The Tournament is set for next Tuesday, 19th May 2020, at 8pm, and will run for one hour. Games will be ten minutes for each player, with no additional increment. Once your game ends you get paired again, and so on until the hour is up. It is available for Chandlers Ford Chess Club lichess team members, so if you’d like to play, register on lichess, then join the Chandlers Ford Chess Club ‘team’ . Then on Tuesday join the fun at Chandlers Ford Arena tournament!
The winner will be announced on this website and on our Facebook Group. No prizes I’m afraid…
Last week I played in the Play Chess for the NHS charity tournament on chess.com. Two players from our club entered, myself and Maha. And Maha won last week!
The time control is Blitz– 10 minutes per player per game in a one-hour event, so you’d expect up to 3 games in that time. This could be more if your games are completed in shorter time: there are no rounds, so you get paired after each game, with as many games as you can fit in one hour.
The organisers have a Just Giving page (Mike Hill, fundraising for NHS Together) for voluntary donations of any amount. A good cause! I will be playing again tomorrow, 9th May: the events are each Saturday 2pm for one hour, on chess.com.
Charity fund-raising online chess tournament on Saturdays 2pm.
While social distancing is making over the board chess difficult to arrange a national chess initiative is being set up by keen chess player Jon Hill and his brother and coordinated by Joanne Ferry which it is hoped will raise £10000 for the NHS.
They will be hosting weekly tournaments every Saturday at 2pm on chess.com and are encouraging those who take part to donate to their Just Giving page ahead of playing.
They are encouraging everyone to donate as much or as little as they can, even £1 to join in, and won’t be checking each players donation as they understand money is an issue for many at this difficult time. They will trust that everyone who joins in will have given what they can, and will continue to encourage playing chess as a means to keep our players occupied and safe at home during lockdown.
Chess.com’s app is currently under construction and so they ask that players use a mobile browser or laptop to play so they don’t encounter any issues. The tournaments will be an Arena style with a time limit of 1 hour with 10 minutes blitz standard chess games. It should be great fun as everyone gets to play different players from around the world as many times as they want to, within the hour. Their points are calculated at the end and the winners are announced.
The top 3 winners will receive an online trophy next to their username on chess.com. Also, the top ten winners of every tournament will be published on their Facebook page.
The English Chess Federation grading database gives two types of Grades: your Standard grade and your Rapid-play grade. What are the differences between these types of game? And what are Blitz and Bullet games? We take a minute to look into the different types of chess game.
Standard and Rapid are just two of several types of chess game duration. There are also Blitz and Bullet. Time duration is usually defined as the amount of time each player gets to complete the game, and can be formed of a base set amount of time plus an option for extra time added with each move made – called an increment (such as 5 seconds per move and so on). Online you might see a time control described as a number followed by a + another number – for example 5+3: it will be the base amount of time in minutes + number in seconds for the increment: 5 minutes plus 3 seconds per move in this example (for a Blitz game).
Another type of time control can also be set on the time for each move.
Standard
Standard: chess clocks at 90 minutes each
Standard chess games are defined by the international Chess body FIDE as being chess games where each player’s thinking time is at least 60 minutes.
There are various ways Tournaments and Leagues determine their time-control: this could be one fixed time of say 90 minutes for all moves each, or to have a time-control for a certain number of moves followed by a fixed ‘quick play finish’ (QPF) to complete all remaining moves (example: 36 moves in an hour and 15 minutes, followed by 15 minutes each QPF to complete all remaining moves). Another method is to have a fixed element plus increment: each player has a basic amount of time, but every move they make gains extra time on the clock, say 5 seconds a move; digital clocks are necessary for this.
For our League games (certainly in the lower Divisions) and our own tournaments we favour a fixed all-moves time control of 90 minutes each (i.e. without adding increments). The digital clocks count down, and analogue clocks, where used, are set at half-past four, flag falls (time’s up) at 6 o’clock. Whoever’s flag falls first loses the game – they’ve “lost on time”.
