This week: Knockout Tournament organiser Steve Dunleavy presents the Trophy to the 2020 winner Peter Przybycin; results of the week’s online tournaments, plus details of the coming week’s online tournaments.

2020 Knock Out Tournament winner Peter Przybycin presented with Trophy

Peter Przybyin won this year’s Knockout Tournament. The tournament was organised by Steve Dunleavy, who presented the Trophy to Peter (in a socially safe way) last weekend.

Tuesday Arena: the Force is strong with the Ewok

Twelve of us participated this week in the online tournament on 3rd November. Congratulations to Mike Henbury (Ewokmike) on coming first – by a huge margin. Although he didn’t go ‘Berserk’ to score bonus points, the Ewok still ran amok – and won all his games. The Force was clearly with him.

Well done too John Kooner 2nd, and Sam Murphy 3rd.

The Tuesday Arenas are online on lichess.org.

SCL Tournament 5th November 2020

Thursday evening’s online tournament this week was the Southampton Chess League‘s monthly tournament, the SCL Rapid – Tournament No 2. These monthly lichess.org online tournaments are set up and organised by Graham Stuart from our Club. These tournaments are well-supported by Chandler’s Ford players: 9 of this month’s participant’s were from our club. Graham also created the Chandler’s Ford Chess Club on lichess.org.

And a mention for Rose who got an impressive ten games played during the tournament!

Forthcoming online Tournaments

Two Chandler’s Ford chess club online tournaments on lichess.org this week: the regular Tuesday Arena on 10th November, and our 5-round Swiss on Thursday 12th. Both have now been set up and are ready to join.

Tuesday Arena, 8pm 10th November 2020

This is our regular online tournament in which players have ten minutes each per game in the one-hour tournament. 8pm start. Click on the button below to go to the Tournament.

5-round Swiss, Thursday 12th November

On Thursday 12th the club has its regular 5-round Swiss tournament. This starts at 8pm on lichess.org. Players have an initial 7 minutes each per game plus a 3-second increment per move (that is, about ten minutes each). Click on the button below to go to the Tournament.

A new Chandler’s Ford Chess Club Tournament begins, and is just the format for these pandemic times: online. Peter Przybycin announces the draw for the 1st Round of the New Online Club Tournament, and outlines the rules of the contest.

Round 1 Pairings

White		Black
Rose Saunders		Mike Henbury
Geoffrey Parish		Keven Lamb
Rob Strachan		Don Creasey
Rob Sims		Steve Dunleavy
John Kooner		Steve Saunders

Tournament Rules

The tournament will be over nine rounds (all play all) .

Although players will sometimes play several consecutive games with the same colour, each player will have at least four games with white during the course of the tournament.

Each round to be completed within three weeks of pairings being issued. A certain amount of flexibility will be given on this rule. Any problems with meeting the deadline of each round, please let me know as early as possible.

Games to be played on Lichess. Time limit 90 minutes each player.

Normal rules of chess will apply throughout.

The winner of each game is to inform me of the game result. In the event of a draw, the player with white has this responsibility.

Enjoy yourselves!

Peter.

There is a new Page on this website for the New Tournament, and this will be updated with results when known. The Page will be a useful reference as the tournament goes on, with tables for all rounds, plus the tournament’s rules.

This week: Hampshire Juniors victory against Berkshire Juniors; West England Chess Union (WECU) County chess online matches from January; results of this week’s club online tournaments, and details of the forthcoming tournaments.

Hampshire Juniors Victory in Team Battle

The Team Manager of the Hampshire Juniors , Maha Chandar, reports that the Hampshire Juniors won their online Team Battle on lichess.org against the Berkshire Juniors team 322 points to 208. The Saturday Afternoon Event on 31st October 2020 was a Team Battle tournament , a team version of the lichess.org Arena tournaments. The Event was a 2-hour tournament. Well done Hampshire! 54 players took part. See the tournament results list in full at: https://lichess.org/tournament/sR5uGBiB

There are some impressive statistics from the tournament:

Maha runs the Chandlers Ford Junior Chess Club.

Tuesday Arena, 27th October

Nine of us participated this week in the online tournament on 27th October. Congratulations to Don Creasey on coming first. Well done too Dean Shaw (Sheff84) 2nd, and David Culliford (djc202) 3rd. Dean has only recently joined our lichess club and is off to a good start.

