The Eastleigh Operatic and Musical Society (EOMS) are currently performing their Chess – The Musical show at The Point in Eastleigh, until Saturday 26th November. I went to last night’s show (Thursday 24th).

Background to Chess – The Musical

The original Chess musical was written by Tim Rice in the 1980s, inspired by the famous Bobby Fischer v Boris Spassky World Chess Championship of 1972. Rice approached Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson from ABBA to write the music. The music is of various styles and includes hits One Night in Bangkok and I know Him So Well. The show premiered in 1986 and had three years in London’s West End; it has since been performed in many countries.

Brief synopsis of Chess – The Musical

The Cold War still rages, adding a key dimension to the World Chess Championship as the American World Champion Freddie Trumper defends his title against Soviet Grandmaster Anatoly Sergievsky. The central theme is the love triangle between the two Grandmasters and Florence Vassy, who is the manager of one of the players but falls in love with the other. Add in some Cold War plotting and you get a satisfyingly full story.

The Eastleigh Operatic and Musical Society Show

Some details – it’s still on, and with e-tickets sent to your phone, you can buy tickets easily.

Show performances remaining – tickets still available

• Friday 25th November 20222: 7:30 pm.
• Saturday 26th November: 2:30pm
• Saturday 26th November: 7:30pm

Although popular, there are still tickets available for all the shows listed above. Full price tickets are from £15-17, some discounts for over 60 and students and under-16s.

Chess Club involvement

The Musical Director for the EOMS production is Ian Partridge, Chandler’s Ford Chess Club member.

The chess club has provided the chess boards and clocks.

Recommendation

I saw the show last night, Thursday, and had a thoroughly enjoyable evening. Immersed in the story straightaway, I enjoyed all aspects of it: the acting, music and singing performances. I would recommend seeing the show if you get an opportunity.

I saw former club player Don Creasey afterwards, and he and his wife had also enjoyed the show.

Keven Lamb

Hampshire Chess Association will hold their Hampshire Chess Congress 2022 on 4-6th November, at the Lysses House Hotel in Fareham.

The over-the-board chess tournament comprises 6 Rounds of 4-hour games, organised in three Sections: The Open, the Major, and the Minor. There are currently 78 players entered in the tournament.

The venue

The Lysses House Hotel in Fareham is a pleasant and friendly venue that has been used by the Hampshire Chess Association on previous occasions, and also twice a year by Castle Chess (most recently 7-9 October this year). The address is: Lysses House Hotel, 51 High Street, Fareham, Hampshire, PO16 7BQ.

Parking:

The Hotel has free parking for 35 cars, but there is a convenient car park very close to the venue: the Lysses Car Park, Lysses Path, Fareham PO16 7BE, free after 6pm and Sundays, whilst Saturday all day is only £3.50.

Hampshire Chess Congress 2022: details

Sections:

• The Open. £35 Entry fee.
• The Major. Under 1900 English Chess Federation rating. £30 Entry.
• The Minor. Under 1600 ECF. £27 Entry.

Note: Entry fees based on ECF Membership of Silver or above. Otherwise add a £9 fee.

Prizes

Each Section has Prizes 1st, 2nd, 3rd, plus a Grading Prize. There are also various Trophies and Cups in the Sections. Overall, there are further Prizes, such as the Gillian Moore Cup for the highest-scoring Hampshire Lady, and the John Dunleavy Memorial Best Game Prize (£100). The cash prizes are open to all players, whilst the Cups and Trophies are for Hampshire players.

For more details on the Prize see the HCA entry form link below:

Timetable

• Rd 1: Fri 1900-2300
• Rd 2: Sat 0900-1300
• Rd 3: Sat 1400-1800
• Rd 4: Sat 1900-2300
• Rd 5: Sun 0900-1300
• Rd 6: Sun 1400-1800 Prize-giving on Sunday at 18:05

Rate of play

The time control is 40 moves in 100 minutes followed by a 20-minute quickplay finish.

Byes

A ½-point bye may be taken in any one round except the last if claimed in advance on the entry form.

Book Prize 2022-23 Tournament organiser Peter Przybycin gives a Round 1 scores update and announces the Round 2 player pairings. The first named player has the white pieces.

