bexhillchessclub.co.uk
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!
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.
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.)
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 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 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!
Many congratulations to Bexhill junior Rose Burgess who played at the EJCOA national youth championships last weekend. Rose, pictured here with CM Rob Willmoth and IM Lorin D’Costa, won a training award for outstanding performance in the training sessions; £50 chess and bridge voucher. Well done Rose!!
Last weekend, seven members of Bexhill chess club headed over to Tunbridge wells for the Kent congress held at the bridge club.
It was a well run event in a beautiful building and a great weekend of chess.
In the under 1650 section, Sharon Merchant was very happy to win two points. Sebastian Merchant scored 3 and finished in 8th. Samuel Merchant came in 4th (joint 2nd) and won the grading prize of £50. Luke Chapman had a fantastic congress and finished on 4.5 in joint first place! He wins £138! Congratulations Luke!! 🥳🥳🥳
In the very competitive under 1950 section, Steve Blewitt managed a win and two draws to finish on 2 points. Bill Luxton managed half a point more with 2 wins and a draw to finish on 2.5. And finally Steve Merchant with 2 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss, finished with 3 points in 13th place.
Many thanks to Satish Gaekwad, Ashok Damodaran for their excellent organization. And especially to John Bowley for being the most friendly and professional arbiter I have ever met.
Following the EGM yesterday… we will be changing one of our meetings. With immediate effect, we will no longer be meeting on Saturday afternoons. The Saturday afternoon meeting is being replaced with a Friday evening meeting from 7pm till 10pm at our usual meeting place at St. Marks.
Tuesday meetings will remain unchanged.
We look forward to seeing you all at our first evening meeting this Friday June 30th!!