LEON Nelson from Wells Chess Club competed in the Portishead Junior Rapid tournament on January 21. This was a 6-round tournament and Leon notched up a series of impressive wins in the early rounds. He finished the day in second place with 4.5 points from 6, only losing to the ultimate winner. Leon is competing in lots of events over the next few months and all this experience will see him improve and grow as a player.
Chris Strong and Ed Farms represented Wells at the Bristol Under 1850 Congress. It was a two-day, 5-round event with a quality field of 42 players. Ed started the stronger with 2.5 points from the first 3 rounds while Chris made up for a slow start with 2 wins in the final 2 rounds. Chris finished 10th on 3 points with Ed in 19th on 2.5 points.
Wells extended their lead in Division 1 with a victory over Sedgemoor. John Waterfield and Jamie Eales both secured quick wins on boards 2 and 3 in under 20 moves. Jamie played at his usual high tempo and forced the errors from his opponent while John was clinical in taking advantage of his opponent’s early errors. In a tight match on board 1 Sasha Matlak secured a draw having to exchange his two rooks for his opponent’s queen, while the final game to finish was Phil Johnson who narrowly lost out in a tricky end game. This gave Wells a 2.5-1.5 win and puts them 5 points clear in Division 1 at the midway point of the season. A subsequent 3-3 draw away to Sedgemoor lifted Wells to 9 points with a crucial match against Yeovil coming up.
Wells played host to Wellington in Division 2 and secured a 4-1 victory. Wins for Leon Nelson, Jamie Eales, Greg Roome and Jon Rossi puts Wells in a 3-way tie on 11 points with Taunton and Yeovil at the top of the division. This is all good preparation for the upcoming inaugural Wells Chess Congress on March 8-10 at Wells Town Hall. Anyone interested in playing at the club or in the congress can find details at wellschess.co.uk along with other information about the club. They can be contacted at wellschessclub@outlook.com