Author: veutilep

Friday 26 June 2026

Results Table below, from Michael Hayward :

CHESS 960 THIS FRIDAY 10 JULY

Here is Chairman Bill Tracey’s update on Chess 960 and other summer events. Check our calendar if in doubt. :

” On Friday 10 July the club will be holding,for the 1st time, a 960 event.

There will be four rounds with a time control of 15 minutes plus 5 second increments.

In 960 chess the pawns start in their normal position but the major pieces will be in different positions.

Each round will have a different arrangement.

There maybe as few as 2 pieces off there normal starting position or there could be several.

There are no prizes for this event.

Looking a bit further ahead, on Friday 25th of September we will be hosting a rapid event open to not just our members but to players from outside the club.

There will be 6 rounds of 10 minutes with no increments.

Entry will cost £10 payable on the night in cash.

There will be cash prizes for 1st,2nd and 3rd as well as trophies/ medals for the top three.In addition there will be at least two cash prizes for rating performances.

As this is a rated open event all entrants will need to ECF members of at least gold level.

If you would like to enter please let me ( Bill) know.

Our AGM will be held at the club on Friday 11th September at 7.30. Please try to attend to support the club on this important evening. There will be time for social chess.

Finally on Friday 2nd October we will be hosting Hastings in our annual match.

This will be a long play event and open to all our members.

Please let me (Bill) know if you would like to play.

Bill’s email is : w.tracey@sky.com

5th Sussex University Tournament

Message from Paul Batchelor :

An upcoming event!

Dear all,

As President of the Sussex Association, it is my pleasure to publicise local chess events. The Sussex University Chess Festival is one such event. All standards may participate in the various categories for competitive play. Please, could you circulate news of this event to players and fellow club members alike. I can only hope this event gets the support it richly deserves. Please, see below for details

https://sites.google.com/site/sussexcca/announcements

Friday 19 June saw 18 players battle for the Annual Blitz Tournament title

The outright winner was Luke Chapman on 4.5/5- pictured below receiving the trophy from Chairman Bill Tracey.

..And watch out for further successes in a decisive year for our talented star player, not only at our club, but also in the Hastings Club championship, and the forthcoming British Championship ! at the University of Warwick in July where he has been selected for the top section. A further article on this site will have more of the story in advance of the British.

Meanwhile, runners up, after a post- tournament correction of one result for Oliver Kuzmanoski , were Mark Rich and Oliver on 4/5

Her is Mark collecting his award.

In joint 3rd place were Jonathan Mfuso (his first and undoubtedly not his last award at the club) :

and Howard Tebbs, pictured below – each on 3.5/5.

Michael Hayward , once again providing an excellent service as tournament controller ( thank you Michael!) , also managed an excellent score of 3/5 alongside Andrew Fleming. Steve Blewitt and Lee Stewartson – also impressing on his recent emergence in club competitions.

Bill Luxton and Alan Ticehurst achieved a solid 2.5 /5 .Harry Morter made 2/5 as did Lawry Rhodes..

Jon James finished on 1.5.

Bill Tracey ( after generously correcting his result with Oliver) finished on 1/5 , alongside Mick Sullivan.

Tony Nash and young Kit Brampton ( on his very first club meeting, bravely playing 4 of the rounds) did not manage a point in this very strong field, but they both fought hard throughout and played good chess.

DON’T FORGET IT IS :

Grand Prix 3 this Friday 26 June

u-14 successes in 2026 Butler Cup Finals

On Tuesday 9 June, Bexhill Academy students, including 4 who are members of our club, competed in the u-14 Schools’ team championship finals at Windlesham House.

