Nobby George, the organiser of the club’s Ladder Tournament, has started a new Ladder, games to be played online on lichess.org.

The Lichess Ladder started on 27th November 2020, and will be updated each Sunday.

The time control is 90 minutes per player in each game. A player may challenge up to 4 places above, and if the challenger wins the two players swap places on the ladder (otherwise they stay perched on their current rungs). The Challenger has the White pieces.

The Lichess Ladder Rules.

All games to be played on the clock ,which will be set at ninety minutes and then play to a finish.

Players may challenge up to four places above their own step. If the challenger wins he will exchange places with the loser all other results then the positions remain the same. The same players may not play each other again without first playing another player. Once a challenge is accepted neither the challenger nor the player being challenged may make or accept another challenge. Challenge cannot be made more than five days ahead of the game to be played.

The ladder begins as from Today (27^th November 2020). The Challenger has the white Pieces and it is up to the winner to e mail me (Nobby George) the result. The Ladder will be updated on Sunday of each week and will continue until who knows when.

Initial Lichess Ladder Positions

Lichess Ladder position	Player
1	Steve Saunders
2	Steve Dunleavy
3	Rose Saunders
4	Andrew Vagg
5	Don Creasey
6	Nobby George
7	John Kooner
8	Keven Lamb
9	Patrick Pavey
10	Maha Chandar
11	Rob Sims
12	Sam Murphy
13	Manoj Chandar
14	Andy Mills
15	Joseph Henbury
16	Rob Strachan
17	Peter Przybycin

Tournament results: a great week for Joe Henbury as ‘Smokin Joe’ smashes the tournaments on 24th and 26th November 2020. Details of two forthcoming online tournaments on lichess.org on Tuesday 1st December, and the monthly SCL tournament on 3rd December.

Online Tournament results 24th, 26th November

Tuesday Arena, 24th November 2020: Smokin’ Joe

13 of us participated in this week’s Arena Tournament on Tuesday 24th November, another good turnout for our online tournaments on lichess.org. Congratulations to Joseph Henbury (JoeHenbury), who came first by a good margin – with 100% wins. A spectator nicknamed him Smokin’ Joe (after boxing legend Joe Frazier). Well done too John Zastapilo (john_zed) 2nd, and me, Keven Lamb 3rd.

5-Round Swiss, 26th November

Eight of us played in the 5-round Swiss on 26th November. Joe Henbury concluded his week with another tremendous performance, winning all 5 of his games. Smokin Joe strikes again! It was his dad’s (Ewokmike) birthday that day, and Joe gave him a chess lesson in defeat as a gift…

Manoj Chandar joined part-way through the tournament – and he still got a virtual podium place with second! Another rising young star. Well done Manoj!

Graham Stuart (‘WillHeSac’), a frequent winner of these tournaments, had to content himself with 3rd place this week.

Forthcoming online club tournaments

Forthcoming Chandler’s Ford chess club online tournaments are set up and ready to join on lichess.org. The regular Tuesday Arena is on 1st December. On Thursday 3rd December there will be the monthly Southampton Chess League online Tournament, this time it will be a 5-round swiss rather than the usual SCL Arena.

Tuesday Arena, 8pm on 1st December 2020

This is our regular online tournament in which players have ten minutes each per game in the one-hour tournament. 8pm start. It’s already set up, click on the button below to go to the Tournament.

SCL 5-round Swiss, 8pm Thursday 26th November

On Thursday 3rd December there will be the monthly Southampton Chess League online Tournament, this time it will be a 5-round swiss rather than the usual SCL Arena. This starts at 8pm on lichess.org. Players have an initial 7 minutes each per game plus a 3-second increment per move (that is, about ten minutes each). Click on the button below to go to the Tournament.

The New Tournament, organised by Peter Przybycin, is now called the Book Prize Tournament. The tournament is progressing, and the First Round games have already been played. The games are played online at lichess.org, and have a time control of 90 minutes each per player. It is an 11 round tournament, all-play-all.

Peter names the tournament

Fellow members,

As I mentioned before, I feel that the new tournament needs a name, and I have settled on “The Book Prize Tournament”. There are several reasons for this.

Being an “Internationalist” I don’t want to refer to any nationality in the name.

I don’t want to give it a name which includes Chandlers Ford in the title, because I feel that making it an official club tournament is something which should be agreed by the club as a whole.

