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SENIOR International Master (ICCF); Regional Master (BCF). |
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(* denotes new content since the last update.) 1. MONTHLY ARTICLES * Number 1 View now.* File of games associated with monthly article 1 *
File of games associated with Monthly article 2 *
2. ARCHIVE OF MONTHLY ARTICLES (from Aug 2003) * Old archive (Aug 1999-July 2003).
5. WHOBERLEY CHESS CLUB (Coventry) The club has teams with a wide range of strengths in the various local leagues whilst the A team won the 2007 Division 1 title, the 2005 and 2007 KO Cup, the 2006 and 2007 Divisional Cup . Contact details. 6. BOOK AND SOFTWARE REVIEWS (from 2007) Archive of book and CD reviews 1998-2006. 7. DATABASE & TEACHING SERVICE 8. MY STUFF Games, results and chess problems. * 9. LINKS 10. OPENINGS REVIEWS AND OTHER ARTICLES 11. NEW AND
SECOND- HAND CHESS BOOKS
12. MY ARTICLES ON OTHER SITES/ON-LINE MAGAZINES. (a) Correspondence Chess News (CCN). (b) BS-CHESS.
13. WANTED* Preferably bound volumes of Chess (Sutton Coldfield) 1, 2, 4-8, 11, 23-25 and 27. Prefer an index to be present-will pay reasonably for these volumes. Also needed unbound vol 21 (259-262).
14. PERSONAL TRAINING BCF Regional Master Andy Baruch (formerly Whoberley board 1) is now available for face to face personal training in the Coventry, Warwickshire and surrounding areas. Players ranging from beginner to County level who wish to improve should contact Andy by clicking here
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I'm Mike Donnelly and I live in the historic city of Coventry, England with my wife Carol (pictured above at the Chinese New Year), my son Paul and daughter Kate. Both are ardent musicians whilst my wife is equally passionate about tai-chi and ice-skating. I am a Technical Manager (formerly a research scientist) by profession working in an area of biotechnology for a company that develops new bio-adhesives for application as medical gels and wound care products ( publication list ). In my spare time I enjoy chess, the history of the ancient Greeks and formerly rock climbing and pot-holing. Over the last decade or so I have shifted from playing otb chess to playing both otb and postal chess. The last few years has seen an even greater concentration on correspondence chess (current rating of 2486 *; ICCF rating history * ). Until recently I occasionally still played some otb chess in the local league (at a somewhat reduced level of approximately 2100 from my highest many years ago of about 2300) grading history). I will attempt to offer a wide range of chess material on this site including game and opening based articles, games for downloading from famous players I have known or competed against, chess problems and some current and past results. This will include both otb and postal play. In addition to more advanced articles I will also occasionally provide articles for beginners to mid-club strength of player. -------------------------------------------------------------- MONTHLY ARTICLES SUMMARIES * This month we take a look at the concept of king utilisation. Of course in the opening it is well known at all levels of play that the king is, in the majority of cases, vulnerable in the centre of the board and can come under attack if left uncastled for long. However, as pieces are exchanged , or the potential for attack by ones opponent is reduced, the concept of utilising ones king in an active roll even in the middle game can start to come to mind. A classic example is the game Duckstein-Petrosian, Varna Olympiad 1962. As the ending approaches then the idea becomes even more feasible as the risk to the king taking an active part in the game is even more reduced. At club level the concept is not very often used even when the conditions are right for the application of this idea. Also in a recent International Correspondence Tournament one of my master level opponents even missed the opportunity to actively use his king and resigned a game that could have otherwise be drawn. Possibly the reason for this is that it is probably ingrained in a players thinking that the king is a weak piece and needs to be protected at all stages of the game. Two examples of the active king concept are given this month with some explanation of the features of a position that makes this feasible. Monthly Article 1: Is one of my earliest correspondence games. I had then just studied Peter Clarke's excellent book on Petrosian's Best Games and knew the game mentioned above. The correspondence game is of course a much less sophisticated case but provides a clear and simple example of the concepts involved in actively using ones king. File of games associated with monthly article 1: About 1230 games with an early Bc4 versus the Sicilian Defence played between 1998 and 2008 can be downloaded from section 1 of this site. Monthly Article 2: Is a more complex example from a top board encounter in Division 1 of the local Coventry and District League. In this case the active use of the king was the only way to overload my opponents defences and win the game. File of games associated with monthly article 2: Some 230 games featuring the Samisch variation of the Kings Indian Defence played between 2006 and 2008 can be downloaded from section 1 of this site. ---------------------------------------------------- All material for downloading from this site is zipped. Use WinZip or similar to extract. Monthly articles are in .pgn format (from May 2000, previously in .txt format) whilst games for downloading are in .pgn format (or .cbv occasionally ). Contributions, suggestions for articles and comments to improve this site are welcome: mail me!
