Folding Ladder

Hi All,

Just thought I'd apologise for the lack of action in getting the ladder actually on the wall with rules etc. I am not the worlds greatest DIY er and life has been a bit busy, though I must admit that the great weather and alcohol have accounted for much of my time. You may be pleased to hear that my alternative Wednesday night class is at an end so I hope to see much more of you all in the near future.

Cheers all, Kev.

What is going on here?

Message from Simon Williams GM

Hello Everyone.

This is just a reminder that you all need to register to the Big Slick Club in order to play the 1st Big Slick Chess International.
There is a 48 hour waiting period, so you need to do this very soon. It only takes a minute and can be found at http://www.bigslick.co.uk/application.html. It is free to register unless you want to play poker and then I believe there is a small fee which you can pay on the club on arrival.
You will also need to bring along some photo ID, either a passport or driving license.
A list of participants can be found at http://www.gingergm.com/big-slick-chess/#participants
I am hoping to put the draw up for the FIDE tournament on Wednesday night. At the latest it will go up Thursday morning. This is so everyone will have an idea about who they are playing and the total number of entries.
I really hope it will be a fun event with some great chess played, I look forward to seeing you all there!

Best Regards,

Simon Williams

p.s. I have been told that the bar will be serving a range of hot and cold food through out the day, there will also be a wide range of drinks.

'Puter

I have discovered that our library computer cannot gain internet access from the Guest Account but it doesn't matter because it can from the Chess Club Members account, which is where it is supposed to be used from anyway.

Club Library Computerisation

MacArthur Cup

Fantastic news!

The first team has won the presigious MacArthur Cup for the first time since 2004. The score was 4-2, but even allowing for the fact that Hastings defaulted one board this puts us ahead by a clear point. This must be one of the most successful seasons for the club in recent memory surely?

Collecting our prizes in the local league

Let it be known that I have today applied for my passport.

Apparently it should be ready for me in 3 weeks. Has everyone else got theirs?

Labels

I have just added labels for some of my ladder postings. I hadn't twigged that this was possible, but now I have seen the light.

It might be worth pointing out to everyone (I expect you have done this before Duncan) that you can select an appropriate label (think category/thread) from a drop down list when you click 'show all' at the bottom right of your blog entry.

Surely I can't be the only one that hasn't noticed this before !?

Comfort Ladder

I like Kev's revised ladder rules. I am not fussed about whether the games are graded or not. I just remind everyone that, as I understood it, the ladder idea originally emerged in a late night conversation between Kevin and db, in which the ladder, sorry latter's idea [groan] had been for a way of taking purely casual games seriously, at the risk of paraphrasing him.

By the way, I have removed the label "Chess Ladder." with an full stop at the end - there is no need for two labels, people! Do have a look at the "Show All" link next to the labels field to make sure there isn't a label already suitable for your purpose. Think chess club members in 10 years time wanting to read about our ladder (or any other) debate. Okay, okay, I know by that time we'll all be implanted with chips somehow connected to a giant off-world corporation, but it is the principle that counts? [that's enough - self-censorship rules]

Dieppe plans going ahead

So far we have between 12 and 14 people who have committed to going to Dieppe at the end of August. These people will all be members of the team and are already starting to book their ferry tickets for the morning of the 29th Aug.. It's not too late to join them but please let me know now if you would like to be included. See Dieppe page for further details.

Mid-Sussex League AGM votes to allow optional Quick Play Finishes

by 18 votes to 11 with 1 abstention.

25 board home match vs GLC.CC

We have been challenged by the Greater London CC to a 25 board match to be played at the Railway Club on Sat. Sept. 5. from 2pm to 6ish.
I dont think we have ever played or endeavoured to play, such a multitude of board all at once.
SO YOUR CLUB NEEDS YOU. This is an inaurgural occassion to what will I hope be an annual home event. Their last 8 boards are graded 91 down to 44 So this will give our 4th and 5th team players a time to shine.
I have put an entry form on the club notice board. Please enter if you want to play. At this stage I will not take this as an irrevocable commitment. I do need to know that enough players are willing to play though.
You can also email me your entry.
Neil.
e-mail: neilt@uwclub.net

Rope Ladder

Thanks for your kinds words Sue. Unfortunately I don't think that I am going to make it to the club tonight for the grand unveiling of the ladder, but I should be there on Saturday, when I can have a think about creating name cards.

Could I just ask those of you who are attending tonight to encourage people to sign up for the ladder, I am concerned that it will be a little sparsley populated at first, it would be nice to start with a decent number of 'social climbers'.

