Several Chandler’s Ford players participated in January’s Castle Chess tournament. Please see our previous article about the event here; this article gives an update about CF players’ success in the Castle Chess January 2025 Fareham Congress.

Five Chandler’s Ford Chess Club players participated in the Castle Chess 26th Fareham Congress, held at the Lysses House Hotel in Fareham, 17th – 19th January 2025. The CF players enjoyed considerable success at the tournament, with three of them – David Holmes, Alikhan Menseitov and Philip Tarrant-Edwards sharing joint First in the Major with 2 non-CF players also achieving 4 points. Meanwhile, in the Minor, joint third Keven Lamb received a prize too!

Castle Chess hold three Congresses at the Lysses House Hotel in Fareham each year, in January, March, and October. The weekend tournaments comprise of six rounds, with one game on the Friday evening, three on the Saturday, and two on the Sunday. The games have a rate of play of 75 minutes plus 30 seconds per move. There are normally three sections, but this January the Congress did not have an Open section.

Photo gallery of January’s Castle Chess event

Remaining Castle Chess tournaments for 2025

• Castle Chess 27th Fareham Congress 14-16th March: castle-chess.co.uk – 27th Fareham Congress
• Castle Chess 28th Fareham Congress 10-12th October: castle-chess.co.uk – 28th Fareham Congress

A reminder to renew our membership subscriptions for 2025 for our venue, the Chandler’s Ford Central Club. Central Club Membership Renewals subscriptions run January to December each year. Renewals at the rates shown below are available from 3rd January 2025 online or in the office from 6th January. Any Membership renewals after 31st January will be subject to a Late Renewals Fee of £5.

To renew your Membership, see the Central Club’s website Subscriptions Page 2025 which gives details on how to pay online – their preferred method, although other ways are available.

Chandler’s Ford Central Club Membership Renewals 2025

See the Subscriptions Page 2025 of the Central Club website, and the table below. Membership fees are an important part of the Central Club’s income.

The cost of renewal will be:

MEMBER	Without Pass Card *	With Pass Card *
MALE/FEMALE	£25.00	£28.50
OAP	£12.50	£16.00
LIFE	Not available	£ 3.50

* Note: Pass card enables entry to all other Club and Institute Union (CIU)

Fees can now be paid electronically to the venue’s Bank Account – see Website Subscriptions Page 2025 for account details.

When sending the money please ensure you put your Member Number which can be seen on your Membership Card and Surname into the Payment Reference, to enable the details to be matched on the system.

If you want a CIU Pass card, please remember to add £3.50.

New Membership at the Central Club

If you haven’t joined the Chandler’s Ford Central Club yet, and would like to, please see their website’s ‘Join Us’ Page. There you will find a link to the Application Form. This is completed by you, plus Proposer and Seconder. Two passport photos, the form, and the fee should then be passed to the Club Secretary during normal Club hours (see the Central Club’s Home page for details).

Annual subscriptions for the venue is one of three financial costs if you want to fully engage with playing chess and the chess club, the other two outlays being annual subs to the Chess Club itself, and the other, annual membership of the English Chess Federation – so that you can participate in ECF-graded League matches and chess tournaments. See our What does it cost Page.

Castle Chess will be holding their 26th Fareham Congress on 17th-19th January 2025. The 6 Round Swiss tournament has 3 Sections. The time control for all sections is 75 minutes each plus a 30 second increment per move: 75+30. The Entry fee if £40. Read on for more details.

Castle Chess 26th Fareham Congress: main features

Dates: 17-19 January 2025.

Venue: the Lysses House Hotel, 51 High Street, Fareham, Hampshire. PO16 7BQ. Contact Castle Chess if you’d like to stay there for the tournament.

Entry fee: £40 (£8 discount for juniors under 18)

Sections: Open (Under 2001 ECF), Major (U1901 ECF), Minor (U1601)

Prizes: expected £200 per Section, but dependent on the number of entries.

Rate of Play: 75 minutes plus 30 seconds per move.