John Evans: It is with great personal sadness that I have to report the recent death of John Evans. John battled with great fortitude not one but several very serious illnesses for quite a few years and to his credit he did so without loosing his pleasant and friendly nature. He was the founder and secretary of Whoberley Chess Club and his great enthusiasm and organisational skills helped in the many successes this club achieved. He unselfishly chose chess organisation instead of playing but he could have been a great player as he had a remarkable instant and very accurate sight of the board He will indeed be sorely missed. BCCA (April 20): The British Correspondence Chess Association has been going for over 100 years now and has recently totally redesigned its web site (http://www.bcca.info/) and is well worth a look. The association also published a fine magazine and SIM Jonathan Tait has just agreed to resume the games editorship which he carried out so successfully some time back. Ken Messere Memorial International Invitation Web Server Tournament (April 20): Commemorates a major figure in British Correspondence Chess who played in the finals of the 5th World Championship. This is another category 11 event in which I'm playing featuring 2 GMs, 6 SIMs and 4 IMs from nations all over the world. This is being played on the ICCF web server and the TD is Alan Rawlings. Current leading scores are: SIM Fenwick (NZ) 8.5/14, myself (8/13 scoring my third SIM norm), GM A.Haugen (NOR) 7.5/14, SM Velilla Velasco (ESP) 7/11and IM Klausen (NOR) 7/13 (also an SIM norm); etc (15 players). A number of recent result has meant the lead has changed several times in the last few weeks. I lose against SIM Velasco (2524) but beat SIM Asquith (2446) to temporarily resume the lead. However SM Fenwick finishes all his games by beating GM Nyvlt (2459) to regain the lead he has held for most of this tournament but fails to gain a GM norm by 0.5 points. Judging by positions Velasco (with 3 games left) and former French Champion Serradimigni (with 6 games left) currently look favourites to win this event. GM Haugen finished strongly to redeem his poor start ,inclusive of a loss to me, to end respectively by crushing T. Carlsen (BRA) 2656. BCCA-100 GM International Invitation Web Server Tournament (April 20): The Grandmaster section (a category 11 event) is part of the BCCA Centenary celebrations and has 3 GMs, 9 SIMs and 2 IMs from all over the world. The event is being played on the ICCF web-server and is sponsored by Chess Mail with a prize fund of £1250 and is almost concluded. The BCCA aims to produce a large article on this event in the magazine "Correspondence Chess" in 2008. My final score of 7/14 and 7th place was sufficient for a second SIM norm. Eric Ruch of the ICCF has just confirmed the SIM title for me following an application by Alan Rawlings of the BFCC. A medal and certificate will be presented at the next ICCF congress which is due to be held in Bulgaria later in 2008. My last two games to be completed were : Against SIM Rinesi I was the exchange down in an ending with pawns on one side of the board only hence was able to construct a "fortress" to hold the position using Kt+B versus Kt+R. Against SIM Williams I was a clear pawn up in a minor piece ending with pawns on either side of the board but here my opponent with very careful defence constructed a drawn position. Current leading positions with just 1 game to complete (April 20) : GM R. Smith (USA) 11 (final score and winner) ; SIM K.Kogler (GER) 9.5 (final score and GM title) ; SIM M.Lilleoren (NOR) and SIM J.Kuipers (NED) both 9 (final scores and GM norms); S.Kerr (AUS) 8.5 (final score) ; SM Prof D.Fleetwood (USA) 8/13; myself and SM M.Rinesi (ITA) 7 (final scores) etc (15 players ). ICCF rating (March 30): The latest list gives me an increase of 17 points to a new highest rating of 2486. (minor updates occur at several points during the prior month) | ||||||
Chess
Pages of Mike Donnelly
Tony
Peterson. Specialist in rare and secondhand chess books and
magazines. Very large stock . 
IM Sergey Bystrov. Specialist in a wide
range of Russian books plus some non-Russian books. Now offering a
greater range.
