Results of this week’s two online club tournaments on lichess.org: the Tuesday Arena on 18th August, and the 5-round Swiss on Thursday 20th.

Tuesday Arena, 18th August 2020

Twelve of us participated in the tournament – another great turnout by club members. It was a one-hour Arena event in which players had ten minutes each per game.

Congratulations to Phil Overton who won the event. Well done too Rob Sims 2nd, and David Culliford (‘djc202’) 3rd.

5-Round Swiss, Thursday 20th August

11 of us played in the 5-round Swiss on Thursday 20th on lichess.org, an excellent level of participation. Each Round comprised games in which players had an initial 7 minutes then 3 second increment per move.

Congratulations to Keith Gregory who won this week’s Swiss with 5 straight wins in a row. Well done too Graham Stuart (‘WillHeSac’) who came 2nd, and David Culliford (‘djc202’) 3rd.

Forthcoming online Tournaments

There are two online tournament coming up. Firstly the regular Tuesday evening Arena (ten minutes per player per game in a one-hour tournament) on 25th August. Then a 5-Round Swiss on Thursday 27th August (7minutes then 3 seconds a move increment roughly equating to ten minutes per player).

Click on the buttons below to go to the tournaments:

The Round 4 Draw of the Summer Tournament has been announced by event organiser Malcolm Clarke.

The Round 4 Draw

White	v	Black
Phil Overton		Peter Przybycin
John Kooner		James Daas
Sam Murphy		Maha Chandar
Keven Lamb		Don Creasey
Steve Saunders		Rob Sims
Steve Dunleavy		Rose Saunders
Bye – Rob Strachan

The Chandler’s Ford Chess Club Summer Tournament is one of the club’s three internal tournaments, and is usually of five rounds – and usually over the board. But this year of course, games have to be played in a safe environment – such as playing them online using such platforms as lichess.org or chess.com.

See our Summer Tournament Page for the individual results so far, and further information.

There were two Chandler’s Ford Chess Club online Tournaments on lichess.org this week. There was the regular Tuesday Arena on 11th August, and on Thursday 13th, a 5-round swiss Tournament.

And Phil Overton won both!

Tuesday Arena online tournament 11th August

Ten players participated in this week’s Tuesday evening Arena online tournament on lichess.org . Congratulations to Phil Overton (‘CFCC-Phil’), this week’s winner! Well done too David Culliford (‘djc202’) who was second, and Graham Stuart (‘WillHeSac’) third. Phil scored 8 points, David 6, Graham 5 – and interestingly everyone else got 4 points (see results table below).

5-round ‘Swiss’ Tournament on Thursday 13th August

Thursday’s club online tournament was a 5-round Swiss, in which each player had an initial 7 minutes per game with a 3 second increment each move – so about ten minutes each per player per Round. See our article about time control for discussion about Rapid-play and increments etc.

The tournament had 8 players. Congratulations to Phil for his impressive 5 consecutive points. Well done too Keith Gregory second, and Mike Henbury third.

Forthcoming tournaments

There are two online tournament coming up this week. Firstly the regular Tuesday evening Arena (ten minutes per player per game in a one-hour tournament) on 18th August. Then a 5-Round Swiss on Thursday 20th August (7minutes then 3 seconds a move increment roughly equating to ten minutes per player).

We had another online 5-round Swiss tournament on lichess.org on Thursday 6th August 2020. Six of us played, everyone seemed to enjoy the event.

Congratulations to Graham Stuart (WillHeSac) who won the Tournament! Well done too Kev Lamb 2nd (me!), and David Culliford (djc202) 3rd.

The tournament this week experimented with increments: each player had a base 7 minutes per game plus 3 seconds per move (equates to about ten minutes per player per game).

Upcoming Tournaments

There are two online tournaments this week for our club on lichess.org: our regular Tuesday one-hour Arena on 11th August, and a 5-round Swiss on Thursday 13th. Both start at 8pm. The Tuesday ‘Arena’ is for ten minutes per player per game as per previous tournaments. The time control for the 5-round swiss will be 7 minutes each plus a 3 second increment per move (that is, games of about ten minutes per player).

What makes the Tuesday evening online Arena Tournaments so interesting is that, one week you’re a winner, and next week you languish at the bottom. Or, as this tournament showed, the reverse. The previous week David Culliford came last, and this week he won! And he won emphatically: as many points as the next two players put together. Congratulations David!

Well done too James Daas who came second, and Rob Sims who was third.

The tournament was a one-hour Arena event on lichess.org. The time control was ten minutes per player per game. There were 11 of us, another great level of participation from the Chandlers Ford Chess Club on lichess.

