Extinction Chess
Ian Kingston
David Levens organised an Extinction Chess competition on Monday 23 July 2007. In this strange variant form of chess, you win by capturing all of the opponent’s pieces of a single type (e.g. both knights, or the king). Kings are treated no differently from other pieces – there is no concept of check, for instance. Pawns can be promoted to a king, if so desired.
You have to think quite differently to play this game. I lost my first game by ‘winning’ a rook for a bishop, and then getting my remaining bishop pinned by my opponent’s queen against my king. It didn’t matter that I could capture the queen after it took my bishop: I’d already lost both bishops, so the game was over.
The games got longer as the players adjusted to the different way of thinking, but some of the juniors had had a trial run the week before, and they came flying out of the blocks. After three rounds, only Jordan Nicholson and Matthew Pethick had three points, and Jordan’s win over Matthew in Round 4 settled first place. He finished with a final flourish to win convincingly with a perfect 5/5. Alasdair McIntosh took second place with 4/5, and Matthew Pethick led the pack of five players on 3/5 to take third place.
| Position | Name | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jordan Nicholson | 5 |
| 2 | Alasdair McIntosh | 4 |
| 3 | Matthew Pethick | 3 |
| 4 | Mike Herbert | 3 |
| 5 | Tracey Clegg | 3 |
| 6 | Ian Kingston | 3 |
| 7 | David Levens | 3 |
| 8 | John Crawley | 3 |
| 9 | Saaras Mehan | 2 |
| 10 | Ella Macleod | 2 |
| 11 | Yash Gupta | 2 |
| 12 | Aarav Gupta-Kaistha | 2 |
| 13 | Sally McIntosh | 2 |
| 14 | Ross Mackay | 1 |
| 15 | Robert Willoughby | 1 |
| 16 | David Somers | 1 |
Christmas Quiz 2006
Another well-attended Christmas quiz, with the usual assortment of impossible questions (those war movie themes tripped up most people) and evenly distributed prizes, all courtesy of David Levens. The eventual winners were the Robin Hood Cluster (the Mackay family), edged out the Repton Road Rowdies (the Fords) by a single point.
Bonus points were scored by those who could solve Phillip Burley’s tangled metal puzzles. It was no surprise that the youngsters seemed to do best at this.
Children’s Christmas Quiz 2006
The results of the children’s Christmas Quiz (organised by John Crawley) were:
- No Names (Stephen Ford and Michael Gathercole) 48/51
- The Bag of Chips (Ella Macleod and Graham Garside) 38/51
- The Tremendous Turkeys (Heather Garside and Ross Mackay) 37/51
Informal blitz tournament, 26 June 2006
Fifteen players competed in a six-round, five-minute blitz tournament, which ended in a clear win for Ian Kingston.
| Position | Name | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ian Kingston | 6 |
| 2 | Daniel Lin | 5 |
| 3= | Guy Hinton | 4 |
| Michael Zhang | 4 | |
| John Crawley | 4 | |
| 6= | Phillip Burley | 3 |
| Eamonn Lim | 3 | |
| Andrew Garside | 3 | |
| Heather Garside | 3 | |
| Graham Garside | 3 | |
| 11= | Lawrence Alfred | 2½ |
| Mike Barratt | 2½ | |
| 13= | Christopher Gathercole | 2 |
| Pete Williamson | 2 | |
| 15 | Michael Gathercole | 1 |
Christmas Quiz 2005
As last year, we rounded off the year with a quiz at the Christmas party. Attendance was up on last year, with plenty of family and friends taking part.
The event was almost derailed when quizmaster David Levens’s car suffered a puncture on the way to the club. Since David and Pamela had both the questions and the prizes with them this was close to disaster, but emergency repairs got them on the road again.
Once under way, the quiz ran smoothly. Everyone helped themselves to food and drink as the evening progressed. If it matters to anyone, a closely fought contest was one by Ella’s Gang – Ella Macleod and parents supported (at Ella’s request) by Ian Kingston.
Simultaneous display, 23 July 2005
Eleven players took the opportunity to challenge WIMs Agnieszka Matras and Katarzyna Toma in a simultaneous display. The original plan of two separate displays had to be abandoned because of the low turnout, so on the toss of a coin Agnieszka gave the main display, while Katarzyna gave the early finishers a second chance.
Results:
| Daniel Lin | 0 |
| Alexander Combie | 0 |
| Aarav Gupta-Kaistha | 0 |
| Neil Graham | ½ |
| David Levens | 0 |
| Harry Morgan | 0 |
| James Morgan | 0 |
| Ian Kingston | 1 |
| John Crawley | 0 |
| Robert Willoughby | 0 |
| Phil Burley | 0 |
| Final score: Agnieszka 9½–1½ Challengers | |
| Daniel Lin | 0 |
| Robert Willoughby | 0 |
| Kordian Goslawski | 0 |
| Final score: Katarzyna 3–0 Challengers | |
Not surprisingly, Ian and Neil were pretty pleased with their performances. Ian hung on grimly in the face of a wall of white pawns, gritting his teeth as Agnieszka sacrificed first one pawn and then another for a dangerous-looking attack. A further rook sacrifice would have forced perpetual check, but Agnieszka tried for more and overlooked a key defensive move that ended the attack and left Ian with a dominant position. Neil snatched a pawn early on and looked to be winning, but as the number of games reduced he had to play quickly and could only reach a drawn ending – still a pawn up.
