D Team draws with Basingstoke

Malcolm Clarke reports on the D team’s match plus other recent fixtures.

Chandlers Ford D drew 2-2 with Basingstoke with Nobby George and John Kooner winning their games.  However the Chandlers Ford B team lost 5-0 to Winchester A in the Robertson Cup by default.  The Chandlers Ford D team was unchanged from its’ opening match of the season against Chandlers Ford C except for Rob Sims replacing Rob Bird on top board.

Winchester B opened their season with a 3.5-1.5 loss at the hands of Salisbury B in a match in which they defaulted board 5.  A draw from Bob Cleave on board 1 and a win from Mike White on board 3 represented Winchester’s only points of the evening with both Bob and Mike playing with the white pieces.  Salisbury teams though have made a good start to the season.


League and Cup updates

In his latest league and Cup updates, which appear in the print edition of the Hampshire Chronicle, Malcolm Clarke rounds up what has been a busy time for the club, with matches in Division 3 (A team), Division 5 (C team) plus the A team’s trip to Andover in the Robertson Cup.

Winchester A won on the top two boards, with Jose Jimenez-Capilla and Jon Barnes being their winners, but still lost 3-2 to Southampton C.  The following day their D team made the short journey to Chandlers Ford and were beaten 2.5-1.53-2 by the home team’s C team.  Peter Eales making a welcome return to action having hardly played at all in recent seasons drew with Winchester secretary Graham Payne, and Don Creasey and captain Keven Lamb winning their games for Chandlers Ford, and John Schonenberrger winning for Winchester.  Winchester’s Alan Weaver won a game against Chandlers Ford’s Colin Grant which counted for grading purposes, but not the match score.

Chandlers Ford lost 3-2 to Andover in the Robertson Cup with four of the games being drawn and Steve Cartridge beating Dick Meredith in the match between the two captains.  Keven Lamb playing for the second time in two days was one of the Chandlers Ford players to draw.

Hampshire Junior Chess Congress 2019: 6th October

News of some Juniors events coming up – one this weekend, and another in January.

Hampshire Junior Chess Congress

This year’s Hampshire Junior Congress event will take place on Sunday 6th October 2019 at Winchester College, College St, Winchester SO23 9NA. Please visit The online Entry System to secure your entries or  Hampshire Junior Chess Congress 2019 Entry Form.

South of England Junior Chess Congress January 25, 2020

South of England Junior Chess Congress January 25, 2020 South of England Junior Chess Congress takes place at Yateley Manor School organised by IM Andrew Martin- Enter via the official web site https://www.southofenglandjunior.com/

First matches of the new season

In his news roundup Malcolm Clarke details the opening fixtures of the new season, plus the summer tournament latest.

Chandlers Ford B opened the season with a 2-2 draw against newly promoted Ringwood C with Sam Murphy and James Daas on the bottom two boards obtaining their points.  Last season Ringwood teams won all five matches they played against teams from Chandlers Ford, but this time the teams were evenly matched and a drawn match was probably the fairest outcome.

Playing their first match at the new venue Winchester C beat Southampton D 3-1.  There was a win for Winchester’s Steve Kitley and draws for Mike White and Andrew Habbitts,  Winchester captain David Green lost his game on board 3, but Southampton D agreed to default this board when it was realised their player should in terms of grading been played on a higher board,

In the Chandlers Ford tournament Peter Przybycin and Phil Overton drew their round 4 game which means going into round 5 two players have 3.5 points and four players 3 points.

Phil Overton and Peter Przybycin in Round 4 of the Summer Tournament 2019
Phil Overton (left) and Peter Przybycin (right) in Round 4 of the Summer Tournament 2019

Club website 1 year old

The Chandler’s Ford Chess Club website is 1 year old today! The site’s web master Kev Lamb marks the anniversary on the website’s 50th Post.

The Chess club’s website chandlersfordchess.org.uk was launched a year ago, on 26th September 2018. From then until now (26/09/19) there have been 2,743 views of the website , the best being 61 on one day (yesterday 25th September 2019!).

The website comprises various Pages (they stay accessible for reference), plus Posts (announcements, news, articles etc. – a blog). There are currently 8 Pages, and 49 Posts have been published. This is the 50th Post.

Posts are published at a rate of roughly one or two a week: as well as Malcolm Clarke’s weekly update, other members and I have contributed items over the year.

Pages largely stay static for reference, until updated when appropriate – with tournament developments usually: ‘The Ladder’ is the Page most often updated.

