The pre-season county matches

The chess match played over the board on Saturday 4th September was one of a series of pre-season County matches. This series is between 4 county teams: Hampshire, Essex, and 2 Kent teams (Haddrell and Steele). The teams are composed of 8 players whose English Chess Federation grades must average no more than 1600. This is a challenge for their captains when the English Chess Federation grades for the players can change monthly. Players must have up to date ECF membership.

Hampshire’s fixtures:

• Sat 14^th August, Essex v Hants at Wanstead House, Wanstead, 1.30pm start. Hants lost 7.5 – 0.5. See David Culliford’s match report.
• Sat 3^rd September, Hants v Kent Haddrell at the Warren Centre, Micheldever Station, 1.30pm start. Hants lost 5-3.
• Sat 25^th September, Kent Steele v Hants at St Anselms Church Hall, Dartford, 12.30pm start.

This was the second of three pre-season county chess matches, played over the board between Hampshire vs Kent Haddrell, one of two Kent teams in the pre-season 1600-average rating competition. Half of the Hampshire team were Chandler’s Ford Chess Club players. The club’s David Culliford stepped in at the last minute to be team captain. He gives a match report below.

The venue: the Warren Centre, Micheldever Station

This is a brief update on today’s county chess match, Hampshire versus Kent Haddrell, in the pre-season over-the-board 1600 average rating competition. The match took place at the Warren Centre, Micheldever Station.

Everything turned out fine with the venue, the kit, the players (except one default from Kent on board 6 – sorry about that, Manoj) and the weather, which was fine and pleasant.

I met the Warren Centre’s representative at 1pm and he showed me the venue layout, with which I was already familiar.

Earlier in the day, I managed to obtain some sets, boards, clocks and scoresheets from our club cupboard at Chandler’s Ford. Players from both teams helped set out the tables, chairs, sets, etc., and Andy from Kent kindly set the clocks for G105/15, as required, so there was no need to fall back on the ‘all moves in 2 hours’ option.

We started pretty much on time, just before 1:35pm, before which I gave the usual announcements, supplemented by some comments about the pandemic-related practicalities (e.g. masks to be worn, hand gel available, windows open to air the venue, etc.)

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No issues arose throughout, except that Kent defaulted board 6 after one hour from the start of White’s clock.

Defeat for Hampshire

I found the Kent captain, David Gilbert, to be very friendly and pleasant, and he has kindly logged the result on the ECF’s League Management System, so please refer to the following link for the full result, which was a 5-3 defeat for us.

Hampshire Minor v Kent Haddrell | ECF League Management System (ecflms.org.uk)

The Hampshire side scored wins on Boards 6 (default) and 8, and drew on boards 2 and 4, but lost on the other boards. Result: loss, Hampshire 3 – 5 Kent Haddrell.

All in all, it was a very pleasant day, and thanks to all the Kent and Hampshire players who played and who helped with the setup and the putting away of the tables and chairs afterwards.

David

Links

• See individual players’ results at the LMS website page: Hampshire Minor v Kent Haddrell | ECF League Management System (ecflms.org.uk)
• See also Hampshire Chess Association website’s story Hampshire loss to Kent – Hampshire Chess Association
• The English Chess Federation website: English Chess Federation

Round 4 is now completed. Four of the games were played over-the-board on one club night evening, 17th August. Round 5 will be the last Round of this year’s tournament.

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The 2021 Summer Tournament is one of two tournaments currently running in the Chandler’s Ford Chess Club (the Summer Tournament and the Knock-out Tournament). Round 4 of the Summer Tournament has now been completed, and event organiser Malcolm Clarke has announced the Summer Tournament 2021 Round 5 draw. See below for the Round 4 results in full, Round 5 Pairings list, and a quick recap of the rules.

Summer Tournament Round 4

White	v	Black
Peter Przybycin	0-1	Keith Gregory
David Culliford	0-1	Rob Sims
Keven Lamb	0-1	Graham Stuart
Mike Henbury	1-0	Sam Murphy
Dean Shaw	1-0	John Kooner
Rob Strachan	0-1	Patrick Pavey
Steve Dunleavy	1-0	Geoffrey Parish
Dick Meredith	0-1	Maha Chandar
Nobby George	1-0	Rose Saunders
Steve Saunders	0.5–	Bye

Full details of each Round’s results can be seen on the table on the Summer Tournament Page which will be updated as the tournament progresses.

Summer Tournament 2021 Round 5 (final Round) Pairings

The last Round includes a husband v wife match! Steve and Rose Saunders battle it out this round.

