bexhillchessclub.co.uk

Author: Lawrence Rhodes

  • Bexhill Grand Prix 23/24

    We are very pleased to announce something new for the 2023/24 season. After the massive popularity of our recent blitz and handicap tournaments, we have decided to offer something else for those that enjoy a little bit of competition with their chess. We will be hosting a series of Grand Prix events, four round Swiss rapid tournaments at our Friday evening meetings, approximately one every 5 weeks throughout the season. There will be prizes for those performing best in their rating and age groups over the season with the top 5 scores counting towards your Grand Prix total. All the full details can be found here.
    The tournaments are free to enter and are open to all Bexhill chess club members!
    We hope you are all as excited as we are! Lots to play for!
    The first event will be on Friday 10th November.
    Any questions, let us know!

  • 2023/24 Junior chess season gets off to a good start

    And just like that, the 2023/24 Junior chess season is in full swing!!
    Our junior meetings recommenced last Friday at our new meeting time of 6pm on a Friday evening at St. Marks.
    For many of our juniors, it was a case of getting the chess engines up and running in time to head to Crowborough on Saturday for the first Grand Prix of the season! Several of our juniors competed in a wonderful tournament that ran alongside an adult rapid tournament and it was wonderful to see some new faces and plenty of familiar faces as around 150 people battled it out!
    Full results for the day can be found on the @sussexjuniorchess website and on the Crowborough chess club website for the adult tournament. 3 of our adult members competed in the main rapid section, Steve Merchant and Bill Luxton finishing on a respectful 2.5 and Bill Tracey just behind on 2.
    Well done to all our members who had a great day, but special mention goes to Noah and Timmy, who both received arbiters awards for outstanding performances in their very first tournament! Both achieving 3 points and finishing 10th and 12th in their section. A fantastic achievement!
    Well done everyone!

    bexhill #bexhilljuniors #bexhillchess #sussexchess

  • Rose has a successful trip to the north!

    Congratulations to Bexhill junior Rose Burgess who has just returned from Newcastle where she was playing in the Northumbria Masters and won the Women’s prize of £50 cash! Well done Rose! 💪🏻

  • Chess on the beach

    A note from our chairman Bill Tracey:

    I would like to congratulate all members of the club who participated in The Chess On The Beach event.

    Including juniors, I counted 27 members of our club who were in attendance on the day. This is a fantastic turnout and shows the commitment that there is in the club to supporting the events that we organise.

    It was very pleasing to see how well many of our members did in the Blitz on the Beach tournament, with the top four all being Bexhill members.

    I would  like to thank John Kimber, Mike Chapman and Bill Luxton for arriving early to help with setting up..

    I would particularly like to thank Steve and Sharon Merchant for being the driving force behind this event. Without their vision, drive and organisational skills this wonderful day would not have been possible.

    Bill

    See here for a full report on the days events.

  • Bexhill rapid 2023

    Date for the diaries! Very pleased to announce that we can finally confirm we will be holding our yearly rapid tournament again this year in the beautiful setting of Bexhill town hall. The date will be Saturday 18th November.
    Full details on how to book will be coming in the next week or two!

  • Battle of Hastings

    Report from Bill Tracey:

    On Saturday 22nd July Bexhill made the short journey to Hastings for our annual match.

    The original plan was to have 12 or more per side, but unfortunately Hastings struggled to get enough players so we settled on 9 a side.

    Hastings did their best to match up well against us as we were missing 4 of our top 6 players. At first this was achieved, but due to a few late withdrawals Hastings were forced to include several of their strongest players. As a result we were out rated on the 5 top boards by almost 1500 points!

    Our team, in board order was Andy, Leo, Bill Luxton, Steve Merchant, Luke, Sam, Seb, David Slidel and Mike Chapman.

    There were some exceptional performances from our players.

    On board 1 Andy who is only 11 faced the best player in the Hastings club and achieved a very fine draw. Leo on 2 also gained an excellent result with a draw agains a player rated 320 points higher.

    Bill on 3 continued the trend by also drawing this time against an opponent out rating him by 170 points.

    Sam on 6 was involved in a very entertaining and topsy turvy game that eventually settled as a draw.

    Our only winner on the day came on board 7 where Seb played a very solid game and confidently entered a winning end game with a 2 pawn advantage.

    Many thanks to Hastings for their hospitality.

    Finally many thanks to all our members who played and also to those that volunteered to play but were unable to get a game.

  • Juniors end the season

    Tonight was the last meeting of the season for the Bexhill juniors and also the 1 year anniversary of the founding of the Junior club. So we had a party! Many thanks to all the kids and especially all the parents that made this evening, and the whole season so wonderful!
    Look forward to seeing you all again in September.

    (Amazing chess cake made by Karen Burgess.)

  • Bexhill Blitz 2023

    On Friday 14th July, we held a Blitz tournament which was attended by 16 club members. It was good to see two new members join us, Jake and Ed. The competition was a 6 round Swiss and the action, as it normally is in Blitz, was fast and furious. 

    The results were as follows:

    Joint Third: Sam (top junior) and Andrew on 4 points

    Second: Janis on 41/2 points

    First: Mark with a perfect 6 from 6.

    Well done to all who took part.

    We plan to hold events such as this on a more regular basis and further details will be published soon.

    Cross tables below:

  • Chess on the beach 2023

    Chess on the beach is returning to the De La Warr this summer on August 19th. We will be having all the usual fun, free beginner coaching, giant chess, chess variants and good fun for all ages and all abilities. We will be running from 11am till 5pm. No need to book or register. Just come on down and play some chess!

    As part of the day we will be running two tournaments. The first will be a bughouse competition at 11am and the second will see the return of the Bexhill beach Blitz!

    See the links below for more information on both of these.

  • Bexhill junior handicap tournament

    Bexhill juniors hosted a handicap Blitz tournament on Wednesday evening. Some good fun and some great chess!
    Luke Chapman and Harry Morter shared first place with 4.5 from 5, though Luke took the winner trophy on tie break and Harry took the runner up trophy.
    They went into the final round both on four points. Harry offered an early draw which was declined. Luke seemed to be getting the better position and was slightly up in material, when he blundered his Queen! He played on valiantly and won back the lost material. But upon going into a winning endgame, he sportingly offered a draw which Harry gratefully accepted! Great chess and great sportsmanship!

    A wonderful tournament with all the games played in good spirits. Well done everyone!