News – Linton Chess Club

Jamboree Success For Linton Club

Linton got the new season off to a great start by winning the Bury League’s Jamboree on 5 September. Linton entered two teams, out of twelve teams competing. Linton Tigers ( Chris Davison, Paul McMahon, Vikram Banerjee and Michael Osborn) came first with 9/12, and Linton Pumas (Paul Kemp, Yoav Pilowsky-Bankirer, Alan Wadsworth and John Nevin) were third with 8/12. Sandwiched between them in second place were Bury A on 8.5/12.

Notable performances from the Tigers included 3/3 for both Paul McMahon and Vikram Banerjee, whilst for the Pumas all four players scored 2/3.

Before the event presentations were made to last season’s winners, in which the Linton club and players featured strongly. This included the division 1 championship (Linton Leopards), division 1 player-of-the-year (Chris Davison), division 2 player-of-the-year (Yoav Pilowsky-Bankirer) and division 3 game-of the-season (Michael Osborn).

2023/24 Review of the Season

Strong finish gives League success

This has been another successful season for Linton in the Bury Area Chess League. In division 1 the Leopards finished with five straight wins of 4-1 or better to win the League for the first time since 2015/16. Even more remarkably division 2 Linton Llamas retained the second division championship, coming from next to bottom with two matches to play by crushing their two main rivals. Our other sides also did well: first division Lions drew 8 of their 14 matches in a mid-table finish; Lynxes were third in the second division and Lemurs second in division 3. My thanks to all who played, especially the captains Chris Davison, Paul McMahon, Oded Pilowsky-Bankirer, Alan Wadsworth and Michael Osborn.

Other notable team successes included sharing the East Anglian Team Championship in the autumn, tying with a powerful Broadland side. This came after four outright wins starting in 2020. Linton were also winners of the Bury League team jamboree and more recently came second in the Cambridgeshire jamboree, with juniors as three of the four team members.

Individual achievements

Abigail Weersing was awarded the title of FIDE master for her performances, culminating in the European Club Cup in October. Ruben Evans was the joint British Under 16 champion in the British Championships last summer, qualifying for the senior championships this summer.

For their perfomances in the League Chris Davision was named first division player of the season, and Yoav Pilowsky-Bankirer second division player of the season. Our warmest congratulations to all of them.

Anglian Learning Chess Academy

In September we launched, in partnership with Anglian Learning and Sawston Village College, a chess academy to develop chess enthusiasts in Year 6 to Year 10 – late primary to mid-teens. Meeting at the College on Friday evenings in term-time we combine competitive chess with coaching, we had two teams in the Cambridgeshire Schools League, and ran a one-day tournament for local juniors (not just ALCA members) in early March.

There is no doubt that the standard of chess has improved over the year and two of the juniors have already made their debut in the Linton senior team. My thanks to the organising and coaching team of Paul McMahon, Alan Richardson, Mauricio Varea and Anthony Chan, and to the legacy of the late Patrick Ribbands which provided the funding to enable this to be set up. We are determined to maintain and build upon Linton’s reputation for developing junior talent, which has seen six of them selected to represent England in the past decade.

NB There are separate posts below on the East Anglian Team Championships and the success of Abigail and Ruben. The Anglian Learning Chess Academy has several web pages on this website which give further information on the Chess Academy.

Linton shares East Anglian Team Championship

The Linton club was attempting to retain its title of East Anglian champions for the fifth successive time at Bury St Edmunds on 22 October. Well, we kept one hand on the trophy, sharing it with long-standing rivals, Broadland. Usually there is a good entry in the Open Championship, but with a lot of events on at this time of year it was a straight battle between Linton Tigers and Broadland. After two rounds Broadland had a commanding two point lead, but a late Linton fightback in round 3 left the scores all square at 6-6. Congratulations to the team of Chris Davison, Alan Richardson, Konrad Scheffler and Anthony Chan for an excellent result against the higher-rated Broadland team.

The numbers in the two supporting rating-limited tournaments made up for the Open entry, with record numbers in the U6400 category in which the Linton Zebras played. Seeded eighth out of nine teams the Linton Zebras came third with 7/12, just half a point behind the joint winners Bury St Edmunds and St John’s, Norwich. So another good performance from the team of Simon Marsden, Nate Weersing, Ben Varea and John Nevin, with John winning all three of his games.

The Championships are named after their founder and long-time organiser (and Linton member) Patrick Ribbands who sadly passed away in the spring of 2021. In his memory and from his legacy the Linton Chess Club has provided a magnificent shield for annual presentation to the winners of the Open Tournament. The photo below shows the Linton Tigers team of (left to right) Alan Richardson, Chris Davison, Anthony Chan and Konrad Scheffler.

