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.

In his latest update, Malcolm Clarke, organiser of the Summer Tournament, reveals the position after 4 rounds. He also reminds us that Chandler’s Ford Chess Club’s AGM is on 17th September.

Sam Murphy who was last year’s joint champion in the Chandlers Ford chess summer tournament beat Rob Sims to make his score 3 points from 4 games. However with James Daas already having 3.5 points and having to play someone else with at least 3.5 points in the fifth and final round the only way that Murphy can finish joint first on this occasion is to win his round 5 game and hope that the result of Daas’s final game also goes his way,

Chandlers Ford chess club are holding their AGM on Tuesday 17th September.

Please see the message below from Martin Simmons of Dorset Chess, inviting entries to this event.

To: Southampton chess league club secs and team captains

Forwarding on behalf of organisers of this chess event coming up soon – please pass onto your club members …

We have a Dorset Blitz Championships coming up at the spacious Furzebrook Village Hall in Wareham on Sunday 22nd September. It starts at 10.15am and finishes at 5.30pm (latest). The time control will be either 8 minutes or 10 minutes per game plus increments (depending on the number of players in each all play all group). There is ample free parking on-site.

There are excellent prizes and, as always with many Dorset one day events, a free lunch and free refreshments!

The event is heavily sponsored by the Dorset County Chess Association so we can offer such prizes and free refreshments.

Steve Peirson is the tournament organiser.

Full details are given on the link below which includes an online entry form and a printable entry form too.

3rd Dorset Open Blitz Championship

I also attach an entry form.

If you can help us again by circulating the details of this highly enjoyable event then this would be so much appreciated by Steve and myself.

Many thanks

Martin Simons

In his regular Hampshire Chronicle article, Malcolm Clarke writes this week about the sad news about Simon Kay. In other news he writes about the implications of Fareham B withdrawing from Division 5.

Chandlers Ford chess club received the sad news this week that club stalwart Simon Kay passed away after a short illness.  His funeral will be held at Romsey Crematorium on Wednesday 11th September at 1,00 pm.

Kay played 15 matches for the club in last season’s Southampton Chess League representing both the B and D teams with his best results being a win over Graeme Ford of Salisbury and a draw with Joe Coburn of Fareham.  He features in the photograph of the match between Chandlers Ford B and Chandlers Ford C which is on the front page of the club’s website showing all the players shaking hands with each other.  His grade went up 23 points during the course of last season.

Fareham B have withdrawn from division 5 of the Southampton Chess League but to compensate a Division 5 cup will now be run in which Chandlers Ford D play Winchester C with the winners playing Chandlers Ford C.

It is with great sadness that we learned that Simon Kay has died after a short illness.

His funeral will be held at Romsey Crematorium at 1pm, Wednesday 11th September.

Simon was an enthusiastic stalwart of the Chandler’s Ford Chess Club, playing for our B and D teams, and was a keen participant at our various social gatherings.

He was a kind and thoughtful friend to us at the chess club. During my stay in Hospital late last year Simon came to visit me, and kindly lent me some chess books to occupy me, and excitedly told me about his visit to London to see the chess championship between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana.

Kev Lamb.

The Hampshire Chess Association Congress will be held Friday 1st – Sunday 3rd November 2019, and the tournament is open to all players.

The event is a six-round tournament, and a half-point bye is available if you want (except the last Round). The first Round will be on the Friday evening, with the next 3 rounds on the Saturday, and the last two on the Sunday. The rate of play is 40 moves in 100 minutes followed by 20 minutes quickplay finish.

The event will take place at the Lysses House Hotel, 51 High Street, Fareham PO16 7BQ.

For more information and Congress Entry form, see the HCA website page: Hampshire Chess Congress 2019.

Entry fees range from £35 to enter the Open, through to £30 for the Major (Under 160 grade), to £27 for the Minor (Under 125). See the HCA website for the various discounts available.