Eight days to go!

I've just updated the tournament charts so it's clear who still has whom left to play. Eight days left to go before the finish with some winners already emerging. You don't have to play at the club if you can organise something in your own time and space.

British Championship

Great to see most of the country's top players are competing this year, it's Short v Howell on top board today. Personally I think it's a shame Luke McShane isn't there, I think he may have gone back to a 'proper' job - more's the pity - but koudos to Jovanka Houska, nice to see a woman in the mix. I dare say a few in the club - myself included - will be rooting for Simon Williams, unfortunately the GingerGM is lagging a bit at the moment, let's hope for some more fireworks from him at some point.

It looks as if our own Geoffrey James commences his campaign for the Senior Championship tomorrow, good luck Geoff !

Rob Counsell is new club secretary

After a committee meeting last night I am very pleased to announce we have a new secretary! The post has been vacant for most of the year so we were delighted to accept Rob's offer to take it on. We co-opted him until the AGM when, if not traumatized by last night's minutes, he will be happy to stand again. I think he will be excellent at all aspects of the post.

2011 Grades Are Out

The new grades are out and on the Members page of this website. Two rising young players appearing for the first time are Owen Joyce-Coughlan on 143 and Mustapha Othman on 176, the latter just beating Paul Batchelor and Grant Bucher to fourth place in the club. New junior, Martin Roe, also makes an impressive first showing on 127. With more new appearances sprinkled through the lower half of the list, it bodes well for the continued performance of a strong sixth team in the MSCL next season. Congrats to all who have successfully struggled to improve over last year's grade, even if at the expense of those who haven't!

Missing results from last year

Hi All,

It has become apparent that a results sheet may have gone missing last year, as a result I believe some games for the last week of July (the last week of our internal tournaments) may not have been submitted for grading.

Results have been submitted for games up to and including Sat 24th July 2010, but we have no results after that until August.  As 31st July last year was a Saturday, and the closing date for internal tournaments, it seems very unlikely to me that no games were played that week.

We might still be able to submit the results for grading if we can get them to Julie Denning in the next few days, so if you want to check your scoresheets for games played 25th-31st July 2010 and e-mail them back to me quickly I will forward them on and see what can be done.

As this oversight occurred during my tenure as Tournament Controller please accept my apologies, hopefully it will not affect anyones grading too seriously.

Regards, Kevin.

End of Tournaments.

The tournament deadline has been extended by one week. Hopefully this will allow some people an extra opportunity to play some final games before the end of our season. Several games were being played today as members finish off their last remaining matches.
The deadline will be Saturday 6th August. Please try and complete as many games as possible so that a good coverage occurs in all tournaments.

"Your move... to chess club" The Argus

"Fans of pawns, knights and bishops are being invited to join a chess club....."

We succeeded in getting a mention in the Argus yesterday advertising our open day and giving our venue and website addresses. Our new venue means nearly everyone who comes now does come back and join. Thanks to all the people who turned out to support the event.

New Members' Special Welcome this afternoon

The club will be open to new and prospective members this afternoon, 2nd July, between 2-6 pm. Old members also needed to meet, greet and compete.