Basildon Chess Club

Basildon Chess Club Championship 2024 The 2024 Club Championship commenced on 30th May 2024. 12 entries were received.
The winner has the honour of an engraving on the ancient(!?) Club Champions shield, which dates back to the latter part of the 20th century.
The tournament consists of two all-play-all (once) groups. The winner and runner-up of each group will qualify for the semi-final. In the event of a tie for 1st/2nd place, the head to head game will act as a tie breaker. If this was drawn, 1st/2nd place will be decided by the toss of a coin. In the event of a tie for 2nd/3rd, a Rapid play off will take place. No tie breaker in this case.
The semi-finals will be Winner Group A v Runner-Up Group B and Winner Group B v Runner-Up Group A.
The time controls for all non-rapid games will be 80 mins + 10 secs per move.

Club Championship Group Matches

Pos

Group A

Pts

Pos

Group B

Pts

Justin Baptie

-^B

1^W

1^B

1^W

1D^B

4/4

Dave Kraszewski

-^B

1^W

1^B

1^W

1^B

4/4

Radu Bara

-^W

1^B

-^W

1^B

1D^W

3/3

David Millward

-^W

½^B

1^W

-^B

1D^W

2½/3

Robbie Staff

0^B

0^W

½^B

1^W

1D^B

2½/5

Arunas Gedvilas

0^B

½^W

0^B

1^W

1D^B

2½/5

Peter Laundy

0^W

-^B

½^W

½^B

1^W

2/4

Paul Savin

0^W

0^B

1^W

1^B

1D^W

3/5

Steve Higgins

0^B

0^W

0^B

½^W

1D^B

1½/5

Mandar Mane

0^B

-^W

0^B

0^W

1D^B

1/4

Spyros Vasileiadis

WITHDRAWN

0^B

-^W

Alice Harmer

0^W

WITHDRAWN

Group Match Reports Group A
30-May-2024 - Peter got off to a winning start against Spyros. Early gains of a pawn and then the exchange were sufficient for Peter's experience to do the rest and claim the point.
20-Jun-2024 - One of two cagey games played tonight, Peter and Robbie were both keen to give nothing away and a quickish draw was agreed.
11-Jul-2024 - Justin gained a positional advantage over Robbie in the early middlegame, then turned this into a 2 pawn material advantage which proved decisive.
05-Sep-2024 - After an even opening and early middlegame between Peter and Justin, the latter took advantage of queenside pawn weaknesses to gain a pawn, then followed this with another in the double rook endgame and Peter was forced to concede.
19-Sep-2024 - Justin gained an early pawn against Steve and never really looked back, eventually winning further material and forcing Steve's resignation. This win ensures a place in the semi-final, but following the withdrawal then reinstatement of Radu, the group winner is still up for grabs.
24-Oct-2024 - Robbie and Steve exchanged down to a Q+Ps ending, with Robbie having an extra pawn. Drawing possibilities for Steve, but he exchanged queens to leave Robbie with a decisive advantage.
21-Nov-2024 - Steve and Peter thrilled their audience with a ding-dong, end-to-end battle that looked to be heading Peter's way, then turned completely towards Steve before reaching an ending where Peter had a pawn on g2 in a Q+1PvQ+1P ending but couldn't quite find the final pawn advance. A draw was agreed just after 11pm, but it turns out that tablespace had it as a win for Peter (I still can't see how!).
28-Nov-2024 - Steve managed to neutralise Radu's dangerous king side attack and turned the tables, but then missed some winning moves. The queen and pawns ending should have been equal, but sadly for Steve he exchanged queens at the wrong time and Radu stole the point.
16-Jan-2025 - Robbie tried a thematic Sicilian b5 piece sacrifice against Radu, but within a couple of moves this had backfired. He eventually found his king stuck in the middle of the board surrounded by black knights and major pieces and was mated. Radu keeps his 100% record and is on the brink of qualifying for the semi-finals.

Group B
30-May-2024 - Alice, making her club championship debut, had a tough start against Dave K. Alice had a promising opening position, but then misjudged and castled Q-side into a wicked attack that ended in mate on the 20th move.
20-Jun-2024 - The other cagey game. Arunas and David gave no chances to their opponent and a relatively quick draw was agreed.
04-Jul-2024 - Arunas made no mistake in obtaining his first win, with Mandar his unfortunate opponent.
01-Aug-2024 - Paul (playing white) and Dave K attacked each others king without a care in the world, but it was Dave’s attack that broke through with just a few seconds left on the clock - a thrilling finale for the spectators who were still awake at 11pm when it ended.
19-Sep-2024 - Dave K and Arunas played an interesting game that looked very blocked on both sides, except for the h-file where Dave gained an advantage that he didn't make use of - missing the best sacrificial line, but keeping Arunas tied down. Arunas then missed a knight check with his king in the centre that forced the loss of his queen and prompted immediate resignation.
26-Sep-2024 - David M went for a direct assault on Paul's king in a Spanish Opening. Paul gained a piece and looked to have things under control, but then a mistake left his king defenceless and handing David the victory.
17-Oct-2024 - Paul took full advantage of an early blunder by Arunas to claim a quick win and keep alive his hopes of reaching the semi-finals.
12-Dec-2024 - Paul again kept alive his outside chance of a semi-final place with a win over Mandar.

16-Jan-2025 - Dave K built a strong initiative against Mandar, but then forgot that his f-pawn was undefended and Mandar equalised. Then, with both kings exposed it was Mandar who grabbed a 2nd extra pawn, but it proved to be poisoned and a subsequent king move to evade check led to Dave's bishop forking king and rook, which was decisive. The win confirms Dave's place in the semi-finals.