The 2021-22 Book Prize Tournament concluded this week, organiser Peter Przybycin announced. Keith Gregory is the winner of the Major, Nobby George the winner of the Minor. Both received their prizes from Peter at the end of season curry night. Congratulations Keith and Nobby!

Peter Przybycin announces the full results:

Hi All,

The Book Prize Tournament 2021-22 has now concluded.

We have known who the victors are for a few weeks now, with Keith Gregory winning the Major Section, and Nobby George winning the Minor Section. They were both presented with their prizes at the Club’s recent curry night.

Congratulations again to you both.

Runner up in the Major was Graham Stuart.

Well done Graham.

Third place in the Major was taken by Mike Henbury.

Well done Mike.

This section did have a slightly unsatisfactory ending, as Eric Jones was unable to play his final two games; defaulting against Rob Sims and Dick Meredith. This means that we will never know who would have finished in last place, possibly saving my blushes!

There are a couple of significant results to report in the Minor Section.

In round 8, Maha Chandar beat John Kooner, locking in the runner-up position.

Congratulations Maha.

In their round 9 game, Maha lost to Rob Strachan, meaning that three players finished the Minor section on six points; Steve Saunders, Rob Strachan, and John Kooner.

Steve Saunders takes the third slot on tiebreak, having the lowest ECF grade of the three.

Well done Steve.

Book Prize Tournament 2021-22 Final scores:

Major section:

• Keith Gregory 7.5
• Graham Stuart 6
• Mike Henbury 5
• Sam Murphy 4.5
• Manoj Chandar 4
• Eric Jones 4
• Keven Lamb 3.5
• Rob Sims 3 (+1 default)
• Dick Meredith 2 (+1 default)
• Peter Przybycin 2.5

Minor Section:

• Nobby George 9
• Maha Chandar 7
• Steve Saunders 6
• Rob Strachan 6
• John Kooner 6
• Geoff Parish 3
• Lee Mundy 2.5
• Ian Parker 2.5
• Rose Saunders 2
• Steve Dunleavy 1

I have thoroughly enjoyed running this tournament and I look forward to the next one. I expect to be asking for entries in a couple of months, once the Kooner Cup (AKA Summer Tournament) and Dunleavy Knockout have finished.

All the best,

Peter.

For full results of Major and Minor, all rounds, see the Book Prize Tournament Page:

The 2022 Knockout Round 1 draw has been made, now that the Preliminary Round’s record 26 entrants have been whittled down to the 16 players who begin Round 1.

Knockout 2022 Round 1

White	v	Black
Steve Saunders		Nobby George
Graham Stuart		Mike Henbury
Steve Dunleavy		John Kooner
Ewan Cave		Keith Gregory
Dick Meredith		Lee Mundy
Joseph Henbury		Peter Przybycin
Keven Lamb		David Culliford
John Pellegrini		Rob Sims

Knockout Rules recap

1. The name drawn first plays with white
2. In the event of a draw the players must play again (within the stipulated time period-13/7 if possible) with the colours reversed
3. Clocks to be set at 90 minutes for both players
4. All games to be played over the board at the club other than mike Henbury who can play his games on line (e.g. lichess.org)
5. All results will be sent for grading
6. The deadline date to play your games is the 13th July 2022 (club nights 21/6,28/6,5/7,12/7 + 1 day)
7. All results to be emailed to me Steve Dunleavy as soon as your game has been played
8. Please let me know if for any reason an extension of time to complete the game is required (as with Sam murphy and Mike Henbury in the preliminary round).

Steve Dunleavy

The Southampton Chess League will hold its Annual General Meeting on Tuesday 14th June 2022 – at our club’s venue, the Chandler’s Ford Central Club. The SCL AGM will start at 7:30pm.

