttard,Brian Ewart, Sanjoy Banejee,Andrej Stancak,Luke Boumphrey

Atticus 3 

Tom Webb Captain , Derek Rooney,John Lambert,Steve Burge, Ben Ellington

Atticus 4 

Chris Wentworth Captain, Geoff Cannon, Natasha May, Neil Tabor, Steve Winstanely, Howard Sleeman, Tim Haggis, Nathan Haddy.

 

Other Captains Listed Below

Tom Webb, KA Cup and 440 League, 

Steve Burge ,600 League

Steve Kee, Wirral League,JR Cup,Team Lightning.

 

 

 

Details

Written by: sjb

Category: Club News

Published: 30 August 2021

The wonderful Monday Summer Nights of Chess continued at the Cross Keys. With the Hurley -Wiseman Tournament still in full swing. It has been good to see so many old and new faces attending the Club in recent weeks. Although now away in Prague, over the early Summer, Andrej Stancak provided some great analysis of some Classic GM World Chamionship Games and David Lawson has always been around to provide some excellent comments and advice to some of our new players and Tournament participants.A few presentations were made on the night with Colin Horton receiving The Trophy for being the 2020 Atticus Open Champion. Azalea May was presented with some exciting Chess Literaure to enjoy on her year abroad( as part of her University Language Course).  In the very late hours Steve Burge was presented with yet another European Youtube Song Contest Award! 

Details

Written by: sjb

Category: Club News

Published: 24 July 2021

Just a reminder the Atticus Open Tournament ( The Jim Wiseman and Dave Hurley Open) starts on Monday July 26th at 19h30 upstairs in The Cross Keys.  Please contact Sanjoy Banerjee or Luke Boumphrey if you would like to enter, all details of the dates and rules can be found on previous posts on this Website.