bexhillchessclub.co.ukThe 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
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.
Here is an important update from our Chairman Bill Tracey. The GRAND PRIX tourament series, for Club Members starts at 7.00 pm prompt on15 May. Further dates are in Bill’s message below. Further updates on Summer events will follow after yhe planning is resolved
Hello All,
Now that the Sussex League has been completed our summer events will shortly get underway.
On Friday 15th May our Grand Prix no.1 will commence.
This tournament consists of seven rounds running from mid May to the end of September.
All rounds will be on a Friday evening, and each round will consist of four games with a time control of 15 minutes plus five seconds increments.
To qualify for any of he prizes on offer a member must play in a minimum of 5 of the rounds.
There is no requirement to pre enter simply turn up on the night. We will aim to start at 7.15pm so please arrive promptly at 7pm to register.
These games will be rated. So a reminder of the ECF policy on rating games:
In addition to The Grand Prix, there will be approximately 6 other events on Friday evenings during the summer.
These dates will be announced shortly.
Details will also be posted on our website in the near future. Please check our calendar regularly for all dates. ( EDITOR – The Bexhill Grand Prix page on this site needs further updates due to the reduction of events from 10 to 7 this year. Please bear with us)
Hope to see you on May 15th
Bill
Division 3 Fri 24th Apr 2026 19:30 Winner: Away
Data from Sussex League LMS
| Board | Rating | Bexhill 3 | V | Brighton & Hove 4 | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1876 | Petersons, JanisG | ½ – ½ | G Pellatt, Zoe | 1805 |
| 2 | 1770 | Blewitt, Stephen DG | 0 – 1 | B Westhead, Billy | 1825 |
| 3 | 1741 | Kimber, John DN | 0 – 1 | G St Louis, Laurence | 1754 |
| 4 | 1673 | Carthew, JoB | 1 – 0 | G Hope Maginn, Cal | 1629 |
| Average | 1765 | 1½ – 2½ | 1754 |
Division 3 Fri 24th Apr 2026 00:00 Winner: Home
| Board | Rating | Bexhill 4 | V | Eastbourne 4 | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1665 | Luxton, William HG | 1 – 0 | B Goodyer, Ian | 1571 |
| 2 | 1655 | Rhodes, LawrenceG | 0 – 1 | B Fisher, Paul | 1534 |
| 3 | 1867 | Veale, GeoffreyE | 1 – 0 | B Holdstock, Peter | 1501 |
| 4 | 1266 | James, JonathanG | 1 – 0 | G Hopkins, Robert | 1358 |
| Average | 1614 | 3 – 1 | 1491 |
It was a busy night at St Marks on Friday as we hosted two opposing teams for the final matches of the season in Division 3. The results leave both teams fairly close to each other in the middle of the current table.
Our 3rd team finishing 4th on 12 points , and our 4th team in 6th place with 10 points. It reflects our strength in depth at the mid-range of ability. The positions should nit be affected by the few matches left to [play between teams who are curently sitting below the leaders who are shown here :
Team PlayWonDrawLostForAgainstPointsSPMPIM
Brighton & Hove 4 10 7 1 2 24½15½ 15 0 0 0
Hastings & St Leonards 410 6 2 2 25½14½ 14 0 0 0
Uckfield 1 10 6 1 3 25 15 13 0 0 0
Bexhill 3 10 5 2 3 22½17½ 12 0 0 0
Brighton & Hove 3 10 5 0 5 20½19½ 10 0 0 0
Bexhill 4 10 4 2 4 19 21 10 0 0 0
Eastbourne 3 10 4 0 6 17½22½ 8 0 0 0
Division 3 Mon 20th Apr 2026 00:00 Winner: Away
Data from Sussex League LMS
| Board | Rating | Brighton & Hove 3 | V | Bexhill 3 | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1882 | Gupta, AdityaG | 0 – 1 | G Petersons, Janis | 1866 |
| 2 | 1706 | Selby, Paul RG | 1 – 0 | G Swain, Philip | 1702 |
| 3 | 1699 | Edwards, PaulG | ½ – ½ | G Kuzmanoski, Oliver | 1664 |
| 4 | 1692 | Counsell, Robert WB | 0 – 1 | G Rhodes, Lawrence | 1644 |
| Average | 1745 | 1½ – 2½ | 1719 |
A very good result at Brighton on Monday- teams evenly matched.
