BCA GAZETTE
October 1997
To contact a member of the committee, please see the Braille Chess Association’s website where there is a facility for emailing each officer.
CONTENTS
Editorial
A Note from the Treasurer
BCF National Grades
Forthcoming Events
News from the Secretary
German International Open Championship
Tournament Director's Report
Membership Secretary's Report
New Members and Changes of Address
Chess Tournament - Haaksbergen, Holland
BCA British Junior Championship
Almost but not quite In Seine
50 Years Ago
Stop Press
EDITORIAL
"To err is human, to forgive, divine." I quote Alexander Pope's famous phrase in the hope that I may be forgiven for my error in the July issue. I wrote that Ted and Ivy Williams were our most senior members: I should have stated that Ted is our longest serving member. My apologies to any aggrieved reader!
One of our younger members, who did not make errors, is Nikhel Nair. Nikhel has just obtained a first class honours degree in chemistry at Trinity College, Cambridge. For a totally blind student to achieve this is indeed a "first", and Nikhel is to be warmly congratulated. If he now turns his mind from chemistry to chess, he could prove a volatile element.
In addition to the usual fare, I have included an item from 50 years ago which I hope you will find interesting and instructive.
May I end with the reminder that contributions for the January 1998 issue must reach me by 8th November.
A NOTE FROM THE TREASURER
Members will be pleased to know that the association has been able to maintain the annual subscription at £5.00. May I remind those who do pay annually that the subscription is due on 1st October, 1997. Remittances, to be sent to me, should be payable to Braille Chess Association or, alternatively, to BCA. I mention this because I still receive the occasional cheque made payable to the Blind Chess Association - and this does cause me some difficulties! If anyone wishes to pay by direct debit, please contact me so that I may provide the necessary information. By the way, if anyone wishes to become a life member, the amount payable is £50.00.
Peter Gibbs.
BCF National Grades
Published 1 August 1997
These are the official grades which you should quote when entering tournaments and congresses. (A) = Associate member. Andrews (A) 122, Armstrong 142, Bell 36, Benson 166, Bond (A) 109, Brown C. 47, Brown G. (A) 145, Brown R. 31, Brown S. 99, Burnell 147, Busbridge 45, Campbell 44, Carlin 117, Chambers 164, Cohen 26, Cohn 131, Collisson 53, Crombie 129, Doyle 160, Eastwick-Field 104, Farrant 14, Fisher C. 136, Gailans C. 31, Gailans V. 100, Gallacher 76, Gallagher 124, Gardener 92, Garnett G. (A) 91, Garnett J. (A) 151, Gibbs P. (A) 175, Glass 32, Gordon 107, Hamari 51, Harrington 7, Harris 59, Hewitt M. 100, Hodgkins 115, Horrocks 133, Jenkins 111, Kelly 8, Leonard 90, Lidstone 18, Lilley 192, Littlewood 214, Loftus 138, Long 54, Lovell 134, Mistry (A) 72, Mordue (A) 203, Murphy M. (A) 73, Murphy R (A) 107, O'Brien 109, Oliver 98, Parry 41, Patching 36, Perham 92, Phillips 107, Plechaty 87, Price 97, Richmond 98, Ross 143, Sheehan 84, Sobers 86, Spink 70, Thacker 111, Wagner 60, Walsh (A) 102, Wa
Congratulations to Kenny Harris winner of the grading prize for raising his grade from 38 to 59.
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
Apology. I apologise for an incorrect statement in the July issue which should have read - "visually handicapped participants normally resident in the UK who are under the age of 21 and not in full time employment receive free entry to BCA tournaments and pay reduced rates for accommodation."
We are going to fix closing dates for entry earlier. This is to meet the requirements of hotels and to reduce the workload of the organiser which is caused by so many late entries. All late entrants to BCA events will be subject to the £3 supplement. BCA reserves the right to refuse entry to
any person in any of its events.
BCA International Autumn Tournament. Major open to all vh players. Minor open to vh players whose grade, or estimated grade, is 80 or below. This event will be held at the Jarvis Kings Head Hotel, Loughborough, from 14 to 16 November. Entries after 30 September may be accepted by the organiser, Sean O'Brien, if you hurry. Entry fee £10. Accommodation £32.50 per person per night.