Dieppe Announcement

I am now in a better position to explain what has been happening about Dieppe. The Dieppe Chess Club and Brighton and Hove Chess Club have put in a joint funding bid to a European inter-regional development fund known as 'Interreg IV A France (Manche) - England'. This particular fund has a budget of 173.5 million Euros to spend on promoting a sense of common citizenship across an EU border area, in this case the Channel. The funding application has now been submitted and we are waiting for a decision within the next couple of weeks.

The poster below is for the event running just previous to our re-match with Dieppe on Sunday 30th August. Both are covered by the funding application. This means that if the bid is approved we will get financial assistance to enable us to take part in these events (whether we need it or not). Naturally Dieppe are keen that we avail ourselves of these generous and hard-won opportunities, the product of much head-scratching and form-filling in true cross-boarder camaraderie.

As you will see from our website's Dieppe page, so far we have a committed team of 12 players currently planning to travel to Dieppe on Sat. 29th August and return on Mon. 31st (the bank holiday). It's still not too late for club members to add their names to this list, nor is it too late for them to enter the congress part of the festival advertised below. Ferry crossings need to be booked now or fairly soon, but not accommodation as this will be arranged and paid for by the French. There should be two nights of accommodation for the team players and preferential rates at least for those interested in staying for the whole week of the festival and playing in the congress. Don't book your ferry tickets until you have considered all the options.

This is a fantastic opportunity for our modestly-financed club and I hope members will give some serious consideration to joining in the week's events. It's not necessary to join both events, the congress and the team match, BUT YOU CAN!!! Also note a second person in a hotel room in France is only fractionally more, about 5 Euros, so friends and partners can come too and use their fraternising opportunities in whatever way they choose.

Please contact me soon if you want to go so I can let Olivier Delabarre know the numbers.

Click on the poster to get the full version

Brilliant!

Kevin, this strikes me as brilliant! I can't think of any way of improving on what you - and Neil - propose. Andrew C's ladder also sounds like a work of genius. Let's try this as one of our two summer options, the other one being the Holcombe Handicap which Neil is on the verge of introducing with this year's refinements to the handicap system. Thank you for taking this on.

You thought our joining our club meant having to tackle a lot of steps, well now it does!

Step up and join the ladder !

Our new ladder board has apparently been finished, sources tell me that Andrew has done us proud. In order to help justify this effort I would ask you all to sign up for the competition, there is a sheet on the notice board.

After talking to Neil the other day, I am quite taken with the idea of making ladder games graded rapidplay games. Not many of us (if any) have a rapidplay grade, and it strikes a nice balance between informal and serious. I doubt many of us are hugely concerned about our rapidplay grade, but the fact that the games are graded, added to the visible achievement of rank on the ladder, should be more than enough to aid concentration. I have checked the ECF web site, rapidplay games are basically a minimum of 15 minutes and a maximum of 60 minutes. My first (admittedly rushed) proposal on the notice board suggests 30 or 60 minutes, but I see no reason why players can't agree any time in the 15-60 minute range.

My thoughts on rules so far;

1) Games to be played by the clock to an agreed time in the rapidplay range i.e 15-60 minutes total
2) If no agreement can be reached on controls, the player receiving the challenge (that is higher ranked on the ladder) decides.
3) A player can challenge anyone up to five places above them (this may change depending on the initial number of entrants)
4) Entrants will initially be placed on the ladder in descending grade order - based on provisional 'new' grades - from the top.
5) A player beating a higher ranked player takes their 'rung' on the ladder, the beaten player and all those in between move down one 'rung'.
6) If the higher ranked player wins, or the game is a draw, there is no change in position.
7) Players not on the ladder can challenge anyone, if they win they jump above the player they beat and everyone below moves down a rung.In the event of a draw, the lower ranked player takes the rung immediately below the player he challenged, and again everyone else shuffles down one. If the challenger loses he/she joins at the bottom of the ladder.
8) All other competition games have priority over ladder matches.
9) Ladder to be closed at the end of september to encourage participation in the longplay competitions.

Comments regarding rules and format are very welcome.

Kevin.

Erik Scothron is now abroad but not enjoying his chess so much now.

For those of you who wanted to know, here's wot I did on my holidays. Precious little chess unfortunately. Now that I have returned, I can't wait to see this ladder and help Sue launch our publicity/recruitment campaign.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder?

Hi All,
What with one thing and another my attendance at the club has been a bit sporadic of late and is likely to continue in that vein for a while. I am conscious of the fact that I haven't posted any information about the ladder competition, I will try to put something together and get it up on the noticeboard as soon as I can.