Here are the results so far from round one of the 2022-23 Book Prize Tournament:

Premier section:

• Iwan Cave 1 Sam Murphy 0
• Cary Xie ½ Peter Przybycin ½
• Pablo Vidal 0 Keith Gregory 1

Major section:

• John Kooner 0 Keven Lamb 1
• Andrew Mills ½ Peter Eales ½
• Patrick Pavey 0 Nobby George 1
• John Pellegrini 0 Richard Meredith 1

Minor section:

• Alan Weaver 0 Rose Saunders 1
• Steve Dunleavy 0 Steve Saunders 1

Although three games are yet to be played in round one, I have been assured by those concerned that they will be completed ASAP. Two of these games are already scheduled for next Tuesday.

I will announce the pairings for round two shortly, adding an extra (fifth) week to its deadline. This will hopefully give time for the outstanding games to be played.

All the Best,

Peter.

Round 2 Pairings

Premier section:

• Robert Sims  v  Iwan Cave
• Cary Xie  v  Keith Gregory
• Sam Murphy  v  Graham Stuart 
• Peter Przybycin  v  Pablo Vidal

Major section:

• John Pellegrini v Andy Mills
• Peter Eales v Dick Meredith
• John Kooner v  Nobby George
• Keven Lamb v Patrick Pavey

Minor section:

• Steve Dunleavy v Alan Weaver
• Geoff Parish v Rose Saunders
• Lee Mundy v Steve Saunders
• Rob Strachan v Daniel Phillips
• Bye: Ian Parker

Rules Summary

The first named player has the white pieces.

Rate of play is 90 minutes each, for the whole game.

Games will be played over-the-board at chess club, or at the home of the player with the white pieces. Score sheets and clocks must be used.

Both players should inform me of each game’s result via email.

All games in this round to be played by 30^th November please.

Photos of the recent Castle Chess Fareham October 2022 tournament. Four Chandler’s Ford Chess Club players participated.

Castle Chess Fareham Congress 7-9 October 2022

Castle Chess held their 19th Fareham Congress tournament (over the board games) on 7-9th October 2022. It was at the Lysses House Hotel in Fareham.

Castle Chess have run a number of Congresses (tournaments) over recent years at this pleasant venue. They host two Congresses per year at the Lysses, one earlier in the year, one in the Autumn.

There were 97 players in the Congress, a huge level of interest.

The format of the Congress was a six-Round Swiss: round one on the Friday evening, three rounds on the Saturday, and the last two games on the Sunday. Byes could be requested (except Round 6).

There were three sections:

• Open: Under 2001 (=175 former ECF grade system),
• Major: Under 1901 (=160),
• Minor: under 1601 (=120).

Photos: slideshow

Chandler’s Ford players at Fareham Congress

Chandler’s Ford Chess Club players participated across the range of Sections, with Iwan Cave and Keith Gregory in the Open, Graham Stuart in the Major, and Kev Lamb in the Minor. Graham ended up with 3.5 points, Iwan and Keven 3, and Keith 2 points.

Tournament organiser Rob Sims announces that the New Ladder starts for 2022-23.

The new chess ladder starts next week and will run until 12th September 2023.

As usual I have ranked players in reverse order  based on the October ECF grades and games can be played from next Tuesday.

I appreciate that the league has just started, the Summer Tournament is still running and the Book Tournament is also starting, so I’m not expecting many games to be played  for a while!

Please take a moment to read the rules which are attached as I have made some changes to help increase movement on the Ladder and encourage people to challenge others as and when possible.

I’d like to thank Keith for making suggestions and letting me see how the Fareham Club organise their ladder.

Best wishes 

Rob Sims

Click the link button below to go to the Ladder Page, with the latest ladder positions plus the Rules.

Ladder 2022-23 Rules

• Initial positions on the ladder are determined in order of grade.
• All games to be played on the clock, which will be set at 90 minutes each and played to a finish.
• You may challenge anyone who is one, two, three, or four places above you on the ladder.
• A challenge cannot be made more than 7 days ahead of a game. Once a challenge is accepted neither the challenger nor the player being challenged may make or accept another challenge.
• The player making the challenge plays white. The person being challenged plays black.
• You can email challenges to your eligible opponents in advance, but it won’t count as a loss if your opponent is unable to play for any reason. 
• If the lower ranked player wins, the lower ranked player takes the higher ranked player’s position on the ladder, and the higher ranked player moves down one place.
• If the higher ranked player wins, there is no change in the players’ rankings. If the game ends in a draw, the lower ranked player takes the position just below the higher ranked player.
• After a ladder game is played, at least one of the players must play a ladder game against someone else before they can play each other again. Please report all results of games to me and I will submit them to ECF for grading purposes.
• The top three players on Tuesday 12^th September 2023 will play off to decide the eventual winner. Players in second and third place play each other and the winner plays the player in first place.
• Online games can only be played against Mike Henbury.

