This is a busy time for Chandler’s Ford Chess Club. The Southampton Chess League nears the end of the2024-5 season, but with some club tournaments about to start, plus some local Congresses, there’s a lot happening. Graham Stuart guides us through the chess scene with his club roundup March 2025.
SCL League
No matches last week, but the result of the University C match is of relevance to our C team and Division 4. University c beat Basingstoke D 2½ – 1½ and this leaves the table as below. The C team need to beat Salisbury C 3½ – ½ to win the league, a 3 – 1 win will see a tie (and play-off for promotion and a tied championship). A tough ask, but it could have been worse if the University had won by a larger margin.
Three away matches next week with:
- D team are away to Southampton C on Tuesday
- E team visit Basingstoke E on Wednesday
- The previously mentioned C team match against Salisbury C on Thursday. Good luck to the team!
I have attached a LMS Report on the matches from last week in the SCL League. But all results can be seen from the SCL Fixtures.
Organisation Fixtures | ECF League Management System
48th East Devon Chess Congress
Dave Holmes and David Culliford are playing in this weekend congress. This congress is a favourite of theirs. Results can be found at the link below, with 2 of the 5 rounds played.
Chess-Results Server Chess-results.com – East Devon Chess Congress (48th) – Major (U1900)
Chess Masters – The Endgame
BBC 2 – Monday 8:00pm and iPlayer
The 2nd program went down more favourably than the first, with the 8-queen puzzle being popular. I think this week has 6 more players, and from what I can see one player is rated over 1800 and I think could be the strongest player in the event.
The player who left if the 1st round is Nick Templar and he is rating is 1650 (1670 live), which was a bit higher rated than I thought. But the games in the show are 10-to-15-minute games (with increment) and maybe this gave a false impression of their quality.
ECF: Templar, Nicholas 346799F
BBC Two – Chess Masters: The Endgame
Club Tournaments
Chandler’s Ford Knockout Competition 2025
The popular KO tournament is being held from April.
Quick summary if that you need to enter by the 31st March and Steve Dunleavy will complete a round by round draw and you will normally have between 3 and 4 weeks to play your game.
John Kooner Club Championship (old Summer tournament)
Please let Malcolm Clarke know if you wish to enter this competition. The draw is to be completed in a couple of days’ time, so please enter soon.
It can be difficult to turn up and get a game due to the tournaments, so please do email players to see if available for a ladder / rated game before club night. Not sure of the best way to manage this, but if anyone wishes to set something up please do so.
Please remember to advise the Tournament Controller of the result of your game. Contact details and LMS links below.
Peter Przybycin – Book Tournament
Event: Book Prize – A 24/25 | ECF League Management System – Iwan leading with 3 from 3. Graham and Bill also have 3 points, but from 4 games.
Event: Book Prize – B 24/25 | ECF League Management System – Peter Eales has won with a round to spare with 5½ from 6 – Congratulations to Peter on an excellent win.
Event: Book Prize – C 24/25 | ECF League Management System – Peter Lasham and John Davis lead with 3½ from 5 games. Jacky Liang has 3 points from 4 games though.
Event: Book Prize – D 24/25 | ECF League Management System – Alan Weaver leading with 5 from 6. He can be caught as 4 players have 3 points, but Alan is a big favourite at this stage.
Rob Sims – Ladder Tournament
If you are away / cannot play in the ladder for a few weeks let Rob know so he can sit you out and allow others to challenge above the normal number of places.
Event: Ladder 24/25 | ECF League Management System (englishchess.org.uk)
Graham Stuart – Rated Friendlies
If you cannot get a game from the internal tournaments, you can play a rated friendly, but the tournaments always take priority to ensure they run on schedule. To ensure these ad-hoc games do not start too late, please make sure they start before 8pm and only play one per evening. If you have played someone once, the 2nd game should be with reversed colours.
Time control can be either 80 + 10 or 90 minutes for these standard rated games but if players cannot agree, 80 + 10 is the default.