BCA AGM and Congress. This will be held at the Swallow Hotel, Northampton from 6 to 8 March 1998. The AGM will take place on the afternoon of Saturday 7 March. There will be a Major open to all vh players and to associate members of BCA and a Minor open to vh players and associate members whose grade or estimated grade is 80 and below. Entry fee £7, cost of accommodation on a half board basis £32.50 per person per night sharing in twin/double room and £35.50 per person per night single room occupancy. UK vh participants under the age of 21 receive free entry and pay £10 per night.
Closing date for entries 20 January. Organiser Sean O'Brien. The Swallow Hotel, which is situated 3 miles from Northampton rail station, is a spacious hotel with extensive grounds and excellent facilities. We are confident it will prove to be a fine venue for our AGM and congress.
Dates for your diary. The Minor tournament for those whose grade is 130 and below will take place at the Abbey Hotel in the delightful little market town of Wymondham, 9 miles from Norwich. The dates are Saturday 23 to Saturday 30 May. Please note that the pronunciation is "Wind-um". The autumn tournament next year will be held at the Royal Angus Hotel, Birmingham from 23 to 25 November. Further details of these and other events will appear in the January issue.
NEWS FROM THE SECRETARY
Any member wishing to have an item included on the agenda for the AGM should submit it in writing - Braille, print or on tape - to me not later than 31 December. The past few weeks have been particularly harrowing for me. Organising the team and the arrangements for the world cup which was due to take place in Moscow from 1 to 14 September was, in itself, quite a job. Then to find out less than eight weeks prior to the event that the Russians had decided to change the venue to Western Siberia resulted in a period of frantic investigation and negotiation to find out just what this would involve in terms of extra cost, extra travel problems and, indeed, the whole viability of the project. It was with great regret that the committee, on Monday 14 July, in a hastily arranged telephone conference, had to decide that we would withdraw from the event. The major worry was the risk that, if the event was cancelled, BCA could stand to lose up to £5,000 as insurers would not cover against cancellation of the event. Spare a thought for our team w
The July issue of the Gazette was the first under our new editor and the first on which a new team worked to produce our house magazine in all its 3 media. Peter Price sends the copy to Gillian Smith, a transcriber who produces a disc which she sends to Julie and Oliver Leonard, who produce the print copies and to the RNIB who produce the Braille copies. Careful co-ordinating is required to ensure that there is a smooth process throughout the chain which, hopefully, will result in our Gazette being on your doormat in the medium you require and near to the first of January, April, July and October. This is an appropriate time to thank those who served us for a number of years before this new arrangement came into operation. The Scottish Braille Press for their excellent Braille production, the RNIB for paying for the magazine for so long and to John Britten and the Leeds Brail
Stan Lovell.
GERMAN INTERNATIONAL OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP
This event will take place from Saturday 7th to Sunday 15th February 1998 at Cham, Bavaria, near the German and Czech borders. Accommodation for the full time in the hotel will be DM 600 (approximately £200) sharing twin/double room. There will be a supplement of DM 80 for a single room. The hotel has a swimming pool, sauna and nine pin bowling. The tournament will be of 9 rounds Swiss pairing system. Rate of play 40 moves in two hours. Adjournments 20 moves in one hour then half an hour for remaining moves. Prizes 1st DM 500, 2nd DM 400, 3rd DM 300, 4th DM 200, 5th DM 100, 6th
DM 50. Further details from Hans Gerd Schaefer.
Note: only George Plechaty and David Gibbs have said that they wish to be kept informed of overseas open tournaments whose information does not arrive in time for publication in the Gazette. Can this be the sum total of interest in overseas events from our members?
Stan Lovell.
TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR'S REPORT
OCT 1997
I must start this quarter's report with an apology. In the July gazette, it was stated that there was a three-way tie at the top of the Premier group in the 6th British Championship between Bowman, Wall and Cohen. The last name should have appeared as "Cohn". On behalf of myself, our editor and the publisher I apologise to Jack Cohen and Hans Cohn for any inconvenience or embarrassment this error may have caused.