5-round Swiss Tournament 29th October

Nine of us participated this week in the online tournament on 29th October. Congratulations to Graham Stuart (WillHeSac) on coming first. Well done too Keith Gregory 2nd, and Patrick Pavey 3rd.

WECU Online County Chess

Hampshire Team Captain Fraser Mcleod announces the online West England County chess championship:

We have been invited to participate in an online West of England championship along with Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. The proposed format is one game on Lichess every 3 weeks starting early in January, Sunday evenings starting at 7 p.m.
Rate of play: 90’/15″. Results submitted to ECF for online rating

Please let me know if you’d be interested in playing.

Regards Fraser

Fraser McLeod

Forthcoming online tournaments

Two online tournaments on lichess.org, our regular Tuesday Arena on 3rd November, and on Thursday 5th November the monthly Southampton Chess League Rapid Arena Tournament (the SCL Rapid – Tournament No 2 Arena on lichess).

The Tuesday Arena tournament is a one-hour event in which players have ten minutes each per game (i.e. a rapid play). It starts at 8pm. Click on the button below to be taken to the tournament on lichess.org – it’s already set up.

The SCL tournament starts at 7:30 pm on Thursday 5th November, and is a one and a half hour Arena event. The time control is 7 minutes initially per player per game plus a 3 second increment per move – the same as our 5-round swiss events.

To participate you need to be in the Southampton Chess League ‘club’ on lichess.org. Click on the button below to go to the SCL club screen on lichess.org, and join the club.

Chandler’s Ford Juniors organiser Maha Chandar announces the Juniors County match Hampshire vs Berkshire which is on Saturday 31st October 2020 at 2pm, online at lichess.org.

Dear chess parent,

Your child in invited to play in HJCAs very first Saturday Afternoon Event (SAE).

This is a rated friendly match versus our neighbours, Berkshire Junior Chess Association (BJCA).

This will take place on the Lichess Arena and use the Team Battle format.

Please ask your child to register at

https://lichess.org/tournament/sR5uGBiB

If they are not already registered for HJCA then please visit https://lichess.org/team/hampshire-junior-chess-association  and submit a Join request.

We are planning further SAEs which will incorporate Zoom training sessions from experienced coaches.

Thanks

Kind Regards

Maha

Chandler’s Ford Junior Chess Club

Links to the team and the event on lichess.org:

Also see the Hampshire Junior Chess Association website.

This week, the Summer Tournament progresses, with just one more match to go; results of last Tuesday’s online Arena Tournament and Thursday’s 5-Round Swiss; details of this week’s online tournaments. Plus, club history project. And The Queen’s Gambit.

Summer Tournament update

The 5th and final round of the 2020 Summer Tournament progresses well, with just one game to go. Peter Przybycin currently leads on 4.5 points. Here’s the 5th Round table:

2020 Round 5 Pairings (last Round)

White	v	Black
Sam Murphy		Phil Overton
Peter Przybycin	1-0	John Kooner
Rob Sims	0.5-0.5	Maha Chandar
Rob Strachan	0-1	Steve Dunleavy
Rose Saunders	0-1	Steve Saunders
Bye – Don Creasey

Tuesday Arena, 20th October

Twelve of us participated this week in the online tournament on 20th October. Congratulations to Sam Murphy on coming first. Well done too David Culliford (djc202) 2nd, and me- Kev Lamb– 3rd.

5-Round Swiss tournament 22nd October

Eleven of us played in the Thursday evening tournament on 22nd October. Congratulations to Graham Stuart (WillHeSac) who won this week. Well done too Keith Gregory 2nd, and Mike Henbury (Ewokmike) 3rd.

Forthcoming online tournaments

This week our regular Tuesday Arena tournament on 27th October, and a 5-round Swiss on Thursday 29th .

The Chandler’s Ford Chess Club Arena Tournament on Tuesday 27th October is at 8pm on lichess.org, and is the usual one-hour ‘Arena’ event in which players have ten minutes each per game.

On Thursday 29th the club has its regular 5-round Swiss tournament. This starts at 8pm on lichess.org. Players have an initial 7 minutes each per game plus a 3-second increment per move (that is, about ten minutes each).

