News

IN MAY

The Delancey UK Chess Challenge Megafinals take place.  This is a massive national competition for younger players (up to 18 years old) and there are two heats relatively near us, one in Canterbury on 4th May and one in Tunbridge Wells on 19th May.  It is a 6 round one day competition and costs £25 to enter.

IN APRIL

I think it was mostly progress on the internal competitions.

IN MARCH

On 27th March we held our annual Easter Egg blitz.  19 attended and we played 5 Rounds for everyone and then an extra 2 rounds for those staying late.

As there are 2 objectives, win the game and capture eggs so it's a bit complicated, but the results were;

Alex won the Junior Egg, Oliver captured most eggs in the adult section (I think he had 13 at the end, but not many game wins) and Arran won a clean sweep of 7 out of 7 to win the 'proper' competition.  He didn't end up with so many mini-eggs so we can see where his focus was.

Excellent attendance and a good, though tiring night, thankyou everyone for taking part, it will be quieter next week.

Arran played in the Reykjavik Open, along with about 400 others, a massive tournament and a tremendous, though exhausting experience.

IN FEBRUARY

On February 24th was a one day congress at Crowborough.  Details and results at ;

https://crowborough.org/club/39th-Congress.html

February 21st, we looked at some positions from our match versus Lewes and then progressed our internal competitions.

February 20th (Tuesday) saw a semi-final match away to Lewes in the SCL Knockout.  We have played them many times over the years and more often than not ended up on the wrong side of a tight match...and this was no different as we went down 3-1.  Arran was again the last to finish and once again if he had won then we would have progressed but it wasn't to be.  Michael felt he was much worse from quite early on and Brian was a pawn up but had trouble developing his queen side pieces and was trapped.  Mark had the worse position on the black side of a London System.  I admit my spirits dropped just seeing it on the board, I play bullet on-line and I suspect about 50% of all queen pawn openings are this. (It's not as bad as the French...I've given it up because 90% of games are the exchange variation).  Luckily my opponent retook a knight with a pawn which allowed some tactics and although nearly mated, escaped and won in the end.  The computer is much more confident of me winning than I was.

February 14th saw a reduced attendance (can't imagine why) and a lot of friendly games played.

February 2nd (Friday) was an away match at Bexhill in the Paul Watson Trophy.  This was a quarter final, so still a long way to go.  We have had some tight matches in these cups and this was probably the tightest of all, even if the scoreline was 3-1 to Bexhill.  Mark lost, Brian and Michael drew so because of the way tie-breaks work, if Arran won on Board 1 it would have been 2-2 and we would have progressed on 'board count'.  Arran had a completely winning position (2 pawns up in a rook and pawn ending) and just needed to find the right set up to force a pawn home.  Unfortunately he was playing on the 10 second increment and ran out of time...so lost.  A bad way to lose a game.  It happens, though it doesn't make it any easier when it does.

IN JANUARY

31st January saw a good attendance and lots of activity.  No progress in the Arran vs Mark Knockout since the replay also ended in a draw.  Whilst I wasn't sure either of us could face a second replay we did finally get a result on 7th February, Mark winning suddenly in a game we both thought might end in another draw.

On 24th January some progress was made with the club knockout competition, though not as much as we might have.  Arran versus Mark (a replay of last years final) ended in a draw, so goes to a replay where I am hoping to take advantage of the sloping pitch.  Elsewhere Jason beat Peter, thereby progressing to the next round.  

The 10th January was a SCL Knockout match versus Hastings which we won 3 1/2 to 1/2.  This was a particularly good performance because we were out rated on all boards.  Well played Arran, Michael (especially), Brian and Oliver.

27th DECEMBER

No chess club this week, we are having a little break, back on 3rd January

20th DECEMBER

Was our traditional pre-Christmas Blitz.  There wasn't turkey  but there were mince pies and coffee cake.  Results to follow, but there's a certain amount of illness about at the moment which meant fewer competitors than we would normally have.

30th NOVEMBER

Although we haven't entered a team in the Sussex League we are playing in the knockout competition.  Our first match was away to Haywards Heath.  It is a handicap competition, but as it happened the ratings totalled about the same, so it was an even match, which we won 3 1/2 to 1/2.  Brian won convincingly, delivering mate, Michael collected pawns from a dominant position and Mark, whilst being on top came under a lot of pressure before sorting things out, leading to a blunder by his opponent and a win.  The most impressive result was Arran, who drew with Feliks Kwiatkowski, many times Sussex champion.  He should have lost, could have won, but a draw was agreed in the end.  Terrific game and a terrific match result for us.  It means we advance to the next round where we will be playing Lewes.