Oliver did well, after an ambitious Wing Gambit in the Sicilian, when, in pursuit of active play, he lost some further material. However, with N + 4 pawns v R + 3 pawns- all pawns on the same wing – Oliver was relaxed about showing it was a draw.
Janis went into a late middlegame with 2 Bishops v a R and P. Once both bishops were activated, he was able to demonstrate their combined power.
I didn’t get to follow Phil’s game, being occupied on bottom board!
There, after going the full distance, I had a N v B endgame. White was able to pick off my h-pawn , with his King ( which was thereby de-centralised). Meanwhile I had played to fix White’s isolated Q-side pawns, on the white squares, with mine on black. I masked the pawn on c4 from White’s defending white squared bishop with my N and my King picked it off. My centralised King was able to force the Bishop away from holding up my c-pawn advance. The game then resolved into a pawn race, in my opponent’s time pressure. He misplayed so that my c-pawn promoted with a tempo to spare, my Q able to prevent White’s g-pawn promoting. As time was called, the evaluation was a Black win.
The outcome leaves a strange position where Brighton’s 4th team is now placed higher than their 3rd team!
| Team | Play | Won | Draw | Lost | For | Against | Points | SP | MP | IM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hastings & St Leonards 4 | 10 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 25½ | 14½ | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Brighton & Hove 4 | 8 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 21 | 11 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Bexhill 3 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 21 | 15 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Uckfield 1 | 9 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 22 | 14 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Brighton & Hove 3 | 10 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 20½ | 19½ | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Clearly much will depend on our final fixture against Brighton 4th team this Friday 24 April, and what happens between Uckfield 1 and Brighton 4 on 27 April.
Bexhill 5th team hosted Worthing 4 on Friday 17th April, in each team’s final matches in this season’s Division 4 – it was a ‘clean sweep’ but as usual that result masks tough competition. The match was notable for its warm and friendly atmosphere and we are grateful for our opponents making the long journey and arriving here before our own side!!
Division 4 Fri 17th Apr 2026 00:00 Winner: Home
Data from Sussex League LMS
| Board | Rating | Bexhill 5 | V | Worthing 4 | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1669 | Carthew, JoB | 1 – 0 | B Whiting, Marcus | 1447 |
| 2 | 1640 | Rhodes, LawrenceG | 1 – 0 | B Bradley, David | 1389 |
| 3 | 1938 | Veale, GeoffreyE | 1 – 0 | B Cox, Mark | 1095 |
| 4 | 0000 | Batt, AdamN | 1 – 0 | B Brown, Colin | 1073 |
| Average | 1312 | 4 – 0 | 1251 |
Congratulations to both our recently-recruited team players :
Adam on a first League win!
And another strong performance by Geoff.
A solid game by Jo secured honours on top board.
Lawry almost threw a winning position away, by missing a tactic, but ‘swindled’ the win by a long king-walk towards his passed pawn under checks from Q and R to a place of shelter and could force a winning promotion of his a-pawn- His opponent then lost on time.
The position at the top of Division 4 shows second place guaranteed as there is only one outstanding match between two bottom-of-the-table teams.
Team Play Won Draw Lost For Against Points
Lewes 2 9 7 1 1 25 11 15
Bexhill 5 9 6 2 1 24½ 11½ 14
Uckfield 2 9 5 2 2 18½ 15 12
A narrow miss but nevertheless a great result for the club!
On Monday 13 April, the first day back for the Summer term, students got down to chess business. Mark Rich, our Chess Master gave a Simultaneous Display with 10 students at Bexhill Academy, our local secondary school, who are the holders of the prestigious u-14 Butler Cup.