Chess Club history project

Following on from queries by club regular Steve Dunleavy, examining the history of our chess club has captured the imaginations of many in the club. Current players come from a variety of chess clubs before joining together in our club. We’d like to put together members’ recollections and piece together the history of the chess club. Seeing contributions of players’ experiences already, this obviously strikes a chord with members. Please send in your thoughts to Rob Sims who is leading the project or me, Kev Lamb.

The Queen’s Gambit

Netflix viewer and club stalwart Graham Stuart recommends viewing the series The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix.

“Just a quick note, that if you have Netflix the series they have based on Walter Tevis’s book (which for my shame I have not read) is now available. Have watched the first three episodes and have enjoyed it so far. The chess is accurate, although they play a bit quickly and think the acting is very good. “

Graham Stuart

This week: the Daily Echo publishes an online gallery of chess photos – with some familiar faces… Also, results of the Online Tournaments on 13th and 15th October; links to join forthcoming tournaments; and we mention another newspaper article – in the Guardian.

Photos on Daily Echo website

The Daily Echo have published a gallery on their website of 65 photos of pictures of people playing chess. There are a few of an Individual Championship at the Unity Club, a former venue of our own chess club. There is one of Southampton Chess Club players, many familiar faces still current in the chess league.

But there are some great pictures of current and former members of our own club: Gunther Burkert, Mike and Joseph Henbury. I remember the occasion, an Echo photographer came to our club to take photos of our then oldest and youngest players Gunther Burkert and Joseph Henbury. This was on 31st March 2009. Gunther was 83 and Joseph was 8 years old.

See photos 52 – Mike , 53 – Gunther, 54 – Joseph, 56 – Joseph and Mike, 57- Gunther and Joseph of the Echo Gallery.

Here’s one of our own photos of Gunther and Joseph (and Mike) that year:

Online tournament results 13th October

Fourteen of us took part in this week’s weekly online ‘ Tuesday Arena’ online tournament on 13th October on lichess.org. Congratulations to Joseph Henbury who won this week’s Tournament. Well done too Maha Chandar 2nd and Sam Murphy 3rd. Sam had connection problems during the tournament but still got a good number of games in.

5-round Swiss online tournament results 15th October

Eight of us played in this online tournament on 15th October on lichess.org. Congratulations to Joseph Henbury on winning the 5-round Swiss. A good week for him, winning both of our online tournaments and being featured in the Echo photos… Well done too Patrick Pavey who came 2nd, and Graham Stuart 3rd.

Forthcoming Online Tournaments

This week our regular Tuesday Arena tournament, and a 5-round Swiss on Thursday 22nd .

The Chandler’s Ford Chess Club Arena Tournament on Tuesday 20th October is at 8pm on lichess.org, and is the usual one-hour ‘Arena’ event in which players have ten minutes each per game.

On Thursday 22nd the club has its regular 5-round Swiss tournament. This starts at 8pm on lichess.org. Players have an initial 7 minutes each per game plus a 3-second increment per move (that is, about ten minutes each).

Other news

The previous Post on this website announced the ECF Under 18 County Championship. The technical requirements – of having to be on Zoom, to have webcams, microphones and so on – may seem very cautious – but when you see the Guardian’s story on ‘Chess’s cheating crisis‘ you’ll see why the championship has its fair play rules.

Once a month there is Southampton Chess League‘s online rapid play Tournament on lichess.org. The next one, already set up on lichess.org, is on Thursday 5th November (‘SCL Rapid – Tournament No2 Arena‘). It starts at 7.30pm, and is a one and a half hour Arena in which players have an initial 7 minutes per game then a 3-second increment per move (same time control as the Chandler’s Ford Swiss tournaments) . These don’t clash with our own Thursday Swiss tournaments – we don’t run our club tournaments on those particular Thursdays so that we can play in the SCL tournaments.

To play in the SCL tournaments you need to be in the Southampton Chess League club on liches.org.

Hampshire Juniors Team Manager Maha Chandar is looking for more Under-18s to play in the County Championship on Saturday 21st November 2020.

