Nothing thrills us more than a derby
LOCAL derbies generate additional interest in any sport. The closer the teams are geographically, the more intense the rivalry. Newcastle v Sunderland football matches stand out in this area as being of special significance. It is is especially true if the match involves teams from the same place like Sheffield Wednesday v Sheffield United. So it reaches a peak if the games are played between teams from the same club. This happens often in the Northumberland Chess League which has 30 teams representing 12 clubs. The clubs are as follows ( Number of teams in brackets) Alnwick (1), Durham City (1), Forest Hall (6), Gateshead(1), Gosforth (4), Jesmond (1), Leam Lane (2), Morpeth (3), Newcastle University (1), South Shields (5), Tynedale (1) and Tynemouth (4). These derby matches are usually played in the First Round so there have been several played already. They are usually very competitive and can throw up unexpected results.
In the Division 1 encounter at Forest Hall, their A team won convincingly, beating their B team 4.5-0.5, with Tim Wall, Zheming Zhang and John Wall (J) winning decisively and Max Turner also winning on his debut in the league, after eventually breaking down tough resistance from Ravi Wariyar. The B team’s half point was won by Mark Younger who went close to beating Yichen Han. Noted for his imaginative tactical ability Yichen also displayed resolute defensive skills to defend a dificult position. A great derby game with a tense finish. At Morpeth, their A team prevailed emphatically too beating their B team 4-0 with Roger Coathup, Mike Smyth, James Turner and Phil Kennedy all winning but not without some scares on the way.
In Division 2 Gosforth have two teams Ivy and Salters (the names of the streets either side of the Empire Club, their home venue) and they played a six-board match which the Ivy won 3.52.5. On paper the Ivy team were strong favourites but the Salters played well and it made for a good competitive match. The winners for Ivy were Mick Riding, Dave Stebbings and Bob Heyman and for Salters, Denise Moss and Alistair Ridley, the remaining game was a well contested draw between Noel Boustred and and Martin Beardsley. At South Shields, the derby clash was between their B and C teams and the C team won 3.5-2.5 maintaining the great tradition of derby upsets. For the C team good wins by Colin Campbell and Kuba Jacubowicz supported by solid draws from Jim Riddle, Gary Hunter and Mike Savin earned a well deserved victory.
In Division 3, South Shields had another derby clash, this time between their D and E teams. Here the stronger team on paper did prevail by 3.5-1.5, with Gary Hunter, Jay Steel and Kevin Laneck winning and Kuba Jacubowicz gaining the other half point. These derby matches do have that additional edge but are also played in good spirit and the games can become talking points for a long time after, better remembered by the giant killers!
Miles away, on the Isle of Man, a massively strong tournament with substantial prizes took place all of last week. This event attracts many of the world’s best players and this year was no exception with two ex-world champions (Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand) and a very long list of top grandmasters participating. The top seeds and favourites were Lev Aronian, Anish Giri and Vachier-Lagrave Maxime but the joint winners were Wojatszek (POL) and Naiditsch (AZE). It is good to be able to report a brilliant English result with Grandmaster Gawain Jones finishing equal third ahead of a string of the world’s very best.
There were three local participants too. Grandmaster Danny Gormally from Alnwick (who usually wins any local tournaments) with a starting rank of 75, finished 66th – a very good effort. International Master David Eggleston, ranked 98th, finished 91st including beating Indian Grandmaster Vishnu (who beat Nigel Short in a later round!). FIDE Master Tim Wall ranked 139 finished 138th, a par performance, but it included an excellent result in beating an English International Master Ali Mortazavi. Tim has invested a lot of time and energy in junior chess development over the past year and is the inspiration behind the successful chess initiatives in Newcastle and Gateshead Libraries. It must have been a great experience to take part in such a brilliant event.