Wednesday 6 March 2024

Crewe Chess Congress 2024

The hugely popular, and highly successful, Crewe Chess Congress will be taking place over the weekend of 28th/30th June. Entries are now being taken and you can click here for full details and an online entry form - https://crewechessclub.co.uk/congress-entry/. If past experience is anything to go by it is likely to be over subscribed, so get your entry in early to avoid disappointment.

British Rapidplay Championship

Many congratulations to Jacob Boswell of Cheddleton on taking joint 3rd place out of 219 entrants in last weekend's British Rapidplay Championship. Jacob finished on 8.5/11, just a half point behind the winner. He also beat GM Mark Hebden in the final round.

Thursday 29 February 2024

Crewe 'G' Win Division 4

Crewe 'G' have become the first Divisional Champions of the season. Fenton's loss against Meir on Tuesday evening means that they cannot now be caught, so congratulations to them. 

Tuesday 20 February 2024

MCCU County Championship - U1850 Section

Staffordshire played Lincolnshire in the U1850 section of the MCCU County Championships on Saturday afternoon. The match ended in an 8-8 draw, but Lincolnshire won on board count. As the only two Counties to have entered a team in this section, this was actually the Final. As runners-up Staffordshire have now qualified for the National stage of the competition. This will be held sometime in May and we are likely to be the Away team.

North Staffs were well represented in the Staffordshire team, with players from Newcastle, Alsager, Fenton and Stafford taking part. Please click here to view the full match score card. 

If you are interested in playing for Staffordshire, then please contact Peter Evans, the Team Captain. He can be reached by email at peterfkevans@live.co.uk, or by telephone - 01785 601928.

RIP Oliver Horrocks

I have received the following from Alsager Chess Club:

"Alsager Chess Club recently received the sad news of the passing of Oliver Horrocks. 

He died peacefully on the 2nd February 2024 at the grand old age of 93 years.

A very good player in his time, some current Members struggle to recall when he was first associated with Alsager, but we think it was since the 1960's.

Away from his chess hobby, Oliver was a community leader, formerly he was the Rector of Barthomley.

He was the dearly loved husband of Pam and loving father of Joe and Clare.

He will be sadly missed."

Monday 4 December 2023

UK Open Blitz Finals

Congratulations to Jacob Boswell of Cheddleton on finishing in 8th place in this weekend's UK Open Blitz Finals. A score of 8/15 put him ahead of 4 IM's and a GM. Click here to view the final ranking cross table and results.

Congratulations also to Carmel Barwick of Crewe, who finished 8th in the Women's Fnal, with a score of 7.5/15. Click here to view the final ranking cross table and results.

Yorkshire Rapidplay 2023

Many congratulations to Jacob Boswell of Cheddleton on finishing joint first, along with GM Gawain Jones, in the Open Section of the Yorkshire Rapidplay, with a score of 5/6.

Click here for final ranking cross table and results.

 

Staffordshire Club Of The Year

Many congratulations to Meir Chess Club on being voted Staffordshire Club Of The Year at last week's County AGM.

League Playing Rules Update

The League Playing Rules have been updated to include the addendum, proposed by Colin Abell, allowing players rated U1325 to play in Division 4, regardless of what board they may have previously played on in a higher Division. This addendum was proposed by Colin after the AGM and agreed by all Clubs that replied to him. 

Wednesday 8 November 2023

National Youth Championships

On the 4th November 2023 Staffordshire sent 3 teams to the National Youth Championships in Oxford. We were represented in all 3 sections under 12, under 14 and under 18. Thanks go to Jays Travel & Daughter minibuses who got most of the players there as well as a number of travelling parents this was one of the biggest contingents to play in such an event for a long time.

Our under 12 side was very much a development team as most had hardly played many tournaments and the results showed. We knew this before going and the majority will still be under 12 next year so we have time to improve.

The under 14 team had mostly started playing pre-covid and were much more experienced, and we had some new exciting additions. With a resounding 6/6 in the last round we managed to shoot up the rankings and come joint 4th which is an amazing achievement. Isaac Stanley scored 3/3 on board 2 as the team's top performer.

The stars of the show were our under 18 team where we were very strong, we even turned up with a reserve which was rotated round. Our top 2 boards Dylan & Joe took the brunt of the opposing team's best players and allowed Stephen & Sean to mop up the middle order. Momin, Julian & Rhys did great jobs on the lower boards and if you include the reserve match Rhys came away with 3/3.

WIth 2 teams running away with it at the top we went into the last round joint 4th with a team half a point ahead of us, both those teams scored badly in the last round as we picked up 4 points to overtake them and come away with 3rd and a trophy for each player! Well done to the under 18's in this national event!

Ou top performance though goes to a 'junior' who isn't going to be a junior much longer playing on board 4 scoring 3/3 was Sean Tavener... we wish him well as he moves on to adult life! Before he does though we might see all of these players fight it out in the Staffordshire junior championships on November 19th.

If you haven't entered yet: www.staffsjuniorchess.co.uk