July online update

So it has been another busy month. We have still 31 members, but those who are active have helped the club rise 73 places on the chess.com club leaderboard, and we are now at 2127, which is not bad when there are over 45,000 clubs registered on this site.

We have had lots of tournament play:- the March 2020 club tournament we know that Mark has won, but there is still an ongoing battle for second/third;  in the April 2020 the final is between Dave J and Michael, and Dave is 1-0 up; in the May 2020 the final is between Dave J and Brian, and Dave is 1-0 up there too; in the June 2020 in the first round Graham is leading Group 1 and Dave is leading Group 2;  in the July 2020 it is still early, but Charlotte is leading Group 1; the Easter Egg 960 is still going, although we have yet to complete Round 2 - we know that Benedict, Oliver and Ian A have all qualified from Group 1, but Brian and Michael are still battling for supremacy in Group 2.

We have made some massive progress with our many opening tournaments, and have now completed six:- the King's Indian Defence 2020 was won by Brian, with Oliver second and Steve third;  the Caro-Kann Defence 2020 was won by Brian with Oliver and Steve second equal, and Leo third;  the Ruy Lopez 2020 was won by Brian with Oliver second and Steve third;  the French Defence 2020 saw a share of first place between Brian and Mark, with Oliver second and Ian P third;  the Scotch Game 2020 was won by Mark, with Brian second and Oliver third;  the Sicilian Defence 2020 was won by Mark, with Ian P second and Brian third.  We have no less than eleven opening tournaments still ongoing:- the Four Knights Game 2020 we know that Mark has won, but there is a battle still for second place;  the English Opening 2020 sees Mark and Brian in the final, but we know that third is our newest member David B, so well done to him;  the Petrov's Defence 2020 has seen Mark qualify from Group 1, but Brian and Oliver are battling for Group 2, though Brian is 1-0 up;  in the Dutch Defence 2020 we know that Brian and Mark have qualified from Group 2 for the final, and currently Ian P is leading Group 1;  in the King's Gambit 2020 currently Mark is leading, with Brian second; in the Queen's Gambit 2020 it is still early, but Mark is leading Group 1;  in the Giuoco Piano 2020 Oliver is leading, and in the Sicilian Defence Grand Prix Attack, Steve is leading; it is still very early days in the Catalan 2020, the Centre Game Accepted - Danish Gambit 2020 and the Italian Game 2020.

We have also had some great match play against other clubs:- we had a massive recovery win 9-7 against Team Glasgow after Brian set the team off to an inauspicious start, so well done to all involved in the careful recovery of that one; we sadly lost 1.5-2.5 against Team California in a close, hard-fought match.  Currently we are leading 10-1 against Monte Carlo, and 7-3 against Team New York; the game against Battersea Chess Club has seen another great recovery and it is now finely poised at 6.5-6.5 with four games to go, but mine is lost so much depends on Ian P and Michael;  we also need a fightback against Team Suffolk as we are 4.5-8.5 down, though that one is lost, and we are 3-7 against The Vancouverites and 0-1 against The Night's Watch at Castle Black; matches against Pink Floyd Fans and Team Surrey have really not long started.

So - much progress !  We could do with more of our members taking part and I would hope that more could contribute with at least comments in the notes section. If you are following your games on a mobile app then please try and log on via PC and tablet in the more normal way at least a couple of times a week, as some aspects including notes do not come up so easily on the App.

If anyone has any suggestions for opening tournaments in the coming month, then now is the time to make them and I might be persuaded to run another live tournament with 10-minute matches this time if anyone is interested.

Best regards

Brian