Event: Rated Friendlies – 24/25 | ECF League Management System (englishchess.org.uk)
Games
The A team players have annotated some of their league games. If you don’t already have access, please let Iwan know and he will add you.
Game Analysis, Chandlers Ford • lichess.org
Local Tournaments
Castle Chess Fareham Congress
This congress held last weekend was well supported by our members.
Major – 6 rounds
- Alikhan Menseitov – 1st 5 points (many congratulations to the fast improving Alikhan).
- Dave Holmes – 3.5 points (undefeated)
- Philip Tarrant-Edwards – 3.5 points
Minor
- John Davis – 3.5 points
- Keven Lamb – 3.5 points
- Alan Weaver – 2 points
castle-chess.co.uk – 27th Fareham Congress
5th Bournemouth Grand Chess Congress Friday 28th to Sunday 30th March 2025
5th Bournemouth Grand Chess Congress – Dorset Chess
Large prizes available from Dorset Chess Association! This is certainly a tournament to consider playing in. This also now has a British Chess Championship place for the best score by a WECU member. There is now a late entry fee, and the Congress is close to full. Keith, Graham and Philip are playing.
2nd HCA Rapidplay – 5th April 2025 (run by Iwan Cave)
2nd Hampshire Rapidplay – Hampshire Chess Association
Several CF players signed up – this is a great value rapid tournament with a £18 entry fee (£15 for juniors) for ECF Gold and above.
Fareham Open Rapid-Play tournament – 19th April
Duke of Connaught’s Own Club (Fareham CC venue)
Fareham Open Rapid-Play tournament – Hampshire Chess Association
This is also £18 to enter and half the entry fee is going to charity!
Basingstoke Chess Congress – 24th April
Both a Junior & Adult Open 6 round 20+25rapid chess tournament. + An unrated Junior (U18) section for novices.
Basingstoke College of Technology (BCoT), Worting Road, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG21 8TN
Hampshire County Matches
Hampshire play in the Chiltern League which this season has reintroduced the B team competition
All matches are on Saturdays, 2pm to 6pm.
B team dates (Under 1750)
29th March 2025 – Victory Hall, Church Road, Farley Hill, RG7 1TR
National U1650
Hampshire have entered the national stages which Ashraf will be running. Details to follow, but if your rating was under 1650 in September 2024 you are eligible (especially improving juniors!)
B and U1650- Ashraf Syed ashraf.syed@aol.co.uk
Chandler’s Ford Club History
Rob Sims compiled a history for the CF Website a couple of years ago, well worth checking this out.
A History of Chandler’s Ford Chess Club – Chandlers Ford Chess Club
In addition, for the Hampshire Chess History website I am planning on adding a small history of each Hampshire club, I have started with our club and as this is an amalgamation of many clubs this does cover all of these. The idea is that others will update me with additional information from their club archives.
Chandler’s Ford Chess Club – Hampshire Chess History
My understanding of the clubs which fed into the current CF Chess club is below. Eastleigh Railway was the main Eastleigh club (and would have probably changed venue / name a few times as well) which was formed in 1912.
In addition, this does mean CF Chess Club is now 10 years old and we should think about the best way to celebrate this! Please do let Rob / Malcolm and other CF Officers know of any idea?
Southampton / Hampshire Chess Websites
- Chandlers Ford Chess Club – Friendly Chess club in Chandlers Ford, Hampshire – Chandler’s Ford Chess Website
- ECF League Management System (ecflms.org.uk) – SCL LMS Pages for results
- ECF League Management System (ecflms.org.uk) – Chandler’s Ford LMS pages for tournaments
- Hampshire Chess Association – founded 1890 – Hampshire Chess Website
- Hampshire Chess History – A website about Chess history in Hampshire. – Hampshire Chess History Website
Many thanks
Graham
A big thank you for this comprehensive summary Graham, the work you put into this each week is much appreciated.