Linton Prizewinners at Bury St Edmunds Chess Congress

Five Linton players competed at the Bury St Edmunds Chess Congress on 7&8 October, all of them scoring 50% or better. Chris Davison scored 3.5/5 in the Open Tournament to finish fourth, just behind three International Masters. Just behind him was James Cole on 3/5 and English U16 champion Ruben Evans on 2.5/5. Ruben was awarded the Bob Jones trophy as the highest-placed East Anglian junior player competing.

In the Major Tournament Anthony Chan and James Briginshaw both scored 2.5/5 with James winning the giantkillers prize for his win over a much higher-rated competitor.

Ruben Evans receives the Bob Jones trophy from Congress Director John Wickham.

Rapidplay Success for Linton Players

At the annual Cambridgeshire Rapidplay on 24 September Linton members were prizewinners in the three main tournaments.

In the Open Chris Davison was undefeated with 4/5, finishing second behind International Master Alan Merry. Chris also won the Jack Taylor trophy for the highest-placed Cambridgeshire player. Linton’s James Cole shared third place with 3.5 points.

James Briginshaw won the Major Tournament winning all five games, playing resourcefully in some complex positions. Konrad Scheffler, with 3.5 points, shared third place despite losing to James in the final round.

Finally, in the Challengers Tournament Nate Weersing shared second place with an unbeaten 4/5.

Congratulations to our five prizewinners!

Bury League Jamboree Success

The Linton club won this season’s first trophy, retaining their Jamboree title at Bury St Edmunds on 7 September. 13 teams took part with Linton Tigers in first place and our other team, Linton Panthers third. The Tigers (Chris Davison, Alan Richardson, James Briginshaw and Anthony Chan) scored a remarkable 11.5/12 points, with Alan, James and Anthony winning all three of their games. For the Panthers Paul Kemp, Paul McMahon, Konrad Scheffler and Vikram Banerjee all won two games for a total of 8/12.

Tigers captain Chris Davison receives the Jamboree trophy from organiser Bob Jones.

Linton success at the British Championships 2023

Ruben Evans played a superb tournament to become joint British U16 Champion on 5/7 with a five-way tie at the top!

Ruben moved into joint first place after 4 rounds and managed to hold his nerve and maintain his pace right to the end to scoop joint top honours.

Abigail Weersing also had a very impressive run in the main championship, scoring 3.5 points against higher rated opposition, picking up over 60 rating points over the course of the tournament and in so doing now becoming Linton’s leading player by rating. (Nate deserves a mention too, emerging with an eminently respectable even score in the U1750!)

This caps a strong run for Abbey, following up from the UK Chess Challenge earlier in the month where she captured 2nd place in the Northern Gigafinal U18 on 6/7 for a mightily impressive +5 score placing as the top U18 girl. Here she is pictured being presented her spoils of victory from Sarah Longson.

Here is a position from Abigail’s round 6 game vs. Robert Starley (2064) in the British Championship.

Abigail has firm control of the f-file, and White’s King looks rather exposed. How did Abigail deliver the coup de grace here?

And here is a position from Ruben’s Round 3 game vs. Austin Ivan (1818) that helped to put him into contention for a top spot and allowed him to demonstrate his tactical chops.

Can you match Ruben’s tactical prowess?

The Championships were held at De Montfort University, Leicester, with the main Championship being contested over 9 rounds from 22nd July to 30th July and the Junior U16 over 7 rounds from 25th July to 29th July.

Solutions to the positions

Review of the Season 2022/23

This has been one of the most successful seasons I can recall. First and foremost six new members joined during the season are now regular League players: James Briginshaw, James Cole, Peter Jones, Simon Marsden, Konrad Scheffler and Greg Thompson. Without them we would not have achieved the same success over the board.

In September Linton won the Bury Jamboree. Whilst this is not unusual, this season we won every game, a perfect 12/12. A much more significant challenge was defending the East Anglian Club Championship in November. We entered a team in each of the rated sections: the Tigers (Liam Varnam, James Cole, Alan Richardson and Mark Lim) won the Open with 8/12, the Zebras (Paul McMahon, Neil Greenwood, Simon Jackson and Michael Osborn) shared first place in the U7200 with 7/12 and the Pandas (Anthony Chan, Simon Marsden, Ben Varea and Greg Thompson) romped home in the U6200 with 9.5/12.

In the Bury League the Lions were second in division 1, the Llamas and Leopards were first and second in division 2, whilst the Lynxes won division 3. The Llamas deserve a special mention. After a shaky start they won every match in the second half of the season with Ruben Evans winning the division 2 Player-of-the-Year award, closely followed by Anthony Chan. High-scoring Linton players in the third division were Vikram Banerjee (8/9) and Greg Thompson (9/11). In the Roger Goldsmith tournament the Larks finished second in division 1. In division 2 the final match saw a remarkable 3.5-0.5 win for the Lapwings against a stronger Bury team, which resulted in a triple tie for first place between the Lapwings, the Linnets and Bury Beehive. All in all a highly successful season!