• Rob Sims v Keith Gregory
• Graham Stuart v Peter Przybycin
• Maha Chandar v Keven Lamb
• Geoffrey Parish v John Kooner
• Rob Strachan v Nobby George
• Steve Saunders v Rose Saunders
• Patrick Pavey v David Culliford
• Mike Henbury v Dean Shaw
• Sam Murphy v Steve Dunleavy
• Bye: Dick Meredith

Tournament Rules

The Summer Tournament is organised and run by Malcolm Clarke. The Summer Tournament is usually 5, but sometimes 6 Rounds over the summer months. Each Round is usually completed within a few weeks. The winner receives the Kooner Cup for a year and usually gets to keep a replica.

• The Games are 90 minutes all moves per player.
• When the Round Pairings are announced, the first-named plays as white.
• The games can be played online at lichess.org.
• Notify Malcolm Clarke of the results.

Castle Chess have their Fareham Congress tournament (over the board games) on 1-3 October 2021. It will be at the Lysses House Hotel, 51 High Street, Fareham, PO16 7BQ.

Castle Chess have run a number of Congresses (tournaments) over recent years at this pleasant venue. Until the Pandemic, they hosted two Congresses per year at the Lysses, one earlier in the year, one in the Autumn.

Tournament format

The format of the Congress is a six-Round Swiss: round one on the Friday evening, three rounds on the Saturday, and the last two games on the Sunday, with prize-giving by 17:30. Byes may be requested (except Round 6).

There are three sections:

• Open: Under 2001 (=175 former ECF grade system),
• Major: Under 1901 (=160),
• Minor: under 1601 (=120).

The Congress costs £35 to enter, with a £7 discount for Juniors. There are also various accommodation packages – available through Castle Chess – if you would like to stay at the Lysses.

Rate of Play

The rate of play for the games is 36 moves in 90 minutes plus 15 minutes QPF (Quick Play Finish).

Covid: controls and contingencies

The hotel has a wide range of safety measures in place, especially cleaning. These will include the necessity of having to purchase drinks at the bar rather than the self-service Castle Chess normally provides

Castle Chess plan to run the event as a normal over the board weekend chess tournament. If that succeeds, the normal capacity of the venue is 70.

If covid restrictions tighten and limit the numbers (to a capacity of 24), the number of Sections may have to reduce to two, and the entry fee would have to be increased by £10 to cover fixed costs.

Further information

EVENT ENQUIRIES:
Tony Corfe, 51 Borough Way, Potters Bar, Herts. EN6 3HA
Tel: 01707 661160 Mob: 07973 516718
email: tony@mrcorfe.co.uk or marc.shaw.chess@gmail.com
or Marc Shaw 07947 813303

See the Castle Chess website’s Fareham Congress page: CastleChess.co.uk – 17 A Fareham Congress

An over-the-board County Chess match – and Chandler’s Ford Chess Club Players formed half the team! David Culliford reports.

Return to Over The Board County matches

After a near eighteen-month hiatus as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, over-the-board (OTB) county chess finally made its return in England. Just three county chess associations opted to participate in a pre-season county competition which was in effect ‘testing the waters’ prior to a return to the full annual county championship cycle later in the autumn.

One of these three English counties was Hampshire, electing to enter the ‘Minor’ competition which had the constraint of an average rating per team of 1600, using the Elo system only recently adopted by the English Chess Federation (ECF).

Chandler’s Ford provide half of County team

On Saturday 14th August, Hampshire travelled to Wanstead in Essex to play the first of just three matches in this competition. Chandler’s Ford Chess Club provided no less than four of the eight boards in the team line-up. David Culliford, Sam Murphy, Manoj Chandar and Maha Chandar volunteered to make the long journey to face Essex.

Shortly after driving away from our club’s home venue, the CF Central Club and Institute, we received news that our top board (Daniel Shek) had tested positive for coronavirus that same morning. When we arrived at Wanstead, the Essex captain generously agreed to the default being taken on the top board on which Daniel would have played, rather than insisting on us defaulting the bottom board.

Excellent venue

We found Wanstead House to be an excellent venue, and fully compliant with all the precautions stipulated in the ECF’s carefully thought-out policy on OTB chess post-pandemic. The weather was especially kind to us, being neither too hot nor too cold and with a gentle breeze keeping the playing room well aired throughout the four-hour playing session. The rate of play was G105/15, which means 1 hour 45 minutes fixed time plus a 15-second increment with every move made.