Cheers, Kev.

PS If you read this, Charles, I owe you the Eric Cohen Cup.

Website Update

Thanks to Kevin Gee for making charts capable of being posted on our website and on the notice board at the club, the club's competition charts are back online! Once again you can check on your opponent's playing record and plan your openings for when you have the white pieces. They are in the same place on the club website as ever but here are some quick links: Denman Cup, Eric Cohen Cup, Plummer Knight Trophy and Challenge Shield. There is no chart for the Club Championship and the Holcombe Handicap has not yet started this year.

Also, I have updated the page which gives details of this year's club outing to Dieppe, the highlight of which will be the annual match against L’Echiquier Dieppois (Dieppe Chess Club). Whilst Sue Chadwick is running the trip, I am holding a special edition T-shirt sale to celebrate this event and have extended the deadline for T-Shirt orders to 30th June, to allow purchasers to know whether they are in the team or not before they purchase. For those who wish to play but who have not yet applied (13 people have applied for the team already), better do so soon! We won the first two matches against Dieppe - here's to winning the third!

Finally, if anyone has any suggestions for pages to be added to our website, please let me know. I'd also like to know if there are any broken links that you come across. With a 210+ page site it isn't possible for me to check every link to see whether their destinations may have changed or not.

Up and Coming

Tom Haxby is Felix Haxby's younger brother... Very generous of the 4th team to get promoted and leave the 4th division free for the 5th team I thought. When I get back from holiday I anticipate that we will launch our recruitment drive. Forward to six teams!

4th Team promotion

Excellent work ! A small correction, shouldn't that be Felix Haxby? Or is there another talented Haxby out there to worry about ;-)

4th Team promoted

The 4th team has been promoted to division 3, we were undefeated all season and won my 1 and 1/2 match points.

Thanks very much to the following people: - Arthur De Silver, Bob Davies, Peter Benson, Charles Holcombe, Kevin Gee, Ian George, Tom Haxby, Duncan Roy, John Smuts.

Now we have to play out of our skins next season to stay in the 3rd division...

First Ten Minutes of Chess Game Spent Explaining the Replacement Pieces.

A problem which never occurs at our club. I think we stopped counting at 50 sets.

Improvement

I often visit www.chesscafe.com during breaks in work. I've probably mentioned this site before, there are some excellent articles, and an archive which is well worth working looking through http://www.chesscafe.com/archives/archives.htm .

A regular column is 'Novice Nook' by Dan Heisman, a respected chess trainer in the US. Although his work is often aimed at juniors, it is valuable to revisit the basics in any area of skill which one is aiming to improve, particularly if, like me, you don't really have a foundation based on years of classical training and experience.

This month's column (dated April 15th) is not that basic, it looks at an endgame position which occurred in one of his student's games and considers which plan to follow. I found it both interesting and instructive and would recommend it to my fellow improvers.

http://www.chesscafe.com/heisman/heisman.htm

Ladder

Quick update: Andrew should this morning have met a carpenter with a view to commissioning a wooden 'ladder' board for display in the club. Many thanks to Andrew for this generous offer. I will post proposed rules soon.

Summer fun for all

It's going to take a while to draw up a satisfactory Holcombe Handicap because of holidays and the need to consult. With Charles's approval we're going to see if we can improve on the handicap conditions we had last year. If anyone has any definite views on this please talk to Charles, Neil or myself.

But all is not lost - Kevin has agreed to organise a ladder in the meantime which should run from now until October. Please prioritise your club competition games if you have any left to play, but if you haven't, or you joined too late to enter, this will be your chance to see how far you can climb. The winner will be required to demonstrate how they were able to maintain their position at the top of the ladder, as per Duncan Roy's demonstration below. If Andrew Caswill is prepared to donate the ladder, I will be more than happy to present the apple. Watch this space for further developments as Kevin does the juggling.

There are now 13 members signed up for Dieppe. Please see the Dieppe page for details and let me know if you would like your name added to the list. The list is for people who are committed to coming.

We! Are! Top of the league ...

We are top of the league!

Sorry, I don't mean to crow but I didn't realise that the 3rd team had actually come top. Well done all, in fact congratulations to all the teams, a strong club performance across the board I think. I am particularly impressed that having added a 5th team this year they came 3rd in division 4 behind the 4th. By the way, is that the final table for division 4, do the 4th team get promoted as well?

Will the top of our ladder be as precarious?