Rob Sims October 2022

The pre-season friendly game against Fareham. The Chandler’s Ford team Captain Graham Stuart reports. Photo by Keith Gregory. Plus, some team player comments.

Proposal for a friendly match

At the end of last season Keith Gregory was asked by Fareham Chess Club to sound out Chandler’s Ford Chess Club about having a friendly match before the start of the next season.

With the season drawing to a conclusion and a “summer break” looming, Fareham chess club have asked me to check if there would be interest in a Fareham v CF friendly match (possibly two matches i.e., home & away). Fareham suggest we play it over 8 boards and restrict it to under 1900 players to level the playing field (as Fareham have 2 x 2200/2300 FMs!). Fareham chess club meets on Tuesday evenings @ the DOCOC club => https://www.facebook.com/docfareham/ – there’s plenty of space for many boards, free parking and a bar – what’s not to like 🙂 

Keith

Match details

• Date: Tuesday 30^th August 2022
• Time: 7:30 pm
• Location: Fareham Chess Club, Duke of Connaught’s Own club, 74 Western Road, Fareham PO16 0NS
• Time Control: 60 mins + 10 seconds per move
• We will toss a coin for colours and the board order for our team is in rating order (with the exception of Ian who is currently ungraded).

Match report

Many thanks for the players who played in our pre-season friendly against Fareham last night. Although we lost 5 – 3 this was an excellent result against a very strong side. As can be seen from their team their average grade was 160 points more than ours.

Excellent wins by Iwan and Ian and Rob drew against a very experienced strong player as well. I am still recovering from my draw which went to the bitter end when we were both living on the very small increment (10 seconds)

Graham Stuart

The game results will be submitted to the ECF for grading.

Team comments

Keith Gregory: Hard fought games all played in a very sporting manner by both teams – perhaps we can make this an annual event and host at CF next year?

Ian Partridge: Thanks Graham and Keith for setting this up, it was great fun. For anyone interested, my game is here: 

Book Prize Tournament organiser Peter Przybycin announces the start of the new Book Prize 2022-3. The Book Prize tournament is more popular than ever and comprises three Sections, 25 players in all. The Book Prize Tournament 2022-2023 is one of four Chandler’s Ford Chess Club tournaments that are played each year. This year’s Book Prize Tournament started at the beginning of October 2022.

Book Prize Tournament 2022-2023

The 2022-23 Book Prize Tournament is now active.

This year the tournament is divided into three all-play-all sections: Premier, Major, and Minor.

The Premier section has eight contestants, as does the Major, but the Minor section has nine players.

I plan to allow four weeks for each round to be completed but, if the Minor section completes any round before the deadline, I might start the following round for that section immediately. This is to allow for the fact that there will be two extra rounds in the Minor section.

Rate of play is 90 minutes each, for the whole game.

Games will be played over-the-board at chess club, or at the home of the player with the white pieces. Score sheets and clocks must be used.

Both players should inform me of each game’s result via email.

In the event of a tie for first place in any section, the book prize will be awarded to whoever wins their individual game. If this is a draw, a tie break game will be necessary, colours reversed. If there is still a tie, then the player with the lower most recent grade will take the prize.

Round 1

Here are the pairings for round 1, all games to be played by 28^th October:

Premier section:

• Iwan Cave v Sam Murphy
• Robert Sims v Graham Stuart
• Pablo Vidal v Keith Gregory
• Cary Xie v Peter Przybycin

Major section:

• Andy Mills v Peter Eales
• Patrick Pavey v Nobby George
• John Pellegrini v Dick Meredith
• John Kooner v Keven Lamb

Minor section:

• Alan Weaver v Rose Saunders
• Lee Mundy v Ian Parker
• Rob Strachan v Geoff Parish
• Steve Dunleavy v Steve Saunders
• Bye: Daniel Phillips

The first named player has the white pieces.

Castle Chess will hold their 19th Fareham Congress tournament (over the board games) on 7-9th October 2022. It will be at the Lysses House Hotel, 51 High Street, Fareham, PO16 7BQ.

At the time of publishing this Post, there are 86 entrants to the Congress, a huge level of interest.