The playing room benefitted from a live display screen hooked up to the League Management System (LMS) website which the ECF use for registering results. This meant that the home captain, Peter Nickals, could enter live results in real time, with the full match result being posted at a quarter past five when the final game finished.

The match: Essex vs Hampshire

The result was a 7.5 – 0.5 loss for Hampshire, with Alan Willis registering our only result with a draw on board 4. While this near-whitewash in an average rating constrained match may seem to be a less than spectacular effort by the away team, there were a couple of significant mitigating factors. Firstly, the default meant we were one down before starting, and secondly, Essex benefitted from having an excellent crop of juniors who made up the bulk of the team. Many of these juniors had rapidly enhanced their chess abilities with online play during the pandemic, but the OTB-based grades have yet to catch up. All the Hampshire players played out hard fought games but Essex were simply better.

Match highlights

Notable highlights (apart from Alan’s draw, of course) included Philip Ware’s patient middlegame play; Manoj Chandar’s kingside attack; Maha Chandar’s handling of a difficult queens-on endgame, and captain Amanda Jones’ heroic efforts in a game which she dominated right up until just before the end. A personal lowlight was my own handling of the Queen’s Gambit Accepted, losing a piece but nearly recovering the deficit with some energetic tactical play. No cigar for me though!

Amanda was our match day captain and I was her deputy, as our regular captain, Ashraf Syed, was unavailable to travel. The only reason that I as deputy am writing the report is that Amanda was practically glued to her board while engaged in some intense play for pretty much the duration of her near four-hour game and therefore unable to peruse the other boards as much as perhaps she would have liked.

Well done to all who travelled to Essex, and hopefully the Hampshire Minor 1600 team can register a significant improvement in our next match against one of the Kent teams on Saturday 4th September.

David Culliford

Links

• The host team’s account of the match: Back to Real Chess Fest – Part 1 – Essex Chess Association
• David was impressed with the Essex captain’s extremely prompt update of the match (at 17:12!) on the League Management System: for LMS full results of the County match Essex vs Hampshire, see: Essex Minor v Hampshire Minor | ECF League Management System (ecflms.org.uk)

The 2021 Summer Tournament is one of two tournaments currently running in the Chandler’s Ford Chess Club (the Summer Tournament and the Knock-out Tournament). Round 3 of the Summer Tournament has now been completed, and event organiser Malcolm Clarke has announced the Summer Tournament 2021 Round 4 draw. See below for the Round 3 results in full, Round 4 Pairings list, and a quick recap of the rules.

Summer Tournament Round 3 Results

White	v	Black
Keith Gregory	0.5-0.5	David Culliford
Rob Sims	0-1	Peter Przybycin
Geoffrey Parish	0-1	Graham Stuart
Patrick Pavey	0.5-0.5	Mike Henbury
Sam Murphy	0.5-0.5	Dean Shaw
Steve Dunleavy	0-1	Keven Lamb
John Kooner	0.5-0.5	Rob Strachan
Nobby George	0-1	Dick Meredith
Maha Chandar	1-0	Steve Saunders
Rose Saunders	0.5–	Bye

Malcolm Clarke observed that there were no less than three draws in Round 3, compared with none in the preceding Rounds.

Full details of each Round’s results can be seen on the table on the Summer Tournament Page which will be updated as the tournament progresses.

Summer Tournament 2021 Round 4 Pairings

• Peter Przybycin v Keith Gregory
• David Culliford v Rob Sims
• Keven Lamb v Graham Stuart
• Mike Henbury v Sam Murphy
• Dean Shaw v John Kooner
• Rob Strachan v Patrick Pavey
• Steve Dunleavy v Geoffrey Parish
• Dick Meredith v Maha Chandar
• Nobby George v Rose Saunders
• Bye: Steve Saunders

Tournament Rules

The Summer Tournament is organised and run by Malcolm Clarke. The Summer Tournament is usually 5, but sometimes 6 Rounds over the summer months. Each Round is usually completed within a few weeks. The winner receives the Kooner Cup for a year and usually gets to keep a replica.

• The Games are 90 minutes all moves per player.
• When the Round Pairings are announced, the first-named plays as white.
• The games can be played online at lichess.org.
• Notify Malcolm Clarke of the results.

Hampshire Juniors have played in another large scale online chess tournament: the 20th Inter-County Division 1 Team Battle. 154 players in 10 teams participated in the online event on Monday 2nd August.