Well played Mr Roy. The video clip shows the new style chess ladder tournament.While performing various feats at the top of a ladder, Duncan is also shouting chess moves to another player in the audience. This is proving to be a very popular spectator sport.On shouting his winning move Duncan then comes down off the ladder.
For chess players wishing to play in ladder tournaments they must be able to multi-task.

LATEST NEWS

The result of the third team's adjudication is that a draw has been confirmed. This means the third team has won the division by half a game point and will be duly promoted to the second division next year! For the full story see the Match Report of our final match against Horsham. Congratulations to all third team members on a successful year and a sensational result.

Purley Competition

Simon Williams GM asked me to advertise the details of his forthcoming competition: the 1st Big Slick Chess Tournament, which is going to be held in Purley (near Croydon).

Will the top of our ladder be as precarious?

Wooden ladder

It would be great to have a real ladder, rather then just a step-ladder :-)

If anyone steals our ladder, further steps will be taken.

Hey Andrew, a wooden ladder! Yes please.

(That really was the best ladder joke I could find - it turns out the internet isn't that useful at finding things you really need.)

Rapid Play Tournament and Ladder

I like the idea of both. If wanted I could possibly have a wooden ladder professionally made and donate it to the club.

Ladder

As Duncan says, we were aiming at practising for quick play finishes, but an informal rapidplay would also be fun. I think having a ladder is a great idea! It's a fun way of adding a bit of edge to informal games.

The usual deal is to only be able to play people within a certain number of rungs - often 3 in my experience - either way. But we could probably work a scheme where anyone could play anyone, maybe you just drop down a place if you lose a game.

Cheers, all.
PS Any suggestions for a good pub to watch the England footie after my match on Saturday?
PPS I am working on some name suggestions DB ;-)))

A ladder you can't fall off?

I like the idea of the ladder, DB.

Rapidplay or not so rapidplay.

I think there is a little confusion here, I was in part thinking of a way of giving people practice for possible QPFs in the league. To this end each player would want an hour or even an hour and a quarter for the game. Half an hour each is no practice at all in this regard. That said an informal rapidplay is also a great idea and as Kev says a Sunday could be really good relaxed fun. Thinking about this further I think we could have an ongoing ladder competition at a time control of an hour or so per person. This gives people the chance to play semi serious games even if they have finished all the competions. This can also be done on an evening when work etc may preclude a competition game as it would not have to be started before half eight or nine. In both cases I would favour the games being ungraded although perhaps evening games could be if both players agree and pay the game fee.

Lets do it folks.

P.S. Help! I really do not want to be referred to as Mr Badham. Suggestions on a postcard... and no not those kind of suggestions.

Club Handicap Rapidplay

A club rapidplay event is a good idea. I remember about ten years ago Knoll Knights organised several handicap rapidplays which were all-inclusive and fun, I thought. I can't remember exactly how the time was split but I think it went from 25 mins. for the lowest graded and 5 mins. for the highest when they played each other. On equal grades players had 15 mins. each. Each game must have lasted half an hour but the time was divided according to the grading difference between the players. People came from other clubs and included several Brighton players who may remember how it was organised better than me. It was also good because it was attended by the whole spectrum of club playing strength. It was very light-hearted and enjoyable, although I don't know how the 190 player on 5 mins. felt (it might only have been 4 to 26). We could also do as they did and invite people from other clubs as a good social event. What do people think? Perhaps a Saturday in May or June? Or a Sunday as Kevin suggests. Just informally as a club event first?

Sounds like a good idea Kev; I'd also be in favour of a relaxed event, ungraded but with relatively fast time controls, e.g. 15 minutes per player per game. Thanks for donating the computer monitor by the way.

Informal Rapid play

It's all a bit quiet on the blog at the moment so I thought I'd take time out of my lunch break to stir up some action.

Whilst discussing potential new QPF (quick play finish) rules for the Mid-Sussex League on Wednesday, a few of us were talking about the need to practice at faster game times. Mr. Badham suggested a few of us might meet up for an informal rapidplay tournament at the club, which seems like a good idea to me, in addition I'm sure the Railway Club would be grateful for any extra money we might put over the bar.

I would imagine this idea would actually be over-subscribed, so here are some points to consider off the top of my head.
1)Are other people interested?
2)Whether to have the games graded?
3)How many people could we cope with, could we book the downstairs room if required?
4)What time to play, e.g. 30mins each, 1 hour each ?
In my mind I'm thinking of a Sunday, a few games of chess, a couple of beers and not much worry about the grades.

Cheers all! Kev.

video page added to website

I've added a video page to the club website. Also, the Dieppe Match page gets updated frequently - there's been a rush of people applying to be in the team. As of now, 8 people have already applied!