Next: 5-round Swiss on Thursday 6th August 8pm

The next online club tournament is this Thursday, 6th August, at 8pm. It is a 5-Round Swiss event in which players have 7 minutes plus 3 seconds per move each per game.

The Round 3 Draw of the Summer Tournament has been announced by event organiser Malcolm Clarke.

The Round 3 Draw

White	v	Black
James Daas		Phil Overton
Peter Przybycin		Rob Sims
Don Creasey		Sam Murphy
Maha Chandar		Keven Lamb
John Kooner		Steve Dunleavy
Rose Saunders		Rob Strachan
Bye – Steve Saunders

The Chandler’s Ford Chess Club Summer Tournament is a club event usually of five rounds – and usually over the board, so this year of course, games have to be played in a safe environment such as playing them online using such platforms as lichess.org or chess.com.

See our Summer Tournament Page for the individual results so far, and further information.

We had our second 5-round swiss online club tournament on Thursday 30th July. 10 of us took part. Hopefully everyone enjoyed the event.

Congratulations to James Daas who won the Tournament with an impressive 5 consecutive wins! Well done Keith Gregory who came second and Maha Chandar third.

Upcoming Tournaments

There are two online tournaments this week for our club on lichess.org: our regular Tuesday one-hour Arena on 4th August, and a 5-round Swiss on Thursday 6th. Both start at 8pm. The Tuesday ‘Arena’ is for ten minutes per player per game as per previous tournaments. The 5-round swiss will be 7 minutes each plus a 3 second increment per move (that is, games of about ten minutes per player).

We held our 11th online club Tuesday Arena tournament on 28th July. It was a Rapid play tournament on lichess.org, in which players had ten minutes each per game. The event was an Arena format for one hour, and there were 13 players. A great turnout, and hopefully everyone enjoyed the event.

Congratulations to Keith Gregory for winning this week’s tournament! Well done Graham Stuart (‘WillHeSac’) 2nd, and James Daas 3rd.

Next tournament

There will be another Tuesday Arena next week. In the meantime there’s our 5-round swiss tournament this Thursday 30th July.

There will be our regular Tuesday online club Arena tournament tomorrow 28th July at 8pm on lichess.org. At the moment there should be no clash with over the board chess as that has yet to resume. The event will be the usual format of ten minutes per player per game in a one-hour Arena tournament online at lichess.org.

In addition, there will be another 5-round swiss tournament online this week, on Thursday 30th at 8pm. Last week’s first swiss event was fun and players seemed to enjoy it, so let’s do another. This week, as last week’s, ten minutes per player per game in a 5 round tournament on lichess.org.

Both tournaments have been set up on lichess.org and can be joined anytime now. The actual start times are 8pm for both Tuesday and Thursday. To join, click on the relevant link above or the buttons below, and when you get to the event, click Join.

The July grades are out! The English Chess Federation has published its July 2020 List. The ECF publishes player grade lists twice a year, in January and July. See the ECF Grading Database to see how you’ve done.

How are chess grades calculated?

See the ECF Grading Database for full details. Basically, for each graded game, if you win, the grading is your opponent’s grade plus 40 points, for a draw it’s your opponent’s grade, and for a loss it’s opponent’s grade minus 40. If there is a grading difference greater than 40 between you and your opponent, the calculation cuts off at 40. That is, you can’t lose your way upwards by losing against grandmasters…

Then divide the points by number of games. If more than 30 games in the last 12 months, the system uses those results. If fewer than 30 games, then the most recent 30 games are used, going back further than the last 12 months, but not going back more than 36 months.

ECF grades have a number followed by a letter, from A to F. The letter is the Grade Category, indicating how many games, or how far back the calculation is based on. A is the most active, where the game results are all from the last 12 months.

The ECF definition of the Categories is as follows:

Category definitions:
A – Grade based on at least 30 games, all played in the latest 12 months
B – Grade based on the 30 most recent games, all played in the latest 24 months, including at least 20 in the latest 12 months
C – Grade based on the 30 most recent games in the latest 36 months, of which at least 10 were played in the latest 12 months
D – Grade based on 15 or more games in the latest 36 months, of which at least 5 were played in the latest 12 months
E – Grade based on 9 or more games in the latest 36 months, of which at least 1 was played in the latest 12 months
F – Grade based on 5 or more games in the latest 36 months, of which at least 1 was played in the latest 12 months. F grades are published in the usual way, but unlike higher categories they are not used in future calculations. A “starting grade” is used instead