Playing Schedule:

• Friday 19:00-22:30 Round1
• Saturday 09:30-13:00 Round 2
• Saturday 13:45-14:00 Players Review: feedback forum.
• Saturday 14:00-17:30 Round 3
• Saturday 19:00-22:30 Round 4
• Sunday 09:30-13:00 Round 5
• Sunday 13:45-17:15 Round 6

How to Enter

Printable Entry Forms are on the Full Details flyer – see buttons to the flyer:

Also, you can contact the organiser Tony Corfe, by email or phone. 01707 661160        Mob: 07973 516718      tony@mrcorfe.co.uk

Who’s entered

See list of players on the Castle Chess website: Castle Chess 26th Fareham Congress January 2025 entrants

Photos from Castle Chess 25th Fareham Congress in October 2024

Click on the images and scroll through for more details.

Castle Chess Website: click on their logo image below:

Merry Christmas 2024 from Chandler’s Ford Chess Club! Best wishes for 2025!

The Book Prize tournament 2024-25 has 34 Players who compete in 4 Sections (A,B,C and D) according to player grading strength. Within each Section, it is an all-play-all structure in a series of Rounds. The tournament will run until August 2025.

The Tournament organiser is Peter Przybycin.

Each Round lasts 5 weeks, enabling the tournament to be on course to complete all games by August 2025. The Book Prize Tournament 2024-25 pages of this website for each Section will have the player pairings and results.

See the latest pairings and results on the ECF League Management System website.

See organiser Peter Przybycin‘s outline of the Tournament below.

Welcome to the fifth Chandlers Ford Book Prize Tournament!

We have 34 entries, in four sections, A, B, C, and D, according to player strength.

Sections A and D are of nine players, necessitating a bye in each round.

Sections B and C are of eight players.

There will be one round every five weeks, meaning the tournament should end in August 2025.

All games should be played at Chandlers Ford Chess Club, or alternatively at the home of the player with white pieces, if both players agree.

Online games are not permitted.

Rate of play will be 80 minutes plus 10 seconds per move.

Provided both players agree, the rate of play can be 90 minutes each for the whole game.

If two players tie for first place in any section, the book prize will go to the winner of their individual game. If that was a draw, then there will be a replay with reversed colours. If the replay is drawn, the player with the lower published grade (at the time of the replayed game) will take the prize.

Best wishes,

Peter P.

Quick links

The Book Prize Tournament 2024-25 main Page

Section A

Section B

Section C

Section D

The Hampshire Chess Association will hold their Hampshire Chess Congress 2024 on 1-3rd November, at the Lysses House Hotel in Fareham.

The tournament comprises 5 Rounds of games, organised in three Sections: The Open, the Major, and the Minor. There are currently 75 players entered in the tournament. Please note the venue’s capacity is 92 – so enter now!

The venue

The Lysses House Hotel in Fareham is a pleasant and friendly venue that has been used by the Hampshire Chess Association on previous occasions, and also by Castle Chess (they had 3 events there in 2024). The address is: Lysses House Hotel, 51 High Street, Fareham, Hampshire, PO16 7BQ.

Parking:

The Hotel has free parking for 35 cars, but there is a convenient car park very close to the venue: the Lysses Car Park, Lysses Path, Fareham PO16 7BE, free after 6pm and Sundays, whilst Saturday all day is only £3.50.

Hampshire Chess Congress 2024: details

Sections:

• The Open. £38 Entry fee. FIDE and ECF rated.
• The Major. Under 1900 English Chess Federation rating. £35 Entry.
• The Minor. Under 1600 ECF. £35 Entry.

Note: Entry fees based on ECF Membership of Silver or above. Otherwise add a £9 fee.

Late Fee: for entries received after Monday 28th October additional fee of £5. So enter the HCA Congress today!

Prizes

Each Section has Prizes 1st, 2nd, 3rd, plus a Grading Prize. There are also various Trophies and Cups in the Sections. Overall, there are further Prizes, such as the Gillian Moore Cup for the highest-scoring Hampshire Lady, and the John Dunleavy Memorial Best Game Prize (£100). The cash prizes are open to all players, whilst the Cups and Trophies are for Hampshire players.

