Our friendly summer mini-tournament, the Khyber Cup was held last Sunday, and for the first time we held it in the spacious function room of the Pinewood Centre Bar & Café. This worked out well for us, we didn’t have to travel anywhere for lunch as hot food was available on site, allowing us to make up for a later start than usual. They even had a set of bridge tables we could use to play on. The only downside was an interruption at one point, caused by repeated banging on the door to the room. This turned out to be a gleeful toddler happily crashing his ride-on fire engine into the door, and was soon resolved by an apologetic parent.

We had a perfectly decent turn-out, particularly given it was bank holiday weekend, and apologies again to those who would have attended but couldn’t due to the choice of weekend.

In play, gold, silver and bronze went to Derek, Colin and Harvey respectively. Congratulations to them, particularly Derek who has shared top place before but this year did so as clear winner and is rewarded by being able to take home the prestigious trophy and accompanying shield.

Thanks to Tahir, Mat, Varniethan and Nick, playing in their first Khyber Cup. Thanks also to Ian, who came along to balance numbers in the morning, and to Jess, who originally came to support Mat and sportingly stepped up to replace Ian after lunch. In recognition of her valuable contribution the bottle of wine was awarded to Jess, who generously passed it on to Nick in recognition of his performance.

… and many thanks to Jonathan both for organising the event, and for the above report.

Congratulations to Daniel Shek – one of Crowthorne Chess Club’s junior members – who has won the Major section of the Northumbria Masters Congress.

The Congress was a nine round tournament held (over the board) over the recent Bank Holiday weekend (26th-30th August) with the Major section being open to players with a rating less than 1750.

Daniel won outright with 7 points out of nine, a half-point ahead of second and third places, with a performance rating of 1826 – over 100 points ahead of his current rating.

Full results can be found at the Chess Results Server

The infamous Crowthorne Chess Club summer mini-tournament, the KHYBER CUP, will be next Sunday, the 29^th August. This will be at the Bar & Café in the Pinewood Centre off New Wokingham Road/Peacock Lane in Crowthorne. Doors open at 10am and play will start not long after that, once we’ve set everything up. We aim to finish approaching 4pm, with a break for lunch.

For those not in the know: the Khyber Cup is a friendly rapid play chess event held since time immemorial (1984) with prizes (don’t get excited by this). Usually we meet in a member’s house or garden with lunch in a nearby pub, but this time, since we’re in the Pinewood Centre bar, we don’t need to move location for lunch. They do food there, burgers, scampi, that sort of thing. I’m sure it will be fine to bring sandwiches if you prefer. Tea and coffee (and beer and other drinks) are also available at the usual café rate.

We advise attendees to be mindful about covid; having a mask to hand would be a good idea. The weather forecast is looking favourable, and we should be able to play outside, plus the function room we’ve reserved has sufficient space that if we do play indoors the tables can be well separated.

To make the organisation slightly less chaotic than it would otherwise be, could you let Jonathan know whether you plan to attend or not. Some of you already have, so thanks for that.

Finally, playing in the Khyber Cup is not restricted to club members. It is also open to family and friends, as well as friends from other chess clubs, so please bring them along. Again, it would be useful for me to know approximate numbers and names in advance.

If you have any questions, just ask.

For more details about the venue, please see the Club Calendar entry for this event.