Really pleased to see this event has really taken off. Sue's running it this year - apply to her to be in the team.

Kev, no, actually Simon William's message came to me in the form of an email.

Simon's tourney

I would enter this, even though in an open I will probably get caned (ECF92 Simon, in case you want to know)! It is convenient to get to from Brighton, and on Friday I could most probably get to the first game from work in London, depending on the start time, without the need for a day off.

Duncan, is Simon going to read this blog for replies?

A message from Simon Williams GM

I am attempting to run a chess tournament at The Big Slick poker club in Purley Oaks (5-min from Croydon) (http://www.bigslick.co.uk/cardroom.html) If anyone is interested more details below.

The dates that we have set so far are 26th June-4th July.

I realise that this is quite soon so the pressure is on!

I am aiming to have a 10 player IM all play all section running from Fri 26th to the 4th July, 1 game a day. Games starting at 1pm, except for Saturday's when they will be starting at 12pm with either a 5 or 6 hour playing time limit, as the club has to get ready for the poker which starts at 8.30 or 7.30 on a Sat.

I am also planning on holding a Fide open tournament over the first weekend, that would be Fri 26th through to Sun 28th.

Anyone fancy playing!? I hope I can get some runners!

For the IM all play all section I am going to pay IMs £300 to play, I also need to pay an arbiter plus there are bound to be some other out going costs. So to make the tournament work I need to charge any norm hunters £200. I believe that this is what Adam R used to charge when he was running his tournaments. Any norm hunters would be guaranteed a chance to get a norm if they scored a certain score.

The fide open would be the normal structure for such a weekender. There will be grading prizes so any lower rated players have something to play for. There is going to be a limit to the amount of people I can fit into the club so no entries on the day and I might have to turn people down as well.

There will be tea and coffee and I will be probably be in charge of the bar! There is also a chance of getting some sponsorship, one party has offered £500 which would boast up the prizes! Anyway it should be a fun event so please reply if you are interested!

Cheers
Simon

PC Screen

Simon. I'm pretty sure I can get a flat screen, not sure if it will be 15" or 17" but it won't be before next week. Let me know if you get a better offer!

Modern life IS rubbish

The computer works, but now the monitor has died. If you were one of the nice people who volunteered an old monitor of yours, please get in touch.

Match v Dieppe 2009

Following Sue's request, I have created a new page on our club's website with the details of this year's match against the Dieppe Chess Club. It is our turn to go to France. This is the 3rd time this international friendly has been held and it promises to be the best yet.

It has been moved forward to the end of August so that players may participate in a 9 round congress being hosted by the Dieppe club and then play in our match.

The new page will be updated as and when people apply to be in the team. You can also buy a commemorative T-shirt from the same page.

Game Charts back online

Thanks to Kevin Gee, who has created legible and web friendly versions of the game charts, the game chart pages on our club website are back. The one exception is the Brian Denman Cup page, which exists online, but isn't linked in yet via the menu system. That will be done on Monday.

Once again players will be able to plan ahead as to what colours they will be playing, when they are away from the club.

Modern Life is NOT rubbish

Good stuff Simon. It will take some time to configure the machine and its internet connection. I have recently discovered that the next version of CT-Art will be usable on all accounts on a machine, not just the admin account. I think the club should consider buying this excellent piece of software or look around for a donated copy.

Guest account

Yes, I haven't configured the guest account for general use, but I will eventually. For the moment just club officers will have access to the computer. I expect it to be available for general use by Saturday 7th of March.

QPF

I vote in favour of Quick Play Finishes.

Simon, surely you mean admin rights will be password protected and everybody else can use the computer as and when? Otherwise, it won't really be a club machine and us officers (that's the President, the Treasurer, the Secretary and the Tournament Controller according to our constitution) can't really babysit everyone who wants to use the machine, including you Simon... on this issue, my vote will be for the Librarian and people nominated by him who have sufficient technical prowess according to his judgment to be awarded password protected admin rights and everyone else to be able to use it as a guest user.

The QPF debate

An opinion poll on the notice board is exactly what I had in mind - I'm going to put one up tomorrow to test out the club's preference. I will probably then send the result to the MSCL forum page with a suggestion other clubs might like to do the same. I don't think it's really getting dealt with properly at the MSCL AGM - although I may be wrong and other clubs may well feel differently. The nomination issue is an interesting one as well and something I brought up at last year's AGM. This too was rejected without much debate. Change is hard in the MSCL! Any opinions on either issue are welcome here and remember the reps. who do the voting at the AGM are usually the team captains as we get one vote per team in the league. They need to know what you think.

