The Chandler’s Ford Chess Club online Lichess Ladder Tournament winner has been announced. Tournament director Nobby George declares Sam Murphy the winner of the online tournament.

Lichess Ladder Winner Announced

Hi Ladder People.

I believe the Ladder has run its course as it was only intended to fill in whilst we were in Lockdown, I would like to Congratulate SAM MURPHY for being the overall Winner. Thanks to all those that took part, See you all at the Club, shortly I Hope.

Nobby.

Sam Murphy wins the 2020-21 Lichess Ladder

Sam Murphy ascended the ‘Ladder’ by challenging opponents above him on the Ladder – and beating them. He has been at the top of the Ladder for many weeks now, and has just been declared the winner. Congratulations Sam!

The Lichess Ladder

Nobby George has run the Ladder as an over-the-board event at the Chandler’s Ford Chess Club since 2017. The Covid Pandemic made over the board chess impossible, so he set up the Lichess Ladder Tournament, so named because it is played online at lichess.org. The games were still of standard length, 90 minutes per player for all moves, and the other tournament rules applied. These include a player being able to challenge an opponent up to 4 rungs above them on the Ladder. A successful challenge saw the players swap places on the Ladder; a draw or defeat for the challenger would leave the players as they were.

There were 17 players in the Chandler’s Ford Chess Club lichess Ladder.

Sam was the first Ladder winner, in 2017-18. Pictured below: event organiser Nobby George presents the Ladder Trophy to Sam Murphy at the presentation in May 2018.

A catch-up of the club’s online tournaments, with results from the last 2 weeks. Plus the latest in the Ladder. Also, even though chess club isn’t reconvening at the venue just yet, the Chandler’s Ford Central Club will be re-opening on Monday 17th May.

Results of club tournaments

The Club’s players keep in touch during lockdown with regular online chess tournaments played on lichess.org.

Tuesday Arena 4th May: 16 of us participated, a great turnout. A good week for relatively new club members as Ian Partridge came top, and Michael Whitford 2nd. Regular club player Maha Chandar came 3rd, which was a personal best for her so far in these tournaments.

Thursday 5-round Swiss 6th May: 13 of us played in this tournament. Congratulations to Graham Stuart (‘WillHeSac’ on lichess) 1st, and well done Dean Shaw (‘Sheff84’ on lichess) who came second, and Rob Sims 3rd.

Tuesday Arena 11th May: 11 of us participated in this week’s tournament, a great turnout. Congratulation to winner Michael Whitford. Well done John Zastapilo 2nd, and Maha Chandar 3rd.

Thursday 5-round Swiss 13th May. 11 of us played in this tournament. Congratulations to David Culliford (‘djc202’ on lichess) 1st, and well done John Zastapilo (‘john_zed’ on lichess) who came second, and Sam Murphy 3rd.

The Ladder Latest

Tournament organiser Nobby George reports 5 games last week (to 9th May):

Nobby George	0-1	Maha Chandar
Steve Dunleavy	0-1	Rob Sims
Patrick Pavey	0-1	Sam Murphy
Andrew Vagg	1-0	John Kooner
Steve Saunders	0-1	Steve Dunleavy

Sam Murphy continues his reign at the top of the Ladder. For the full standings table, see our Ladder Page.

May the 4th: Ewok victory

The week also saw Mike Henbury (‘Ewokmike‘ on lichess) announced as the winner of the 11-Round Book Prize Tournament which was organised by Peter Przybycin. For more details see our recent Post about the winner announcement. And see the Book Prize Tournament Page for full tournament results – for every Round and every game.

Chandler’s Ford Central Club to re-open on Monday 17th May 2021.

The venue where the chess club is based, the Chandler’s Ford Central Club, will re-open on Monday 17th May. It will be fully open indoors but the Covid rules apply: the Rule of 6 and the 2-households Rule. Social distancing will be required and there will be table service.

Initially the Central Club’s opening hours will be 12pm to 10pm Sunday to Thursday, and 12pm to 11pm on Friday and Saturday.

A reminder for Members of the Chandler’s Ford Central Club to keep up to date with their Subscriptions: see the Central Club’s Subscriptions Page on their website.

See link below to the Central Club’s website for more information.

Tournament organiser Steve Dunleavy announces the start of this year’s Knock-Out Tournament. There are 20 players at the start, four of which will be eliminated in the Preliminary Round, and then Round 1 will start with 16 players. The number of players is then halved with each round. The games are to be played online on lichess.org.