As well as receiving articles and preparing them for posting on the website, adding photos and appropriate links, behind-the-scenes stuff involves activating technical updates when they become available, taking and uploading photos (photos taken by me or other members of our Chess Club).

All of which I thoroughly enjoy doing.

Kev Lamb

26th September 2019

Keven Lamb with decorative chess set
Keven Lamb with decorative chess set

Chess Club AGM

Wooden chess set

Malcolm Clarke summarises the main points from Chandler’s Ford Chess Club Annual General Meeting held on 17th September 2019.

At the AGM of Chandlers Ford chess club Malcolm Clarke, Nobby George, Keven Lamb and Steve Dunleavy were re-elected as respective captains of the A, B, C and D teams in the Southampton Chess League with Dick Meredith captaining the A team in the Robertson Cup.

Malcolm Clarke, Nobby George and Maha Chandar were respectively elected as General Secretary, Membership Secretary and Treasurer, with the Membership Secretary and Treasurer working together in relation to the collection of membership fees.

The chess club is also trying to ensure that their activities are well advertised within the Chandlers Ford Central Club.

Castle Chess Fareham Congress 4-6 October

The Lysses House Hotel, Fareham, venue for the Castle Chess Fareham Congress

Castle Chess have their Fareham Congress tournament on 4th-6th October 2019. It will be at the Lysses House Hotel, 51 High Street, Fareham, PO16 7BQ.

Castle Chess have run a number of Congresses over recent years at this pleasant venue: this is Castle Chess’s “15th Fareham Congress” (they quite often host two Congresses per year at the Lysses, one earlier in the year, one in the Autumn.)

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, with prize-giving by 17:30. Byes may be requested.

There are three sections: Open (Under 175 ECF grade), Major (U155), and the Minor (U115).

The Congress costs £34 to enter, with a £7 discount for Juniors. There are also various accommodation packages – available through Castle Chess – if you would like to stay at the Lysses.

The rate of play for the games is 36 moves in 90 minutes plus 15 minutes QPF (Quick Play Finish).

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. See the Castle Chess website’s Fareham Congress form page: CastleChess.co.uk

Dave Holmes wins U140 at Fareham February 2016
Dave Holmes wins U140 at Castle Chess Fareham February 2016

New Season starting soon

Wooden chess set

Malcolm Clarke heralds the start of the new 2019-20 season, and gives an overview of the Chandler’s Ford Chess Club’s tournaments.

The new Southampton Chess League season begins next week with Winchester set to play their first match at their new venue of the William Walker pub in The Square, Winchester with Southampton D coming to play the Winchester C team.

The Chandlers Ford chess tournament has two round 4 games to be played and both of these are due to be played on Tuesday 24th September.  Attention in recent weeks has switched to the ladder competition with D team captain Steve Dunleavy beating his vice captain Rob Strachan in a keenly contested game.  Strachan himself has achieved some good results against higher graded players recently.

Summer Tournament: Murphy under pressure from Daas

In his latest update, Malcolm Clarke, organiser of the Summer Tournament, reveals the position after 4 rounds. He also reminds us that Chandler’s Ford Chess Club’s AGM is on 17th September.

Sam Murphy who was last year’s joint champion in the Chandlers Ford chess summer tournament beat Rob Sims to make his score 3 points from 4 games. However with James Daas already having 3.5 points and having to play someone else with at least 3.5 points in the fifth and final round the only way that Murphy can finish joint first on this occasion is to win his round 5 game and hope that the result of Daas’s final game also goes his way,

Chandlers Ford chess club are holding their AGM on Tuesday 17th September.

Dorset Blitz Championships Sunday 22nd September 2019

Please see the message below from Martin Simmons of Dorset Chess, inviting entries to this event.

To: Southampton chess league club secs and team captains

Forwarding on behalf of organisers of this chess event coming up soon – please pass onto your club members …

We have a Dorset Blitz Championships coming up at the spacious Furzebrook Village Hall in Wareham on Sunday 22nd September. It starts at 10.15am and finishes at 5.30pm (latest). The time control will be either 8 minutes or 10 minutes per game plus increments (depending on the number of players in each all play all group). There is ample free parking on-site.

There are excellent prizes and, as always with many Dorset one day events, a free lunch and free refreshments!

The event is heavily sponsored by the Dorset County Chess Association so we can offer such prizes and free refreshments.

Steve Peirson is the tournament organiser.

Full details are given on the link below which includes an online entry form and a printable entry form too.

I also attach an entry form.

If you can help us again by circulating the details of this highly enjoyable event then this would be so much appreciated by Steve and myself.

Many thanks

Martin Simons