ECF Membership renewals 2025-26 will be due for many Chandler’s Ford chess club players at the end of August. Although it is possible to join and renew English Chess Federation Membership in any month, many of us continue to have September to August annual membership. Membership will last for 12 months from the date of purchase of the membership package you choose.

Membership of the English Chess Federation enables playing ECF-graded games, such as the club’s own internal tournaments, plus Southampton Chess League matches, County matches, and Congresses (tournaments) across the country. The different membership levels will determine what is covered. Note that there is no longer a Silver level of membership.

ECF Membership also gives discounts at various companies, including Chess & Bridge shop

ECF Membership levels: what’s best for me?

• Basic Bronze level ECF membership gives players ECF Grading for their game results in club tournaments, local Leagues, and County games. Various benefits and discounts e.g. Chess & Bridge shop.
• Gold membership: as Bronze, plus it includes Congresses (tournaments outside our club e.g. Castle Chess Fareham etc), and FIDE rated standard play tournaments.
• Platinum. As per Gold, plus printed ECF Yearbook.

For most club players, Bronze Membership is sufficient: Bronze if you don’t plan to go to Congresses, but do want to play in the club’s events and the League. If you’d like to play in Congresses, then go Gold.

Other ECF Membership type

ECF Supporter: access, and ECF grading to ECF online members clubs and events on chess.com and lichess.org together with free online rating of all ECF rated online events. £12.

ECF Membership renewals 2025-26 rates

• ECF Supporter – £9.99. Relevant only for online chess.
• Bronze – £21.00 | Junior Bronze – £7.50 (or FREE for first year of membership)
• Gold – £37.00 | Junior Gold – £14.00 (or FREE for first year of membership); Free Student Gold Member (for first membership year).
• Platinum – £80.00

There are other benefits too: a range of discounts at online chess retailers Chess & Bridge (chess.co.uk), as well as discounts with other partners. See Membership partners and benefits – English Chess Federation for more information.

Renewing your ECF Membership

This may automatically happen, and the subs will be taken when due. If you are an existing ECF Member, but haven’t set up for automatic payments, you can renew by going to the ECF’s membership payment page ecf.justgo.com – or via the ECF’s Membership page:

Any other costs for chess players?

English Chess Federation membership is one of up to 3 possible costs of being an active member of Chandler’s Ford Chess Club. The other costs are joining our chess club, and membership of our venue, the Chandler’s Ford Central Club. See our ‘What does it cost?” Page via button:

The Hampshire Rapid and Blitz Championships will be held at Barton Peveril College on Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th September 2025. The Rapid tournament will be on the Saturday, with 6 Rounds of games at 15+10 rate of play, and the Blitz will be on the Sunday, 12 games with a time control of 5+3.

The organiser is Iwan Cave.

Players can enter one, or both tournaments.

The tournaments are open to all players regardless of county.

Entry Fees

• For one of the tournaments: Adult £18, Junior £15.
• If entering both tournaments, then £32 for adults, £27 for Juniors.

Note: the rates above are for English Chess Federation membership at Gold or above, otherwise add £16 (adults) or £6.50 (Juniors).

The venue

The venue is the Barton Peveril 6th Form College, Chestnut Avenue, Eastleigh, Hampshire SO50 5ZA.

The Rapid Tournament, Saturday 6th September

Sections

• Open
• Major (Under 1650)

Rate of play

15+10: that is, 15 minutes plus a 10 seconds increment per move.

Schedule:

• Round 1 – 09:30
• Round 2 – 10:40
• Round 3 – 11:50
  Lunch – 13:00-13:40
• Round 4 – 13:40
• Round 5 – 14:50
• Round 6 – 16:00

Prizes

• 1ˢᵗ  – £100
• 2ⁿᵈ – £70
• 3ʳᵈ  – £50
• Quickplay Champion – £50
• U1650 Quickplay Champion – £50

The above prizes are the minimum per section.

The Hampshire Blitz Tournament Sunday 7th September

Time control for the blitz event

5+3: five minutes, plus a 3-second increment added after each move.

Blitz tournament Schedule Sunday 7th September

• Round 1 – 10:00
• Round 2 – 10:30
• Round 3 – 11:00
• Round 4 – 11:30
• Round 5 – 12:00
• Round 6 – 12:30
  Lunch – 13:00-14:00
• Round 7 – 14:00
• Round 8 – 14:30
• Round 9 – 15:00
• Round 10 – 15:30
• Round 11 – 16:00
• Round 12 – 16:30

Tournaments Terms and Conditions

See Terms and Conditions for the Rapid & Blitz tournaments here

Coming soon: the weekend after the Hampshire Rapid and Blitz Championship will be the UK Open Blitz local event, also at Barton Peveril College. Saturday 13th September 2025.