Before listing the results, could I please ask members when sending in results to state in which particular tournament the game was played. Several members play each other in separate tournaments so if precise details are not given, it makes the tournament director's job that much more difficult. Indeed, I have to say, that some members forget to notify either myself or their group leader of a result. As a gentle reminder, the winner of a game should notify the appropriate person of the result, and in the event of a draw, the player who had the white pieces should notify the result.
Now to the results.
34th BCA Championship.
Group A.
Phillips drew with Bryant (blackmar gambit) 16; Bryant beat Couchman; Bryant beat Innes.
Group B.
Wood lost to O'Brien (2 knights) 28.
BCA League.
Division 1:
Schaeffer lost to Crombie (Scotch) 44; Crombie lost to Atherton (caro-kann) 50; Whitehouse drew with Bowman.
Latest positions: Crombie 4 - 5, Whitehouse 3.5 - 5, Atherton 2.5 - 3, Bowman 1 - 2, Schaeffer 1 - 3, McElroy 0.5 - 3, Sproson 0 - 3.
Nine results to come.
Division 2:
No results. Position as in July Gazette; two results to come.
Division 3:
Phillips beat Hodgkins (blackmar) 23.
Latest positions. Way 5 - 5, Phillips 3 - 4, Hodgkins 2 - 4, Price 1 - 3, Winkworth and Townshend 0 - 3. Four to come.
Congratulations to John Way on winning this division and gaining promotion to division 2.
Division 4:
Spink beat Cuthbert; Rees drew with Cuthbert; Rees beat Cohen.
Latest positions. Perham 6 - 7, Spink 4.5 - 7, Bishop 4 - 5, Rees 2.5 - 4, Gallacher 2.5 - 5, Cuthbert 0.5 - 5, Boden 0 - 2, Cohen 0 - 5. Eight to come.
Division 5:
Collison lost to Patching (pirc); Ross drew with Collison; Davey lost to Couchman (gp) 29; McTavish beat Parry; Altinok drew with Ross; Parry drew with Ross; Collison drew with Ross; Davey drew with Ross (pirc) 20.
Latest position. Couchman 5.5 - 7, Davy 4.5 - 6, Ross 4.5 - 8, McTavish 4 - 4, Collison 1.5 - 4, Patching 1 - 4, Parry 0.5 - 4, Altinok 0.5 - 1, Potter 0 - 5. Eleven to come.
6th British Championship.
Challengers' group: Gallacher beat Rees, Noble lost to Gallacher, Innes lost to Plechaty, Innes lost to Ross, Rees lost to Gibbs, Rees beat Innes, Gallacher lost to Innes, Gibbs beat Gallacher, Ross drew with Hodgkins (kings gambit) 28, Innes lost to Hodgkins (kings pawn) 32, Ross beat Noble,
Rees drew with Ross.
Latest positions. Hodgkins 6 - 7, Gibbs 5 - 5, Ross 5 - 8, Plechaty 3.5 - 6, Noble 3 - 7, Gallacher 2 - 7, Rees 2.5 - 5, Innes 2 - 8, Cohen 1 - 5. Eleven to come.
Ladder results.
Sobers beat Patching (gp) 28, Osborn beat Farrant (English) 21, Patching beat Davey (gp) 17.
Ladder table as at 28th July.
Sproson 40, Davey 38, D Gibbs 30, Sobers and Patching 25, Atherton 22, Spink 14.
May I remind members that the 7th British Championship and a new League Championship starts on 1st January. Unless you have already notified me to the contrary, those members playing in the present tournaments will be entered for those commencing in January. If you do not wish to enter, pleas
e notify me by 31st October. Likewise, should any member wish to play in either or both, please notify me by the same date. Can I also remind members that should you require a copy of the postal tournament rules this can be supplied in your preferred medium when I receive your request.
