A good week for Chandlers Ford A and B teams with wins for both. Plus, the new ECF chess grades list has been published. Malcolm Clarke reports.

Both Chandlers Ford A and B teams won their matches this week.  The A team achieved their first win of the season when they beat Winchester B 3-2.  The fop four boards were all drawn with apart from Peter Przybycin’s game against David Kinsler on board 4 which was double edged all looked likely to be draws for most of the game.  This left David Culliford’s game against John Schonenberger on board 5 outstanding and Culliford had a two pawn advantage which he was able to take into the end game and he eventually won the game which he always going to do if he played correctly.

The B team won 2.5-1.5 at Ringwood to consolidate their position at the top of division 4.  The result was particularly meritorious as they were outgraded on all of the top three boards and by an average of more than 10 points overall.  Winners for Chandlers Ford were Dick Meredith on board 2 and Nobby George on board 4 with Sam Murphy on board 1 drawing his game. The players with the black pieces won three and drew one of the four games in this match.

The January 2020 grading list has now been published and players can view their new grade online.