It followed an earlier collaboration between Bexhill Chess Club and the Academy when 12 Academy students and 12 players from Bexhill Chess Club played a match on 25 February this year, which developed the collaboration by club members Mike Chapman and Lawry Rhodes, running an after school chess club at the Academy now on Mondays and Wednesdays. Andy Nguyen , our Academy student and our junior expert has been an excellent coach for the students at the after-school club. He hopes to lead new rising talent at the Academy to compete to defend the Butler cup, now that Luke Chapman is no longer eligible to play in u-14 competitions.
Photos below from Bexhill Academy’s Facebook page. Also below is the Academy’s article which includes a video which you can see on the same page.
“On Monday 13th April, Bexhill Academy’s chess team welcomed Mark Rich, a national chess master, to do a simultaneous display. Mark played against 10 of our best chess players all at once as a training exercise prior to our finals day in the Butler Cup, the county cup for Chess. 
The students did brilliantly against a player of such prestige, with notable performances from Daniel J and Isaac J, who took their respective games deep into the end game.
A huge thank you to Lawrence Rhodes, our chess coach from Bexhill Chess Club, for organising the event. The Butler Cup finals, held at Windlesham House, are set to be played in June.”
Division 1 Mon 13th Apr 2026 00:00 Winner: Home
Result from Sussex League LMS
| Board | Rating | East Grinstead 1 | V | Bexhill 1 | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2214 | Baker, Chris WG | 1 – 0 | G Fleming, Andrew SJ | 1884 |
| 2 | 2154 | Anthony, GarethB | 1 – 0 | G Tracey, William F | 1627 |
| 3 | 2132 | Kemp, Peter DG | 1 – 0 | G Luxton, William H | 1667 |
| 4 | 2101 | Rosen, Daniel BG | 1 – 0 | G Hayward, Michael | 1591 |
| Average | 2151 | 4 – 0 | 1693 |
An away match, an expected result given the rating odds.
Final stats for the team this season :
Team Play Won Draw Lost For Against Points SP MP IM
Bexhill 1 10 3 2 5 16½ 23½ 8 0 0 0
SP = Season Penalties, MP = Match Penalties, IM = Incomplete Matches
Final position in the Division 1 league table is still subject to 4 matches remaining between opposition sides. However it is clear that our first team will retain their place in Division 1 next season.
Well done First Team!
Our Chairman Bill Tracey’s comments follow:
“Hello All
Friday 3rd April is Good Friday but the club will be open as usual.
The club championship and Gordon Cup are now under way and three close hard fought matches have now been played.
If you have any questions about these two competitions please do not hesitate to contact me or Michael Hayward.
While the league season is still underway l can update on how our teams are doing.
I am pleased to say that our first team have retained their 1st division status and have performed extremely well despite being out rated in 7 of 10 matches.
The second team were always going to find playing in division 1 a huge challenge and so it has proved with the team being out rated in all 10 matches. We managed a win and a draw but have unfortunately been relegated.
The third team have 2 matches remaining and should we win both there is an outside chance that we could be promoted.
However it is more likely that 2 wins will place us third or fourth in division 3.
Our 4th team, also in division 4 have performed outstandingly well. We have been out rated in 8 of the 9 matches played
Despite this we have achieved 3 wins and 2 draws and will be favourites to win our final match would leave us very well placed in mid table.
Our 5th have had a great season and with one match remaining are assured of second place and therefore promotion to the 3rd division. Should we win our final match our record will be 6 wins 2 draws and only one loss.
I would like to thank all our club members who have represented our club so well this season. It is the first time that we have run five teams and to say that it has been a challenge to organise our resources would be a big understatement. Fortunately for us Michael Hayward has done a magnificent job as our chief selector. He has spent many long hours planning how best to organise our teams to make sure that we could have the strongest possible teams available for all 38 matches.”
The whole club thank Bill and Michael Hayward for all their work in developing a great year for our teams.