The Players

1. Mike Whitford
2. Steve Dunleavy
3. John Kooner
4. Dean Shaw
5. Maha Chandar
6. Andrew Vagg
7. Patrick Pavey
8. Joseph Henbury
9. Kev Lamb
10. Mike Henbury
11. Graham Stuart
12. Peter Przybycin (Defending Champion)
13. Geoffrey Parish
14. Rob Strachan
15. Rose Saunders
16. Steve Saunders
17. Sam Murphy
18. Rob Sims
19. Nobby George
20. Don Creasey

Preliminary Round

There will be 4 games played in the preliminary round. This will reduce the number to 16 (-8-4-2 thereafter)

DEAR ALL THE DRAW FOR THE ABOVE HAS BEEN MADE AND IS AS FOLLOWS:

• Joseph Henbury vs Peter Przybycin
• Rose Saunders vs Maha Chandar
• John Kooner vs Sam Murphy
• Nobby George vs Patrick Pavey

Knock-out Tournament 2021 Rules

PLEASE ALSO TAKE NOTE OF THE FOLLOWING;

1) The player named first plays with white

2) All games to be played on lichess with the clocks set at 90 minutes for both players

3) All games to be played within the next 3 weeks (on or before 23rd May)

4) 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 by both players) or b) play another 90-minute game before the 23rd May; in any replay games the colours will be reversed

5) Could I please be notified of the result immediately after the game has concluded to allow me to prepare to make the round 1 draw on Sunday 23rd May 2021

Steve Dunleavy, May 2021

May the Fourth: Ewok wins chess prize

May the 4th – and news that an Ewok has won the chess Tournament! The Force was with former Star Wars actor Mike Henbury (‘Ewokmike’ on lichess.org) as he is announced as the winner of the Chandlers Ford Chess Club Book Prize Tournament 2020-1. Tournament organiser Peter Przybycin gives the final scores.

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Hi All,

The Book Prize Tournament is now complete, and the winner is Mike Henbury!

The top three players again recorded wins in round 11, so Mike retained his half point lead over Rob Sims, with John Kooner a further half point adrift.  

Impressively, Mike went through the whole tournament unbeaten, the only player to do so.

Special mention has to be made to Rob Strachan(6), Rose Saunders(5), and Geoff Parish(4), who all performed well above their grades. Also, congratulations to Suzan for breaking her duck in the final round.

Round 11 Results:

• Steve Saunders 0 – Nobby George 1
• Steve Dunleavy 0 – Mike Henbury 1
• Keven Lamb 1 – Rose Saunders 0
• Rob Strachan 0 – John Kooner 1
• Don Creasey ½ – Suzan Dunleavy ½
• Geoffrey Parish 0 – Rob Sims 1

Final scores:

• Mike Henbury 10
• Rob Sims 9½
• John Kooner 9
• Keven Lamb 7½
• Rob Strachan 6
• Rose Saunders 5
• Don Creasey 5
• Geoffrey Parish 4
• Nobby George 4
• Steve Dunleavy 3
• Steve Saunders 2½
• Suzan Dunleavy ½

I have thoroughly enjoyed running this competition, and I hope all of you have enjoyed competing in it.

Maybe we can do it again sometime soon. Please let me know your views.

All the best,

Peter.

A catch-up of the club’s online tournaments, with results from the second half of April. Plus the latest in the Ladder.

Results of club tournaments

The Club’s players keep in touch during lockdown with regular online chess tournaments played on lichess.org.

Tuesday Arena 20th April: 15 of us participated in this week’s Arena on 20th April, won by Sam Murphy. David Culliford (‘djc202’ on lichess) was second, and John Zastapilo (‘john_zed’) 3rd.

Thursday 5-round Swiss 22nd April 10 of us played in the Chandler’s Ford Swiss on 22nd April. Congratulations to winner Rose Saunders who is a regular player but this was her first time at the top ‘podium’ place. David Culliford (‘djc202’ on lichess) came 2nd, and Sam Murphy third.

Tuesday Arena 27th April 17of us participated in this week’s Arena on 27th April, a great turnout: only one of our Tournaments has exceeded that: 18 played on 16th February. Congratulations to winner David Culliford, and well done Rob Sims second, and Sam Murphy 3rd.

Thursday 5-round Swiss 29th April: 12 of us played in the latest tournament. Congratulations to David Culliford who won all 5 of his games. Michael Whitford, one of the club’s newest members, came 2nd with 4 points, whilst Sam Murphy came third with 3 points.

The Ladder Latest

Tournament organiser Nobby George reports 3 games this week:

Andrew Vagg	0 -1	Rob Sims
Nobby George	0.5 – 0.5	Patrick Pavey
John Kooner	0 -1	Maha Chandar

Sam Murphy continues his reign at the top of the Ladder. For the full standings table, see our Ladder Page.

