Malcolm Clarke’s regular chess news roundup: this week: Winchester’s woes; Salisbury’s good run; Chandler’s Ford D to the semi-final of the Division 5 Cup, and more.

It was not a good week for Winchester teams in the Southampton Chess League with all three teams losing and no individual player winning a game counting for league purposes.  Chandlers Ford D whitewashed Winchester D in the Division 5 Cup and play Chandlers Ford C in the semi final.  However Winchester’s Sam Rebdi won a game counting for grading purposes only. 

Winchester A were beaten 4-1 by a strong Ringwood B team with Jon Barnes and Alan Dyos obtaining the two draws from the match, while in the 3.5-1.5 defeat at the hands of Andover it was the three players playing with the black pieces Doug Beer, Steve Kitley and Bob Cleave who salvaged the draws.

Despite the fact that the only five players in the Chandlers Ford A v Salisbury match being graded below 140 were all on the Salisbury team, the match finished all square at 2.5-2.5 with Chandlers Ford’s two winners being David Holmes and Phil Overton both of whom played with the white pieces.  Peter Przybycin uncharacteristically lost on board 5 and it continued Salisbury B’s recent good record at Chandlers Ford having won on their previous two visits.

Chandlers Ford C were beaten 3.5-0.5 by Salisbury C with Peter Eales obtaining their only half point.

Just a reminder that the annual Hampshire Chess Association Congress 2019 is only one week away – Friday 1st November to Sunday 3rd November. The tournament will be at the Lysses House Hotel, 51 High Street, Fareham, Hampshire, PO16 7BQ.

There are 47 players currently entered in total (see Entrants so far on the HCA website) , spread over the three Sections, and hopefully more are likely to enter in the coming week .

The 3 sections are the Open (any grade), the Major (Under 160 ECF grade), and the Minor (Under grade 125).

The Congress is a 6-round tournament, and one half-point bye is available on any round except the last round. See the Timetable below for Round start and finish times.

• Tournament Timetable:
• Friday: Rd 1: 19:00-23:00
• Saturday: Rd 2: 09:00-13:00, Rd 3: 14:00-18:00, Rd 4: 19:00-23:00
• Sunday: Rd 5: 09:00-13:00, Rd 6: 14:00-18:00
• Prize-giving on Sunday at 18:05

The rate of play is 40 moves in 100 minutes followed by a 20 minute quickplay finish.

For more details, including entry fees, conditions, prizes, and Entry form, see the Hampshire Chess Association website.

Malcolm Clarke reports on the D team’s match plus other recent fixtures.

Chandlers Ford D drew 2-2 with Basingstoke with Nobby George and John Kooner winning their games.  However the Chandlers Ford B team lost 5-0 to Winchester A in the Robertson Cup by default.  The Chandlers Ford D team was unchanged from its’ opening match of the season against Chandlers Ford C except for Rob Sims replacing Rob Bird on top board.

Winchester B opened their season with a 3.5-1.5 loss at the hands of Salisbury B in a match in which they defaulted board 5.  A draw from Bob Cleave on board 1 and a win from Mike White on board 3 represented Winchester’s only points of the evening with both Bob and Mike playing with the white pieces.  Salisbury teams though have made a good start to the season.

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In his latest league and Cup updates, which appear in the print edition of the Hampshire Chronicle, Malcolm Clarke rounds up what has been a busy time for the club, with matches in Division 3 (A team), Division 5 (C team) plus the A team’s trip to Andover in the Robertson Cup.

Winchester A won on the top two boards, with Jose Jimenez-Capilla and Jon Barnes being their winners, but still lost 3-2 to Southampton C.  The following day their D team made the short journey to Chandlers Ford and were beaten 2.5-1.53-2 by the home team’s C team.  Peter Eales making a welcome return to action having hardly played at all in recent seasons drew with Winchester secretary Graham Payne, and Don Creasey and captain Keven Lamb winning their games for Chandlers Ford, and John Schonenberrger winning for Winchester.  Winchester’s Alan Weaver won a game against Chandlers Ford’s Colin Grant which counted for grading purposes, but not the match score.

Chandlers Ford lost 3-2 to Andover in the Robertson Cup with four of the games being drawn and Steve Cartridge beating Dick Meredith in the match between the two captains.  Keven Lamb playing for the second time in two days was one of the Chandlers Ford players to draw.

News of some Juniors events coming up – one this weekend, and another in January.

Hampshire Junior Chess Congress

This year’s Hampshire Junior Congress event will take place on Sunday 6^th October 2019 at Winchester College, College St, Winchester SO23 9NA. Please visit The online Entry System to secure your entries or  Hampshire Junior Chess Congress 2019 Entry Form.

