Brighton and Gibraltar Internationals

If you can afford the time, don't forget the e2e4 Brighton International coming up in a couple of weeks. There are still places in the Major, ie everything U165.

If you can't manage that then enjoy the Gibraltar Chess Festival where the online coverage is very good indeed, probably because Simon Williams is the main anchor man. He has a fast, chatty pace and always a humorous edge, as well as a lightning grasp of the position. Looks like Brian Izzard's already there.

New halfyear grades are out

The new grades are out and on the club website Members page. The ECF reference numbers are interactive and take you back to the ECF website where you can now see the data on which the grades are based, ie who played whom, where and when. The prize for the biggest increase (if there was one) goes unsurprisingly to Callum with a giant leap of 35 points! Well done Callum.

Going digital

Recently we have added to our number of digital clocks. Paul Batchelor has written some guidelines to help with using them and I have added these to the website via a public link on the Tournaments page. Please also remember to check the Tournaments page for help with other interactive bits of the website.

Big chance to dumb-up on BB

As I'm sure you all know, every imaginable query has already been addressed on the Membership page of the website so that we now get almost none and a deal less work in answering them. However an unimaginable one occasionally arrives and one such arrived today. Well, we all know what fascinating characters chess players are:

Hi there,

Big Brother…is BACK FOR 2012!

I am contacting you from Endemoluk, we are currently in the process of casting Big Brother 2012 and I wanted to get in contact with you. Big Brother returns to our screens on Channel 5 in summer 2012 and we’re looking for vibrant and interesting characters to enter the house.

Big Brother is widening the search and, as ever, is keen to represent all aspects of society. I wanted to pass on my contact details for any of your members that might be interested in applying ?

If you are interested and would like more information you can contact us directly by emailing: frazeryorke@endemoluk.com We will try and reply to you but cannot guarantee that we will be able to reply to every message received.

Frazer Yorke
Assistant Producer
Big Brother 2012 Auditions

No guessing what we'd get up to to dispel the tedium in the house, but what would a lone chess player do?

Brighton&Hove 5 v Horsham 4

Tuesday 17th January:
A successful evening against a much stronger side resulted in a draw.
Terry Brown with white, opened with The London System. Julie Denning ( 135) lost on time.
Rob Counsell played Roger Waddingham ( 134 ) and very unfortunately due to time pressure lost the game, when he could have spotted a mate in one. He was stamping the floor of the car all the way home!!
Sue played a strong even game against Ron Fletcher ( 127) which resulted in a draw.
I played the centre counter against Richard Barrowclough( 125) and he finally lost on time.
Adrian Hickling played a good start against Richard Moorhouse ( 121) but unfortunately he lost after a good struggle.

Brighton & Hove 1 v Crowborough 1

  First to finish was John with a win against Bob Elliston. The opening was unorthodox but resembled a Blackmar-Diemar. Geoff's game had been a Catalan. He was able to defend with accuracy and the game ended in a draw. Luke had played a Sicilian Taimanov. Despite getting into what appeared to me, a spot of bother, he was able to eventually draw. Brian's game had been a Center Counter Opening. Despite winning a pawn, his opponent had compensation in the Two Bishops. This proved to be sufficient and the game was duly drawn. Last to finish was my own game. This time i was able to contribute more than just 'the winning of the toss'. Infact i lost the toss, but was able to prevail in a Sicilan defence. Another satisfying performance in the Mid-Sussex League.

Thank you Santa! I take it the clocks came from the best batch.

Clocks !

Looks like Santa has made a delivery of Two New DGT 2010 Chess Clocks over the Christmas period. Team Captains take note. Maybe make use of.

Hastings PS

I've added to the Hastings summary on the News page to include Chris Lowe's result in the New Year Afternoon A tournament. Given there were fewer of us at Hastings this year compared to some previous years these were very good results.

Tournament Deadline

I would like to remind all players of the tournament deadline on 31st July 2012.
Last year due to various circumstances several players wished to finish games in August.
This puts extra pressure on the committee who have to present prizes and engraved cups at the AGM in early September.
Players often seem to delay their matches intending to finish more at the latter end of the season. Unfortunately they then find that suitable players are away, or busy with other games.
Ideally we should try and have about 50% of our games played by the end of February.
Last year we achieved some excellent completions. e.g PK had 96% of games played.
It would be great if a fair comparison could be achieved in each of the tournaments.I suggest one of oue New Year resolutions should be " Get pushing those pieces".

January round of Club Championship

Please note this is the final month for playing the first round proper in the Club Championship - please prioritise these games so that the round can be finished by the end of January. The one outstanding game from the earlier preliminary round is due to be played this Saturday. See Club Championship page.

..... and a Ha... Hastings New Year!

Some good results at the Hastings Weekend tournaments with Paul Batchelor winning joint first in the Major, only dropping half a point, and Duncan Badham sharing second place in the Minor on 4/5. Congratulations to both. And still time to catch three days of live commentary on the Masters from Chris Ward.