As many of you will have noticed, the LMS (League Management System) web sites for the Berkshire Chess League and the Surrey Border Chess League are no longer available.
These have served us well for over 20(!) years but changes to their underlying software mean that they are no longer viable.
As a result, both leagues have been relocated to the ECF’s LMS, which provides similar functionality. Here you can find dates of future fixtures, match results, league tables and so on, as you used to be able to on the old sites.
The Surrey Border League cam be accessed here: https://lms.englishchess.org.uk/lms/organisation/1281
and the Berkshire League here: https://lms.englishchess.org.uk/lms/organisation/1261
For example, to see future fixtures and match cards for one of the organisations, click on one of the competitions (say “Division 2” for the Surrey Border League) and they will appear, along with a number of other options (eg “League Table”) above the list of fixtures. Play around and you will get the idea.
At the time of this post, team captains cannot update match results directly. Instead please send them to the respective League Controllers who will put them on the system.
The Useful Links page has shortcuts to the Border and Berkshire leagues and tables on the ECF LMS.
Category Archives: News
Crowthorne wins their Group in the Online 4NCL!
Congratulations to our Online 4NCL Team, who have won their group in the 11th season of the event (click the table below for a larger image):
We were in Division 3 of 5, which was split into two all play all groups. We won our group which earned us promotion to Division 2 next season. We then went into the semi finals to determine the 1st 4 places and lost this match. We ended up 3rd in our Division.
Our history in the 4 NCL Online tournaments since they started during Covid is:
Season 1 Didn’t enter this
Season 2 In division 5 of 6
Season 3 In division 4 of 7
Season 4 In division 3 of 5
Season 5 In division 2 of 5
Season 6 Didn’t enter this
Season 7 Didn’t enter this
Season 8 In division 5 of 5
Season 9 In division 5 of 5
Season 10 In division 4 of 5
Season 11 In division 3 of 5
So if we enter a team in Season 12 (tbc but likely to start in September), we’ll be back in division 2, as we were in season 5.
Congratulations and thanks are also due to George for running the team, and for providing the above report.
Moving to Whitecairn in Wellington College
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Starting from April 23 2025, Crowthorne Chess Club has a new location within Wellington College.
Extensive works in the vicinity of the Shooting Hut mean that it is no longer available for use, and we are grateful to Wellington College for making Whitecairn available to us.
Full details on how to get there, and a map, are available in the About Us page. Whitecairn is an easier venue to get to than the Hut, but parking is rather limited there. Therefore, please use the Sports Club Car Park (as we did for the Monro Pavilion), details for this are also in the About Us page.
Delancey UK Chess Challenge at Crowthorne Chess Club – Completed!
Well done to all the juniors who competed in the Delancey UK Chess Challenge tournament. The tournament has been run over the last few weeks, with the final round taking place last Wednesday (2nd April). Many thanks to John Upham for organising and running the tournament.
The tournament was won by Vickie, who scored an impressive 7 wins out of 7. Henry was in clear second place. The final results are available here: Chess-results.com – Crowthorne Junior UKCC Qualifier
Congrats Vickie!
Delancey UK Chess Challenge
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
Junior 4NCL Online Season 11 summary
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!
Delancey UK Chess Challenge tournament
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
Christmas Speed Handicap 2024
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.
Rated Blitz for Final Junior Club Night of 2024
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Wednesday, December 18th will be the final club night of 2024 and with no league matches scheduled we are running an extended junior club night running until 8.30pm. Our ECF arbiter, John Upham, will run an ECF rated blitz event using a 3″ + 2′ time control over at least six rounds.
Details may be found at https://chess-results.com/tnr1079508.aspx?lan=1
The event will be best enjoyed by the wearing of Christmas jumpers by players, adults and officials!
Vickie wins First Junior Blitz Tournament of 2024/25!
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.