Hampshire Juniors will be playing in the English Primary Schools Chess Association Finals – the Under-9 and Under-11 events. Chandler’s Ford Junior Chess Club organiser and Hampshire Juniors Team Leader Maha Chandar reports.

National Association Under 9 Team Championship Finals 2021

The English Primary Schools Chess Association – EPSCA – are unable to arrange these tournaments this year, but Barnet Junior Chess are arranging the series of online events for EPSCA.

The National Association Under 9 Team Championship Finals 2021 will be held on Saturday 24 April at 2pm. The format is a 5-round Swiss, in which games each Round have a time control of 10 minutes per player per game plus a 5-second increment per move. That time control is a rapid-play pace of game. There will be 5 minutes between Rounds. The tournament is divided by Board: that is, all the Board 1 players from each Team in one section, Board 2 from each team in the next and so on, and there is a Reserves section. The tournament is set up on lichess.org: see the overall tournament link: National Association U9 Finals.

Reserve places are unlimited. It will just be run as an open swiss with prizes for the top 3 places.

There will be 12 in the team for U9 and 20 for U11 with medals for the highest scoring players on each board as well as Gold, Silver, and Bronze for the winning teams.

Under-11 Finals 8th May

Hampshire Juniors will also be participating in the National Association Under 11 Finals on Saturday 8th May 2021 at 2pm.

Team Battle 1st May

Hampshire Juniors have a Team in the 3-County Team Battle on 1st May. The 3 Counties are Hampshire, Dorset, and Berkshire. See Tournament page on lichess.

Delancey UK Chess Challenge

Looking further ahead there is the Delancey UK Chess Challenge for young chess players to look forward to.

registration for the Delancey UK Chess Challenge is now open.

Dates for the two Megafinal weekends are:

• 12th and 13th June
• 26th and 27th June

Dates for the two gigafinal weekends are:

• 3rd and 4th July
• 17th and 18th July

The Terafinal is set to take place over the board in October.

 

Results of the club’s online tournaments on Tuesday 13th and Thursday 15th April, plus the Wimborne Arena, and the Ringwood Invitational Team Battle.

Results of club tournaments

The Club’s players keep in touch during lockdown with regular online chess tournaments played on lichess.org.

Tuesday Arena: 14 of us participated in this week’s Arena on 13th April, won by Graham Stuart (‘WillHeSac’) . Well done too Rob Sims 2nd, and John Zastapilo, 3rd.

Thursday 5-round Swiss: 12 of us played in the Chandler’s Ford Swiss on 15th April. Congratulations to John Zastapilo who won all 5 of his games. Keith Gregory (‘KeithDFG’ on lichess), came 2nd with 4 points, whilst Mike Henbury (‘Ewokmike’) came third with 3 points.

Wimborne Arena

Several Chandler’s Ford players participate in the weekly Wimborne Chess Club Arena Tournament. These tournaments have a time control of 20 minutes per player per game plus a 10-second increment per move. than our This week Chandler’s Ford’s Steve Saunders came second in the tournament, playing on top form in this week’s Wimborne Arena.

Ringwood Invitational Team Battle 12th April

Six Chandler’s Ford players participated in the online ‘Ringwood Invitational 20 Team Battle‘ on 12th April: Keith Gregory, Ian Partridge, John Zastapilo, Ted Black, Patrick Pavey and Graham Stuart. Eight teams participated, and Chandler’s Ford came 4th. The tournament counted the points of each team’s 4 top scorers, and the time control was 5 minutes per player per game plus a 3 second increment (‘Blitz‘ level of pace in chess time control terms), and ran for an hour and a half.

Book Prize Tournament Latest

Book Prize Tournament organiser Peter Przybycin reports one result in the event’s Round 11 this week:

Steve Saunders 0 – 1 Nobby George

See the Book Prize Tournament Page for full pairings and results.

Book Prize Tournament organiser Peter Przybycin announces the pairings for Round 11 – the final Round. He also lists the Round 10 results. And reveals what the Book Prize is.

Hi All,

The remaining two round ten games were played this week, and the final round is about to commence.

The top three players again recorded wins, so Mike Henbury continues to hold a half point lead over Rob Sims. It’s now between just the two of them, and it hinges on the results of their round 11 games!

Unfortunately for John Kooner he’s now out of the running despite his win, as he had earlier lost against Mike (the tie break if scores are equal) in round seven.

This is the prize that will go to either Mike or Rob:

 

See the Book prize Tournament Page for results to date.