Other Links

See Theo Horne’s report on the 2nd Hampshire Rapidplay.

The Hampshire Chess Association Website Rapid & Blitz page which has links for the entry forms.

The HCA’s latest article (21st August) showing the Rapid & blitz entrants so far.

The Knockout 2025 organiser Steve Dunleavy announces the draw for Round 3: the Semi Finals. This year 30 players entered the tournament. Four remain. Who will make it through to the Final?

Draw for the Knockout 2025 Semi Finals

• Rob Strachan v William Purkiss
• Eric Jones v Rob Sims

Organiser’s rules recap

Please take note of the following:
1.      The player named first plays with white
2.      Both clocks to be set at 80 +10
3.      The deadline date for completing this round(INCLUDING ANY REPLAYS) is the 26th August; whilst this gives 3 club nights (12/8,19/8 and 26/8) the games can be played at any venue on any night if both players are in agreement. Please let me know if any extension of time is required and I will do my very best to accommodate you. Sorry for the comparatively short deadline date but this competition has for various reasons fallen way behind programme and I would like to maintain momentum to a conclusion.
4.      In the event of a draw colours will be reversed for the rematch.
5.      Please email me the date that you have agreed to play (to help me
monitor progress) and the result (to send to Graham Stuart for grading).
6.      Well done for getting this far! Enjoy your Semi Final and do your best to get into the Final.
 
Kind Regards
 
Steve

See other Knockout 2025 articles:

The New Knockout 2025 Tournament

Knockout 2025: Round 1

Chandler’s Ford Chess Club were well-represented at the 2nd Hampshire Rapidplay at Eastleigh back in April. It was organised and run by CF’s Iwan Cave. And our newest player, Ivan Georgiev, won the Open! Theo Horne reports.

I will premise it by saying it was really well run and enjoyable, all rounds on schedule with no trouble, somewhat helped by myself, Peter and Gillian helping out between rounds.

Now on to the good bit. All CF members gave a great demonstration of their skills, with everyone finishing with pretty respectable points.

Chandler’s Ford Players in the Major

• Myself, 6th place in the major on 4/6, winning £50 for best U1450. I was on board 1 in the last round, and if I won I got shared first, but unfortunately lost to a strong Jack McBurnie, the eventual winner.
• Stephen on 4/6 as well, shared best U1200, 9th place, performing way above his rating. He too had an excellent tournament, and will be gaining about 60 points, similar to myself, even without the doubled rating gain!
• Peter Eales on 3.5, having recovered from a rough start of 0/2 to score 3.5/4, which means he too is gaining rating!
• Kev on 3/6 to round off our contingent in the major, giving a very respectable performance although unfortunately losing a little rating, but he enjoyed himself and gave as good as he got. Having spoken to his opponents, his aggressive play is terrifying in the shorter time controls!

The Open

We were somehow even more successful in the Open, with:

• Our newest player, Ivan, winning the whole thing with 5/6! He beat 1st seed Paul Northcott, and this performance is very promising in regards of what he could bring to the club!
• Eric came next in 10th with 3.5/6, a great score considering the strength of the event. His first rapid rating will be high!
• Dave Holmes in 12th with 3/6, narrowly losing to Harry Vernon from the IOW at the end in a drawn game. His first rapid rating will also be pretty high, but it may be lower than his strength as he was winning several of games he lost, just struggling to convert.
• Straight after is Bill Purkiss in 13th also with 3, getting a provisional rating from this event. I don’t know too much about how the tournament went for him, but he was in good spirits through the day.
• Finally, Phillip came in 20th with 2/6, having a tough event, but he is focusing on his A level preparation over his chess at the moment, a more important preoccupation I would say!

— Theo Horne, Chandler’s Ford Chess Club

Results can be viewed via the links below:

Chess-Results Server Chess-results.com – 2nd Hampshire Rapidplay Open

Chess-Results Server Chess-results.com – 2nd Hampshire Rapidplay Major (U1650)

Some photos of the event

Click on any image and scroll through.

Other stories

Iwan Cave assisted with the 1^st Eastleigh FIDE Congress at Barton Peveril College 28^th to 29^th June – 1st Eastleigh FIDE Congress – English Chess Federation

Coming up: Iwan is organising the Hampshire Rapidplay and Blitz Championships 6-7th September 2025.

And the week after he will be assisting in running the local event of the UK Open Blitz 2025, Saturday 13th September.

The Chandler’s Ford Chess Club Summer Barbeque 2025 at Steve and Suzan’s. Photos of the very pleasant social gathering. Thanks to Steve and Suzan for being such excellent hosts, and to Rob Strachan for his role as barbeque chef, and to Theo who helped them.