I don’t want to give it a name that suggests there may be more in the future. My thinking is that, after the covid situation ends and we’re back to playing league matches, there will no longer be room for a fourth club tournament.

That said, it may be that there is sufficient demand for another OTB tournament, failing that a regular online tournament alongside all the over-the-board stuff, in which case I would call it the “Chandlers Ford Minor”, and supply a trophy rather than donate a book.

This is all speculation of course, and hopefully the options can be discussed at a future general meeting.

Best regards,

Peter P.

The Book Prize Tournament Round 1 Results

White		Black
Rose Saunders	0.5 – 0.5	Mike Henbury
Geoffrey Parish	0 – 1	Keven Lamb
Rob Strachan	1 – 0	Don Creasey
Rob Sims	1 – 0	Steve Dunleavy
John Kooner	1-0	Steve Saunders
Nobby George	1-0	Suzan Dunleavy

Round 2 pairings

White		Black
Steve Dunleavy		Keven Lamb
Suzan Dunleavy		John Kooner
Rob Sims		Mike Henbury
Nobby George		Don Creasey
Geoffrey Parish		Rose Saunders
Rob Strachan		Steve Saunders

As before, the first named player has white.

Winner to notify me of the result. In the event of a draw, the player of the white pieces has this responsibility.

Please play your round 2 games by Saturday 12^th December.

Kev, as ever, please feel free to post any of this info on the club website.

Enjoy!

Peter.

Results of last week’s tournaments on 17th and 19th November; details of three forthcoming online tournaments on lichess.org on Tuesday 24th, Thursday 26th, and Tuesday 1st December.

Online Tournament results 17th, 19th November

Tuesday Arena, 17th November 2020: berserker storms the (virtual) podium!

14 of us participated in this week’s Arena Tournament on Tuesday 17th November, another good turnout for our online tournaments on lichess.org. Congratulations to David Culliford (‘djc202’), who came first. Well done too Andy Mills 2nd, and me, Keven Lamb 3rd.

As well as the bonus points from a lichess ‘winning streak’ David had also made great use of going ‘Berserk‘ (in which players have half the time but gain a bonus point – if they win). The gamble paid off – berserker David had a good gap between him and Andy on 2nd.

5-Round Swiss tournament 19th November: Chandler’s Ford goes global

Eight of us played in the Thursday evening online tournament on 19th November. Congratulations to Graham Stuart (‘WillHeSac’) who won this week with 4.5 wins out of 5 games. Well done too John Zastapilo (john_zed) 2nd, and Kev Byard 3rd.

The chess club’s former players can now be found across the world, as this time Belgium-based John was joined on the virtual podium by another former club player Kev Byard who lives in New Zealand! Kev moved to New Zealand 16 years ago but used to play for the club when we were in Eastleigh. Whilst it was an evening tournament for us, it was morning for him.

Forthcoming online club tournaments

Three Chandler’s Ford chess club online tournaments are set up and ready to join on lichess.org: the regular Tuesday Arena on 24th November, and our 5-round Swiss on Thursday 26th. Plus the following week’s Tuesday Arena on 1st December.

Tuesday Arena, 8pm on 24th November 2020

This is our regular online tournament in which players have ten minutes each per game in the one-hour tournament. 8pm start. Click on the button below to go to the Tournament.

5-round Swiss, 8pm Thursday 26th November

On Thursday 19th the club has its regular 5-round Swiss tournament. This starts at 8pm on lichess.org. Players have an initial 7 minutes each per game plus a 3-second increment per move (that is, about ten minutes each). Click on the button below to go to the Tournament.

Tuesday Arena, 8pm on 1st December 2020

Looking ahead, another Tuesday Arena is set up and ready to join for 1st December. This is our regular online tournament in which players have ten minutes each per game in the one-hour tournament. 8pm start. Click on the button below to go to the Tournament.

The Hampshire Under-18 Team played in the online County Championship on Saturday 21st November 2020. The Hampshire Juniors team is organised by Maha Chandar, who runs the Chandler’s Ford Junior Chess Club.

Hampshire scored 17 game points and came 9th. Warwickshire came first with 31.5 game points. See the Results on the Chess-Results.com website.

Maha tells us she enjoyed the tournament and watching the games all day, and that although there was a delay, she thought that the English Chess Federation organised the event well.

The Championship was held online on chess.com, and the teams of six competed in 7 Rounds. The time control for the games was ten minutes initially per player per game plus an increment of 5 seconds per move.

