Knock Out match against the Args.

I thought we were goners arriving at Wednesday night's Knock Out match when it transpired Mikolaj had played in the first division as well as the third, meaning our grading average suddenly shot up by 30 points*. We were still the same underdogs but now minus the grading handicap. Ouch! However Robin overcame his 27 point difference and beat Peter Farr on top board. Paul Selby and I drew and Andrew won against roughly equal competition. Mikolaj was battling on against his 150 opponent on board three - both offering and declining draws - until finally Paul Kington's knight proved superior to Mikolaj's bishop in an equal pawn ending. Still, a good performance and we had beaten the Args. 3-2 with plenty of downtime in the Jolly Tanners (no speculative argy-bargy over unfinished games :-)). We now face Horsham at home in the quarter-finals.

* Ungraded players are estimated according to the highest division they have played in.

First match of the season and first win of the season.

 A confident win in the first match of the season sets us up nicely for the remainder of the season. The score was 4-1. Let's hope we are in the mix as the season draws to a close.

Open Rapidplay

New Open Rapidplay launched which should be of particular interest to new and ungraded members. See Open Rapidplay under Tournaments tab.

Sussex Chess News 2015

Finally I have managed to put the Sussex Chess News file onto the website. You can download it from the pdf file on the Links page.

Digital clocks and time controls

Just a reminder that instructions for setting the digital clocks for league and tournament games are provided under Setting Clocks on the website. In particular the newly introduced alternative for league games, if both players wish it, of the incremental time control (Fischer) - 80 minutes for all moves + 10 second increment per move - is covered. Do ask if you need a demo (e.g. Michael, myself, Rob).

Also, it’s been pointed out that the chess magazines in the library are a valuable resource for the club. Some are in poor condition. To try to preserve these magazines please could you find an alternative to resting on them when recording games. Thank you.

Club Tournaments launched

The club tournaments are now up and running with paper charts up at the club, and online charts on the website so you can see who you have to play and what colour. There's also still the link on the Tournaments page for players to contact their opponents. You can enter your results on the paper charts but they won't be online as it's fiddly to do and more useful to use the online charts as a playing guide. (Anyone missing them should probably get out more or pop down to the club more often :-).) As you can see there are still places left in all three and these will be allocated first come first served. The Club Championship is open to applications from higher graded or aspiring players up to a maximum of nine. The Plummer Knight and Tasker Tankard will close at twelve. Anyone still wanting to play graded games after that will have to put their names down for a possible Open in the New Year, or join the Ladder.

Club Tournaments 2015-16

Thanks to everyone who's renewed their membership this season and put their names down on the tournament list. The tournaments are looking like this at present:

Club Championship: (probably playing both colours)
Julien Carron, Geoff, Callum B., Simon

U140 Plummer Knight:
Terry, Calum S., Jan, Mikolaj, Peter, Alaa 

U120 Tasker Tankard:
Rob, Joe, Sue, Andrew C., Andrew S., James Alvarez, Andrew Wallis 

There are still places left in all three but remember to renew club and ECF membership first (if you've paid recently online I won't know until Geoff's back). See the tournament controller, Andrew Caswill, or me if you have any issues.We hope to have the charts up and running in the club next week.

New season news

Jan has resigned as third team captain due to new work commitments which, together with a slight drop in numbers, means we are only entering four teams and a KO team in the MSCL this season. Paul and Robin will have a team each in the first division and Michael and Andrew, with help from Alaa, a team each in the third. All team matches will be back to Thursday evenings, unless rescheduled for a Saturday. Thanks to Jan for all his time and effort with the third team.

We are planning to follow a Callum-inspired idea with the tournaments this season which should result in a greater variety of opponents and an option to play in two tournaments over the year - think World Cup with two qualifying group tournaments for the championship. If you want to enter please put your name on the list at the club or let Andrew Caswill know before the end of the month. The precise plan will depend on numbers and entering later may not be an option. We will also have a casual Open for both the super-keen and the less committed.

Last year's members remember to renew your membership of the club before 8th October to qualify for the £5 discount (amounts and bank transfer details are on the FAQs page, question 4) and renew your ECF membership if you want to play in anything other than friendlies at the club.

There is a strong rapidplay congress at Crowborough tomorrow for anyone interested, see link on Events Calendar page. 

Vacancy for a team captain

It looks likely we will only have captains for four teams this season unless we have a volunteer. The snag is you either need transport or the support of someone else willing to drive. Please let me know if you're interested or thinking about it as we need to let Julie know fairly soon. Doesn't matter what your grade is, we'll fit you in accordingly.

Dieppe v Brighton 2015

And gentlemen in England now a-bed shall think themselves accursed they were not there... etc. that played not in Dieppe against the French.

In the simul on Saturday Callum Brewer, Paul Selby, Julian Clark and Michael Cain got draws against Marie Sebag GM, at 2496 the top female player in France and eighteenth in the world, playing thirty boards in two and a half hours, with only one other draw and 25 wins at lightening speed. Our match against the Dieppe team on Sunday was lost 7/5 but as usual we faced a very strong home team so not at all a bad result. I have put the individual results on the Dieppe page of the website as the blog is resistant to forms. This is Michael's video with more pictures to follow:



A really excellent weekend with much food and drink, and fun and games.

