Blitz 'n' Pieces

The official newsletter of the Edinburgh University Chess Club

Welcome to the first issue of the 1993-4 academic year. We were very impressed with the turn-out at the first club meeting of the year and hope we can get bigger rooms on future club nights to accommodate everyone.

Lothians League 1993-94

This year, both our teams are in Division 1. Home matches were meant to be played in Pleasance, but unfortunately rooms have not been available. The first few home matches will instead take place in Teviot.

The first team is captained by Steve Rix (tel: 031-555-5690) and its fixtures are as follows:

University 1 v.:
University 2	H	7:00pm	Tue	19	Oct
Balerno	H	7:00pm	Tue	26	Oct
Edinburgh 2	A	7:30pm	Wed	27	Oct
Edinburgh West 1	H	7:00pm	Tue	16	Nov
Edinburgh 1	A	7:30pm	Thu	1	Dec
Poisoned Pawns 1	H	7:00pm	Tue	8	Dec
Musselburgh 1	A	7:30pm	Tue	25	Jan
Pentland Hills 1	H	7:00pm	Tue	1	Feb
Lasswade 1	A	7:30pm	Tue	1	Mar
Bankton 1	H	7:00pm	Tue	8	Mar
Dragons 1	A	7:30pm	Tue	22	Mar

The second team is led by John Thompson (031-664-9575) and its fixtures are as follows:

University 2 v.:
University 1	A	7:00pm	Tue	19	Oct
Balerno 1	H	7:00pm	Tue	2	Nov
Musselburgh 1	A	7:30pm	Tue	16	Nov
Pentland Hills 1	H	7:00pm	Tue	30	Nov
Lasswade 1	A	7:30pm	Tue	14	Dec
Bankton	H	7:00pm	Tue	11	Jan
Dragons 1	A	7:30pm	Tue	25	Jan
Poisoned Pawns 1	A	7:30pm	Mon	31	Jan
Edinburgh 2	H	7:00pm	Tue	22	Feb
Edinburgh West 1	A	7:15pm	Wed	9	Mar
Edinburgh 1	H	7:00pm	Tue	22	Mar

Blunder Of The Month

For this issue we offer a couple of Editorial attrocities.

White: P Roberts (2145)
Black: S Rix (2025)
Edinburgh Congress, April 1993

37... Bb4 seems strong. White is very tied up, eg 38 Nc3 Re1 intending ... Nd3-c1-e2+. Instead Steve produced:

37... Bc5?? 38 Nc3

Threatening the rook and 39 Na4+ winning the bishop.

38... Bxf2+ 39 Kxf2 Kc5?? 40 Nxd1 1-0

John's contender for blunder of the month comes from the Lasswade quickplay:

In a Benoni, John has just won two pawns on the queenside to achieve what must surely be a won position:

Here John avoided 1 Nc3, worried about ... Qc5+, and instead played the horrible 1 Na3? losing to 1... Bxa3!. After 2 Ra1 Bc5+ etc, he soon got horribly mated on the back rank.