The Southampton Chess League Annual General Meeting was held at Chandlers Ford on 13th June. Malcolm Clarke organised the Robertson Cup draw for next season, and reports below.

At the AGM of the Southampton Chess League the draw for next season’s Robertson Cup was made with Chandlers Ford being drawn to play away at Andover, while their B team will play away to Winchester. The composition of the divisions for next season has not been completely determined, but it is likely that the Chandlers Ford C team will be relegated to division 5 with all Chandlers Ford and Winchester teams remaining in the same divisions as last season.

The Southampton Chess League AGM will take place on Thursday 13 June 2019, 7.30pm start, at the Chandlers Ford Central Club (2 Winchester Road, Chandlers Ford, Eastleigh, SO53 2FZ).

SCL website: http://www.sotonchessleague.org.uk/

Chess club members joined Steve, his family, and his many friends at his 60th birthday celebrations. Malcolm Clarke reports.

Steve Dunleavy a stalwart member of Chandlers Ford chess club recently celebrated his 60th birthday and several members of the chess club were amongst the sizeable contingent that attended his birthday party which was held at the Sarisbury social club.  For some chess players there was a bit of nostalgia attached to the venue as it was where Sarisbury chess club played their home matches in the 1980’s and 1990’s.

As well as being an enthusiastic captain of the Chandlers Ford D team Steve has also sponsored some chess events and is a well respected member of the Chandlers Ford chess club.

The first round of the Chandlers Ford summer tournament has now been completed and the draw for round 2 made.

Message below from Southampton Chess Club regarding the Rapidplay tournament at St. Denys Community Centre on Saturday 1st June :

Rapidplay chess tournament, Saturday 1st June at Southampton chess club Entries are still being accepted for this event (40+ players already registered) – see link below for information and entry form – please forward to your clubmates

Southampton Rapidplay

In his weekly round-up, Malcolm Clarke reports on club players’ participation in the Hampshire v Yorkshire match, plus Winchester win the Robertson Plate.

Chandlers Ford’s Sam Murphy and Keven Lamb were both in the Hampshire team for players graded under 140 that lost 10.5-5.5 to Yorkshire at Birmingham and both drew their games against opponents more than 20 points higher graded than themselves.  Both Murphy and Lamb are stalwarts of the Chandlers Ford chess club having played for the club at five different headquarters and last season although no individual player represented a Chandlers Ford team in every match Murphy only missed one A team league match and one B team league match.  A stalwart of the Winchester club Bob Cleave also played against Yorkshire, but he lost his game on board 2.

A full strength Winchester team won the Robertson Plate beating Hamble on board count in the final after the match finished all square at 2,5-2.5 with Jose Alfonso Jimenez Capilla winning on top board for Winchester in a match in which three of the boards saw drawn games.

Malcolm Clarke reports on the start of the 2019 Chandlers Ford Chess Club Summer Tournament, and the progress so far.

The Chandlers Ford chess summer tournament has now begun in earnest and 6 of the 9 first round matches have been played.

The number of entrants has increased from 16 last year to 19 this time round with Peter Przybycin, Rob Bird and James Lesniak are entering the competition for the first time and the first two named were amongst the first round winners,  Returning to the competition are Keven Lamb and former winner David Culliford.  Last season’s joint winner Sam Murphy who surprisingly lost his opening game last year made no mistake this time around, but fellow joint winner Manoj Chandar will not be playing this time around.

The Chandlers Ford chess club had an end of season curry which was attended by 19 people writes Malcolm Clarke.  At the event the summer tournament trophy was presented by John Kooner who donated the trophy to joint winners Sam Murphy and Manoj Chandar who will each hold the trophy for six months.  A presentation was also made to David Culliford who organised the evening.

Malcolm Clarke reports on our young players’ success in the Delancey Schools UK Chess Challenge, the world’s largest children’s chess tournament, plus his weekly roundup.

The Delancey Schools UK Chess Challenge saw the brother and sister combination of Manoj and Mansa Chandar both of whom play for Chandlers Ford qualify for the next stage.  Manoj scored five points of in his section which combined players in the under 13, under 14, under 15 and under 16 boys, while Mansa obtained five points out of six in the combined under 11, under 12, under 13 and under 14 girls.

Manoj’s best game in the Chess Challenge was his round 2 success when he got into a king and pawn ending a pawn up, but with both players having a passed pawn, with Manoj making sure that his passed pawn was protected and would be clear of the opponents king if it tried to attack his other king side pawns.  Mansa’s only defeat was at the hands of Melissa Hamilton from Portsmouth who is the eighth highest graded female player in the country for her age group.

Another Chandlers Ford player Keven Lamb won a prize for finishing second equal in the under 120 graded section at the Southend chess congress which was an excellent achievement as he was the 16th highest graded player out of the 22 in the section.  He went into the seventh and final round as the tournament leader, but was beaten by Nathan Weersing from Linton in Cambridgeshire.

Winchester C drew 2-2 with unbeaten champions Salisbury C in division 4 with Mike White and Graham Payne on the top two boards being their winners.  The result means they finish fourth in the final table being behind third placed Chandlers Ford B on game points.  Winchester D‘s match with Ringwood C was a bottom versus top encounter which they lost 2.5-1.5 with a win for Andrew Habbitts and a draw for Winchester.

Malcolm Clarke summarises the teams’ performances in the 2018-19 season.

All four Chandlers Ford teams in the Southampton League have now completed their league programme and all have recorded more losses than victories, but apart from Chandlers Ford C who finished bottom of division 4 all achieved mid-table positions.

However looking at the results during the season excluding the Robertson Cup and the two matches between the B and C teams where the latter achieved their only win of the season then the record against teams from Ringwood, Salisbury and Southampton University for all teams reads P19 W0 D3 L16 and against all other clubs reads P18 W10 D5 L3 and the A team also lost to Ringwood in the Robertson Cup. 

With the league season now over attention now switches to the club’s  Summer Tournament and knockout competition both of which have 19 entries.

As the current Chandler’s Ford Chess Club Ladder tournament reaches its last week, its organiser, Nobby George, explains how the Ladder Champion will be determined – in his own inimitable style.

Hi Ladder People. The End is Nigh, The Tension is High, The Ladders’ been Good, Just like I knew It would, At the end of next Tuesdays’ Club Night , Looking down the Ladder from a great Height, will be the Top Three , the rest of us look up and what do we See, Its’ TWO PEEs and A DEE. 

Player at No.Two will play Player at No.Three. The Winner will Play Player at No.One, The winner of that will be the Ladder Champion for 2019/20.  The Loser will be sent Home.

The Rules for the play off will be the same as the Ladder Rules with the exception that colours will be decided at the time of the games between both players, (with the normal one of each colour pawns in closed Hands).

If a Game ends with a draw then a replay with a change of colours will occur.