Winter Butterfly  -  18a    1/2/03 

Dear Friends

County Championship Set for Exciting Finish.

From The Leagues.

Stuart Hutchings

Only Two Weeks to the Rapid Play. 

County Championship Set for Exciting Finish.

May I suggest a visit to Jon Gilberts website

www.gilbertj36.freeserve.co.uk

for the latest county championship, KO cup and other interesting results. 

Many thanks to Jon and Bill Hewitt for keeping me informed of the latest position. 

This seems to be boiling up into a very exciting finish.  The latest positions are:-

East Glam                 13

Gwent                        12.5

West Wales              12.5

Dyfed                         10 

So there's all to play for in the last round, with the top three separated by only 0.5 of a point an d even the bottom team still in with a theoretical chance of taking the title. 

My apologies to Bill Hewitt for not including the full score of the Dyfed v West Wales match, which he was kind enough to send me.  For some reason I'm having difficulty altering the format of the file to one suitable for inclusion in an email (I think this is me being stupid, its worked ok in the past) and some Butterfly subscribers have problems with word files. If it can be sorted out the result will go out in a supplement.

From The Leagues. 

Some interesting points from the league. 

Its very close at half way in the Dyfed League.  Cardigan A are leading Camarthen A by 21.5 points to 20.  Looks like there could be a very interesting second half two the season.

Details filched from Paul Orton's excellent site

http://www.cix.co.uk/~porton/welcome.htm

where you can also find back issues of Butterfly and much, much more. 

In East Glam Cardiff and Barry are slugging it out at the top.  Cardiff are in the lead with 40.5 points, but Barry are only  1.5 points behind with a match (5 board) in hand.  However, I must confess to being intrigued by the position that is arising in Division II.  North Cardiff A are currently in third place (three teams are promoted) equal on game points with Pontypridd Un.  North Cardiff are one of the great East Glamorgan clubs with a history dating back to the early 1950's.  For some time they have been out in the cold, but it looks as if they might be about to return to the big-time.  We wish them well, although, as a Pontypridd player, I'll be trying to spoil the party. 

Reports on West Wales and Gwent shortly. 

Stuart Hutchings 

The following article was originally produced for the Pontypridd Chess Club Newsletter.  However, some of the boys have suggested that it would be of interest to a wider audience.  So, if you will excuse the Pontypridd bias, here is an appreciation of Stuart. 

Spotlight on Stuart Hutchings. 

Ask any group of chessplayers to name their favourite player and the names of Tal, Kasparov, Fischer, etc. are almost bound to be mentioned.  Well, they would all come high on my list of favourites, but I think I've had more pure pleasure out of watching Stuart play, or going over his games, than all the rest put together.  I can still remember the thrill of watching him in Barcelona in 1976 as he came within an ace of beating another Grandmaster, and the disappointment as his opponent managed to get away with a draw.  Furthermore, I have had the extraordinary privilege of playing along side him in two great teams, the Cardiff team of the early seventies and the Pontypridd team of the late seventies and early eighties. 

Stuart was born in North Devon and spent his early years in Barnstaple.  He was good enough to earn a place in what was probably the strongest English Glorney Cup team for a generation, and performed with distinction.  When the family moved to Cardiff he quickly made his presence felt on the chess scene and became a regular member of the Welsh team.  With Howard, George, Iolo and John Cooper also in the side, those were heady days when even the Russians were given a run for their money.  Indeed, there was one famous occasion when only the fatigue brought on be a long hard game stopped John Cooper from finding a forced mate against Petrosian, which would have given Wales a 2.5-1.5 victory. 

One, non-chess story begs to be told.  Many of us still recall the disallowed JJ Williams try at Twickers, which robbed Wales of victory against the old enemy.  The game is history now and the official involved has long since retired to the 'Sunshine Home' in Dublin 'for Blind Irish Referees' for which Max Boyce does such sterling charity work.  Stuart saw the match, in fact he went up to support England and came back supporting Wales.  I really must get around to sending the ref a letter of thanks. 

Many people are under the mistaken impression that Stuart could be categorized as a positional player.  Its true up to a point, because he did have a profound understanding of the positional side of the game.  But above all he was aggressive, a real fighter.  He was a winner.  Not someone who was content to take a safe second place with three wins and two draws, but someone who went out to win tournaments. If that meant taking the risk of provoking highly complex and unclear positions, he had the confidence and courage to do so.  He could mix it with the best of them, tactically or positionally.  If you can find any of his games they are well worth studying, you'll learn a lot about how the game should be played. 

So what was so special about his games?  I would suggest a certain simplicity of style, an easy elegance that made his victories look inevitable.  There were times when I thought, 'I should be able to play like that', but I never could.  Because of course, like all great players he was making the extremely difficult look absurdly easy.  He won firstly because he was a very fine player, but, perhaps even more importantly, because he worked hard both before and during the games.

There are quite a few of his games on the web.  Do look them up, they are worth playing over.

Only Two Weeks to the Rapid Play. 

The Heritage Park Hotel rapidplay takes place on 15th Feb.  This promises to be a really great event.  Kevin informs me that he's had quite a few entries already, so it looks as though its going to be a really great event.  So get your entry into Kevin as soon as possible.  In case you haven't got an entry form there is a copy below. 

By the way, I know Dyfed is coming up shortly, but I don't have details.  If somebody could send them to me I'd be happy to publish them.

THE SOUTH WALES INDIVIDUAL RAPID PLAY at

THE HERITAGE PARK HOTEL TREHAFOD,

near PONTYPRIDD on 15th Feb 2003

Entry fees:        OPEN £11

GUARANTEED MINIMUM FIRST PRIZE £150

Major

Open to anyone graded Under 1800 (BCF 150)}

Entry fee £8

GUARANTEED MINIMUM FIRST PRIZE £100

Best score for a players rated Under 1500 £50 

Further prizes depend upon entries

and will be announced at the Championships

Rate of Play: - All moves in 30 minutes 

Times of rounds:-

1) 10.30am-ll.30am           2) 12.00midday-l.00pm               3) 1.15pm-2.15pm

4) 2.30pm -3.30pm           5) 3.45pm- 4.45pm                 6) 5.00pm -6.0Opm 

The Organisers reserve the right to refuse or transfer entries.

Standard Quickplay finish rules will apply and the Controllers’ decision in all matters is final.  

Late Entries on the day will be surcharged £5 

Please complete the entry form below and return it together with the entry fee (payable to the South Wales Chess Congress) to:

Kevin Staveley. 57, Treharne St., Cwmparc, Rhondda, CF42 6LH.

Tel:- (01443) 772750

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NAME ______________________________          CLUB _____________ GRADE _______

ADDRESS:- _________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________ 

TELEPHONE NUMBER _____________________

SECTION  ___________________________             ENTRY FEE ENCLOSED __________