A reminder from Maha Chandar, Team Manager of the Hampshire Juniors that the U-18 team are going to play tomorrow 21st November in the County Championship. Starts @10.00 -5.00 in Chess.com U18 SCCU and until now 12 counties are signed up and expecting more than 15 counties.

Good luck Hampshire!

Useful Links

This week: our best-attended online tournament so far on Tuesday 10th November, and on Thursday 12th the Ewok was defeated by a ‘Belgian’… Details of forthcoming tournaments on 17th and 19th. Plus a reminder to pay ECF subscriptions.

Online Tournament results 10th, 12th November

Tuesday Arena, 10th November 2020.

Sixteen of us participated in this week’s Arena Tournament on Tuesday 10th November, our best turnout so far in these online tournaments on lichess.org. Congratulations to Sam Murphy, who came first. Well done too Andy Mills 2nd, and Graham Stuart (WillHeSac) 3rd. It was Sam’s birthday on Tuesday, so some virtual silverware for his birthday as he achieved top podium position. Andy Mills is a former player from when we used to play at Eastleigh, and this is his first Chandler’s Ford online tournament – a great reunion.

Another former player is John Zastapilo who used to play for us when we were at the Unity Club. John Z now lives in Belgium: great for the club tournaments to go international!

5-Round Swiss tournament 12th November: Belgian beats Ewok

Seven of us played in the Thursday evening tournament on 12th November. Congratulations to Graham Stuart who won this week with an impressive 5 wins out of 5 games. Well done too John Zastapilo (john_zed) 2nd, and me, Kev Lamb 3rd. Belgium-based John’s Round 1 game was a 26-move game against Mike Henbury – Ewokmike, a win for John.

ECF subscriptions reminder

The English Chess Federation relies upon members’ annual subscriptions to provide its services of ratings, online and over the board chess when that resumes. To see more details on what the ECF does go to https://www.englishchess.org.uk/what-we-do/.

The Membership year runs 1st September to 31st August.

Can’t remember if you’re up to date? Check the ECF Rating database. Search for your own details and it will show your ECF membership number, category and expiry date.

If you need to renew membership – or to become a member if you haven’t yet joined the ECF, click on the button below to go to the ECF website’s Membership page:

Forthcoming online Tournaments

Two Chandler’s Ford chess club online tournaments on lichess.org this week: the regular Tuesday Arena on 17th November, and our 5-round Swiss on Thursday 19th. Both have now been set up and are ready to join.

Tuesday Arena, 8pm on 17th November 2020

This is our regular online tournament in which players have ten minutes each per game in the one-hour tournament. 8pm start. Click on the button below to go to the Tournament.

5-round Swiss, 8pm Thursday 19th November

On Thursday 19th the club has its regular 5-round Swiss tournament. This starts at 8pm on lichess.org. Players have an initial 7 minutes each per game plus a 3-second increment per move (that is, about ten minutes each). Click on the button below to go to the Tournament.

This week: Knockout Tournament organiser Steve Dunleavy presents the Trophy to the 2020 winner Peter Przybycin; results of the week’s online tournaments, plus details of the coming week’s online tournaments.

2020 Knock Out Tournament winner Peter Przybycin presented with Trophy

Peter Przybyin won this year’s Knockout Tournament. The tournament was organised by Steve Dunleavy, who presented the Trophy to Peter (in a socially safe way) last weekend.

Tuesday Arena: the Force is strong with the Ewok

Twelve of us participated this week in the online tournament on 3rd November. Congratulations to Mike Henbury (Ewokmike) on coming first – by a huge margin. Although he didn’t go ‘Berserk’ to score bonus points, the Ewok still ran amok – and won all his games. The Force was clearly with him.

Well done too John Kooner 2nd, and Sam Murphy 3rd.

The Tuesday Arenas are online on lichess.org.

SCL Tournament 5th November 2020

Thursday evening’s online tournament this week was the Southampton Chess League‘s monthly tournament, the SCL Rapid – Tournament No 2. These monthly lichess.org online tournaments are set up and organised by Graham Stuart from our Club. These tournaments are well-supported by Chandler’s Ford players: 9 of this month’s participant’s were from our club. Graham also created the Chandler’s Ford Chess Club on lichess.org.

And a mention for Rose who got an impressive ten games played during the tournament!