29th NOVEMBER

14 came along to play a mixture of friendlies and club competition games.  We'll need a bigger room soon.

20TH NOVEMBER

Long time no news, but that is because we are quietly going about playing friendly chess every wednesday.

20TH SEPTEMBER 

12 or it might have been 13 took part in a Chess 960 blitz to send Oliver on his way to uni.  Oliver supplied cupcakes, thankyou.  Oh, and Brian won, closely followed by Arran and Oliver himself.

16TH SEPTEMBER (Saturday)

At the 38th Crowborough Chess Congress Arran scored 4/6 and won a grading prize, Mark 2 1/2 (could easily have been just 1/2) and Oliver 2.

There was also a Sussex Junior Chess competition - see https://sussexjuniorchess.org/calendar.  Sussex Junior Chess also organise training days and a whole series of other events during the year if you are interested.

30th AUGUST

we had 12 attendees last Wednesday and made some good progress with the internal competitions and lots of friendly games.  I'll post an update of progress on the competitions when I have the latest details from Brian.

19th AUGUST

Again nothing to do with us but but Saturday 19th August is Chess on the Beach in Bexhill from 11am.  Various things going on.

16TH JULY

Nothing to do with us but Sunday 16th July in Trafalgar Square was Chessfest, lots of chess based activities going on, mainly for youngsters should you be interested.

12TH JULY

At the AGM we voted to increase the annual subs for adults to £15 per year.  The subs for Juniors (under 18, £5) and the weekly charges for both adults (£2) and juniors (£1) are to stay the same.

9TH JUNE

Arran won the U1950 Section at the Kent Congress over the weekend, scoring a perfect 5/5.  He's on a bit of a roll at the moment.   Congratulations.

28TH JUNE

This was the last night of the current season...but we carry straight on into the next...starting next week.  

21ST JUNE

8 of us played a blitz tournament.  Arran won, Harvey came second (terrific performance) and Oliver 3rd.  Less said about some of us the better.

20TH MAY

I don't know how many of you took part in the ECF 24 hour blitz marathon in aid of the Red Cross...but I played a few games.  This is the second one of these and it does give you the chance to play very strong players..last year I played and lost to 2 GM's, one of which was close to a draw.  (I know that doesn't count).  This year I played Ameet Ghasi currently an IM but pushing to be a GM...and I had a shot at an advantage, which I missed, and lost in the end.  The position is here.

17th MAY

13 played in a 5-minute blitz tournament.  Good fun and a triumph for Oliver Christian who ended up with a perfect 8 out of 8.  Arran and Mark followed with a distant 6 1/2 each.

29th APRIL

Our last MSCL League match of the season away to Eastbourne 4 was a return to the form at the start of the season and we won 4-0.  Looking at the scores on the right Eastbourne appear to be a  lucky club for us, two 4-0 victories over their 4th and 5th teams.

9th APRIL

Over the weekend Arran won the U2000 section at the Coulsdon Easter Congress, scoring 4.5/5.  Congratulations to him.

5th APRIL

12 took part in the Easter Egg 960 Blitz, with Arran running out the winner (again).  I can't remember who won the other prizes, but no doubt Brian will let me know.  There were some impressive hauls of mini-eggs, mostly by the younger players.

29th MARCH

Arran talked through an interesting game, emphasising that using basic principles can be enough.  Fast development, occupying the centre and particularly not wasting moves by moving the same piece from square to square can lead to a significant advantage.  Very interesting it was too.

CHESS NINE-O  4th MArch

8 of us attended Warrens house to play chess 960 to commemorate his 90th birthday.  It was good fun, 7 rounds and Arran beat Mark in a last round play-off to win the tournament.  (I have to say this, our earlier game was a draw as it doesn't happen very often.)  Thankyou to Warren for his hospitality, the prizes and the opportunity to celebrate his birthday.

CROWBOROUGH CHESS CONGRESS

A belated note that Arran and Oliver played in the Crowborough one day congress.  Arran was in contention for one of the main prizes right up until the last game and ended with a 'grading' prize, so congratulations to him.