QPF and Nominations

Sue, I am in favour of the QPF rule change, it's a bit fast but a reasonable option. Perhpas we should attempt to post an opinion poll on the notice board?

I notice that Ian Comely of Horsham has started an interesting debate about nominated players which is very relevant to BHCC.

Cheers!

Club PC

Simon, surely there will be general access to the computer? Can you just clarify please. Thanks.

More updates on the library

Grant has done the electrics. Big thankyou to Grant from everyone.

The computer is up and running. It is password protected, club officers will have passwords. I have ordered a wireless modem from 3 which will arrive early next week.

QPF in MSCL

I'm thinking of conducting a club poll on the quick play finish debate in the MSCL. For the detailed amendment to the league rules which would make QPF an option see under the appropriate heading on the forum of the MSCL website. Are people generally in favour of this change?

The club's 'team' in Portsmouth last weekend

Click on the picture to enlarge it.

Portsmouth

I did indeed finish on 1 from 3 (officially 1.5 from 4 as I took a bye Saturday night). By far the best game was my marathon tussle on Friday night - we were the last to finish. After a slightly shaky start playing as black in my usual Tarrasch setup, I found a nice opportunity to post my white-squared bishop on a6 preventing my opponent from castling king's-side. I managed to pile on the pressure but got into time trouble and threw away a clear win. Even after the time scramble I probably had a chance but my endgame proved too weak in the time allowed (15min QPF!) and I lost after declining a draw offer. A point of interest from my brief post-game analysis is that after the move where I had blundered I was still massively winning but so demoralized that I didn't spot it! In time trouble I focussed on a small part of the board and missed an easy tactic.
So lessons learned:
1) Consider draw offers more carefully
2) Play the clock better, it's part of the game.
3) Even in time pressure, try to 'zoom out' and look round the board.

On a more upbeat note: We found a pub in Southsea called 'The Hole in The Wall' which sold the nicest pint of real ale I can remember having, called 'Hole Hearted', and subsequently had one of the nicest curries I've had in ages next door. Also, Susan has recovered from her illness (which I should add was not curry or beer related)

Give Feedback

Due to popular demand, I have altered our chess match reports blog, so that you can now leave a comment on reports made by our team captains.

final results from Portsmouth

Sue finished with 3 points out of six in the Minor competition (Under ECF 125), although one of those was because there was no opponent for her in a round. I finished also with 3 points out of six in the Challengers competition (Under ECF 100) but I also gained a point from a round in which there was no opponent for me. That said, I did 'earn' the point by playing an extra-curricular match game against a player who had no opponent in the Premier competition (Under ECF 175), whose grade was ECF *158. I beat him. Charles Holcombe finished with 1 point out of six ~ 2 draws ~ but he had also played in the Minor competition and last week played numerous match games in Cannes, France. Kevin we think scored 1 but he had to withdraw before the end of the tournament because his girlfriend had was sick. Remember that Sue, Charles and Kevin played in the section above their grades.

Portsmouth ~ progress report

The scores so far: Charles has yet to score, Sue has scored two (but one of those was by default or whatever a unpaired bye is called), Kevin has one point and I have one point. Three games down. One more game this evening and two tomorrow.

report from Portsmouth

Sue, Kevin, Charles & I have made it to this weekend's Portsmouth Congress. Sue, Kevin and Charles have bravely entered the section above their grade. Haven't spoken to Charles yet. Sue and Kevin have yet to score (they are in the minor); I managed to win my first game but crashed and burnt in the 2nd. Two more games to go today.

Kasparov Demands Role

Gary Kasparov last night demanded the right to play a role in Brighton and Hove Chess Club's latest advertising campaign. Our Secretary currently involved in complex negotiations to appease both Putin and Kasparov.

Video Reportage from East Grinstead

What have I done? Will Mr Kasparov forgive us?

Meanwhile, the 5th team has filed a video report of its last match game - click here to look at the match reports blog.

Realpolitik

Can we really be seen to be in bed with Putin? Kasparov was putin prison by him. It's a dirty world out there... love the pics though.

Sue i'd love to commit to Dieppe its just a bit soon especially that weekend.

Team players

Some good MSCL results in, particularly from our new fifth team who are still going strong despite team selection restrictions starting to kick in, see Andrew's match report of their 4.5/0.5 win over East Grinstead 2 on Tuesday. (I particularly liked the leisurely pint before the match - no, sorry, "quick drink".) To make life easier Julie has performed more analytical wizardry and produced a spreadsheet of all the midsussex players so that we can see at a glance how many times each player has played for each team, see the MSCL website for this download. And Neil is now playing top board for the third team which makes our promotion to second division even more likely, especially as, due to some rescheduling, we are still only half-way through our season with four matches still to play. Exciting stuff!!