Photo Gallery

Click on any image to open a full size image and scroll through the photos.

The Southampton Chess League AGM will be held on Wednesday 25th June at our club’s venue, the Chandler’s Ford Central Club.

League AGM Agenda

Southampton Chess League AGM, Wednesday 25 June 2025, 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 AGM (19 June 2024) and matters arising
4. Secretary report (Fraser McLeod) – appended
5. Fixtures Secretary report (Malcolm Clarke) – appended
6. Treasurer report and league subs (Michael Pope) – to follow
7. Webmaster report (Graham Stuart) – appended
8. Proposals
   a) (From Winchester club) – that the number of boards played in Division 4 matches should be increased from four to five.
   b) (From Andover club) – request for tighter deadlines for the cup competitions to avoid finals being played too late in the season. [Note: the fixtures secretary (Malcolm) has noted the issue this season in his report.]
   c) (From SCL committee) – to adopt the following rules about electronic devices (taken from the London League):
   ELECTRONIC DEVICES
   All mobile phones and non-medical electronic devices must be switched off for the entire duration of the game, except in the case of a player with a special need, as authorised by team captains before the match. [Note: this includes the case of a team captain keeping their phone on to communicate with a player who has not yet arrived at the venue.]
   If a player’s device makes a sound during the game, the player shall receive a warning the first time it happens and will default the game the second time it happens. If a player leaves the playing area during a game and is found to be in possession of an electronic device that is not exclusively medical in nature, the player shall forfeit the game.
   d) (From Malcolm Clarke) Rule 5e(iii) states
   “Once a player has played four games in a division they cannot play for a team two or more divisions lower than that division, unless the club has no teams in the intervening division(s).” I propose it should be amended to:
   “Once a player has played a total of four games in a division (or higher division) they cannot play for a team two or more divisions lower than that division, unless the club has no teams in the intervening division(s).”
9. Election of officers (Note: The current officers are willing to continue)
10. Planning for next season
    Draft league structure assuming normal promotions and relegations shown in Table 1 below.
11. Presentation of trophies
    See Table 2 below for 2024-5 Winners.
    Important: All trophy holders should bring them to the AGM for presentation to this season’s winners.
12. Any other business

Table 1: Draft League structure for next Season

Division 1	Division 2	Division 3	Division 4	Division 5
Fareham A	Ringwood	Salisbury A	Hamble B	Salisbury C
University A	Fareham B	Salisbury B	University C	Fareham C
Chandler’s Ford A	Chandler’s Ford B	Basingstoke C	Andover B	Chandler’s Ford D
Basingstoke A	Andover A	University B	Winchester B	Southampton C
Southampton A	Winchester A	Southampton B	Basingstoke D	Chandler’s Ford E
Hamble A	Basingstoke B	Chandler’s Ford C	Basingstoke E	——-

Table 2: The 2024-5 season winners

League Division or competition	2024-5 Winner
Division 1	Fareham A
Division 2	Hamble A
Division 3	Basingstoke B
Division 4	Tied: Chandler’s Ford C and University C
Division 5	Basingstoke E
Robertson Cup	Southampton A
Robertson Plate
Clarke Cup	Basingstoke D
Individual	Niclas Hordnes

Photos from last year’s 2024 AGM

Click on any photo in the gallery below to see larger image and captions.

Maha Chandar, tournament organiser, invites young players to play in the Juniors tournament at Winchester College next Sunday, 22nd June. The tournament is ECF graded. It is the largest junior chess event in Hampshire, and normally has over 200 entries.

Please note: the last day for entries is 20th June.

The Hampshire Megafinal is a qualifying event in the Delancey UK Chess Challenge. Megafinals are held in various parts of the country. Players that make it through the Megafinal with 3.5 points or more from six rounds can play in the Gigafinals. The top players from that will play in the Terrafinal in October.

Tournament details

Date

Sunday 22nd June 2025. 09:30 for a 10:00 start, expected to finish about 17:00.

Venue

Winchester College (New Hall), College Street, Winchester, Hampshire, SO23 9NF

Eligibility

Open to all juniors born after 31/08/2006

Time control for the games

20 minutes plus 10 seconds per move

Entry price

£30

Organiser details

Maha Chandar, kidschess@hotmail.com

Maha organises the Chandler’s Ford Junior Chess Club.

The 1st Eastleigh FIDE Congress will be held at Barton Peveril College in Eastleigh on Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th June. The tournament is a 5-round swiss format, and the time control for the games is 90 minutes plus a 30 second increment per move.

The event is organised by Psyon Chess.