Rapid-play
Rapid-play is defined as being a game where players’ thinking time is more than ten minutes but less than 60. Some tournaments now have games where the players have 25 minutes each to start with, with an increment of say 5 seconds a move: these games do not usually go beyond one hour in all.
Rapid-play: chess clocks set for 30 minutes each
Blitz
chess clocks set for 10 minutes each (Blitz)
Blitz is where all moves are played in 10 minutes or less each per player. If a game time is under 3 minutes, that is defined as Bullet.
Bullet
Bullet chess: less than 3 minutes
Bullet games are under 3 minutes for each player. Playing this type online would avoid the inevitable knocking-over of pieces in a frantic live face-to-face game..
Castle Chesshttp://www.castlechess.co.uk/ their time control is of Standard type of length, 36 moves in 90 minutes plus 15 QPF to finish.
Southend Easter Congress (cancelled for 2020…) http://southendchesscongress.org.uk/ Another example of a Standard play tournament: 90 minutes per player per game PLUS 30 seconds per move.
Docklands Rapid-playhttp://www.spanglefish.com/docklandschessclub/ An example of Rapidplay, time control at their regular tournaments in Poplar is 25 minutes plus 5 seconds per move (i.e. about an hour a game in all).
Golders Green FIDE Rapidplayhttp://goldersgreenchess.blogspot.com/ also have a time control of 25 minutes per player plus 5 seconds per move increment. Interestingly they seem to be running online tournaments whilst the Covid-19 Coronavirus health crisis continues, using Lichess.org as hosts (join team Chess-England).
Lichess.orgArenas (tournaments) for Blitz as well as other types – bullet, Rapid etc.
Chess.com online chess website: players can select the time limits for their games.
With the early end of the season, and no club nights due to the coronavirus crisis curtailing any new club activity, we take a look back over a previous highlight, when some of our club went to watch the London Chess Classic in 2012.
London Chess Classic 2nd December 2012
The London Chess Classic 2012 was held at the Olympia Conference Centre, Kensington, London, 1-10 December 2012. The world’s best players competed, but there were also tournaments for players of all strengths. The top players playing in the Classic were: Luke McShane, Hikaru Nakamura, Mickey Adams, Vladimir Kranmik, Viswanathan Anand, Magnus Carlsen, Judit Polgar, Levon Aronian, and Gawain Jones.
Levon Aronian vs Magnus Carlsen, London Classic 2012
Three of us from the club went to spectate on 2nd December. We watched the world’s best players do battle on the stage in the main auditorium, and we listened to analysis in the analysis/media room. Guy is blind, but was able to follow some of the action using his Braille chess set.
Don, Guy, Kev visit the London Chess Classic 2012
And we met Viswanathan Anand and Luke McShane.
Luke McShane vs Vishy Anand at the London Chess Classic 2012
We met the chess stars Luke McShane and Vishy Anand as they emerged from their gruelling game in the second round of the Classic. Their match ended drawn. The time control for the top players playing in the Classic was: 2 hours for 40 moves, followed by 1 hour for 20 moves, followed by 15 minutes + 30 seconds per move for the rest of the game. They still seemed weary and drained from their game, but both were happy for their photos to be taken.
Luke McShane and Guy Whitehouse at the London Chess Classic 2012
The two chess stars were good sports and only too happy to oblige with photos.
Guy Whitehouse with Vishy Anand at the London Chess Classic 2012
The Classic ran from Saturday 1st December 2012 through to Monday 10th. We visited on the second day – Round 2 games. There were 9 Rounds, one a day (but note how long the games could last), with one rest day.
The winner was Magnus Carlsen, who finished with a score of 18 points (the scoring system was 3 points for a win, one for a draw). Vishy Anand came 5th with 9 points, and Luke McShane was 8th, with 5 points.
Guy Whitehouse has since moved to Leicestershire. He plays for Wigston club, Leicestershire County, and is the Secretary of the Braille Chess Association. Don Creasey and Keven Lamb are members of the Chandlers Ford Chess Club.
Malcolm Clarke has two stories to report on this week: an online chess opportunity, and change at the top of the League Committee.
Although the Coronavirus has put over the board chess on hold until things improve there are still many opportunities to play chess online.