ECF online Under 18 County Championship

The English Chess Federation Online Under 18 County Championship will be on Saturday 21st November 2020. Our own chess club member Maha Chandar is Hampshire’s Team Manager. Hampshire are looking for Juniors to play in the Under 18 County Championship, and entries must be in by 9pm on Wednesday 18th November. See The ECF website’s Online Entry Form

‘Where’ and when

The English Chess Federation Online Under-18 County Championship will be on Saturday, 21st November 2020, starting at 11:00. It is a team Swiss format.

The event will be online at chess.com. Before the scheduled start time for each round, players should be logged in to chess.com/live

Round 1 – 1100; Round 2 – 1200; Round 3 – 1300; Round 4 – 1400; Round 5 – 1500; Round 6 – 1600; Round 7 – 1700

See below for further information, as given on the ECF web Page for the event:

Time limit

The time limit is all moves in 10 minutes, plus 5 seconds per move. The expected maximum duration of each game is 30 minutes, but they may take longer in the case of a long game. A player whose game is not started within 10 minutes of the actual start time for their round will lose their game by default.

The teams

Each team will be represented by 6 players in total, from four categories –

• Category A Under 18 – Born 01/09/2002 or later, 2 players + up to 2 reserves
• Category B Under 18 Girls – Born 01/09/2002 or later, 2 players + up to 2 reserves
• Category C Under 11 – Born 01/09/2009 or later, 1 player + up to 1 reserve
• Category D Under 11 Girls – Born 01/09/2009 or later, 1 player + up to 1 reserve

If your child fits into one of these categories and would like to represent Hampshire then please contact our Team Manager who is Maha Chandar.

Maha may be contacted via mahachandar@hotmail.com, 07858-464846.

Board order

The team on the left-hand side of a match in the pairings will be white on the odd-numbered boards, and the board order of each match will be the following:

Boards 1 & 2 – Category A
Boards 3 & 4 – Category B
Board 5 – Category C
Board 6 – Category D

Technical requirements

The games, as mentioned, will be on chess.com, but there are other, technical requirements to ensure fair play and event integrity.

Players need to be connected to the tournament Zoom call before and throughout their games. Webcams, microphones, and speakers to be switched on. See the ECF website Page for full details.

Useful Links

The links within the article above will take you to the relevant websites, but for handy reference they are listed together below:

This week: online tournament results for 6th and 8th October; forthcoming online tournaments Tuesday 13th and Thursday 15th October. Plus, the ECF Under 18s County Championship.

Online tournament results 6th October

Twelve of us took part in this week’s weekly online ‘Arena’ online tournament on 6th October on lichess.org. Congratulations to David Culliford (djc202) who won this week’s Tournament. Well done too Don Creasey 2nd and Joseph Henbury 3rd.

Looking at the standings above, Joe and John had the same number of points – and in the same order. The lichess system does show a Performance statistic though, and can tie-break from that.

5-round Swiss 8th October results

Eight of us played in this tournament. Congratulations to Joseph Henbury who won this week, and well done Graham Stuart who came second and Rose Saunders who was third. Rose is a regular tournament player but this was her first time on the ‘podium’: well done Rose!

Forthcoming online tournaments

Our two regular club tournaments online this week at lichess.org – the Tuesday Arena on 13th October, and the 5-Round Swiss on Thursday 15th, both at 8pm on the respective evenings.

ECF online Under 18 County Championship

More details to follow in a separate Post, but here’s an early mention of this event (see Hampshire Junior website article) , which will be on Saturday 21st November 2020. Our own chess club member Maha Chandar is Hampshire’s Team Manager. Hampshire are looking for Juniors to play in the Under 18 County Championship, and entries must be in by 9pm on Wednesday 18th November.

This week: online tournament results for 29th September and 1st October; this week’s tournaments; plus: a new club Tournament of standard-length (90 minutes) being set up by Peter Przybycin.

Online tournament 29th September

Twelve of us took part, another good turnout for our weekly online ‘Arena’ online tournament on 29th September on lichess.org. Congratulations to David Culliford (djc202) who won this week’s Tournament. Well done too Sam Murphy 2nd and Steve Saunders 3rd. Steve is a regular player in these tournaments, but this was his first podium standing. Well done Steve!

Southampton Chess League Tournament 1st October

17 of us took part in the monthly SCL Southampton Chess League online tournament on lichess.org. The monthly tournament is organised by Graham Stuart. Congratulations to Keith Gregory who won this month’s tournament, and well done Diogo Ramos who was second, and Michael Singleton 3rd.