Website trimmings and less stress chess

Now the new grades are out I've made some minor changes to the website which include taking members' grades off altogether. They can be easily accessed via the ECF website and I'm concerned we may be discouraging some newer players from becoming, or remaining, members - when I first joined I'm sure there were more casual players and nothing was online. Also it's quite a faff to transpose grids and they often don't behave as they should. I'm thinking of leaving off the  fixtures as well as they're a particular nightmare to get on the page and it's hard to keep them  up-to-date and reliable. Would anybody miss them? The charts might even be in for the chop too as without the chequered grid - which we've been unable to re-produce on the new website - they're both more tricky and less use. Plus I've made the page background darker to make it all easier to read. Let me know if you've any other comments or things you might use the website for, e.g. check out the Dieppe page and the cool Events Calendar we didn't have before. Otherwise - whatever the new grade - relax, wash, purr and enjoy.

Tournaments

The following have been successful in this years tournaments.
  1)   Club Championship.
             1st    Brian Denman     2nd   Geoffrey James    3rd  Callum Brewer
 2)   Plummer Knight
             1st    Julian Clark         2nd   Oli Weiss              3rd  Jan Ten Sythoff
 3)  Tasker Tankard
             1st    Terry Brown        2nd   Rob Counsell        3rd  Alaa Albadin
 4)  Open Tournament.
             Winner:  Chris Lowe
                                   Congratulations.

Sussex Chess News

Items for Sussex Chess News are needed by the deadline of 17th July - send to Mick Plumb, or to me if you have anything you would like including in the B&H report.

Last year's News can be downloaded from here.

MSCL AGM Tuesday 23rd June

Mid-Sussex Chess League AGM tomorrow night at 7:45 at St Mary's Supporters Club, Christie Road, Lewes, East Sussex BN7 1PL. All members of the club are welcome to attend. We have five votes and so far I only know of three people going. At any rate it's a chance to let the voters know your views.

Tournament deadline

Due to last minute requests I have decided to allow the tournament deadline to be extended until Saturday 4th July.

Members analysis session by FM Ezra Kirk, 4th June

Jan has kindly offered to sponsor an analysis session for club members on 4th June. It will be given by Ezra who will be looking at any games people bring. The session will be free to members and will run from 7:30 to 9:00 pm. Don't forget to bring your most interesting/confusing games!

McArthur cup final 2015

Hastings & St Leonards were to host Brighton & Hove for the 2015 final. Geoffrey James was to renew a rivalry that stretched back to 1969 when he faced John Sugden. Their opening was a Caro-Kann defence. Geoffrey won an exchange and soon after the game. Brighton & Hove took the lead. Brian Denman was paired with Howard Tebbs. Their game was a Slav defence. This was to end in a draw. Simon Wilks was to play Sussex County Chess Association president Robert Elliston. The game was a Catalan with Simon playing the black side. This ended peacefully in a draw. Julien Carron making his debut for the club was to face Francis Rayner, who has represented Wales apparently. The opening was an Open Sicilian. At the end of a joint time scramble it became apparent Francis had made one move to few. The game was won by the Brighton & Hove player. My game finished next. It had been a Bird's opening. My opponent offered the draw and i accepted. Brighton & Hove now had 3.5 points and could not be caught. Callum Brewer, a promising young player, was playing Rasa Norinkeviciute who has a WFM title. The opening had been a Sicilian defence. Callum won a pawn and with seconds to spare on Callum's clock, Rasa resigned, although mate was inevitable. So the final score was Hastings & St Leonards 1.5 Brighton & Hove 4.5. Brighton & Hove had won the match and retain the McArthur cup.

Hastings 1st Weekend Chess Tournament

Hastings&St Leonards Chess Club are hosting their first weekend chess tournament 30/31st May.
At the the moment four members of the club are hoping to attend.
Full details can be found from their web-site or from our link.

Tournaments

Please can all tournament players ( apart from OT ) arrange to play their remaining games as soon as possible so that all games are completed by 30th June 2015. Many thanks.

Brighton &Hove 1 v Eastbourne 1 and League report

Our last match of the season was against Eastbourne 1. John Henshaw was the first to finish, winning against the Semi-Slav. I drew against John Herbert. Callum Brewer drew a game which had transposed to an Old Indian line. Geoffrey James was next to finish, winning as black against an English set up. Last to finish was Brian Denman drawing in a Sicilian against Oliver Froom. We won this match by 3.5 points to 1.5 points.
  This last match victory enabled us to finish as runners up in Division one. Our overall performance was only slightly worse than previous years.Which was not totally disappointing. Luke Rutherford, a key player was unable to play any part in the season's campaign. We faced formidable opposition this season in a strengthened Worthing team. Both Michael Nicholas and Donald Macfarlane were to prove useful recruits to the Worthing club. Looking at the positives the club gained a strong new player in Simon Wilks. His results this season were very encouraging. On paper we were perhaps a little weaker than last season, but we still threatened for first place. In previous years, this season's
performance from the club, might have clinched the title. This season however it proved to be not quite enough. A strong Worthing side ran out winners and i think justly deserve their title.