This week, Malcolm Clarke’s regular news item (he writes for the weekly newspaper the Hampshire Chronicle); Junior chess Team Battle; online tournaments; the Ladder.

News summary – Malcolm Clarke

It has been a busy week in the Chandlers Ford chess club ladder competition with seven games played and twelve different players involved in these games, which produced seven different winners, but it is gratifying to see the likes of Patrick Pavey and Andrew Vagg have returned to competition having not played league chess for a few years.

The chess club is also in the process of writing account of its’ history.  The current club first played in the Southampton Chess League in 1984  as  Cricketers Arms, then played at Eastleigh Unity Club before spending one year at the Stoneham Park venue, before relocating to the Eastleigh Rail club where it played at until 2015 when it relocated to Chandlers Ford.

However it should also be mentioned that chess has been played at the Eastleigh Rail club almost continuously from the 1950’s to 2015 and A C Delco, Fair and  Eastleigh Working Men’s club have also had teams  in the Southampton Chess League with A C Delco also playing at the former Stoneham Park venue.

Junior Chess: Hampshire Girls in online Team Battle 14th February 2021

Maha Chandar organises the Chandler’s Ford Junior Chess Club and helps run the County junior team as a Team Leader. The Girls Under-11’s played in a 6-team Battle on lichess.org today 14th February, the team coming 6th.

Results of club tournaments

Tuesday Arena: the winner of Tuesday’s Arena tournament (9th February) was Rob Sims with an impressive win rate of 100%!

Thursday’s 5-Round Swiss on the 11th was won by Graham Stuart (‘WillHeSac’ on lichess), with 4.5 points out of a possible 5.

Forthcoming club tournaments

Chandler’s Ford Chess Club will be participating in an invitational Team Battle hosted by Ringwood Chess club tomorrow 15th February. Eight local teams are competing.

Lichess Ladder

The club’s Ladder Tournament, played online on lichess.org, remains unchanged, organiser Nobby George reports. There was one game this week – a draw.

Nobby George 0.5, Sam Murphy 0.5

If the challenger doesn’t win (a draw or if the Challenger loses), the players stay where they are, if the Challenging player wins, the two players exchange places.

To see the current Ladder Standings, see our Ladder Page.