SCL AGM Agenda

SCL AGM 14th June. Southampton Chess League EGM, Tuesday 14 June 2022, 7.30pm, Chandlers Ford Central Club (2 Winchester Road, Chandlers Ford, Eastleigh, SO53 2FZ)

Agenda

1. Welcome Thanks to Chandlers Ford club for hosting us.
2. Apologies for absence
3. Minutes of previous EGM (13 October 2021) and matters arising
4. Secretary / Fixture Secretary reports
5. Treasurer Report and League Subs See statement below to be done, prepared by Fraser McLeod who is acting as interim treasurer as no one else has offered to take on the role since Robin Williams stood down.
6. Website Robin Williams wishes to stand down from the webmaster role. He advises that now the website is set up it requires minimal effort to maintain.
7. Grading
8. Election of officers – The roles of treasurer and webmaster are vacant. We will likely need a new Chairperson as we understand that Chris Priest has been in poor health. Matthew Coldwell (Vice-chair) may wish to take this role (to be confirmed). Malcolm Clarke and Fraser McLeod are willing to continue as Fixtures Sec and League Sec, respectively. Roger Marsh (Grading Officer) is willing to continue in this role despite no longer living in the area.
9. Proposals
10. Planning for the next season
    a) Do we want a full season, i.e. from October to May?
    b) Do we want 5-board matches instead of 4 in top divisions?
    c) How many teams does each club want to field?
    1. League structure – tentatively place teams into five divisions. The SCL committee hope that we will have more teams than this season and that this may avoid relegations this season.

11. Trophy presentations
    Note: Robertson Cup, Individual and Rapidplay competitions were not held this season. See League winners table below for 2018-9 and 2022:

Division	2018-9 winner	2022 winner
1	Ringwood A	Fareham A
2	Hamble B	Salisbury A
3	Ringwood B	Basingstoke A
4	Salisbury C	Fareham B
5	Ringwood C	Basingstoke C

12. Any other business
How the 2022 (half)-season ended: see table above for Division winners. Click the button below to go to the SCL Website to see the Division Tables for full fixtures and results:

Chandler’s Ford Secretary Honoured at Previous SCL Meeting

Our Club Secretary Malcolm Clarke was awarded League and Club Trophies for his long service at last year’s meeting, which was in October 2021.

2022 Chandler’s Ford Season Review

Graham Stuart has compiled an excellent review of Chandler’s Ford Chess Club’s 2022 season, and analyses the performances of each of our club’s League teams. Click below to see his Review.

The Summer Tournament 2022 begins as its organiser Malcolm Clarke announces the player pairings for the first Round.

The Summer Tournament runs during the summer, and is a 5-round Swiss format between May and September. Usually in the Summer Tournaments, the winner’s name is engraved on the Kooner Cup and receives a replica of the Cup. The organiser is Malcolm Clarke.

The Summer Tournament is usually 5, but sometimes 6 Rounds over the summer months – about a month per Round. The winner receives the Kooner Cup for a year and usually gets to keep a replica. The games are standard play in terms of time control, 90 minutes each player.

Click on the button below to see the Summer Tournament 2022 Page:

Round 1 Pairings

White	v	Black
Keith Gregory		John Kooner
Lee Mundy		Iwan Cave
Graham Stuart		Ian Parker
Rob Strachan		Peter Przybycin
David Culliford		Alan Weaver
Steve Saunders		Sam Murphy
Mike Henbury		Steve Dunleavy
Geoff Parish		Rob Sims
Nobby George		Rose Saunders
John Pellegrini		Keven Lamb

Summer Tournament 2022 Rules

• The Games are 90 minutes all moves per player.
• When the Round Pairings are announced, the first-named plays as white.
• Notify Malcolm Clarke of the results.

The ninth and last Round of the Book Prize Tournament 2021-22 has been announced by organiser Peter Przybycin. The tournament ends on 28th June.

