Thursday 2nd October at 7:45 pm: Talk on Chess Problems

On Thursday 2nd October we are privileged to be welcoming Michael Lipton who has very kindly offered to give us a talk on chess problems. He is a past president of the British Chess Problem Society and a FIDE IM of chess problem composition. He is a retired Sussex University professor who is hoping for a game or two after his talk so I hope we will have some talent to take him on. The talk is free to members so please come along to this quite unique event. Please come in time for a 7:45 start.

My name is Chris Donlan and I write for Eurogamer, a games website based in Brighton. I was wondering if anybody attached to the club would like to spend an hour in our offices at some point playing a PC game called Chess 2, which expands on chess in some interesting ways. Ideally, I'd like to interview someone who really knows about chess to find out what they make of the game.

Please contact christian.donlan@eurogamer.net if interested.

IMPORTANT SUBSCRIPTION NOTICE FOR RETURNING MEMBERS

Subscriptions for returning members are still £50 ( £30 concessions) at the moment until 7th October, after which it will rise to the new rate or £55 ( £35 concessions).  Please pay promptly to get the discount.  You can pay any committee member ( if cash ask for a receipt), or by cheque payable to the club, or by bank transfer - see details on the application form under Membership on the website.

Geoff

Tuition classes for juniors

I am planning to start free tuition classes for juniors from about the ages of 7-14 at the Avenue Bridge Club on Wednesday 1st October from 6-7 p.m. It is hoped that these classes will then continue on a weekly basis until March next year. The classes are intended for young players, who have had some experience of playing friends at home or at school or have entered competitions in connection with the Sussex Junior Chess organisation. It is not necessary for juniors to be brilliant players and I am expecting a wide range of ability. However, I am afraid that it would be difficult to integrate anyone into the group who does not know the rules. Although the classes will almost certainly start on 1st October, I have to obtain the usual CRB clearance first.

Enquiries can be made using the box at the bottom of the Membership page of the club website. Please give name, age and chess experience of child.  Sue

News from Glastonbury

Carl has made an impressive start to a new chess career with the South Bristol Chess Club. Forget Star Baker, check out their Player of the Week!

Sinquefield Cup

Well 'Fabulous' Fabian Caruana finally slumped to a draw against Magnus Carlsen last night, leaving him with a paltry 7.5/8 in the strongest field ever assembled :-)

Seriously, this is an historic performance; apparently they've now calculated his current TPR (tournament performance rating)  around 3150. Caruana has already won the competition on +7 score with two rounds to go. At the start of the tournament the average rating of the field was 2801; Caruana has now taken his live rating to 2836, the third highest of all time and putting him in second place to Carlsen.

Of what I've watched last nights game against Carlsen was astonishing, and their earlier encounter was great viewing too, as Sue says, this is probably the most professional chess coverage ever, really good.

If you don't watch anything else, I'd recommend the interview with Carlsen after round 7, it isn't very long and it get's really funny at about 2'45" , had me laughing out loud :-)

http://new.livestream.com/chess24/sinquefieldcup

http://www.2700chess.com

Cheers, Kevin.

The strongest tournament ever held

Hope you are all following the 2014 Sinquefield Cup where Caruana is on 7/7 against 5 of the world's top nine. Statisticians are pinching themselves and the commentators are going dizzy with incredulity. He's playing Carlsen again tonight as white. The live video is also much better than any I've seen before - starts at 8:00 pm GMT.