Round 10 Results:

• Don Creasey 0 – Geoffrey Parish 1
• Keven Lamb 1 – Rob Strachan 0
• Mike Henbury 1 – Steve Saunders 0
• Suzan Dunleavy 0 – Rob Sims 1
• Nobby George 1 – Steve Dunleavy 0
• John Kooner 1 – Rose Saunders 0

Scores to date:

• Mike Henbury 9
• Rob Sims 8½
• John Kooner 8
• Keven Lamb 6½
• Rob Strachan 6
• Rose Saunders 5
• Don Creasey 4½
• Geoffrey Parish 4
• Steve Dunleavy 3
• Nobby George 3
• Steve Saunders 2½
• Suzan Dunleavy 0

Round 11 Pairings:

• Steve Saunders v Nobby George
• Steve Dunleavy v Mike Henbury
• Keven Lamb v Rose Saunders
• Rob Strachan v John Kooner
• Don Creasey v Suzan Dunleavy
• Geoffrey Parish v Rob Sims

As ever, the player named first has the white pieces.

Deadline for finishing round 11 is Saturday 1^st May 2021.

All the best,

Peter.

Rules Recap

• The Book Prize Tournament is an all-play-all contest, so with 12 players that makes 11 Rounds.
• Although players will sometimes play consecutive games with the same colour, each player will end up having played at least 4 games as white.
• Each Round should be completed within 3 weeks, but there can be some flexibility.
• The games are to be played online – on lichess.org.
• The time control is 90 minutes each per game.
• The winner (or white if drawn) should notify Peter of the result.

This week: a good week for the Henburys – father and son Mike and Joseph – as Joseph wins Thursday’s online tournament, and Mike leads in the club’s Book Prize Tournament. Plus, the latest in the Lichess Ladder tournament.

Results of club tournaments

The Club’s players keep in touch during lockdown with regular online chess tournaments played on lichess.org.

Tuesday Arena: 14 of us participated in this week’s Arena on 6th April, won by john Zastapilo. Well done too Ian Partridge 2nd, and Rob Sims, 3rd.

Thursday 5-round Swiss: 12 of us played in the Chandler’s Ford Swiss on 8th April. Congratulations to Joseph Henbury who took top slot with 4.5 points. Just half a point behind Joseph was David Culliford (‘djc202’ on lichess), coming 2nd, whilst Graham Stuart (‘WillHeSac’) came third with 3.5 points.

The Book Prize Tournament: Mike in the lead

In a good week for the Henbury family, as well as son Joseph winning Thursday’s tournament, his father Mike Henbury leads in the club’s Book Prize Tournament. The Book Prize has one more Round to go, and Mike has a half-point lead over nearest rival Rob Sims.

The remaining 2 games of Round 10 were played last week:

• Don Creasey 0 v 1 Geoffrey Parish
• Keven Lamb 1 v 0 Rob Strachan

Lichess Ladder Latest

Chandler’s Ford Chess Club Lichess Ladder organiser Nobby George reports 3 results this week:

• John Kooner 0 Nobby George 1
• Andrew Vagg 0 Maha Chandar 1
• Patrick Pavey 1 Nobby George 0

See the Ladder Page for the latest standings.

Happy Easter everyone. This week’s online tournament results on 30th March and 1st April, plus the latest in the Book Prize Tournament.

Results of club tournaments

Tuesday Arena: 14 of us participated in this week’s Arena on 30th March, won by Ted Black (‘MagnusPolgar’) who won all 4 of his games. Well done too David Culliford (‘djc202’) 2nd, and Rob Sims, 3rd.

Thursday 5-round Swiss: 13 of us played in the Chandler’s Ford Swiss on 1st April. Congratulations to Mike Henbury (‘Ewokmike’) who took top slot only after the last Round – a well-contested tournament in which the virtual podium was occupied by various players during the tournament, including new player Ian Partridge who led for a while. Ian still had a podium position at the end, coming 3rd, whilst Graham Stuart (‘WillHeSac’) came second.

The Book Prize Tournament: Ewok marches on

A good week for Mike Henbury (‘Ewokmike’ on lichess.org): as well as winning Thursday’s rapid-play tournament, he continues his march towards victory in the ongoing Book Prize Tournament. Tournament organiser Peter Przybycin reports.

Hi All,

There are four results to report this week:

• Mike Henbury 1 – Steve Saunders 0
• Suzan Dunleavy 0 – Rob Sims 1
• Nobby George 1 – Steve Dunleavy 0
• John Kooner 1 – Rose Saunders 0

Wins for Mike Henbury and Rob Sims maintain the status quo, with Mike half a point ahead of Rob (and one hand on the prize?) with just one round to go.

Games remaining in this round:

• Don Creasey v Geoffrey Parish
• Keven Lamb v Rob Strachan

Best regards,

Peter.