Third Dieppe - Brighton Match 2009

As Duncan is now occupied with negotiations with Putin over our advertising space he has passed the organisation of this annual event with the French over to me. Our third match against Dieppe is scheduled for Sunday 30th August at 2:00pm, following an impressive week of chess events comprising the 5ème festival international d'Echecs. It may be that some of our members will be up for the whole week, but I need to know who would like to play in the Brighton team against Dieppe on the 30th. Please let me know if you are definitely up for it, bearing in mind this is a commitment to play. Duncan will shortly be creating a webpage dedicated to this event where more details will appear in due course in English. Meanwhile please email me or let me know you wish to be considered for the team by 16th May so there is plenty of time to make arrangements, book ferry tickets etc.. Priority will be given to higher-graded players, so we can put up a good team, fluent French speakers and those who have previously committed to the event in 2007 and 2008. However numbers will also depend on how many players Dieppe can field so until we know that there is no limit. The team selection will be published on the website by the end of May. This looks like an event not to be missed!

Club Recruitment Campaign

Are there any objections to Putin's involvement in our forthcoming advertising campaign? Although we haven't officially launched it yet, he's jumped the gun and started promoting us at meetings of the Russian cabinet and all international meetings.

Putin has also arranged for his friends in London to advertise us on all new building projects:

Let's hope they don't cut corners with the buildings too.

Club History

The newly rediscovered club's minute book which contains manuscript minutes from 1858 to 1881 has been scanned and put on our website. Click on each thumbnail image on that page to see that page enlarged. These enlarged images are 18% of the size of the scanned images, which I created with an over-the-top 600 dots per inch scan, just in case anyone wanted to use small portions of the text very very large.

Our 19th Century Minute Book has been found

I'm in the process of scanning this historic handwritten book so that it can all go on our website, for all to enjoy but in the meantime, as a teaser of what is to come, here are a couple of excerpts. The book starts in 1858 and is not in good condition. Members who attended our last AGM may recall my predecessor secretary, Mr Charles Holcombe, reading from a typed manuscript version of the first entry in this book. The typed manuscript version also survives. You can click on these pictures to enlarge them.

Don't forget our club's video blog

I made a short video about our club which I intend to put on the '2nd page' of our club's website, which is the page you land on after clicking through from the home page. I'll be making more videos over the next few months....

Match Reports

Our club's team captains are now writing match reports after each match in the Mid-Sussex League. Click here to look at the chess match reports blog.

4th Team

Many thanks to everyone that has played for the 4th team this season, Peter Benson, Kevin Gee, Charles Holcombe, Arthur De Silver, Bob Davies and Tom Haxby. We've had a really great season so far with 4 points from our first 5 games, and no losses!

We really need to keep up the pressure now and go for promotion.

Congratulations to all of the other teams, especially to the 3rd team, who are also chasing promotion, and to the 5th team, who are doing brilliantly in their first season.

Brilliant Performance of Brighton and Hove Chess Club

The latest results from the MSCL have been posted and show just how well we have been doing. The 2nd team is only half a match point off being top of the second division, the 3rd team is top of the third division and the 4th and 5th teams are holding the top two positions in the 4th division!! This reflects our input of new talent into the teams at all levels and is particularly creditable for our new-this-season 5th team (although they have played more of their matches). Our more established members have had to work hard to maintain their positions against the newcomers and I think we are now a very strong and healthy club - the best! Keep this up and all our teams will be promoted......... well, not the 1st team, obviously.

I'm on way my Wales

see you all on Wednesday hopefully

A good try and hard luck.

Thanks for your decision Duncan ragarding the match against Crowborough 4 on Wednesday.

Don Grant rang me yesterday and their view from a Fritz analysis was a win for them.

Match result will now follow.

What was I thinking?

Andrew Caswill - I concede my match game from last night, which means, I think, that our team has drawn. I await your match report on the match reports blog with interest.

This morning a 5 foot by 3 foot all weather banner bearing the club's logo was delivered to me. Let's dream up some photo opportunities!

hi Luke

You mean the Kings shilling?

Welcome aboard

Yes, welcome to the blogosphere Luke!

Welcome Luke

Ha ha it's the internet equivalent of a press-gang.

Hello World

I've just been conscripted against my will into membership of this blog.