Castle Chess have run a number of Congresses (tournaments) over recent years at this pleasant venue. They host two Congresses per year at the Lysses, one earlier in the year, one in the Autumn.

Tournament format

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. Byes may be requested (except Round 6).

There are three sections:

• Open: Under 2001 (=175 former ECF grade system),
• Major: Under 1901 (=160),
• Minor: under 1601 (=120).

The Congress costs £40 to enter, with a £7 discount for Juniors. Non-ECF members will need to pay £9 extra. There are also various accommodation packages – available through Castle Chess – if you would like to stay at the Lysses.

Tea and coffee will be provided for a donation.

Results of all games will be be sent to the ECF for Grading.

There will not be a Prize-giving ceremony as prizes will be sent via bank transfer.

Rate of Play

The rate of play for the games is 75 minutes plus 30 seconds per move (about 3 and a half hours). All moves must be recorded throughout the game.

Further information

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
or Marc Shaw 07947 813303

See the Castle Chess website’s Fareham Congress page:

The Chandler’s Ford Chess Club will hold its Annual General Meeting on Wednesday 21st September 2022. The AGM 2022 will be at the Club’s venue at the Central Club, at 7:30pm.

The League structure was agreed for the forthcoming 2022-23 season following its AGM, and our Club’s own AGM will decide, amongst other things, which players will play in which team, and who the team captains will be.

Agenda

1) Apologies for absence

2) Minutes of last year’s AGM.

3) Matters arising

4) Officer reports eg Secretary, Treasurer

5) Election of Officers

6) Fees for 2022/23

7) Proposals

 a) Regarding amalgamation of senior and junior club – Nobby George

 b) Regarding status of club history project – Steve Dunleavy

 c) Suggestion regarding purchase of 5 wooden sets – Graham Stuart

 d) Need to allocate squads for next season based on current grades – Rob Sims

8) Plans for season with regard to tournaments, ladder and league teams

9) Any other business

As the new Southampton Chess League season, 2022-23 gets closer, we take a look back at the League AGM 2022 to see what the new season might look like.

The Southampton Chess League’s Annual General Meeting was held at our club’s venue, the Chandler’s Ford Central Club. Matthew Coldwell opened the League AGM 2022 at 19:30 on Tuesday 14th June. 20 people from the various clubs of the Southampton League attended. The League AGM concluded at 21:00.

Malcolm Clarke presented his Secretary’s Report, in which he noted that the 2021-2 season was in a sense experimental, as the League began to find its feet after the pandemic-caused break. The Robertson Cup and Plate were not contested as the League focussed on getting the League up and running in its reduced format. Fraser Macleod presented the Treasurer’s Report, and League subscriptions for the clubs were agreed.

Election of officers

• Chair: Matthew Coldwell was elected, and was Chair at the AGM, keeping things moving at a good pace.
• Vice Chair: Michael Pope
• League Secretary: Fraser Macleod
• Fixture Secretary: Malcolm Clarke
• Treasurer: no takers for this role yet, so Fraser continues for the present.
• Webmaster: a candidate for this role to be sought from the Clubs. Since the AGM Graham Stuart has kindly stepped up to fulfil this position.

2021-22 Season trophy presentations

	2018/19	2022 winner
Division 1	Ringwood A	Fareham A
Division 2	Hamble B	Salisbury A
Division 3	Ringwood B	Basingstoke A
Division 4	Salisbury C	Fareham B
Division 5	Ringwood C	Basingstoke C

Note: Robertson Cup, Individual and Rapid-play competitions were not held this season.

Planning for the 2022-23 Season

The structure of the new season was discussed: number of Divisions, number of boards per team, start and end dates of the season and so on. The clubs were invited to say how many teams they would field, and their Division preferences (assessing where they saw their teams would compete according to expected player strengths). There will be Robertson Cup and Plate competitions.

Here are some key features of the forthcoming season:

• There will be 5 Divisions in Southampton Chess League.
• The season begins on 28th September 2022 with a Division 5 fixture between Basingstoke D and Salisbury D.
• There will be Robertson Cup and Plate matches.
• Chandler’s Ford Chess Club will be fielding 4 teams, playing in Divisions 2, 4, and 5 (our C and D teams are both in Division 5). This represents the player strength profile of our club’s membership.
• Match captains can notify results directly to the SCL Website, as in recent seasons.

The League structure established, it will be for our Club’s own AGM, on Wednesday 21st September to decide, amongst other things, which players will play in which team, and who the team captains will be.