The next and final round of the Delancey UK Chess Challenge will take place next Wednesday (2nd April) at Wellington College. This is a junior rapidplay tournament, with opportunities to progress to the next stages of the UK Chess Challenge. All games are rated.
So far the tournament has brought six rounds of well-fought chess, all played in a good sporting sprit. The progress of the tournament can be seen here: Chess-Results Server – Crowthorne Junior UKCC Qualifier
Once again George Green captained Crowthorne Chess Club’s team in the Junior Online 4NCL, for the recently completed 11th Season. He has sent us this summary:
We played our final match of the season yesterday evening and won it 8-0 !!
We finished 7th in Division 3 (last season we were 6th), with 5 wins, 0 draws, 2 losses).
Table: 4nclresults.co.uk/2024-25/media/kids/11th/prog-div3.html
Thanks go to David’s Dad for captaining the team for the sixth match while I was away on my hols.
I expect there to be a season 12 starting in September, but that has not yet been confirmed.
In Season 11, I had a team of seven, plus one reserve only to play if absolutely necessary. My team selection process was to share the games around as evenly as possible, rather than to always pick the strongest team. This worked well, with three players being “rested” on two occasions each, and four “resting” on one occasion each.
Well done to everyone who played in it, and to George for organising it!
We are kicking-off the Delancey UK Chess Challenge tournament this coming Wednesday (12th March) to run for the next four weeks.There will be seven rounds of ECF rated rapidplay with a 10’ + 5” time control.
Entry is FREE. There will be amazing prizes galore! Please let John Upham know if your child will be taking part by email or WhatsApp.
Details of the tournament, and all results when it is in progress can be found here: https://chess-results.com/tnr1079502.aspx?lan=1
The annual Christmas Speed Handicap was held on Friday 13th December in the function room of the Pinewood Bar & Café and reached a new height of attendance with 29 players, one more than last year’s 28 players. Included in the mix were most of the club stalwarts, and also a handful of juniors and a couple of parents playing too. But a most welcome surprise guest was Paul Gillham, a club member from over 30 years ago, joint club champion in 1987, and former runner up in the Speed Handicap in 1990. Thank you for attending Paul!
We again had four groups in the first stage, with the top four players from each group proceeding through to the knock out stage. Notable results from the group stage include Matthew Palmer and William Purle, who won every single game in their respective groups. Also noteworthy for winning all but one game were John Rawlinson, Nick Calvert, David Purle and Colin Purdon.
By the semi-final stage we had Matthew, two Ethans (Ang and Smyth) and, representing the adult players, Alexander Waters. The final itself was between the two Ethans, who not only share a first name but also a birthday. Their game was one of the most mature and sensible games I witnessed all evening, certainly better than any of mine, and proceeded very competitively until Ethan Smyth opened up lines on Ethan Ang’s king side, eventually breaking through to win with a checkmate. Congratulations to Ethan and commiserations to Ethan.
For two years running we’ve had a pure junior final and it is clear that several juniors are considerably stronger than their ECF ratings imply. I’ll impose a higher minimum rating level next year to balance results more evenly across the age range.
At the other end of the performance scale, the “winner” of the bottle of wine was yours truly [Jonathan, our club secretary], leaving me wishing I’d chosen a bottle of Antinori Tignanello as wooden spoon compensation.
Vickie Lin has won the first junior blitz tournament of the 2024/25 season, which was held on three club nights in November. Vickie scored an impressive 8 points out of nine to win outright, with David Purle in second place with 7.5 points.
The tournament was organised by ECF Arbiter and club member John Upham, and similar events for junior members will follow.
Full results can be seen on the chess-results site.
The first rated junior blitz tournament of the season started this week. It is a nine round blitz (each player gets 5 minutes total for the game) that will take place over three or four Wednesday sessions. Many thanks to John Upham for organising this.
Full details of the tournament, including results, pairings, standing and so on can be found here: Chess-results.com – Crowthorne Junior Blitz 2024
Blow are some pics of Wednesday’s action, please click for a larger image.
Unfortunately we do not have access to the Monro Pavilion this week so unfortunately we have to postpone our first meeting of the new season until next week.
Please refer to emails from Jonathan for further information.
The Khyber Cup took place Saturday, 13th July, 40 years since the first Khyber Cup in 1984, which makes it older than many club members (though not all).
We were hosted this year by John Upham, in his recently refurbished house and super garden, and had an excellent turnout with 18 players. The weather was sufficiently kind that we could play all rounds outside, and the forecast rain showers never really emerged. John arranged for a buffet at the nearby Thatched Cottage, which was excellent in quality, quantity and value.
The Khyber Cup is the opportunity for less proficient club members to steal a point from those higher up in the ratings order, but the only upset I’m aware of this year was when Richard’s chair collapsed underneath him leaving him flat on his back (fortunately unhurt and unshaken, he went on to win the game).
Unlike last year, when we had a four-way tie for first place, this year we had a clear winner in Paul Cooksey, who scored an impressive 4.5 points out of the 5 games, his first Khyber Cup win. Congratulations to Paul.
Paul was closely followed by Richard and Ian (Thompson), both previous winners, on 4 points.
We also had a clear winner (if that’s the right word) in the competition for the bottle of wine, which was awarded to Christine.
Thanks to John for being an excellent host and organising and running the event. Thanks also to Zak who, although not playing, generously donated the refreshments.
Many thanks to Richard for providing an annotated game from his recent success at the Dorset Centenary Congress in Bournemouth. This is his final round game.
Richard equalised comfortably out of the opening and was slightly better around move 15. Then White made the mistake of exchanging off his best minor pieces (his knights). This resulted in a slight initiative to Richard, which he made use of by attacking two pawns, and winning one of White’s queen’s pawns (and the other one will drop off shortly). White’s resignation may seem a little early at first sight, but his position was quite lost and lacked active counterplay.
An instructive game.
Several Crowthorne Chess Club members played in the Dorset Congress in Bournemouth last weekend (19-21 April) and Richard Webb came equal first in the open!
Here is a position from his Round 2 win. Richard’s opponent has unwisely just played 18 …Bd7, 18 …Rg8 was a better try, but his position would already be very difficult after 19 Ne5.
What did Richard play to force a quick win?