BCN send Birthday greetings to IM Alan Merry

Alan Baxter Merry was born on Friday, November 8th, 1996 in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. His mother’s maiden name is Guymer. Alan has a younger brother James Clayton Merry (born 1999). James is also registered with Suffolk CCA but has never had a published grading or rating.

As a junior Alan was a member of Bury Knights Junior Chess Club run by Bob Jones.

He became a FIDE Master in 2013 and an International Master in 2016. His peak rating according to Felice was 2396 in July 2016. However this has been surpassed and according to MegaBase 2020 it is 2460 in June 2018 at the age of 22.

Alan won the 2014 Golders Green Open with a convincing 5.5/6 :

and has won further events since including the Kingsley Healthcare Great Yarmouth Congress in 2018.

Alan plays for Suffolk County Chess Association and in 4NCL started with Anglian Avengers, then the ADs and finally moving to Barbican in the 2015/16 season. His current ECF grading is 237A for standard-play and 236A for rapid-play. His FIDE standard play rating is 2427.

Alan has a plus score against : James Jackson, Ravi Haria, John Nunn, Peter Sowray, James Adair, Matthew Wadsworth, Jack Rudd and Simon Williams to name but a few.

With the white pieces Alan has a varied repertoire favouring (unusually) the Four Knights game.

As the second player he champions the French Winawer and the Modern Benoni.

[pgn]
[Event “4NCL-ch rapid”]
[Site “Daventry”]
[Date “2013.10.06”]
[Round “6”]
[White “Jones, Gawain C B”]
[Black “Merry, Alan B”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “A22”]
[WhiteElo “2638”]
[BlackElo “2297”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “134”]
[EventDate “2013.10.06”]
[EventType “swiss (rapid)”]
[EventRounds “7”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]
[SourceTitle “CBM 156 Extra”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “2013.10.22”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “2013.10.22”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

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-1022,-1015]} 1. c4 e5 2. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. Nc3 Nb6 6. e3 Nc6 7.
Nge2 Be6 8. O-O Qd7 9. f4 f6 10. Qc2 Nb4 11. Qe4 Nc6 12. f5 Bf7 13. d4 Bd6 14.
Qg4 O-O 15. d5 Ne7 16. e4 Kh8 17. Be3 Nc4 18. Bf2 Nxb2 19. Rab1 Nd3 20. Be3 Bc5
21. Qf3 b6 22. g4 c6 23. Rfd1 Bxe3+ 24. Qxe3 Nc5 25. d6 Nc8 26. Rb2 Nxd6 27. g5
Nc4 28. Qh3 Qe7 29. g6 Bg8 30. gxh7 Nxb2 31. hxg8=Q+ Kxg8 32. Rf1 Ncd3 33. Qg3
Qc5+ 34. Kh1 Rad8 35. Bf3 Nf4 36. Rg1 Rf7 37. Qh4 Nbd3 38. Rf1 Qe3 39. Nd1 Qd2
40. Nxf4 Nxf4 41. Nf2 Qe3 42. Qg3 Rd2 43. Ng4 Qd3 44. Rg1 Kf8 45. Nf2 Qc3 46.
Nd1 Qd4 47. Qh4 Ke7 48. Qe1 Kd7 49. Ne3 Kc7 50. Ng4 Re2 51. Qb1 Rb2 52. Qf1 Rd7
53. Qa6 Kb8 54. Qa3 Qd3 55. Qxd3 Rxd3 56. Bd1 Rb1 57. Bb3 Rxg1+ 58. Kxg1 Rd4
59. Kf2 Rxe4 60. Kf3 Rd4 61. Nf2 c5 62. Ne4 c4 63. Bc2 b5 64. h4 b4 65. Nc5 Kc7
66. Na6+ Kb6 67. Nxb4 a5 0-1
[/pgn]