The pre-season county matches

The chess match played over the board on Saturday 4th September was one of a series of pre-season County matches. This series is between 4 county teams: Hampshire, Essex, and 2 Kent teams (Haddrell and Steele). The teams are composed of 8 players whose English Chess Federation grades must average no more than 1600. This is a challenge for their captains when the English Chess Federation grades for the players can change monthly. Players must have up to date ECF membership.

Hampshire’s fixtures:

• Sat 14^th August, Essex v Hants at Wanstead House, Wanstead, 1.30pm start. Hants lost 7.5 – 0.5. See David Culliford’s match report.
• Sat 3^rd September, Hants v Kent Haddrell at the Warren Centre, Micheldever Station, 1.30pm start. Hants lost 5-3.
• Sat 25^th September, Kent Steele v Hants at St Anselms Church Hall, Dartford, 12.30pm start.

This was the second of three pre-season county chess matches, played over the board between Hampshire vs Kent Haddrell, one of two Kent teams in the pre-season 1600-average rating competition. Half of the Hampshire team were Chandler’s Ford Chess Club players. The club’s David Culliford stepped in at the last minute to be team captain. He gives a match report below.

The venue: the Warren Centre, Micheldever Station

This is a brief update on today’s county chess match, Hampshire versus Kent Haddrell, in the pre-season over-the-board 1600 average rating competition. The match took place at the Warren Centre, Micheldever Station.

Everything turned out fine with the venue, the kit, the players (except one default from Kent on board 6 – sorry about that, Manoj) and the weather, which was fine and pleasant.

I met the Warren Centre’s representative at 1pm and he showed me the venue layout, with which I was already familiar.

Earlier in the day, I managed to obtain some sets, boards, clocks and scoresheets from our club cupboard at Chandler’s Ford. Players from both teams helped set out the tables, chairs, sets, etc., and Andy from Kent kindly set the clocks for G105/15, as required, so there was no need to fall back on the ‘all moves in 2 hours’ option.

We started pretty much on time, just before 1:35pm, before which I gave the usual announcements, supplemented by some comments about the pandemic-related practicalities (e.g. masks to be worn, hand gel available, windows open to air the venue, etc.)

• 

• 

No issues arose throughout, except that Kent defaulted board 6 after one hour from the start of White’s clock.

Defeat for Hampshire

I found the Kent captain, David Gilbert, to be very friendly and pleasant, and he has kindly logged the result on the ECF’s League Management System, so please refer to the following link for the full result, which was a 5-3 defeat for us.

Hampshire Minor v Kent Haddrell | ECF League Management System (ecflms.org.uk)

The Hampshire side scored wins on Boards 6 (default) and 8, and drew on boards 2 and 4, but lost on the other boards. Result: loss, Hampshire 3 – 5 Kent Haddrell.

All in all, it was a very pleasant day, and thanks to all the Kent and Hampshire players who played and who helped with the setup and the putting away of the tables and chairs afterwards.

David

Links

• See individual players’ results at the LMS website page: Hampshire Minor v Kent Haddrell | ECF League Management System (ecflms.org.uk)
• See also Hampshire Chess Association website’s story Hampshire loss to Kent – Hampshire Chess Association
• The English Chess Federation website: English Chess Federation