Bexhill Academy entered 2 teams, but neither had been pre-selected for Division 1, so the prestigious Butler Cup they won last year had to be returned. Nevertheless Bexhill’s 1st team won Division 2 and collected a trophy. Our juniors performed exceptionally well ;Andy Nguyen 3/3, Harry Morter 2/3, Isaac Jennings 2/3. The 4th team member who ( along with Isaac and Daniel below) has been playing regularly at the Academy chess club, Jonah Jerins scored 3/3. Andy said afterwards : ” We made a clean sweep in the first two rounds. Losses in round 3 put Harry and I in a must-win situation, but we did it.”

Juniors at the Academy are improving in play such that this year a second team was entered in Division 4 and they took a 2nd place trophy. Daniel Johnson scored 1/3, Maksim Burokas 1/3, Liam Bibin 2/3 and Ebu Udi 1/3. Liam said afterwards: “It was hard, but I enjoyed it. Somehow I beat 2 players. ”

Winner on Friday 5 June was Bill Luxton on 3.5/4 Congratulations!

Full results table from Michael Hayward who again worked tirelessly on the results and the draw for each round as well as setting up, locking up and basically everything!!

A BIG THANK YOU FROM US ALL

Excellent performances also from James Lumsden and Jonathan Mfula both on 3/4 and a noteworthy effort from Harry Morter on 2.5/4.

See our previous News page article or go to our Bexhill Grand Prix page for forthcoming tournaments 2 to 6 for dates – the next one is Friday June 5. Our Calendar page also has the dates of these events plus more of this year’s events just announced by our Chairman Bill Tracey after the recent committee meeting and planning with our tournaments organizer Michael Hayward. It’s quite an ambitious catalogue of varied sessions to keep us engaged in chess throughout the traditionally quiet summer timetable. Here is Bill’s latest update.

” Hi All

Following our committee meeting this week I am pleased to announce the full schedule of summer events.

The following are in addition to our Grand Prix events which are already posted on our website.

June19th Blitz. This will be 6 rounds of quick fire Chess with a time control of 5 minutes plus 2 seconds increments.

July 10th 960 Chess .In this form of chess the pawns start in their normal position but the major pieces will be arranged differently to how they would normally be. This means that opening theory is largely irrelevant. There will be 4 rounds with different starting positions in each. Time control will be 15 minutes plus 5 seconds increments.

July 31st. Our club championship in Rapid will take place with 5 rounds with a time control of 10 minutes plus 3 seconds increments.

August 14th Time Handicap. In this format the stronger player in each game will have less time than their opponent. The difference depends on the gap in ratings but could be as much as 9 minutes. There will be 5 rounds.

September 4th. A simultaneous exhibition will take place where our very talented junior  Luke Chapman will take on all comers. It is likely that he will play 20 to 25 people at the same time. There will be no time control other than the total time for the event will be 2.5 hours.

September 25th. We have decided to run a rapid tournament open to all the clubs in Sussex. It will have 5 rounds with a time control of 10 minutes plus 3 seconds. There will be an entry fee of £10 all of which will be used as prize money. This event will be restricted to people aged 18 and over.

Hopefully as many members as possible will take part in some or all of these events, but we do recognise that fast play is not for every one so if you do not fancy playing on any given evening you will be very welcome to play social chess.

Hope to see you at these events.

Bill “

The first of this season’s BCC Grand Prix result from Friday 15 May has been uploaded on this site’s dedicated page.

Please click there for details., and future event dates on our 2026-2027 Calendar

Congratulations to James Lumsden and Oliver Kuzmanoski for excellent performances.

Well done to our junior contingent including newcomers, Isaac and Daniel Johnson

Don’t miss our next Grand Prix (2) on 5 June.

Hastings Weekend Open Chess Tournament

June 6 and 7 2026

To be held at the Hastings and St. Leonards Chess Club 2 Cornwallis Terrace Hastings TN34 1EB

Round Times

Saturday June 6 2026

Round 1 10.00. Round 2 14.15. Round 3 18.30.

 Sunday June 7 2026

Round 4 10.00. Round 5 14 15.