Current scores:

Major section:

• Keith Gregory 7/7
• Graham Stuart 5/7
• Sam Murphy 4.5/8
• Mike Henbury 4/7
• Eric Jones 4/6
• Manoj Chandar 3/7
• Keven Lamb 2.5/7
• Rob Sims 2/7
• Dick Meredith 2/8
• Peter Przybycin 2/8

Minor Section:

• Nobby George 7/7
• Maha Chandar 6/7
• John Kooner 5/7
• Steve Saunders 5/7
• Rob Strachan 4/6
• Ian Parker 2.5/7
• Geoff Parish 2/7
• Lee Mundy 1.5/6
• Rose Saunders 1/7
• Steve Dunleavy 0/7

Book Prize Round 9 Pairings

The pairings for this round include husband and wife club players Steve and Rose Saunders. They were inevitably going to play each other in an all-against-all tournament. Rose and Steve often play against each other, and online they have currently played over 2,300 games together! See our article when they reached the 2,000 milestone here.

Minor:

• Rose Saunders v Steve Saunders
• Lee Mundy v Steve Dunleavy
• Geoff Parish v John Kooner
• Ian Parker v Nobby George
• Maha Chandar v Rob Strachan

Major:

• Rob Sims v Keven Lamb
• Dick Meredith v Eric Jones
• Manoj Chandar v Peter Przybycin
• Keith Gregory v Graham Stuart
• Sam Murphy v Mike Henbury

Please note: the Book Prize Tournament will end on Tuesday 28^th June. No result will be recorded after that date.

All the best,

Peter.

Rules Reminder

(for full list see the Tournament’s Page) :

• Rate of play – 90 minutes each for the whole game.
• The first named player has the white pieces.
• Games will (preferably) be played over-the-board at chess club, or at the home of the player with the white pieces. Score sheets and clocks should be used.
• Games may alternatively be played online, using Lichess, by mutual consent. Score sheets are not needed for online games.
• Online games will not be sent for grading.
• The Book Prize Tournament will end on Tuesday 28^th June. No result will be recorded after that date.

Links

The Knockout Tournament 2022 , organised by Steve Dunleavy, has seen a record 26 entrants. It has a Preliminary Round plus six byes to establish the Round 1 players.

With a record 26 entrants this year we have 6 byes into the first round and 10 preliminary round games to qualify for the first round. If you are defeated in your preliminary round game you are eliminated from the competition. This system will reduce us from 26 to 16, and then 8,4,2 thereafter(for both the major and minor competitions- winners and losers from round 1).

Byes to Knockout 2022 First Round

The six byes into the first round are: Keith Gregory, Lee Mundy, Rob Sims, Steve Dunleavy, John Kooner, and Nobby George.

The Preliminary Round

The 10 preliminary games to qualify for the first round are as follows:

• Ewan Cave vs Geoff Parish
• Graham Stuart vs Ian Parker
• David Culliford vs Rob Strachan
• Alan Weaver vs Kev Lamb
• Steve Saunders vs Andrew Chivers
• Rose Saunders vs Peter Przybycin
• Patrick Pavey vs John Pellegrini
• Mike Henbury vs Sam Murphy
• Daniel Phillips vs Dick Meredith
• Peter Eales vs Joseph Henbury

Tournament Rules

The basic rules relating to this competition are as follows;

1. The player named first plays with white
2. The clock to be set at 90 minutes for both players
3. In the event of a draw the replay must be played asap after the deadline date with colours being reversed
4. All games to be played at club other than Mike Henbury who can play his game online
5. All results will be sent for grading
6. The deadline date to play the preliminary round is the 8th June (i.e. 3 club nights 24/5,31/5 and 7/6, + 1 day)
7. All results to be emailed to me Steve Dunleavy as soon as the game has been played. – Steve Dunleavy

Round 8 of the Book Prize Tournament 2021-2 starts, as organiser Peter Przybycin announces the player pairings for the Round.