20th Inter-County Division 1 Team Battle

Ten teams from across the country registered for the online event on lichess.org, and the Hampshire Junior Chess Association is one of them. 154 players participated in the tournament on Monday 2nd August.

The event was online on lichess.org, and the format a Team Battle. Basically, the individuals’ scores count towards their respective teams in an online tournament. The time control is in the blitz category: quick games of 5+3 (5minutes per player per game, plus a 3-second increment for each move made). With a tournament length of an hour and a half, it would have been quite an intense event requiring a lot of concentration and quick decisions in every game.

The Hampshire Junior Chess Association lichess.org team came 5th with 151 points. The winners were KJCA (Kent Juniors).

To see full details visit the tournament event page using the button below:

Hampshire Juniors in online events

The Hampshire Junior Chess Association team have had a series of events on lichess.org. These were various Team Battles, including the regular Saturday Afternoon Event Team Battles, plus 3-County Team Battles (for example, Hampshire v Dorset v Berkshire).

Links

Tournament organiser Steve Dunleavy announces the draw for Round 3 of the Club’s 2021 Knock-out Tournament, and gives the results of Round 2.

The Chandler’s Ford Chess Club Knock-out Tournament is one of two club tournaments currently running, the other one being the Summer Tournament. Round 2 of the Knock-Out Tournament has been completed, and 4 players remain. The draw for Round 3 (the semi-finals) has been made. The games have a time control of 90 minutes per player, and can be played online at lichess.org or over-the-board. The Knock-Out Tournament is organised by Steve Dunleavy.

Round 2 Results

White	Black	Result
Dick Meredith	Sam Murphy	1-0
Peter Przybycin	Graham Stuart	1-0
Rob Strachan	Maha Chandar	0-1
Dean Shaw	Mike Henbury	0-1

Knock-out Round 3 (the Semi-Finals) Pairings

The draw for Round 3 (semi-finals) has been made. All games should be completed by 15th August.

1.                Peter Przybycin vs  Dick Meredith
2.                Mike Henbury vs Maha Chandar

Knock-out Tournament Rules / guidelines recap

1)the player named first plays with white

2) games can be played either on lichess or over the board (both players’ clocks being set at 90 minutes)

3) in the event of a draw you can either play a rapid play on the same night (duration to be agreed between both players) or arrange another 90 minute game (please let me know if you need an extension of time)

4) the rules of chess must be followed ie no move retakes if playing on lichess

5) all games to be played within 3 weeks of today i.e. 15th August. Please let me know if you need an extension of time (to fit in any replays or otherwise)

6) please let me know when you arrange to play so that I can monitor progress and give me the result asap after it has been determined

7) please let me know if you have any problems contacting your opponent and I will do my best to help out

8) finally enjoy your games

Steve Dunleavy

The 2021 Summer Tournament is one of two tournaments currently running in the Chandler’s Ford Chess Club (the Summer Tournament and the Knock-out Tournament). Round 2 of the Summer Tournament has now been completed, and event organiser Malcolm Clarke has announced the Summer Tournament 2021 Round 3 draw. See below for the Round 2 results in full, Round 3 Pairings list, and a quick recap of the rules.

Round 2 Results

White	v	Black
Keven Lamb	0-1	Keith Gregory
Graham Stuart	0-1	Rob Sims
David Culliford	1-0	Steve Dunleavy
Dean Shaw	0-1	Peter Przybycin
Rob Strachan	0-1	Geoffrey Parish
Dick Meredith	0-1	Sam Murphy
Mike Henbury	1-0	Maha Chandar
Steve Saunders	0-1	John Kooner
Rose Saunders	0-1	Patrick Pavey
Nobby George	0.5–	bye

Full details of each Round’s results can be seen on the table on the Summer Tournament Page which will be updated as the tournament progresses.

Summer Tournament 2021 Round 3 Pairings

• Keith Gregory v David Culliford
• Rob Sims v Peter Przybycin
• Geoffrey Parish v Graham Stuart
• Patrick Pavey v Mike Henbury
• Sam Murphy v Dean Shaw
• Steve Dunleavy v Keven Lamb
• John Kooner v Rob Strachan
• Nobby George v Dick Meredith
• Maha Chandar v Steve Saunders
• Rose Saunders – Bye

Tournament Rules and outline

The Summer Tournament is organised and run by Malcolm Clarke. The Summer Tournament is usually 5, but sometimes 6 Rounds over the summer months. Each Round is usually completed within a few weeks. The winner receives the Kooner Cup for a year and usually gets to keep a replica.