In the other games, Harry Morgan put up a really hard fight, winning the exchange before ultimately being beaten by superior endgame technique in one of the last games to finish. John Crawley also put up stiff resistance before suffering a similar fate.
Twelve of the games, with analysis by Fritz, are available to replay online.
In between moves, time was found to take a handful of pictures:
A view of Agnieszka’s display
A second view of Agnieszka’s display
Agnieszka ponders her move against Daniel
Agnieszka wonders why John Crawley still hasn’t blundered a piece
Katarzyna takes on the early losers
Ashfield simuls, 27 July 2005
Neil Graham offered to arrange a simul for Katarzyna at Ashfield Chess Club to make up for the shortage of players at our event. As it was Ashfield’s regular club night the turnout was much better, and both players were able to give 8-board displays.
Results:
| Glen Halfpenny | 0 |
| Stan Cranmer | 0 |
| Alan Morrey | 0 |
| Malcolm Jackson | 0 |
| Paul Todd | 0 |
| Nigel Wright | 0 |
| Lewis Lam | 0 |
| Bob Taylor | 0 |
| Final score: Agnieszka 8–0 Challengers | |
| Mike Alcock | 1 |
| Phil Morgan | 0 |
| Trevor Lewis | 0 |
| Ray Sayer | 0 |
| Sally Macintosh | 0 |
| Cliff Potter | 0 |
| Tim Severn | 0 |
| Neil Graham | ½ |
| Final score: Katarzyna 6½–1½ Challengers | |
A notable double for Neil!
Informal blitz tournament, 22 July 2005
Thirteen players took part in the third Friday night blitz tournament. Unfortunately, one of our Polish guests was unwell and not able to play, but her compatriot Agnieszka Matras dominated the event, scoring 5½/6. Daniel Lin claimed the half point that Agnieszka dropped.
| Position | Name | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Agnieszka Matras | 5½ |
| 2 | Alex Posazhennikov | 5 |
| 3 | Kordian Goslawski | 4 |
| 4= | Ian Kingston | 3½ |
| David Amirabadi | 3½ | |
| Daniel Lin | 3½ | |
| 7= | David Levens | 3 |
| Michael Zhang | 3 | |
| Zahra Amirabadi | 3 | |
| Tracey Clegg | 3 | |
| 11= | Robert Willoughby | 2 |
| Davoud Amirabadi | 2 | |
| 13 | Aarav Gupta-Kaistha | 1 |
Informal blitz tournament, 27 May 2005
Twelve players took part in the second Friday night blitz tournament, once again played over six rounds. Ian Kingston took first place with a perfect 6/6.
| Position | Name | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ian Kingston | 6 |
| 2= | Toby Thurgood | 4 |
| Ashton Alfred | 4 | |
| Robert Willoughby | 4 | |
| Davoud Amirabadi | 4 | |
| 6= | Eric Williamson | 3 |
| Michael Zhang | 3 | |
| David Amirabadi | 3 | |
| 9= | Zahra Amirabadi | 2 |
| Pete Williamson | 2 | |
| 11 | Christopher Frost-Tesfaye | 1 |
| 12 | Lawrence Alfred | 0 |
Informal blitz tournament, 4 March 2005
Sixteen players competed in our first Friday night blitz tournament: a six-round Swiss at five minutes per player. Amisha Parmar was the convincing winner, scoring 6/6.
| Position | Name | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Amisha Parmar | 6 |
| 2 | Phil Burley | 5 |
| 3 | Eric Williamson | 4½ |
| 4 | David Amirabadi | 4 |
| 5 | Toby Thurgood | 3½ |
| 6= | Ashton Alfred | 3 |
| Constantin (Alfred family) | 3 | |
| Davoud Amirabadi | 3 | |
| Robert Willoughby | 3 | |
| 10= | Zahra Amirabadi | 2 |
| Tracey Clegg | 2 | |
| Christopher Frost-Tesfaye | 2 | |
| Oliver Williamson | 2 | |
| Pete Williamson | 2 | |
| 15= | Robin Jootun | 1 |
| Ella Macleod | 1 |
Christmas Quiz 2004
The club closed 2004 with a Christmas quiz – featuring almost no chess at all. There was a good turnout, contrasting strongly with the usual struggle to get more than a handful of diehards to turn out for the last club night before Christmas. Parents brought non-chess-playing children; children brought non-playing parents; and adults brought non-playing partners, all competing in ad hoc teams.
David Levens and his wife Pamela handled the questions and the marking, while everyone contributed food and drink. David dished out round-by-round prizes of boxes of chocolates more or less on a whim, so no one went home empty handed. The overall prize was won by John Collins, his wife Pat, and Ian Kingston, competing under the name of the Misfits and displaying a disturbing level of obscure general knowledge.
Special thanks go to David and Pamela for organising everything so soon after moving house.