All posts by Ian Whittaker

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A message received from club member Bob Kane who recently purchased “The Later Years of Paul Keres”, translated/edited by Harry Golombek which we had in duplicate in the club’s library.  This is the third and final volume in a series of three autobiographical books written by GM Paul Keres.  Bob wrote to say:

“My new purchase contained a few interesting margin notes so out of curiosity I googled previous owner Eric Dott.  It transpires he was a conscientious objector in WW1, a local Doctor, who lived to 100.  He has an interesting bio!“

Anyone in the club with memories of Eric Dott (1898-1999)?

PS Estonian GM Paul Keres visited Scotland in 1955 playing matches in Glasgow as part of a UK tour sponsored by the Society for Cultural Relations with the USSR.  Amongst his simul opponents was a certain Erwin Knopfler [Ernö Knöpfler] – father to Mark and David Knopfler who formed the band ‘Dire Straits‘.

First club night event of the new season had the Club Champion’s Simul featuring 13 year old FM Freddy Waldhausen Gordon.

Freddy played 18 boards in the traditional Club Champions simul. He won seventeen with one draw (the draw was a wee bit kind as the lad had to to leave early).

Some stiff opposition.

An excellent show.

[Post and pictures by Geoff Chandler – also on facebook]

This lunchtime we were delighted to greet Laimonas Kudzuma (FIDE Trainer and vice-chair of the Lithuanian Chess Federation) accompanied by the father of his son’s bride-to-be (they were getting married tomorrow in Edinburgh).

The club’s archivist group (viz. Bill, Dennis and myself along with Colin who arrived half-way through) showed him around and we were then entertained by him demonstrating:

  • first an end-game study he’d devised, then
  • a tasty preview of a lecture on the scotch game and gambit, and finally
  • a high level summary of some of his detailed analysis of the Baltic defence!

Quite different to the normal Monday dusty dive into the archives …

Given that he may be visiting Edinburgh again in the future he indicated he would be delighted to present a lecture to the club and indeed he is considering joining the club taking away an application form!?

As part of our bicentenary year we were delighted to take part again in the Doors Open Days event last weekend when the club threw open its doors to over a hundred visitors!  A rota of ten members hosted over the Saturday and Sunday showcasing the playing area, the club’s trophies and various items in the library.

There were also special displays of some unique travelling chess sets and working demonstations of a variety of vintage computer chess consoles held as part of the club’s collections (most having been recently donated by Chess Scotland from Lord Kirkwood’s estate).

Feedback was great:

  • chess is fantastic!
  • what a lovely setup!
  •  that table is from the 1840s!

Several visitors were interested in joining the club!

Doors Open Days was coordinated nationally by the Scottish Civic Trust and is part of European Heritage Days alongside Scottish Archaeology Month, coordinated by Archaeology Scotland. Both are supported by Historic Environment Scotland.

Dear Challengers Players,

Thank you everyone for your participation in this year’s Challengers tournament!

The uncontested winner is Bob Kane, with a total of 6 points out of 7. Congratulations!  Bob will get a spot guaranteed in next season’s Championship, together with the 7 top players of the club.

Full standing in attachment and cross-table at the end of the report.

Please let me know if there are any mistakes.  If not, I’ll submit the results for the last two round for next season’s grading (the previous rounds have been submitted already)

Feel free to send be an feedback about the tournament, and things you would like to see improved/changed for next season.

This year we started a bit late, dragging the competition well into Summer. Next season we will be starting the competitions on the 1st of December, allowing roughly 1 month for each round.

A possibility is to change the time control to 90 min + 30 seconds per move. This would avoid the awkwardness of extreme time trouble while trying to annotate at the end of some games. Let me know how you would feel about it , or anything else.

Best regards,

Andre Antunes, Tournament Administrator

Winner of the 2022-2023 Johnny Marr Allegro championship, Snorri Kristjansson, being presented with the trophy by Council member and tournament organiser, Raj Bhopal. Directly behind the trophy is the plaque honouring Johnny Marr.

On Sunday 25th of June 2023, 24 players battled for the Johnny Marr Trophy for the allegro championship, played with 25 minutes on the clock each and 5 games.

It was tough day for his opponents as Snorri Kristjannson was on form winning with hundred percent score, ahead of our very impressive junior, Rithvik Deepak (4/5), Berislav Marusic (4/4), and Pavlo Sokolenko (3.5/4).

Participants in the Johnny Marr tournament including the junior members who were very impressive both by their standard of play and their sportsmanship.

The full cross-table of results:

Report on the Allegro Championships by organiser Raj Bhopal