• The Games are 90 minutes all moves per player.
• When the Round Pairings are announced, the first-named plays as white.
• The games can be played online at lichess.org.
• Notify Malcolm Clarke of the results.

Congratulations to the Hampshire Junior Chess team on winning a 10-team online Team Battle! Convincingly: they finished well ahead of their nearest rivals.

Hampshire Juniors Win Team Battle

Hampshire Junior Chess Association team won a big Juniors tournament on Monday 5th July 2021.

Ten teams from across the country registered for the online event on lichess.org, and the Hampshire Junior Chess Association is one of them. 68 players participated.

19th Inter-County Division 2 Team Battle

The event was online on lichess.org, and the format a Team Battle. Basically, the individuals’ scores count towards their respective teams in an online tournament. The time control is in the blitz category: quick games of 5+3 (5minutes per player per game, plus a 3-second increment for each move made). With a tournament length of an hour and a half, quite an intense event requiring a lot of concentration and quick decisions in every game.

Hampshire Juniors in online events

The Hampshire Junior Chess Association team have had a series of events on lichess.org. These were various Team Battles, including the regular Saturday Afternoon Event Team Battles, plus 3-County Team Battles (for example, Hampshire v Dorset v Berkshire).

Their next event is a Saturday Afternoon Event Team Battle, on Saturday 17th July 2021. Hampshire is currently one of 4 Counties signed up for the event, the others being Devon, Berkshire, and Dorset. The time control for the 2-hour event is 10+5 (ten minutes per player per game, plus 5 seconds per move).

Good luck Hampshire Juniors!

The Chandler’s Ford Chess Club Knock-out Tournament is one of two club tournaments currently running, the other one being the Summer Tournament. The First Round of the Knock-Out Tournament has been completed, and 8 players remain. The draw for Round 2 has been made. The Knock-Out Tournament is organised by Steve Dunleavy.

Round 1 Results: Fur Flies as Ewok Slaughters Lamb

In their 39-move game in the second round, it was Mike Henbury (‘Ewokmike‘ on lichess.org) who was on form against Keven Lamb. Once Mike had gained a material advantage from good play – pinning and capturing a Bishop 24 moves in, he proceeded to widen the gap rapidly and went on to win the game.

See below for the first Round’s full results.

Knock-out Round 1

White	Black	Result
Rob Strachan	Geoffrey Parish	1 – 0
Mike Whitford	Dick Meredith	0 – 1
Peter Przybycin	Nobby George	1 – 0
Dean Shaw	Rob Sims	1 – 0
Steve Saunders	Sam Murphy	0 – 1
Keven Lamb	Mike Henbury	0 – 1
Graham Stuart	Andrew Vagg	1 – 0
Steve Dunleavy	Maha Chandar	0 – 1

Knock-out Round 2 Pairings

The draw for the second Round has been made. All games should be completed by 11th July.

1.                Dick Meredith vs Sam Murphy
2.                Peter Przybycin vs Graham Stuart
3.                Rob Strachan vs Maha Chandar
4.                Dean Shaw vs Mike Henbury        

Knock-out Tournament Rules / guidelines recap

Tournament organiser Steve Dunleavy’s guidelines for the Knock-out:

a) The player named first plays with white

b) All games to be played on lichess.org with both players’ clocks set at 90 minutes

c) All games to be played within the next 3 weeks (on or before Sunday 11th July)

 d) In the event of a draw players can either a) agree to play a rapid play      game on the same night duration to be agreed between/by both players or b) play another 90-minute game before the 11th July deadline. In the event of a draw colours are reversed

e) The rules of chess must be adhered to i.e. no move retake requests and none to be granted

f) Can you please email me the result of your game immediately after it has been completed to allow me time to prepare and organise the Round 3 draw.

g) Enjoy your games and please let me know if you are struggling to             complete your game before the 11th July deadline: in fact please let me know when you have arranged to play your games so that I can easily keep track of events.

h) In Round 1 Rob Strachan beat Geoffrey Parish, Dick Meredith beat Mick Whitford, Peter Przybycin beat Nobby George, Sam Murphy beat Steve Saunders, Dean Shaw beat Rob Sims, Mike Henbury beat Kev Lamb, Graham Stuart beat Andrew Vagg, and Maha Chandar beat Steve Dunleavy.

i) Enjoy your games and the competition. Please let me know if you are having difficulty contacting your opponent and I will try my best to find a contact number for them.

Steve Dunleavy