Just one Book Prize Tournament game was played this week:

Mike Henbury 1 Dick Meredith 0

Current scores:

Major section:

• Keith Gregory 6/6
• Graham Stuart 4.5/6
• Mike Henbury 4/7
• Sam Murphy 3.5/7
• Eric Jones 3/5
• Manoj Chandar 3/7
• Keven Lamb 2.5/6
• Peter Przybycin 2/6
• Rob Sims 2/7
• Dick Meredith 1.5/7

Minor Section:

• Nobby George 7/7
• Maha Chandar 6/7
• John Kooner 5/7
• Steve Saunders 5/7
• Rob Strachan 4/6
• Ian Parker 2.5/7
• Geoff Parish 2/7
• Lee Mundy 1.5/6
• Rose Saunders 1/7
• Steve Dunleavy 0/7

Nobby beat Maha (who ran out of time in a winning position) to take control of the Minor section. He now needs just one more point to clinch the book prize.

Book Prize Round 8 Pairings

Minor:

• Rose Saunders v Steve Dunleavy
• Geoff Parish v Ian Parker
• Steve Saunders v Rob Strachan
• Nobby George v Lee Mundy
• Maha Chandar v John Kooner

Major:

• Rob Sims v Eric Jones
• Manoj Chandar v Keith Gregory
• Keven Lamb v Mike Henbury
• Graham Stuart v Dick Meredith
• Sam Murphy v Peter Przybycin

All the above games need to be completed by May 22nd if possible, when the final round pairings will be announced.

Please note: the Book Prize Tournament will end on Tuesday 28^th June. No result will be recorded after that date.

All the best,

Peter.

Rules Reminder

(for full list see the Tournament’s Page) :

• Rate of play – 90 minutes each for the whole game.
• The first named player has the white pieces.
• Games will (preferably) be played over-the-board at chess club, or at the home of the player with the white pieces. Score sheets and clocks should be used.
• Games may alternatively be played online, using Lichess, by mutual consent. Score sheets are not needed for online games.
• Online games will not be sent for grading.
• The Book Prize Tournament will end on Tuesday 28^th June. No result will be recorded after that date.

Links

85 players entered the Castle Chess 18th Fareham Congress 18-20th March 2022, a record for Castle Chess. And 5 of the entries were Chandler’s Ford Chess Club players. Here are photos and some results from Fareham Congress.

Photos of the tournament

Fareham Congress

The Castle Chess 18th Fareham Congress was held at the Lysses House Hotel in Fareham, 18th-20th March 2022. The format was a 6-round Swiss, Round 1 on the Friday evening, the next three rounds on the Saturday, and the remaining two rounds on Sunday. The games had a rate of play of 75 minutes per player per game, plus 30 seconds per move. There were 3 Sections, and each section had a sub category by ECF Grading.

• The Open, including the Premier (Under 2001 grade). Three Chandler’s Ford Chess Club players were entered in the Open: Keith Gregory, Graham Stuart, and Iwan Cave, who was 4th in the Premier category.
• The Major (Under 1901 grade), including the Intermediate (U1751).
• The Minor (under 1601), including the Challengers (U1451). Two players from our club entered the Minor, Keven Lamb, and Peter Eales, who won a prize in the Challengers. Great news for Peter as this was his first Tournament for 40 years.

Castle Chess were able to substantially increase the Prize fund due to the numbers of players that entered: 85 players, a record for Castle Chess.

For full results of all players, see the Castle Chess results page for the event via the button below:

Father vs son

In the Major, two closely-matched players who ended up with 4 points each inevitably had to play against each other: Richard Ursell and his son Adam Ursell. The two Highcliffe players drew in their Round 5 game.

A good cause

The organisers support a number of children in Zambia, and are pleased to announce that player donations during the weekend raised £186 to help with their school fees.

Links

• Castle Chess website
• Castle Chess Fareham 2022 page. Event Report and Results.
• ECF Events page for this tournament. Results via the Section links on the page.
• Previous article published on this website just before the tournament

The ECF are holding a 24-hour Charity Chess Marathon on chess.com in aid of the DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal this weekend 2-3 April.