The eagle has landed

The computer has arrived today, just over 24 hours after I ordered it!

I also have a monitor courtesy of my parents and their overfull attic.

Many thanks to Kevmaster Gee, I will get back to you if my parents' monitor proves unusable.

Next will be the internet, I'm going to spend a bit of time looking for the best deal, so if you see a good one, let me know.

Also Grant Will be putting proper electrics into the cupboard for us some time in the next few weeks.

PoF Rapidplay

Great news PoF- glad to hear you're going to go for it. The new rapidplay grades are out now by the way - incorporating the last Brighton rapidplay results (if you've played enough games). (They are definitely included as they're on my ECF printout.)

Rapid Play

Yesterday evening Pieces of Fate decided to hold another one day rapid play tournament in Brighton, with the provisional date for the event being the last Saturday in September. We expect to finalise the date shortly.

Fritz

I haven't donated it yet. I offered to donate it if the club got the internet.

Computer equipment

Simon,

There is a very good chance I will be able to get a reasonable monitor from work, I am not in the office today buy will try to find out next week.

Also, I seem to remember that Duncan Roy has already donated a copy of Fritz, but if not I have a copy of Fritz 9 I would be happy to donate.

Cheers.

Computer monitor

The computer I have ordered does not have a monitor.

So I urgently need everyone to check in their attics for any old computer monitors to see if they have an old unused one knocking about that they could donate to the club.

Many thanks

Simon

Library update

Hi All,

After some hold up the computer is now on its way.

All that needs to happen now is that Grant has kindly offered to put in the electrics, I'll get a cable lock and Neil has kindly offered to put up two more shelves. Then I need to look at broadband and whether there are any deals out there. After that I will consider whether to buy the projector. I have made significant savings on what I expected to spend and so the projector can possibly be bought without going over budget.

Additionally, Paul Batchelor has offered a copy of Chessbase for the computer which is a database of games that is more comprehensive than any of the online databases. I am inclined to try that out for a couple of months before signing up to mobile broadband to see how people use the computer and what for.

Right, I've bought an all-weather flag measuring 5 foot by 3 foot, at my own expense.

Club Logo

Our club logo was made by Dockerills but the original has been binned by them. When I first made the Brighton & Hove Chess Club website, I photographed the sign and then spent countless hours cleaning it up by hand (sorry, digitally remastering), so that the background was white and not the dirty yellow colour it came out in the photograph. As secretary, I now use the logo in all club documents and, of course, a variation on it adorns all our blogs. Whilst it was clear that Dockerills' artist had a poor grasp of the geography of a chess board, it is a striking image. I'm looking to get a banner made using this official logo.

I'll be at the club later on, playing for the 5th team.

Anchors away !

Excellent, then there were four ..... welcome aboard Mr. Badham. Thanks for the encouraging words, much appreciated.

I sense a possible flag design competition in the offing :-)

Perhaps we ought to get our own flag if we keep travelling around the country in groups like this...

That makes four of us... anyone else tempted? Not sure what you mean by going down a section DB? Surely that sort of thing isn't allowed? I've entered the U100 section. Will I be the only one of us in that section? Where is everyone else staying?

P.S. Kev

Go for it! if you are in form make the most of it. Lordy you made me work my rocks off and in my experience when I have gone down a section as I have once or twice I haven't done myself justice.

Congress and a quote.

The whole Pompey thing looks good, it's a nice part of town to be in unlike the one or two I think were held a year or two back. Hopefully Brighton will be well represented, myself included.

Having had a peruse of the quotes it struck me as quite astounding how many are about Bobby Fischer. It just shows the awe and fear he produced in his contemporaries, shock and awe even and many of these really were the cream at the time.

Anyway here is one from a less notable chess player,

"There is no game so esteemed, so profound and so venerable as chess; in the realm of play it stands alone in dignity."

Ely Culbertson

Bridge pioneer.

Though he was a mate of Emmanuel Lasker so he probably wasn't a total patzer..

On course for Pompey

Day off has been approved for Friday, I didn't think there'd be a problem. Good point about sections, I will take advice but most likely stay in the U-100 section to check whether Hastings was a fluke. I am wavering though.

Pompey here we come.

Excellent news Kev! Is there any doubt as to whether work will give you the day off? Which section have you entered? Anyone else tempted to go to Portsmouth Chess Congress?

All aboard for Portsmouth !

Count me in ! I had also been thinking about signing up for the Portsmouth Congress (well scouted Sue!). As long as my leave from work is approved I will also go down (across?) on the Friday.