South of England Junior Chess Congress January 25, 2020

South of England Junior Chess Congress January 25, 2020 South of England Junior Chess Congress takes place at Yateley Manor School organised by IM Andrew Martin- Enter via the official web site https://www.southofenglandjunior.com/

In his news roundup Malcolm Clarke details the opening fixtures of the new season, plus the summer tournament latest.

Chandlers Ford B opened the season with a 2-2 draw against newly promoted Ringwood C with Sam Murphy and James Daas on the bottom two boards obtaining their points.  Last season Ringwood teams won all five matches they played against teams from Chandlers Ford, but this time the teams were evenly matched and a drawn match was probably the fairest outcome.

Playing their first match at the new venue Winchester C beat Southampton D 3-1.  There was a win for Winchester’s Steve Kitley and draws for Mike White and Andrew Habbitts,  Winchester captain David Green lost his game on board 3, but Southampton D agreed to default this board when it was realised their player should in terms of grading been played on a higher board,

In the Chandlers Ford tournament Peter Przybycin and Phil Overton drew their round 4 game which means going into round 5 two players have 3.5 points and four players 3 points.

The Chandler’s Ford Chess Club website is 1 year old today! The site’s web master Kev Lamb marks the anniversary on the website’s 50th Post.

The Chess club’s website chandlersfordchess.org.uk was launched a year ago, on 26^th September 2018. From then until now (26/09/19) there have been 2,743 views of the website , the best being 61 on one day (yesterday 25^th September 2019!).

The website comprises various Pages (they stay accessible for reference), plus Posts (announcements, news, articles etc. – a blog). There are currently 8 Pages, and 49 Posts have been published. This is the 50th Post.

Posts are published at a rate of roughly one or two a week: as well as Malcolm Clarke’s weekly update, other members and I have contributed items over the year.

Pages largely stay static for reference, until updated when appropriate – with tournament developments usually: ‘The Ladder’ is the Page most often updated.

As well as receiving articles and preparing them for posting on the website, adding photos and appropriate links, behind-the-scenes stuff involves activating technical updates when they become available, taking and uploading photos (photos taken by me or other members of our Chess Club).

All of which I thoroughly enjoy doing.

Kev Lamb

26th September 2019

Malcolm Clarke summarises the main points from Chandler’s Ford Chess Club Annual General Meeting held on 17th September 2019.

At the AGM of Chandlers Ford chess club Malcolm Clarke, Nobby George, Keven Lamb and Steve Dunleavy were re-elected as respective captains of the A, B, C and D teams in the Southampton Chess League with Dick Meredith captaining the A team in the Robertson Cup.

Malcolm Clarke, Nobby George and Maha Chandar were respectively elected as General Secretary, Membership Secretary and Treasurer, with the Membership Secretary and Treasurer working together in relation to the collection of membership fees.

The chess club is also trying to ensure that their activities are well advertised within the Chandlers Ford Central Club.

Castle Chess have their Fareham Congress tournament on 4th-6th October 2019. It will be at the Lysses House Hotel, 51 High Street, Fareham, PO16 7BQ.

Castle Chess have run a number of Congresses over recent years at this pleasant venue: this is Castle Chess’s “15th Fareham Congress” (they quite often host two Congresses per year at the Lysses, one earlier in the year, one in the Autumn.)

The format of the Congress is a six-Round Swiss: round one on the Friday evening, three rounds on the Saturday, and the last two games on the Sunday, with prize-giving by 17:30. Byes may be requested.

There are three sections: Open (Under 175 ECF grade), Major (U155), and the Minor (U115).

The Congress costs £34 to enter, with a £7 discount for Juniors. There are also various accommodation packages – available through Castle Chess – if you would like to stay at the Lysses.

The rate of play for the games is 36 moves in 90 minutes plus 15 minutes QPF (Quick Play Finish).

EVENT ENQUIRIES: Tony Corfe, 51 Borough Way, Potters Bar, Herts. EN6 3HA Tel: 01707 661160 Mob: 07973 516718 email: tony@MrCorfe.co.uk or marc.shaw.chess@gmail.com. See the Castle Chess website’s Fareham Congress form page: CastleChess.co.uk

Malcolm Clarke heralds the start of the new 2019-20 season, and gives an overview of the Chandler’s Ford Chess Club’s tournaments.

The new Southampton Chess League season begins next week with Winchester set to play their first match at their new venue of the William Walker pub in The Square, Winchester with Southampton D coming to play the Winchester C team.

The Chandlers Ford chess tournament has two round 4 games to be played and both of these are due to be played on Tuesday 24th September.  Attention in recent weeks has switched to the ladder competition with D team captain Steve Dunleavy beating his vice captain Rob Strachan in a keenly contested game.  Strachan himself has achieved some good results against higher graded players recently.