Leagues and Zollner close at halfway point

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(Newcastle Chronicle, 17 January 2025)

The North East’s main league and individual competitions are very close at the halfway point, with various teams and players in contention.

In the Northumbria League, all six divisions are too close to call, but teams from Gosforth, the region’s largest chess club, are leading in four of them.

In Division 1, Gosforth Empire (11 points from six matches) are now being challenged again by Newcastle Dragons (8 points from six matches), while in Division 2 Gosforth Regents are ahead by three points, but their nearest rivals South Shields Arbeians have a match in hand.

Division 3 is being led by Gosforth Ivy by one match point, but their closest competitors have two matches in hand. The clear favourites in Division 4 are Forest Hall Phoenixes, who are a point ahead and have a match in hand over Newcastle Jesters.

In Division 5, South Shields Sand-dancers are ahead by 2 points, while in Division 6 the Gosforth Siths are leading Newcastle Cavaliers by 2 points.

In the Northumberland Individual Championships, open to players throughout the North East, reigning champion Tim Wall has suffered his first loss in a few years, and now has three points from four games. Wall’s loss was to his Newcastle club colleague, Andy Burnett, who now joins him in the lead on 3/4.

There are five other players on 2/3 who could reach 3 points after Round 4: David Armbruster and Gustavo Leon Cazares (Gosforth), Husain Nakara (Newcastle University), Chris Izod (Jesmond) and John Boyd (South Shields).

In the Sell (Under 2000) tournament, Alex Blake (Gosforth) leads with 3/3, followed by Paul Bielby (South Shields) on 2.5, and Stuart Skelsey (Forest Hall), John Awesome (Newcastle) and Andrew Robinson on 2.

And in the Gilroy (Under 1700) tournament, Denise Mosse (Gateshead) has moved into the lead on 3.5/4, ahead of Darren McCarthy (3/4), Martin Brookes (Tynemouth), David Simm (Morpeth), Ian Rook (Forest Hall), Thomas Cameron (Newcastle University) and Tom Krause (Gosforth) on 2.5/3.

Northumberland’s open team will play in the Northern Counties Championship on Sunday February 2nd, versus Yorkshire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside at Bradford Latvian Club.

The Under 1450 Counties Championship is being played (also at Bradford) on March 9, and the Northern Counties Under 16 teams tournament is taking place in Swinton, Manchester on February 23.

Anyone wishing to play for the Northumberland teams in these competitions can contact team captain Tim Wall on: timpeterwall@gmail.com.

PUZZLES

This week’s puzzles all feature dramatic king hunts.

Puzzle A: Wall-Burnett, 2025. Black to play.

Puzzle B: Carlsen-Nakamura, 2023. White to play.

Puzzle C: Fedoseev-Salem, 2024. Black to play.

Puzzle D: Tabatabei-Praggnanandhaa, 2024. White to play.

ANSWERS:

A: 1…Rh7! 0-1. If 2 Re2 dxe3 3 Rxe3 Qh2 mate.
B: 1 Rxc5+! Bxc5 2 Rc7+! Kxc7 3 Qxc5+ Kb7 4 Qd5+ Kb8 5 Be5+ 1-0. If 5…Ka7 6 Bd4+ Kb8 7 Qd6+ Kb7 8 Qd7+ Ka6 9 Qc6+ Ka5 10 Bc3 mate.
C: 1..Qxh5+! 2 Qxh5 Ra1+ 3 Bc1 Rxc1+! 0-1. If 4 Kxc1 Bf4+ 5 Kd1 c2+ and mate follows.
D: 1 Re7+! Kxe7 2 Qxg7+ Ke8 3 Re1+ Kd8 4 Qf6+ Kc7 5 Qd6+ Kb7 6 Re7+ Ka6 7 Qxc6+ Ka5 8 Rb7! 1-0.