All welcome at Gosforth Blitz events

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(Newcastle Chronicle, 19 April 2024)

Gosforth Chess Club’s third annual series of summer blitz tournaments gets under way this Monday, with entries welcome from all comers.

The tournaments, held at Gosforth Empire Club and Institute, 32-34 Salters Road, NE3 1DX, take place at 7:15pm on April 22, May 20, June 17, July 15 and August 19.
Each player gets 5 minutes for all their moves, plus 5 seconds added per move.
Entry costs £5 for each event (£2.50 for juniors) and prizes are awarded for the top two players in Open, Major (Under 1900) and Minor (Under 1600) categories.

Players’ best three scores over the five tournaments count towards their Grand Prix total, and two Grand Prix prizes are awarded in each category.

Book your place in advance: enquires@gosforthchessclub.co.uk

More results have been coming in from the Northumberland Chess Association’s 2023-24 Individual Championships.

In the Zollner (Open) Championship, Tim Wall (Newcastle) has beaten David Armbruster (Gosforth) to finish with a perfect 6/6 score, sealing his sixth victory in the competition since 1991.

In the Sell (Under 1950) event, four players are still in contention: Paul Bielby (South Shields) leads with 4/6, followed by Dalil Benchebra (Leam Lane), Mick Riding (Gosforth) and Raj Mohindra (Forest Hall) on 3.5.

In the Gilroy (Under 1700) Championship, Mark McKay (Gosforth) won an exciting last round encounter against teammate Andrew Robinson to win the competition with 6/7.

Scores in full:

Zollner:
1 Wall (Newcastle) 6;
2 Leon Cazares (Gosforth) 4.5;
3-4 David Henderson (Tynemouth), David Armbruster (Gosforth) 3;
5 Andy Trevelyan (Jesmond) 2;
6 Chris Izod 1 (Jesmond);
7 Gary Murphy (Jesmond) 0.

Sell (one round to go):
1 Paul Bielby (South Shields) 4;
2-4 Raj Mohindra (Forest Hall), Mick Riding (Gosforth), Dalil Benchebra (Leam Lane) 3.5;
5 Alex Blake (Gosforth) 3;
6-7 James Ross, Ian Chester (both Gosforth) 2.5;
8-9 Stuart Skelsey (Forest Hall), John Clarke (Tynemouth) 2;
10 Morgan French (Forest Hall) 1.5.

Gilroy:
1 Mark McKay (Gosforth) 6;
2 Blake (Gosforth) 5.5;
3-6 Andrew Robinson (Gosforth), Jeff Baird (Forest Hall), David Pritchard (Gosforth), Joseph Miller (Gosforth) 4.5;
7-10 Dave Peardon (South Shields), Kevin Cox (Gateshead), Lev Drobiazko (Gosforth), Ethan Tatters (Forest Hall) 4;
11-12 David Simm (Morpeth), Robert Heyman (Gosforth) 3.5;
13-15 Denise Mosse (Gateshead), Jonathan Solomon (Forest Hall) Gautham Sathishkumar (Gosforth) 3;
16-17 Steve Downey (Leam Lane), Aaron Cheung (Gosforth) 2.5;
18-19 Morgan French (Forest Hall), Andrew Hardy (Alnwick) 2;
20 Sanjay Sathishkumar (Gosforth) 1.5;
21 Albert Griffiths (Gosforth) 1;
22 Robert Appleby (Leam Lane) 0.5;
23 Johnson Alan (South Shields) 0.

puzzles

Puzzle A: Carsten Hoi (White) to play:

Puzzle B: Carl Hautlaub (White) to play:

Puzzle C: Adolf Anderssen (White) to play:

Puzzle D: Emanuel Lasker (White) to play:

Answers:

A: 1 Qh7+! Nxh7 2 Rg6 checkmate.
B: 1 Ng5+! Fxg5 (2…Kg7 3 Qh5) 2 Qh5+ Kg7 3 Qxg5+ Kh7 4 Rf3 and 5 Rh3 checkmate.
C: 1 Qxg7+! Nxg7 2 xg7+! Kh8 3 g8+! Kxg8 4 Rg1+ Bg5 5 Rxg5 checkmate.
D: 1 Bxg7! Kxg7 2 Qg4+ Kh7 3 Rf3! e5 4 Rh3+ Qh6 5 Rxh6+ Kxh6 6 Qd7! Wins.