This will be limited to approx. 24 players with free tea coffee and sandwiches

All players will need to be gold members of the ECF

Entry fee non club members £25 cash

Hastings club members and Juniors     £20 cash

May Grades will be used

Time control 1-hour 40mins +15sec a move

½ point Bye Round…………….

Prizes    st £125             2nd £75           3rd £50

Grading under 1900 £75  

 Entry to

Marc Bryant at 2 Cornwallis Terrace Hastings Sussex TN34 1EB

Email Bryant8830@yahoo.co.uk

Tel 01424 436313

Editor : Those of us who participated in the 4th Sussex University Chess Congress on 18-19 April received this message recently from Sussex University. I thought it merited wider publicity on our website, both for the mention of the support we have consistently provided with equipment and for the excellent contribution of Rose Burgess as assistant arbiter. It is also worthy of record the determined organisation and leadership of Hooman Honarvar who has initiated and sustained the development of chess through the Sussex University events which we, at Bexhill Chess Club, have been there for since the student-led inception at the Falmer campus. His speech at the start of the final round was inspiring for its evocation of community, peace and harmony – with the living embodiment being a gathering of a large and diverse assembly of chess players.

Here s part of the message :

” Congratulations to Candidate master Jacob Yoon, the winner of the under 2400 section of the Congress and Mr Russell Goodfellow for the under 1900 section and the joint winners of the under 1600 section Toby, Sandom, Artem Dudakh and Aarav Ghanshala.

Another congratulations to FM Sergey Korshunov on winning the blitz tournament with a perfect score of nine out of nine.

Many thanks to Lance Leslie Smith for taking on the chief arbiter role of the event and doing a great job at that and many thanks to FIDE arbiter Mike Forster, deputy chief arbiter and a person who has been with us since the first edition of this event and another thank you too Mr. Owen Gibson for providing remote help for the event.

Congratulations and thank you to Rose Burgess for acting as a section arbiter and obtaining her final level 2 arbiter norm.

Thank you you to International arbiter Matthew Carr for providing us with live boards so all your brilliancies and blunders can be broadcast live with 15 minutes delay, of course!

Thank you to the great clubs of Bexhill and Horsham for providing us with very nice wooden boards.
Special thanks to Hastings Chess Club and Mark, Bryant and Henry Cove for providing emergency double-sided score sheets!

Thank you to Sussex Junior Chess for their continued support and providing clocks and sets and national master Callum Brewer for his chest sets, and all the parents who helped with the smooth running of this event.

Thank you to Sussex University Student Union for helping to organize this event.

Thanks to David Lightfoot for helping with the publicity of the event around the campus. Please look out for the next editions of his excellent Isle Of Wight Chess tournaments and some more!! in the ECF calendar.

Thank you to David Howell patron of Sussex Junior Chess for spreading the word about our event on X.

Here is the link for the photos. You can order printed photos from the same website. The password is “Chess”.
https://zoeandjohnphotography. shootproof.com/gallery/ 50c08eeb-e38a-49e4-aefc- 0425ff674573

Finally, as we’ve said before at Sussex university it’s not just about chess it’s about chess community and we are very honoured to have had you at our event.

You will be hearing very soon about an exciting event in July until that announcement please save the date for 20th till 25th of July. We will be back 😉 “

Hooman Honarvar, delivering his speech before the exhibition match, between international master Sohum Lohia and FIDE master Sergey Korshunov , which was narrowly won by Korshunov. This was fund-raising for the Doctors Without Borders ( Medicines sans Frontiers) charity.

Photograph above from ZOE & JOHN – see the above link if you wish to see more.

In the tournament u-2400, Bexhill’s Luke Chapman finished 24th/40 on 2/5 in a very tough field

In the u-1900, Mjchael Hayward had a very good tournament 0n 3/5 finishing 7th/32. Bill Tracey and Lawry Rhodes took part finishing 19th and 20th respectively on 2.5/5.

Given there were 51 contestants in the u-1600, my maths indicates an amazing 123 total field.