The time control of the SCL tournaments is the same as we use on our club’s 5-round Swiss tournaments. Taking part is easy, join the Southampton Chess League club on lichess.org, and when the events are organised you can easily join them.

New Chandlers Ford Tournament

Peter Przybycin will be setting up a new tournament for club members. It will be online at lichess.org, and the time control will be Standard length, in this case 90 minutes. Please see Peter’s message below.

Hello all, 

I am planning to run a tournament for Chandlers Ford members with an ECF grade of 1450 or less. 1450 equates to 100 in the old system.

This will be either a Swiss tournament or an all-play-all, depending on number of entries. All games to be played online using Lichess, unless by some miracle Covid disappears. Rate of play, 90 minutes each for all the moves.

There will be no trophy but the winner will receive a copy of the excellent book “Bronstein, Move By Move” by Steve Giddins.

All those who wish to enter please contact me. Closing date for entries will be Saturday 31^st October.

Thank you,

Peter P.

Forthcoming online rapid play tournaments

There are two Chandler’s Ford Chess Club online tournaments coming up, both on lichess.org, on Tuesday and Thursday.

Firstly the regular Tuesday evening Arena (ten minutes per player per game in a one-hour tournament) on 6th October 2020. 8pm start.

And on Thursday, 8th October, we return to our weekly 5-round Swiss tournaments. Players have an initial 7 minutes each game plus a 3-secoond increment per move (roughly ten minutes each per player). 8pm start.

This week’s round-up: the regular club online tournaments on lichess.org: Tuesday evening ‘Arena‘ club tournament, the Thursday club 5-Round Swiss, and the conclusion of this year’s Knockout. Plus details of the coming week’s tournaments (the club’s Tuesday Arena and on Thursday the Southampton Chess League – SCL -monthly rapid play Tournament). And we mark two years of this website chandlersfordchess.org.uk.

A good evening for the Henburys

Last Tuesday 22nd September was a good week for the Henbury father and son duo as they both achieved podium positions in the 11-player Arena event on lichess.org. Both won all their games. Joseph won the tournament whilst his dad Mike came second. Joseph won by quite a margin, as his winning streak points, plus ‘Berserk’ win bonus point widened the gap – and he’d squeezed in a game more than Mike during the hour. Well done too Rob Sims who was third.

Knockout Final Wednesday 23rd September

As reported in the previous Post, the 2020 Knockout reached its conclusion this week with the Final between Patrick Pavey and Peter Przybycin. Congratulations to Peter who retains the title from last year.

And a thank you to the event’s organiser Steve Dunleavy. See detail of his closing remarks on this year’s Knockout:

“I must admit that I was not certain whether to run the competition this year due to the current problems we are all experiencing and I was unsure if I would have sufficient support to make it a worthwhile event. In the end I was prodded into action, got the numbers to validate running it and it went quite smoothly (albeit with the odd hiccup) and I am glad that I organised it.

Steve Dunleavy

5-round Swiss 24th September

Ten of us played in this tournament. Congratulations to Keith Gregory who won this week, and well done Graham Stuart who came second and Joseph Henbury who was third.

In the last couple of weeks we’ve seen father play against son – but it sometimes happens that husband and wife also play against each other. I see that Steve and Rose have also been paired in the full standard-length game of the Summer Tournament‘s 5th Round…

Forthcoming online Tournaments

Our weekly Tuesday Arena 29th September on lichess.org at 8pm, plus the monthly SCL Tournament on Thursday 1st October, also on lichess.org, at 7.30pm.

The weekly Tuesday Arena is a one hour tournament in which players have ten minutes each per game.

Graham Stuart has kindly set up another of the monthly Southampton Chess League (SCL) rapid-play tournaments: ‘SCL Rapid -Tournament No 1′ Arena, Thursday 1st October at 7.30pm. The tournament lasts an hour and a half. Players have an initial 7 minutes per game, plus a 3-second increment per move (i.e. roughly ten-minutes each per game, the same time control we use for our club’s Thursday tournaments).

Website 2 years old!

Yes, this website has now been going for two years. See the link to the first Post (article) on 26th September 2018.