Category: Uncategorized

Noah and Rose travelled up to Nottingham for the National Junior Chess Championships on 5th January. A highly competitive 3 day FIDE event with a packed schedule including ongoing training and analysis with FIDE trainers and titled coaches; the pair from Bexhill had a fantastic weekend.

Noah was in the U10s and came away with 3.5 points, Rose was in the U14 section and finished the weekend on 2.5 points.

On Saturday night, the organisers hosted 4 simul games which Rose took part in; selecting to play against IM Lorin D’Costa, coach for the England Women’s Team and a challenge she had been looking forward to for 3 years.

She was very happy to be the last player in the hall, battling for 2 hours 45 mins and coming away with a draw.

Rose also won a training prize of £50

Both of our juniors are looking forward to next year already. A highly recommended weekend.

Last friday saw our 8th and final Grand Prix event of the season. Thank you to everyone who turned up to support this and all our events. Full results for this event, can be found below.

Full results for the season our now up on the Grand Prix page.

Steve is going to be running an introductory chess course over the summer in place of the junior meeting. Please share if you know anyone who may be interested. Details are as follows:

New to chess? Not played since you were a kid?

Bexhill chess club will be running a 6 week beginners/ refresher/ introduction to chess course.

The price for the course is just £30 and includes 6 one hour coaching sessions as well as access to up to 3 hours a week of free play to give you a chance to practice what you have learned. Also plenty of tea and biscuits!

The course will include:
The pieces – How do they move? Where should they go? How to talk to your army?
The opening – What to do in the first 10 moves?
The middle game – Tactics, Strategy and a mixture of the two.
The ending – How to finish off your opponent?
Chess and the computer – How to use a computer to access chess and improve your game.
Bexhill beginners cup 2024.

The course is open to anyone 16+.

The sessions will be held at St.Marks community centre on a friday evening from 6pm till 7pm, starting on July 26th and running on consecutive weeks for 6 weeks, finishing on August 30th.

For any questions or to book, email stevechess42@gmail.com

Congratulations to Andrew Fleming for winning this year’s Handicap event. With a solid 5 wins out of 5. Well done, Andrew and thank you to everyone who came down and played some fun chess!

Thank you to everyone who came down and played in our 7th Grand Prix event of the season. Congratulations to our winners Andrew and Janis! The updated scores for the season are now up on the Grnad prix page. Look forward to seeing you all at the season finale on June 28th!

Thank you to everyone who came down and played in another wonderful instalment of our Grand Prix series last night.

It was a great evening of chess and as we approach the end of the season, it’s getting very exciting! Congratulations to last nights tied winners: Mark Rich and Andrew Fleming.

The cross tables for last night can be found below and the updated standings for the season can now be found on the Grand Prix page. There is still everything to play for with two more events to go!

The next event will be on May 31st!

Match report from our captain Bill Tracey:

Here is the match report for the final match of the season for the 1st team.

Tuesday 30th April saw our 1st team travel to Hastings to take on their 2nd team in the final match of their season.

This was an absolute must win match as even a draw would see us relegated.

The team of Andy, Andrew, Janis and Leo responded magnificently and secured a fine win by 3.5 to .5.

Leo was first to finish. He went into the end game with a slight edge and played very accurately to force a resignation.

Andrew was next to finish and after defending his position with great skill gained a draw.

Janis on board 3 was under a bit of time pressure but remained calm and slowly but surely gained an overwhelming position to win his game and secure victory for the team.

On board 1 Andy found a fine move which put him 2 pawns up and, with checkmate imminent,
his opponent resigned.

This win means that Eastbourne 2 who have two matches to play need to win one to relegate us.
In one they should be big under dogs in the other they do a have a chance. So we will know in the next 3 days what are fate is.

Thanks to all the following club members who have played for the 1st team this season.

Mark, Andy, Andrew, Janis, Leo, Bill L, James, Michael, Steve B, Steve M, Lawry and Bill T.

Match reports from our captain Bill Tracey:

On Friday 26th April, two of our teams played at home in the Sussex leagues.

Our 1st team played Worthing 1 and our 2nd team played Sussex University.

The evening saw two high quality and closely fought matches. Unfortunately for Bexhill we lost both matches by 2.5 to 1.5.

For the 1st team Mark, Andrew and Janis all drew.
Andy on board 2 played a fine game against a very highly rated player and the game looked set for a draw but unfortunately Andy made a very uncharacteristic error and although he fought on really well he eventually had to concede defeat.

Our board order for the 2nd team was Steve B, Bill L, Michael and myself.

Steve and I unfortunately both lost, Michael played very well for a draw and Bill L had a fine game and recorded a well deserved win.

This was the last match match of the season for the 2nd team and I would like to thank all of the following club members for playing for the team:

Janis, Leo, Steve B, Steve M, Alan, T, Bill L, Michael, Bill T, Lawry, James and Ben.

Massive congratulations to Bexhill Junior Samuel Merchant who is now officially an England player!
Samuel was invited up to the England trials in Liverpool last weekend after achieving two half norms (strong performances) in national events this year.
The competition was incredibly tough, with most of the top ten players having ECF ratings of between 1700 – 1950! Samuel managed 3 wins and a draw, finishing on 3.5 from 6, just putting him in the top 10 and resulting in him being selected for the England squad.
Samuel was 6 years old when he told his parents that his long term goal was to play chess for England! It has taken him 5 years and a lot of hard work, but he has finally made it!
Massive thank you to everyone who has helped Samuel on his journey.
Well done, Samuel!

Another great set of results from the latest IOC exams. We had two kids taking level 1 and five children taking level 2. All the kids passed with distinction and four achieved a mark of 100%! Well done everyone!