The English Chess Federation will be holding a 24-hour online chess tournament this weekend, 5pm Saturday 2nd April to 5pm on Sunday. You can play as much or as little as you like, dipping in and out of the event as it suits you. The time control is 5 minutes per player per game.

The event, on chess.com, is in aid of the DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal via the British Red Cross. Everyone can donate with their entry or via the Red Cross Tiltify Page here – https://tiltify.com/british-red-cross/ecf-chess-marathon. You can register from 4pm Saturday.

Details of the event from the ECF

To play

Make sure you are a member of https://www.chess.com/club/english-chess-federation – which is free to join.
The tournament starts at 5.00pm UK time on Saturday April 2. From 4.00pm UK time you can join at https://www.chess.com/play/arena/1792555
Anyone can join free through the link above, but if you wish to be eligible for a prize please register first and donate £5.00 or more via the registration form found at https://www.englishchess.org.uk/ecf-charity-marathon-for-ukraine/ As with all Chess.com Arena tournaments you can play as much or as little as you like. You can even join late. The games are 5 minutes a side.

Prizes

To be eligible for a prize you need to register first and donate £5 or more. There are various prizes, for details see the ECF webpage: ECF Charity Marathon for Ukraine – English Chess Federation

To Watch

There will be live coverage of the tournament at https://www.twitch.tv/ecf_commentary
The commentary team will include GM Michael Adams, GM Matthew Sadler, GM John Emms, GM Chris Ward, GM Jon Speelman, WFM Kanwal Bhatia, WIM Natasha Regan, IM Tom Rendle, IM Ali Mortazavi, and MrDodgy.

Links

British Red Cross 24 hour Chess Marathon page on Tiltify.

Chess.com – the hosts for the event.

The ECF 24 hour Chess Marathon Page

The player pairings for the Book Prize Tournament 2021-2022 Round 7 are announced. Tournament organiser Peter Przybycin gives an update from Round 6 and the scores so far, and announces the Round 7 pairings.

Hi All,

Two results this week.

In the minor section Rob Strachan beat Rose Saunders, and in the major section Eric Jones drew his round 5 game with Mike Henbury.

Current scores:

Major section:

• Keith Gregory 5/5
• Graham Stuart 4/5
• Sam Murphy 3/6
• Eric Jones 3/4
• Mike Henbury 3/6
• Manoj Chandar 2/6
• Keven Lamb 2/5
• Rob Sims 2/6
• Peter Przybycin 2/6
• Dick Meredith 1/5

Minor Section:

• Nobby George 6/6
• Maha Chandar 6/6
• John Kooner 4/6
• Steve Saunders 4/6
• Ian Parker 2.5/5
• Rob Strachan 3/5
• Geoff Parish 2/6
• Lee Mundy 1.5/6
• Steve Dunleavy 0/6
• Rose Saunders 0/6

Book Prize Round 7 Pairings

Minor:

• Rose Saunders v Geoff Parish
• Steve Dunleavy v Steve Saunders
• Rob Strachan v Lee Mundy
• Nobby George v Maha Chandar
• John Kooner v Ian Parker

Major:

• Rob Sims v Manoj Chandar
• Eric Jones v Keven Lamb
• Mike Henbury v Dick Meredith
• Graham Stuart v Sam Murphy
• Peter Przybycin v Keith Gregory

Games to be completed by April 24^th if possible.

All the best,

Peter.

Rules Reminder

(for full list see the Tournament’s Page) :

• Rate of play – 90 minutes each for the whole game.
• The first named player has the white pieces.
• Games will (preferably) be played over-the-board at chess club, or at the home of the player with the white pieces. Score sheets and clocks should be used.
• Games may alternatively be played online, using Lichess, by mutual consent. Score sheets are not needed for online games.
• Online games will not be sent for grading.

Links