For more details on the Prize see the HCA entry form link below:

Hampshire Chess Congress 2024 Timetable

• Rd 1: Friday 19:00
• Rd 2: Saturday 09:00
• Rd 3: Saturday 14:00
• Rd 4: Sunday 09:00
• Rd 5: Sunday 14:00 Prize-giving 10 mins after last round (18:00)

Rate of play

The time control is 90+30: that is, 90 minutes each plus 30 seconds per move.

Byes

A ½-point bye may be taken in any one round except the last if claimed in advance on the entry form.

Who’s Entered?

See who has entered by checking the HCA website – button below

Tournament organiser Rob Sims announces the New Ladder for 2024-25. As in the previous Ladders, players may challenge up to 4 places above themselves. This year the time control is 80+10 (80 minutes each, plus ten seconds per move).

The new chess Ladder 2024-25 started last week and will run until 2nd September 2025.

Organiser Rob Sims announces the new Ladder

Although the winner of the 2023-24 Ladder tournament has not been decided yet, as the final game between Theo and Peter Przybycin has not been played, I am sending out the new Ladder for the 24-25 season which has about 23 club members on it at the moment.

I am expecting a few more to join over the coming month and they will be slotted in on an appropriate rung when possible.

The rules remain the same as previously. If any of you play a game tomorrow evening at club please let me know the result as soon as possible.

Many thanks and good climbing to all

Best wishes

Rob

Click the link button below to go to the Ladder Page, with the latest ladder positions plus the Rules.

Ladder 2024-25 Rules

• Initial positions on the ladder are determined in order of rating.
• All games to be played on the clock, which will be set at 80 minutes each with 10 second increments per move.
• You may challenge anyone who is one, two, three, or four places above you on the ladder.
• A challenge cannot be made more than 7 days ahead of a game. Once a challenge is accepted neither the challenger nor the player being challenged may make or accept another challenge.
• The decision as to who plays white is made at the start of the game by one of the players choosing a black or white pawn from a closed hand.
• You can email challenges to your eligible opponents in advance, but it won’t count as a loss if your opponent is unable to play for any reason. 
• If the lower ranked player wins, the lower ranked player takes the higher ranked player’s position on the ladder, and the higher ranked player moves down one place.
• If the higher ranked player wins, there is no change in the players’ rankings.
  If the game ends in a draw, the lower ranked player takes the position just below the higher ranked player.
• After a ladder game is played, at least one of the players must play a ladder game against someone else before they can play each other again.
• Please report all results of games to me and I will submit them to ECF for grading purposes.
• The top three players on Tuesday 2nd September 2025 will play off to decide the eventual winner. Players in second and third place play each other and the winner plays the player in first place.

Rob Sims September 2024

Castle Chess will be holding their 25th Fareham Congress tournament on Friday 11th to Sunday 13th October 2024. The organiser is Tony Corfe. Full details on their flyer leaflet via the button link below (links to Microsoft Word or pdf versions).

Castle Chess have a new website: castle-chess.co.uk – Welcome

Printable Entry Form and full details

Castle Chess 25th Fareham Congress: main features

Dates: 11-13th October 2024

Venue: the Lysses House Hotel, 51 High Street, Fareham, Hampshire. PO16 7BQ. Contact Castle Chess if you’d like to stay there for the tournament.

Entry fee: £40 (£8 discount for juniors)

Sections: Open, Major (U1901 ECF), Minor (U1601)

Prizes: expected £200 per Section, but dependent on the number of entries.

Rate of Play: 75 minutes plus 30 seconds per move.

Playing Schedule:

• Friday 19:00-22:30 Round1
• Saturday 09:30-13:00 Round 2
• Saturday 13:45-14:00 Players Review: feedback forum.
• Saturday 14:00-17:30 Round 3
• Saturday 19:00-22:30 Round 4
• Sunday 09:30-13:00 Round 5
• Sunday 13:45-17:15 Round 6

How to Enter

Printable Entry Forms are on the Full Details flyer – see buttons to the flyer above.