Tournament details

The venue

Barton Peveril Sixth Form College, Chestnut Avenue, Eastleigh SO50 5ZA.

Full details can be seen at the Congress Org UK website at: | Congress Org UK

See Chess-Results website page for list of players entered: Chess-Results Server Chess-results.com – 1st Eastleigh FIDE Congress – U2300 (28-29June’25)

Entry

The event has a capacity of 80. Entries on the day can still be made if there’s still capacity – before 09:15, in cash, and a late surcharge payable.

Entry Fee:

Depending on the Section entered. See table below:

The Entry fee as per table above is for players who are at minimum ECF Gold membership, otherwise add £15 (or £6 for a junior) for a player of below Gold level.

Late entry fees: Entries after 25th June: add £4 if ; or add £6 after 27th 21:00.

Sections

There are 3 sections:

• Open
• Under 1850
• Under 1500.

Player ratings are the higher of standard game FIDE or ECF to determine which Section to enter.

Prizes

	Open	U1800	U1500
1st	£220	£200	£160
2nd	£110	£100	£80
3rd	£60	£50	£40

Congress Schedule

• Round 1: 10:00 Saturday 28th June
• Round 2: 13:30 Saturday 28th June
• Round 3: 17:00 Saturday 28th June
• Round 4: 10:00 Sunday 29th June
• Round 5: 13:30 Sunday 29th June

A half-point Bye may be taken in advance for any Round except the last one.

The event should finish by 17:30 on the Sunday.

Refreshments

Basic tea and coffee will be available to buy at the venue. Cashless payment is preferred, but if cash is used please pay exact amount. Local amenities can be found a short distance from the college, in Eastleigh town centre.

The Preliminary Round of the Knockout 2025 tournament saw the field of players reduced to 16. The remaining players have now been paired for Round 1. The Knockout 2025 is organised by Steve Dunleavy.

Round 1 player pairings

1. Chris Button vs Theo Horne
2. Rose Saunders vs Sam Murphy
3. Stephen Lineker Miller vs Isaac Yip
4. Eric Jones vs John Davis
5. Rob Sims vs Mathew Staniforth
6. Patrick Pavey vs Dick Meredith
7. Keven Lamb vs Bill Purkiss
8. David Culliford vs Rob Strachan

In addition to the above please take note of the following;

1. The player drawn first plays with white in the event of a draw colours are reversed
2. All games to be played by 10^th June(club nights 20/5, 27/5,3/6/10/6) please let me know if you need an extension after  the deadline date
3. All results to be emailed to me straight after the game has been played can you also email me the date the game has been arranged to be played(to enable me to monitor the progress of this round)
4. In the event of a draw can you please try to rearrange the game before the deadline date 10^th June
5. Both clocks to be set at 80+ 10
6. Good luck and enjoy thanks for entering this competition

Kind Regards

Steve

Tournament organiser Steve Dunleavy announces the start of the new Knockout 2025 Tournament . He has run the Knockout since the first one in 2017. This year 30 players have entered. Through a series of knock-out rounds, one will emerge the winner.

Knockout 2025 main features

The Knockout 2025 competition comprises a Preliminary Round, with 4 byes, which will reduce the original 30 entrants to 16 players, then successive Rounds halve that to 8, 4, and 2 players, until the winner is revealed.

The first-named player of each pairing plays with white.

The rate of play is 80 minutes each plus 10 seconds increment per move.

The Preliminary Round Pairings

• Steve Saunders v David Culliford
• Stephen Kirby vs Matt Staniforth                                                       
• James Gray v William Purkiss
• Theo Horne v Geoff Parish
• Rob Strachan v Andrew Mills
• Sam Spencer v John Davis
• Ian Parker v Richard Meredith
• Steve Dunleavy v Hin Long Isaac Yip
• Peter Przybycin v Robert Sims
• John Kooner v Rose Saunders
• Eric Jones v Graham Stuart
• Alan Weaver v Keven Lamb                                  

Preliminary Round Byes

• Patrick Pavey
• Stephen Lineker Miller
• Chris Button
• Sam Murphy                                                                                                     

LMS for the Preliminary Round

Knockout 2025 Rules

• The player named first plays with white.
• Games to be played at a rate of play of 80+10.
• All preliminary games to be played by the 21st April (3 weeks time) and the results to be reported to me Steve Dunleavy by email asap thereafter.
• In the event of a draw colours are to be reversed and the game still to be played by the 21st April.
• The draw was made today by myself Steve Dunleavy and Suzan to get the ball rolling as soon as possible  after the closure date for entries of  the 31st March.
• There were 30 entries, 4 byes, and 13 preliminary games will take us to 16 and then 8,4,2 thereafter.
• Enjoy the competition!