NATIONAL CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP 2003/4
MAJOR.
Round 1 - 30 November 2003
| BOURNE END | WANSTEAD | ||||||
| Board | Colour | Home team | Grade | Score | Away team | Grade | Score |
| 1 | W | Helge Wademark | 185 | 0 | Li Wu | 199 | 1 |
| 2 | B | Andrew Smith | 176 | 0 | Ian Hunnable | 161 | 1 |
| 3 | W | Roger de Coverly | 171 | 1 | Paul Barclay | 151 | 0 |
| 4 | B | Kevin Hawkins | 141 | 0 | Terry Whitton | 145 | 1 |
| 5 | W | Fred Day | 109 | 0 | Mark Murrell | 139 | 1 |
| TOTAL - Home | 1 | TOTAL - Away | 4 | ||||
A very convincing scoreline against Bourne End who had eliminated us from the competition on board count in 2001/2. The home team played a relatively weak Board 5 in order to accomodate Boards 1 to 3 in an average U160 team, and paid the price for this when Mark Murrell forked his opponent's King and Queen with a Knight inside 15 moves. Li Wu played a splendid game on Board 1 to put the visitors two up, and Terry Whitton, playing the opponent against whom he lost the decisive game the last time the teams met, made no mistake from his piece up position to clinch the match. Paul Barclay's resistance against Roger de Coverly, who gained ample compensation for the exchange, ended shortly thereafter but Ian Hunnable kept going and was rewarded with the full point when his opponent under-estimated a diagonal pin.
Helge Wademark v Li Wu
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.f4 g6 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Bb5 Nd4 6.Nxd4 cxd4 7.Ne2 Qb6 8.Bd3 d6 9.b3 e5 10.0-0 f5 11.Kh1 fxe4 12.Bc4 Ne7 13.a4 d5 14.Bb5+ Kd8 15.c4 a6 16.a5 Qc7 17.Ba4 Bg4 18.h3 h5 19.cxd5 d3 20.d6 Qxd6 21.hxg4 hxg4+ 22.Kg1 exf4 23.Ba3 Bd4+ 24.Rf2 g3 0-1
Round 2 - bye
Round 3 - 15 February 2004
| ROSE FORGROVE | WANSTEAD | ||||||
| Board | Colour | Home team | Grade | Score | Away team | Grade | Score |
| 1 | B | Ian Smith | 159 | 0 | Li Wu | 199 | 1 |
| 2 | W | Richard Archer | 147 | ½ | Larry Marden | 179 | ½ |
| 3 | B | Clive Davies | 146 | 1 | Mark Murrell | 139 | 0 |
| 4 | W | Ed Hurwitz | 145 | 1 | David Smith | 139 | 0 |
| 5 | B | Geoff Smith | 141 | 0 | Keith Jones | 139 | 1 |
| TOTAL - Home | 2½ | TOTAL - Away | 2½ | ||||
At an extremely well-contested match played at Syston, Wanstead scraped through on board count. After taking the lead through another commanding performance by Li Wu, the Club found themselves pegged back when Larry Marden's best attempts to win against an opponent determined to draw with White came to nothing and both boards 3 and 4 were lost. Everything depended on board 5, where Keith Jones had an earlier draw offer turned down after both players misjudged the state of the match, and then obtained a material advantage in a knight ending where it was difficult to make clear progress. The Rose Forgrove player's flag fell in a position where Keith was about to queen a pawn, but himself had just 19 seconds left on the clock.
Li Wu v Ian Smith
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5 d4 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.Nbd2 Bg4 6.h3 Bh5 7.a3 Qe7 8.g4 Bg6 9.Bg2 f6 10.exf6 Nxf6 11.0-0 0-0-0 12.b4 d3 13.Re1 Qd7 14.Qa4 Kb8 15.b5 Nd4 16.Nxd4 Qxd4 17.Nb3 Qe5 18.Be3 b6 19.Qa6 Be4 20.Na5 c5 21.bxc6 1-0
Semi-final - 20 June 2004
| WANSTEAD | BEDFORD | ||||||
| Board | Colour | Home team | Grade | Score | Away team | Grade | Score |
| 1 | B | Li Wu | 199 | ½ | Steve Ledger | 192 | ½ |
| 2 | W | Ian Hunnable | 161 | ½ | Olu Olulode | 165 | ½ |
| 3 | B | Paul Barclay | 151 | ½ | Peter Constantinou | 151 | ½ |
| 4 | W | Terry Whitton | 145 | 1 | Paul Habershon | 159 | 0 |
| 5 | B | Mark Murrell | 139 | ½ | Giuseppe Valerio | 130 | ½ |
| TOTAL - Home | 3 | TOTAL - Away | 2 | ||||
Final - 4 July 2004
| WANSTEAD | METROPOLITAN | ||||||
| Board | Colour | Home team | Grade | Score | Away team | Grade | Score |
| 1 | W | Li Wu | 199 | 1 | Nick Noden | 170 | 0 |
| 2 | B | Ian Hunnable | 161 | ½ | Ian Calvert | 164 | ½ |
| 3 | W | Paul Barclay | 151 | ½ | Zafer Djabri | 164 | ½ |
| 4 | B | Terry Whitton | 145 | 1 | Kathy Djabri | 156 | 0 |
| 5 | W | Mark Murrell | 139 | 1 | Noel Stewart | 136 | 0 |
| TOTAL - Home | 4 | TOTAL - Away | 1 | ||||
HANDICAP RAPIDPLAY
The National Club Handicap Rapidplay was held on Sunday 9th November in the extremely pleasant surroundings of Magdalen College School in Oxford. 13 Teams competed in a 5 round Swiss event, and the success of the handicapping system led to an extremely close finish, with two of the three winners coming from the SCCU Area. Final scores were as follows, the points shown being the net total after adjustment for the handicap points shown in brackets :-
Cardiff (+1) 10.5
Magdalen CS 2 (+3) 10.5*
Wanstead & Woodford (-1) 10.5
Crowthorne 2 (-1) 9
Guildford (-3) 9
Magdalen CS 1 (-3) 9
Bedford (-3) 8.5
Syston (+1) 8.5
Milton Keynes (-3) 8
Mushrooms (-6) 8
Cowley (-1) 7.5
East Grinstead (+3) 7
Crowthorne 1 (-6) 6
*Magdalen School were awarded the Trophy on tie-break, but the loot was split between the three winners. Mushrooms were actually the highest scorers "OTB" with 14pts. Wanstead & Woodford individual results as follows:
1 Li Wu ( RPG 188) 2
2 Larry Marden (RPG 162) 2
3 Mark Murrell (SPG 139) 3.5
4 David Smith (RPG 130) 4
Altogether an enjoyable day out with the Club's coffers benefiting by the sum of £150!
David Smith