Gatwick Open (17.06.11 - 19.06.11)

Sorry for the long delay in updating my blog. Life has been very busy in the last three weeks. Not only working on at my placement and writting exams but also playing chess and setting up a website.
But lets start at the beginning.

Chess without me!!! :-(

The Sunningdale Chess Congress has just finished and unfortunately I was unable to play due to University placement and work commitments.

The Open was won by Mark Hebden with 6/7 ahead of GM Rausis, GM Arkell and IM Michielsen with 5,5/7! In the Major section the tournament was won by Jonathan Bryant with 6,5/7. He won the first 6 games and had a draw in the last round to secure the tournament win.

Taunton Championship 2011

This year’s Taunton Championship wasn’t a close competition as it was last year when 3 had to fight for the title in a decider rapid play play-off. Last year Mike Richardt emerged as the overall winner ahead of Nick Wilson and Jorge Pineda-Langford.

Last round game of the Taunton Championships 2011

This is my last round game against Nick Wilson in the Taunton Championships 2011. With a win against Nick I still had slim chances to defend my title if Terry Stuttard, to whom I lost in the previous round, loses or draws.
Unfortunately for me Terry won his last round game and is the new Taunton Club Champion 2011. A full report about the Championships will follow at the weekend.
Below is my game against Nick. Not a pretty game but a win. Nick resigned maybe a little bit pre-maturely but last Tuesday (10th May) it was the start of 'The Apprentice' which Nick couldn't miss.

Sun, Greek food, Assignment, Placement and sadly no chess!!!

First I have to apologise for the long break in updating my blog. Life has been really busy since my last entry:
During the week before Easter Laura and I took a break from everything and spend 9 days in Rhodes, then came back the night before the Royal wedding, Hanna, a German friend then stayed over for a few days, I started my placement with the District Nurses and still have to finish my Health Promotion essay.  But let’s start at the beginning:

Rating performance 2010/2011 (April 2011)

Below is a nice table in which I have calculated my season performance so far (April 2011). I have played so far 26 games this season and I probably will play the Frome Congress as well which will bring my games over the 30 games barrier.

What a waste of a lovely sunny day!!!!

Last Saturday my yearly dose of rapid chess arrived in the form of the Teignmouth rapid tournament. I was quite confident of a good tourney as I have played well in recent years in Teignmouth. On Saturday morning I picked up Mike Ward, Dave Littlejohns and Alex Conway and we arrived in Teignmouth just before the tourney started. Major road works a few diversions made it a little bit tricky to find the way.

Plettenberg I wins away against SV Sundern

Last Sunday Plettenberg I played their penultimate league game for this season against a strong SV Sundern. Both teams are in mid-table position so the winner might be able to get closer to the Top spot which is occupied by Ennepe, who look like they will get promoted this season.

General whinning and chess last weekend

It is quite tricky to keep a blog going, especially when a busy life gets in a way. Somehow this is what has happened in the last two weeks.

Team captain Nick Wilson's view on Taunton's Cup win!!

At this time of year, the days get brighter, daffodils are in bloom, spring is in the air, and Taunton Chess Club readies itself for yet another Somerset Cup Final...    And sure enough, this year is no different. But, as regular readers will know, this annual tale normally ends with us having our title dreams snatched away.... 

Somerset Cup game vs. Rhys Cumming

This is my game against Rhys Cumming in the Somerset Cup Final. A little bit a bout my opponent: Rhys is 16 years old and is one of Matthew Turner Millfield Student. Obviously getting regular coaching by a GM can be quite beneficial to your game and Rhys rose to an impressive rating of 191ECF this season. The overall score before the game was 2-1 in Rhys favour.

And the Somerset Cup goes to...........TAUNTON!!!!!

I just come back from our Somerset Cup final and after 5 consecutive years losing in the final, this year we did well and won. The final result was 6-2 with 4 draws and 4 wins against Glastonbury. Glastonbury fielded 3 Millfield students, including 11 year old Nikita who started playing chess for Glastonbury this year and has a strong seaon so far.

County Correspondence Game 2011

This game is my game against Barrie Saunders in the County Correspondence Championships 2011. Due to a huge blunder by my opponent I managed to win the game very quickly. The ratings are the normal ECF ratings but shouldn't make any difference in CC games.

Plettenberg II lost 3-5

Plettenberg II had to play their 5^th round match against Lennestadt. Lennestadt is one of the favourites to win the league. Plettenberg II plays in the Bezirksliga which is the equivalent of Division 1 in Somerset. Without 4 of their top 8 boards it was always an uphill struggle against the experienced players from Lennestadt. The final result was 3-5 but it could have been a 4-4 if one of the substitutes wouldn’t have thrown away good position and finally even lost the game.

	Home Team			Away Team
20/03/2011	Plettenberg II		3-5	Lennestadt
Board	Player		Score	Player
1	Maniocha, Marek		1/2	Stupperich, Reiner
2	Hecker, Jürgen		0-1	Theile-Rasche, Ingo
3	Skapski, Miroslaw		1/2	Soemer, Thomas
4	Assmann, Dirk		0-1	Dittmann, Rolf
5	Heiduck, Bernhard		1/2	Schleime, Franz-Josef
6	Meinking,Christian		1-0	Kouril,Bernward
7	Blumöhr, Jannis		0-1	Gonther,Alexander
8	Kensche, Wolfgang		1/2	Sänger, Klaus

Starting the season as one of the favourites to win the league Plettenberg II is now in a mid-table position closer to relegation than promotion. The promotion spot is currently occupied by Svgg Lüdenscheid and the relegation spot by VfB Turm Altena, but with two more rounds to go it can all change!!

For more information about the leagues please click here

Exciting chess happening in the southwest

Playing a few chess tournaments in the next few months is relatively made easy for me. Due to work commitments, studies and other normal life obsticles I can’t really play a lot of chess tournaments.

At the moment I will definitely play the team competitions with Taunton and Tiverton, including the Somerset Cup final against Glastonbury.

I would love to play the West of England Chess Union tournament during Easter but I am in Greece, having a well-deserved holiday.

Please find some tournaments below, which I might or might not attend. Well at least it’ll give you an idea what’s going on chess-wise in the next month or so. Please click on Entry form for the details of the tournament. In due course I will create a tournament page which I will update regulary.

Taunton Championship 2011

The Taunton Championship 2011 is nearly finished with one round left to play. The tournament is a 5 round swiss tourney spread over the whole season. We started in September 2010 and players have a month to play their game. The time control is 75 minutes/35 moves plus 15 minutes to finish the game; the same time control we use in the Somerset leagues.

Introduction

Here I am and starting a blog now....like so many other people who perhaps have too much time on their hands!!! :-)
Probably best to introduce myself first:
My name is Mike Richardt and I live in the UK with my wife.I am 32 years old when I start this blog. I am currently a student and I would say I don't live a typical student life. Well, first of all I am married which makes living the typical student life a little bit awkward!!