A memorable Christmas treat was provided by Anthony Chan who kept us busy over the festive season with a puzzle collection to work through. And throughout the season we ran the club championship, with Paul Kemp winning the Jim Carr trophy, and Nate Weersing the John Dawson trophy for lower-rated competitors.

Away from the chessboard the club received a substantial bequest from the estate of Patrick Ribbands, who passed away in 2021. At the club’s AGM on 2 May it was agreed that the club would remain open throughout the summer for the Ribbands Rapidplay summer special and a programme of special events; a significant investment would be made in junior chess, perhaps in partnership with local schools; and the club would support and sponsor other local chess events and tournaments that benefitted Linton members.

In conclusion I must thank the club’s officers, especially Michael Osborn, our Secretary/Treasurer, and the team captains: Paul McMahon, Oded Pilowsky-Bankirer, Alan Wadsworth, Michael Osborn, Alan Richardson, Anthony Chan and Nate Weersing.

Paul Kemp

Linton Are East Anglian Champions Again

Linton Chess Club are East Anglian champions again after winning the EACU Patrick Ribbands Team Championship for the fourth year in a row. Not only did we win the Open Championship but also won the two supporting rating-limited championships, repeating our triple success of three years ago!

This was the fifteenth team championship, now named in memory of club member Patrick Ribbands who founded and ran the event until his untimely death two years ago. Linton entered a four-player team in each of the separate championships: Open, Under 7200 rating, and U6400 rating.

In the Open Linton Tigers were third seeds, but beat the top seeds 4-0 in the opening encounter. A narrow victory and narrow defeat in the remaining rounds was enough for victory for Liam Varnam, James Cole, Alan Richardson and Mark Lim with a score of 8/12.

The Linton Zebras U7200 team of Paul McMahon, Neil Greenwood, Simon Jackson and Michael Osborn scored 7/12 to share this title with Lowestoft. Last year they similarly shared this title.

Anthony Chan captained Linton Pandas to the U6400 title along with Simon Marsden, Ben Varea and Greg Thompson. They were all unbeaten and finished with an impressive 9.5/12.

My thanks and congratulations to all who took part.

Paul Kemp

Review of the 2021/22 Season

This has been a mixed season for the club. It was good to get back to playing over-the-board after 18 months away, but for various reasons there were fewer of us than there were when covid struck, even allowing for the new members that we welcomed.

The first tournament is always in September, a rapidplay jamboree in Bury St Edmunds. Our team of Aarnavh Trivedi, Paul Kemp, Harvey Kelly and Anthony Chan retained the trophy Linton have held for some years now.

In November the East Anglian Team Championships were held, renamed the Patrick Ribbands Team Championships after the Linton member who initiated them in 2009 and who sadly passed away early in 2021. Already the most successful club in the 12 years of these championships we had another terrific year winning the Open tournament outright and sharing first place in the U7200 rating tournament. This gave us a hat-trick of wins in the Open tournaments (the 2020 event being held online). The Open team consisted of Liam Varnam, Paul Kemp, Aarnavh Trivedi and Francis Bowers, and the U7200 team was Paul McMahon, Ruben Evans. Simon Jackson and Anthony Chan.

In the Bury League we found the competition tougher. We were significantly disrupted by covid absences, but battled on without postponements against stronger opposition. Unfortunately our campaign ran out of steam toward the end and two teams (the Leopards in division 1 and the Lynxes in division 2) were relegated. The Lions (division 1) and the Llamas (division 2) both finished in creditable third places, and the Lemurs were second in division 3, having led right until the final match. The coming season gives the club a real opportunity to bounce back.

However we did end the season on a positive note. Having won both divisions of the Roger Goldsmith Tournament (a rating limited competition) when it was last contested in 2019/20 we managed to repeat our success, albeit sharing the division 2 championship with Bury St Edmunds on this occasion.

It is always satisfying to see our younger players improve over the season and this year is no exception. On the new monthly rating system over the period from September to May Abbey Weersing has improved from 1945 to 2041, Ruben Evans from 1788 to 1829, Yoav Pilowsky-Bankirer from 1675 to 1772, Shivum Gordon-Shah from 1540 to 1600 and Benjamin Varea from 1383 to 1500. Well done to all of them.

Finally my thanks to all the captains: Paul McMahon, Oded Pilowsky-Bankirer, Alan Wadsworth, Michael Osborn, Anthony Chan and Rob Davies, and of course to all those members who have played for and supported the club over the past season.

Paul Kemp
Club Captain