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.

3rd Dorset Open Blitz Championship

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

In his regular Hampshire Chronicle article, Malcolm Clarke writes this week about the sad news about Simon Kay. In other news he writes about the implications of Fareham B withdrawing from Division 5.

Chandlers Ford chess club received the sad news this week that club stalwart Simon Kay passed away after a short illness.  His funeral will be held at Romsey Crematorium on Wednesday 11th September at 1,00 pm.

Kay played 15 matches for the club in last season’s Southampton Chess League representing both the B and D teams with his best results being a win over Graeme Ford of Salisbury and a draw with Joe Coburn of Fareham.  He features in the photograph of the match between Chandlers Ford B and Chandlers Ford C which is on the front page of the club’s website showing all the players shaking hands with each other.  His grade went up 23 points during the course of last season.

Fareham B have withdrawn from division 5 of the Southampton Chess League but to compensate a Division 5 cup will now be run in which Chandlers Ford D play Winchester C with the winners playing Chandlers Ford C.

It is with great sadness that we learned that Simon Kay has died after a short illness.

His funeral will be held at Romsey Crematorium at 1pm, Wednesday 11th September.

Simon was an enthusiastic stalwart of the Chandler’s Ford Chess Club, playing for our B and D teams, and was a keen participant at our various social gatherings.

He was a kind and thoughtful friend to us at the chess club. During my stay in Hospital late last year Simon came to visit me, and kindly lent me some chess books to occupy me, and excitedly told me about his visit to London to see the chess championship between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana.

Kev Lamb.

The Hampshire Chess Association Congress will be held Friday 1st – Sunday 3rd November 2019, and the tournament is open to all players.

The event is a six-round tournament, and a half-point bye is available if you want (except the last Round). The first Round will be on the Friday evening, with the next 3 rounds on the Saturday, and the last two on the Sunday. The rate of play is 40 moves in 100 minutes followed by 20 minutes quickplay finish.

The event will take place at the Lysses House Hotel, 51 High Street, Fareham PO16 7BQ.

For more information and Congress Entry form, see the HCA website page: Hampshire Chess Congress 2019.

Entry fees range from £35 to enter the Open, through to £30 for the Major (Under 160 grade), to £27 for the Minor (Under 125). See the HCA website for the various discounts available.

In his latest report Malcolm Clarke highlights the rise of promising young player James Daas following his impressive Summer Tournament results.

James Daas has been confirming his promise in the Chandlers Ford chess tournament by beating former champion David Culliford.  After being given a half point bye in the first round he has won all three games since then and in the final round will play the only other player with 3.5 points or over who will be either Phil Overton or Peter Przybycin.  Also in the tournament Dick Meredith moved on to 3 points with victory against Keven Lamb.

The AGM of the Chandlers Ford Chess club is expected to be held on the 17th September and the club’s first match of the new season is expected to be played in the following week.

Summer Tournament organiser Malcolm Clarke gives an update on this year’s contest.

Phil Overton is the only player with 3 points after 3 rounds of the Chandlers Ford chess tournament.  In the next round he plays Peter Przybycin who has 2.5 points after agreeing a quick draw with David Culliford who also has 2.5  points.

One round 3 game has yet to be completed, but six of the nine round 4 pairings have been made, with the other three depending on the result of the remaining games.

It is expected that the Southampton Chess League fixture list for season 2019/20 will be compiled in a couple of weeks time.

The English Chess Federation six-monthly Chess Grades for July 2019 were published recently. Regular contributor Malcolm Clarke has been crunching the numbers.

Rob Bird (Chandlers Ford) and Graham Payne (Winchester) have both seen their gradings go up by 10 or more points.  Bird’s has gone up from 93 to 103, while Winchester secretary Graham Payne has seen his grading go up from 101 to 112.  However the top graded Winchester player is Jose Jimenez-Capilla who has gone up from 182 to 186.  David Holmes remains the highest graded Chandlers Ford player, but his grade has gone down from 157 to 153.  Steve Saunders (Chandlers Ford) up from 56 to 64 after achieving good results in the Southampton Chess League and David Green (Winchester) up from 68 to 75 are other increases of note.

However all of these local players have a long way to go if they want to compete with Giuildford’s team in the National Chess League which has seven players graded 250 and above and twelve players graded 230 and above in it’s squad.

Steve from Chandler’s Ford Chess Club visited Australia recently on a 3-week family visit, and made time to visit Brisbane Chess Club.

Steve played two of the club’s members, Chris and youngster Austin (ten years old). Steve says that Austin was “tactically brilliant and wiped the floor with me – twice!”

Malcolm Clarke’s latest chess news roundup that appeared in this week’s print edition of the Hampshire Chronicle. He mentions this website -which is most welcome!

Chandlers Ford chess club during the course of last season set up a new website and the webmaster for this is Keven Lamb who has given excellent service to the club over a number of years.  The website address is chandlersfordchess.org.uk and it has several photographs with a picture of the players shaking hands at the match between the Chandlers Ford B and C teams.

Round 3 of the Chandlers Ford summer tournament is now  underway, but many local players will be looking forward to seeing the new July grading list which will be coming out shortly.  Some local players will also be attending the English Chess championships at Torquay International Riviera Centre which will be held from 26th July to 4th August.

The Keith Bateman Memorial Trophy event was held at Salisbury, and was a handicap blitz chess tournament (see Highcliffe Chess Club’s report on last year’s inaugural event). Six teams of 4 players competed. Chandler’s Ford captain David Culliford reports.

On Thursday 25th July, Chandler’s Ford accepted an invitation to compete in a handicap blitz tournament hosted by Salisbury Chess Club. The event comprised six teams of four players, drawn from four local clubs (Salisbury, Ringwood, Highcliffe and Chandler’s Ford), playing in an all-play-all format. Handicap blitz is a style of chess with a fast and furious time control in which players are handicapped based on the difference between their playing strengths. For example, opposing players with a similar grading would have ten minutes each on their clock for the entire game, whereas a strong county player meeting a novice might have 4 and 16 minutes available respectively.

The organisers and arbiters for the evening (Pete Donaldson of Ringwood and Michael Pope of Salisbury) began by welcoming the assembled players and then briefly summarised the tournament rules for those unfamiliar with the playing format. Some exciting chess was played over the five rounds, and occasionally one could hear the clatter of pieces hitting the floor as over eager players got carried away in their urgency to meet the time control – who says chess is boring?! There was an interval after the 3rd round during which refreshments were served, which provided much needed relief from the intensity of the chess on what was a hot and humid night.

At the end of the evening, the Chandler’s Ford team (Graham Stuart, David Culliford, Sam Murphy and Matthew Coldwell) emerged victorious, winning the first four rounds and drawing the last, although it must be said that a quarter of the Chandler’s Ford team (Coldwell) is actually a Salisbury club member. Matthew’s performance was particularly noteworthy, with wins in all five of his games. The evening concluded with Pete Donaldson presenting the trophy to David Culliford, the captain of Chandler’s Ford. All in all, a great evening of fun competitive chess among friends.