Finally, in order to effect a small saving in space, and to conform with the lay-out as used by the BCF, I am thinking of changing the format in the presentation of results. Instead of writing "Smith drew with Bloggs" it would read "Smith - Bloggs" 0.5 - 0.5 or if Smith won it would read "Smit
h - Bloggs" 1 - 0 and of course 0 - 1 if Smith lost. However, I am happy to be guided by members' views so do please let me know if you have strong feelings on the subject. If there are no strong objections, I hope to start the new format in the January 1998 Gazette.
Sean O'Brien - Tournament Director.
MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY'S REPORT
Members will recall at the 1997 AGM the question was raised whether or not to reproduce the membership list in all formats. The meeting decided to leave it for the committee to look into this matter.
I can now report that the committee has decided to go ahead with the reproduction of the list in the various formats, and it is hoped that this will occur either at the end of August or in September.
I would be grateful if any member has or knows of a change of address, correction,. etc. however small or great, could notify the Membership Secretary.
David Hodgkins.
CHESS TOURNAMENT - HAAKSBERGEN, HOLLAND
10TH TO 14TH APRIL, 1997.
Note. This article had to be held over from the previous issue of the Gazette. Editor. A very successful trip was once again made to Haaksbergen for the IBIS friendship tournament. 14 of us met up at Harwich to catch the ferry to the Hook of Holland. This was a very calm and pleasant trip, and the rail journey in Holland also went without any problems. In the party which travelled on the ferry we had 14 chess players and 3 non-players. We were fortunate in having a one to one guide situation which always makes travelling much easier. Also three people flew to Haaksbergen and met up on the Friday evening at the social function. Out of the 17 in total there were 14 chess players, and we had very successful games with 7 of the party winning their tables and 2 finishing second. This was a very commendable performance.
There have been alterations to the tournament and this is now played with 8 in a team, and every table competes for the plaque. The top 8 tables make up the first 4 teams and this continues throughout to the bottom board. Team C2 won the tournament overall; and it was pleasing to see that Francis Collison from Great Britain was a member of this team, and he wore the medal he won with great pride. Francis also won his table, and it was encouraging to see lower graded players gain recognition. It was also good to note that George Phillips and Molly brought Molly's grandson with them.
I cannot remember his age, but he is certainly very much a junior and it was very pleasing to see him come second on his table and win a prize.
I feel that the organisation of Haaksbergen have now got the tournament right, for anyone has the chance of being in a team, and all teams are made up of different countries instead of one country competing against another.
We left our host families who once again looked after us very well on the Sunday evening, and a very pleasant train and ferry crossing were had. The only sad note to the trip was the unfortunate accident to Janet Plechaty on the Sunday before we travelled. It is always pleasant to have George and Janet on the trip and also, as we all know, George is the co-ordinator of this. All of us in the party wish Janet a speedy recovery, and we look forward to seeing them again on future occasions.
Clive Hodgkins.
BCA BRITISH JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP
This year's British Junior Championship organised by the BCA was held at a new venue, the Sitwell Arms Hotel, Renishaw, in Derbyshire. The hotel staff had previous experience with chess players, having hosted one of the Spectrum congresses. They looked after us superbly and the venue was a great success, something to be borne in mind for future congresses.
The management team consisted of myself as controller, supported by the organiser, Stan Lovell, and assisted by Sue Williams, mother of one of the competitors. So far as the competition is concerned it soon became apparent that once again first place was going to be a battle between the champion Chris Ross and Matthew Hewitt, the runner-up. Each scored 4.5 - 5, but the tie-break system made Chris the winner by a narrow margin as has happened on a previous occasion. In fact, Matthew has been the runner-up on each occasion that the British Junior Championship has been held.
Final scores for the other players were: 3rd/4th, 3 points, Mark Kirkham and Graeme Parry; 5th/6th, 2.5 points, Matthew Williams and Andrew Wood; 7th/8th, 2 points, Javed Ali and Luke Hewitt; 9th, Ahsan Ali, Javed's brother, 1 point. As well as chess, there were country walks and a cricket match organised by Mark Kirkham's father, Frank, which was enthusiastically supported. There was a nice gesture from the owner of the Sitwell Arms Hotel who presented a cash prize to Chris Ross and also to Matthew Hewitt. On our departure all the hotel staff were there to bid us good-bye.