Forthcoming online Tournaments

Two Chandler’s Ford chess club online tournaments on lichess.org this week: the regular Tuesday Arena on 10th November, and our 5-round Swiss on Thursday 12th. Both have now been set up and are ready to join.

Tuesday Arena, 8pm 10th November 2020

This is our regular online tournament in which players have ten minutes each per game in the one-hour tournament. 8pm start. Click on the button below to go to the Tournament.

5-round Swiss, Thursday 12th November

On Thursday 12th the club has its regular 5-round Swiss tournament. This starts at 8pm on lichess.org. Players have an initial 7 minutes each per game plus a 3-second increment per move (that is, about ten minutes each). Click on the button below to go to the Tournament.

A new Chandler’s Ford Chess Club Tournament begins, and is just the format for these pandemic times: online. Peter Przybycin announces the draw for the 1st Round of the New Online Club Tournament, and outlines the rules of the contest.

Round 1 Pairings

White		Black
Rose Saunders		Mike Henbury
Geoffrey Parish		Keven Lamb
Rob Strachan		Don Creasey
Rob Sims		Steve Dunleavy
John Kooner		Steve Saunders

Tournament Rules

The tournament will be over nine rounds (all play all) .

Although players will sometimes play several consecutive games with the same colour, each player will have at least four games with white during the course of the tournament.

Each round to be completed within three weeks of pairings being issued. A certain amount of flexibility will be given on this rule. Any problems with meeting the deadline of each round, please let me know as early as possible.

Games to be played on Lichess. Time limit 90 minutes each player.

Normal rules of chess will apply throughout.

The winner of each game is to inform me of the game result. In the event of a draw, the player with white has this responsibility.

Enjoy yourselves!

Peter.

There is a new Page on this website for the New Tournament, and this will be updated with results when known. The Page will be a useful reference as the tournament goes on, with tables for all rounds, plus the tournament’s rules.

This week: Hampshire Juniors victory against Berkshire Juniors; West England Chess Union (WECU) County chess online matches from January; results of this week’s club online tournaments, and details of the forthcoming tournaments.

Hampshire Juniors Victory in Team Battle

The Team Manager of the Hampshire Juniors , Maha Chandar, reports that the Hampshire Juniors won their online Team Battle on lichess.org against the Berkshire Juniors team 322 points to 208. The Saturday Afternoon Event on 31st October 2020 was a Team Battle tournament , a team version of the lichess.org Arena tournaments. The Event was a 2-hour tournament. Well done Hampshire! 54 players took part. See the tournament results list in full at: https://lichess.org/tournament/sR5uGBiB

There are some impressive statistics from the tournament:

Maha runs the Chandlers Ford Junior Chess Club.

Tuesday Arena, 27th October

Nine of us participated this week in the online tournament on 27th October. Congratulations to Don Creasey on coming first. Well done too Dean Shaw (Sheff84) 2nd, and David Culliford (djc202) 3rd. Dean has only recently joined our lichess club and is off to a good start.

5-round Swiss Tournament 29th October

Nine of us participated this week in the online tournament on 29th October. Congratulations to Graham Stuart (WillHeSac) on coming first. Well done too Keith Gregory 2nd, and Patrick Pavey 3rd.

WECU Online County Chess

Hampshire Team Captain Fraser Mcleod announces the online West England County chess championship:

We have been invited to participate in an online West of England championship along with Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. The proposed format is one game on Lichess every 3 weeks starting early in January, Sunday evenings starting at 7 p.m.
Rate of play: 90’/15″. Results submitted to ECF for online rating

Please let me know if you’d be interested in playing.

Regards Fraser

Fraser McLeod

Forthcoming online tournaments

Two online tournaments on lichess.org, our regular Tuesday Arena on 3rd November, and on Thursday 5th November the monthly Southampton Chess League Rapid Arena Tournament (the SCL Rapid – Tournament No 2 Arena on lichess).

The Tuesday Arena tournament is a one-hour event in which players have ten minutes each per game (i.e. a rapid play). It starts at 8pm. Click on the button below to be taken to the tournament on lichess.org – it’s already set up.

The SCL tournament starts at 7:30 pm on Thursday 5th November, and is a one and a half hour Arena event. The time control is 7 minutes initially per player per game plus a 3 second increment per move – the same as our 5-round swiss events.

To participate you need to be in the Southampton Chess League ‘club’ on lichess.org. Click on the button below to go to the SCL club screen on lichess.org, and join the club.