Ringwood chess club has instigated Lichess arena events for its club members, and this is also open to members of other local chess clubs. Further details of the events being organised can be found either on the Ringwood chess club website or by contacting the organiser mjclancy@btconnect.com.
Gillian Moore is standing down as chairman of the Southampton Chess League at the next AGM. after more than 10 years of honourable service. If local player or chess enthusiast wants to take over and carry on Gilllian’s good work the Southampton Chess League committee would like to hear from them.
League President Gillian Moore presents Fraser McLeod with the Individual Cup at the 2019 SCL AGM.
Malcolm Clarke‘s latest press report announces the chess club’s closure until further notice due to the coronavirus. Things have moved rapidly in the last few days, with the Prime Minister’s announcement that social venues should all close. Our venue, Chandler’s Ford Central Club, is now closed.
Like all other sporting events the Coronavirus has put the
chess season on hold and Chandlers Ford are one of many local clubs to stop
meeting until further notice.
Originally with their spacious venue allowing a reasonable
amount of spaces between boards and the introduction of vigorous hand hygiene
and sanitisation procedures they did consider the possibility of playing on,
but things have moved on in the 10 days since that option was considered
and with vulnerable adults being amongst
the chess playing community, as the government introduced more radical measures
to prevent the spread of the disease there was absolutely no way the club could
not fall into line.
The Chandlers Ford chess club had six remaining league
matches to play, two for both the B and D teams and one for both the A and C
team, but at the present time it is clear that people’s health is a more
important consideration.
Chandlers Ford Chess Club will not be meeting until the Covid-19 Coronavirus health crisis is over.
Southampton Chess League and Cup matches are all off as the SCL’s default position from now, and several chess clubs had already announced they are closing for the duration.
Government health advice about the coronavirus to everyone can be found at the government website and at the NHS website. Further information about social distancing (avoiding contact with other people) – and isolation – can be found on the BBC website.
Please note: this Post relates to the Chess Club: the venue itself is still open – as long as you don’t have symptoms.
The B Team stay top of Division 4 despite losing one match, whilst the D team played in the Division 5 Cup Final. Malcolm Clarke reports.
Chandlers Ford B suffered their first league defeat of the season when they went down 2.5-1.5 to University C. Despite this they comfortably sit at the top of Division 4, but they can still be caught by three other teams. Surprisingly it is only the bottom three teams that can catch them with Andover whose last four games are all at home, one of which is against Chandlers Ford having the best chance. The two players with the white pieces got Chandlers Ford’s 1.5 points against University with Keven Lamb winning and David Culliford drawing.
Chandlers Ford D lost their Division 5 Cup final against Salisbury C3-1 with the two players playing with the black pieces Rob Sims and Steve Dunleavy drawing, with Dunleavy’s draw against a higher graded player being particularly meritorious. A couple of games counting for grading purposes only were played, but both of these were won by the Salisbury player,
Malcolm Clarke reports on 2 Chandler’s Ford matches against Salisbury -and their different outcomes. Also, Winchester C’s match against Southampton D.
Chandlers Ford C were whitewashed 4-0 by Salisbury C, but the Chandlers Ford A team had better luck in a match against Salisbury B winning 3-2 in a match which featured four draws. Dave Holmes, Graham Stuart and Sam Murphy agreed draws early in proceedings which just left the games involving Ian Hardwick and David Culliford outstanding. Hardwick was a pawn up and the game went down to a rook and pawn ending, which the Chandlers Ford player won after his opponent lost a rook, although by that stage in proceedings he had a winning position anyway, Culliford agreed a draw when although after fighting back from an inferior position to be ahead on material after his opponent had allowed a pawn fork he was desperately short of time on the clock and agreed a draw to ensure the match was won.
Winchester C won 2.5-1.5 against Southampton D with Bob Cleave and Sam Rebdi the two players playing with the white pieces being their winners and Graham Payne drawing his game, Winchester C are comfortably second in division 4, but they and third placed University C are the only teams in the division that cannot catch leaders Chandlers Ford B