Also, you can contact the organiser Tony Corfe, by email or phone. 01707 661160        Mob: 07973 516718      tony@mrcorfe.co.uk

Who’s entered

See list of players: Castle Chess 25th Fareham Congress October 2024 entrants

Photos from Castle Chess 24th Fareham Congress in March 2024

Chandler’s Ford player Alikhan Menseitov had a great tournament in March, being joint winner of the Minor Section!

As the new 2024-25 season starts this week, we reflect on what a great season we had in 2023-24.

In his Chandler’s Ford Chess Club Secretary Report, Malcolm Clarke summarized the season:

It has been a good season with our teams.  We were able to introduce an E team, while both our A and B team won their divisions and were promoted as a result.   We also won the Robertson Plate and our C team also came close to winning their division.

The Southampton Chess League Annual General Meeting in June was the moment Chandler’s Ford harvested a haul of trophies.

Chandler’s Ford win trophies at the League’s AGM

Division 2 of the SCL was a close-run table, with 3 clubs on 14 points. Our A Team emerged the winner. See the LMS Division 2 League Table.

Our B Team also enjoyed success, winning Division 3 and the Robertson Cup. See the LMS League Table Division 3 and Robertson Plate respectively.

As Malcolm mentioned in his Secretary’s report quoted at the top, the C Team came close to winning their division, Division 4, which was won by Basingstoke C.

Chandler’s Ford Chess Club celebrated its successful 2023-24 season by presenting individual souvenir trophies to the A and B team players. This was at CFCC’s own AGM on 11th September.

New Season 2024-25

The new season begins: can Chandler’s Ford build upon our tremendously successful 2023-24 season?

The new season begins tonight with 3 of our teams in two matches, both at our venue, the Chandlers Ford Central Club:

• CFA v Basingstoke A
• CFD v CFE (our D and E teams are both in the same Division – Division 5).

See the ECF League Management System page for the Southampton Chess League for the 2024-25 season:

Update: a reminder from the organiser that entry is FREE!

She Plays To Win is a non-profit organisation whose aim is to encourage more girls to learn and play chess. Next Sunday, 22nd September, SPTW will hold their Starter Girls Tournament for girls with little or no tournament experience. The games will be ECF rated. It is organised by Hampshire Junior Chess Association. For enquiries about the SPTW tournament please contact Maha Chandar. At the time of writing this Post, there are 31 entries.

Maha runs the Chandler’s Ford Junior Chess Club.

Tournament essential details

• The Tournament is a 5-round rapid-play event open to girls aged 18 or under.
• The tournament has a time control of 20 minutes for each player in each game (20+0).
• The first Round starts at 10:00 on Sunday 22nd September 2024.
• The tournament venue is Badger Farm Community Centre, 2 Badger Farm Road, Winchester, Hampshire SO22 4QB.
• The last Round starts at 2pm, and Prize-Giving will be at 3pm.
• Prizes: £30, £15, £10 for 1st, 2nd, 3rd respectively.
• Please enter via: https://form.jotform.com/241126242122036
• All SPTW enquires to Maha Chandar email: kidschess@hotmail.com

More Information

The She Plays To Win Starter Girls tournament is an event designed for girls of 18 years old or less who  are new to tournament chess and this event will be either their first or one of their first tournaments.

This is part of the She Plays to Win (SPTW) initiative created by IM Lorin D’Costa

More details at She Plays To Win Official Web Site

Entries to date:    https://chess-results.com/tnr973984.aspx?lan=1

Schedule  (Sunday 22nd September, 2024)

Round 1. 10am
Round 2. 11.am
Round 3. 12pm
Round 4. 1pm
Round 5. 2pm

The time control will be rapid play with twenty (20) minutes for each play. DGT 2010 timers will be used throughout.

Prize Giving. 3pm

Prize Fund

1st- £30
2nd- £15
3rd- £10

Entry will be confirmed once payment have been received.

All entries will be updated on chess-results.com at https://chess-results.com/tnr973984.aspx?lan=1

All SPTW enquires to Maha Chandar email: kidschess@hotmail.com