On Tuesday 20th of June 2023, our club rooms were humming with a mixture of excitement and concentration as 24 players battled for the historical trophy for the lightning championship, played with five minutes on the clock each and 7 games.
It was a close battle with Petros Wallden winning with 6.5/7, ahead of Craig Thomson, (5.5/7), Raj Bhopal (5/7) and world under-eight years blitz champion, Louis Cheng (5/7) in fourth place.
The full cross-table of results:
Report by organiser Raj Bhopal
Dear Challengers Players,
Below you may find all the results/standing in cross-table format and the pairing for round 5 of the Challengers tournament. If something doesn’t add up please let me know!
Unfortunately Louis Chang who was co-leading with 4 points is not around for the remaining rounds. Juniper Preston also had to withdraw.
Emails/contact are available – if you can’t find your opponent’s contact, let me know.
As usual, the player with the white pieces should contact his opponent to arrange a convenient day for the match.
Please play your match in the next couple of weeks if possible!
The club should be open Mon-Thu from 7:30 pm.
If you have any questions or something comes up, please let me know!
Cheers,
Andre Antunes, Tournament Director
Dear Club Member
First of all, another success to report. Last weekend the club defeated Edinburgh West 6-2 in the final of the Richardson Cup, Scotland’s premier team competition.
Activity over the next few months:
Best wishes,
Neil, President
WOMEN’S INTERNATIONAL NORM TOURNAMENT
Wednesday 15th To Sunday 19th February 2023
As part of its bicentenary celebrations Edinburgh Chess Club is hosting the “She Plays To Win” (SPTW) chess tournament, being organised by International Master Lorin D’Costa, promoting the attainment of Woman International Master (WIM) norms.
This is an invitational 10 player WIM all-play-all (double rounds at 10am and 3pm with on Sunday one final game). There is a stellar international competitors list:
 
Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant |
Edinburgh based Grand Master Ketevan (Keti) Arakhamia-Grant, is one of Scotland’s leading players having participated in eleven chess Olympiads representing first USSR, then Georgia and finally Scotland and who has won the Scottish Open Championship 3 times |
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Two of Slovakia’s top women players: Woman International Master (WIM) Svetlana Sucikova, currently undertaking her research work in Scotland, and Woman FIDE Master (WFM) Monika Rojickova |
 
Svetlana Sucikova |
 
Fiona Steil-Antoni |
Luxembourg WIM chess player, chess YouTube streamer and commentator Fiona Steil-Antoni |
| Dutch WFM Maaike Keetman, who is also vice president of content (and author!) for Chessable |  
Maaike Keetman |
 
Louise Head Zoe Varney Kamila Hryshchenko |
A strong contingent of English players including WFM and English Women’s Chess Champion (in 2017, 2019 and 2021) Louise Head, who is currently undertaking her doctorate at Edinburgh University, along with Kamila Hryshchenko, who was part of the GB team at the World Congress of Chess Composition 2022 in Fujairah, and Woman Candidate Master (WCM) Zoe Varney, who was the English U20 Woman Champion in 2019
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From Andorra WFM Andrea Henderson De La Fuente is competing |
 
Andrea Henderson De La Fuente |
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Last but not least is Suzie Cooke who is also one of Scotland’s top players and who represented Scotland at the recent Olympiads in Chennai |
We have the pairings now for the tournament and the first-round draw is:
The remaining draw can be found at (see https://chess-results.com/tnr718264.aspx?lan=1&art=2).
A FIDE all-play-all Challengers event is also being run in parallel with players from England, India and Scotland. Arbiters are International Arbiter Alex McFarlane and FIDE Arbiter David Clayton.
The event is also being supported by Chess Scotland.
SPTW is a UK Girls Chess Project to try and encourage more girls to participate and learn chess in a fun environment. SPTW is run by the current England International Women’s Chess Coach Lorin D’Costa who has successfully been coaching girls’ chess nationally and internationally for over 11 years.
Further details are on both the club’s web site (www.edinburghchessclub.co.uk) and Chess Scotland’s web site (www.chessscotland.com/).
As part of its bicentenary celebrations the club, along with International Master Lorin D’Costa (from “She Plays To Win”), held a chess weekend on September 3rd and 4th in support of women and girls in chess.
There were a number of events at the club’s premises over the weekend including: scheduled training sessions for both beginners and experts, 5-round female-only tournament(s) (15 mins each on the clock), simultaneous displays with Lorin and other chess experts. There were over twenty-five attendees over the weekend.
Saturday started in the morning with Lorin running a beginner’s class before everyone engaged in some stimulating group-based exercises.
After lunch Lorin explained to the beginners how games were played with a clock before running a five round allegro tournament.
Joint winners of the SPTW Saturday afternoon tournament, Hayley and Yvonne, being presented with their trophies by IM Lorin D’Costa.
In the Saturday evening simul Lorin took on twelve opponents, which included WIM Svetlana Sucikova and WFM Suzie Cooke together with some token male players. Lorin wiped out the opposition – except for Suzie who held the fort in her game!
There was a great turnout for Lorin’s Sunday morning training session with fantastic drop-in support from GM Keti Arakhamia-Grant, WIM Svetlana Sucikova and WFM Louise Head!
In the afternoon an allegro tournament was held for everyone.
This produced some exciting chess with Pavlo Sokolenko, from Ukraine, emerging as the eventual winner – closely followed by his mother Olga Sokolenko in second place! The training day gave some useful practice for Flossie Wilson before she headed off to Romania to represent Scotland at the World Youth Chess Championships the next day.
The event was supported by Edinburgh Chess Academy, Chess Scotland and Lothians Junior Chess.
She Plays To Win (SPTW) is a UK Girls Chess Project to try and encourage more girls to participate and learn chess in a fun environment. SPTW is run by the current England International Women’s Chess Coach Lorin D’Costa who has successfully been coaching girls’ chess nationally and internationally for over 11 years.
She Plays To Win with IM Lorin D’Costa
Saturday 3rd & Sunday 4th September 2022:
Enter online at congress.org.uk
Edinburgh Chess Club, along with International Master Lorin D’Costa (from “She Plays To Win”), is holding a chess weekend in support of women and girls in chess. We’re running a number of events at the club’s premises over the weekend including: scheduled training sessions for both beginners and experts, 5-round female-only tournament(s) (15 mins each on the clock), simultaneous displays with Lorin and other chess experts. Attendance can be for one day or both days.
The events are open to all!
The schedule is as follows and entries can be made for any or all sections:
Daytime Saturday 3/9/22 10am to 5pm – free entry – covering Beginners training session(s) in the morning and, after a lunch break between 12 and 1pm, in the afternoon a Starter Girls and Women five round rapid tournament with a time control of 15 minutes per game;
Evening Saturday 3/9/22 6.30pm to 9.30pm (at the latest) – £10 to SPTW – Lorin’s simul/talk/lecture – open to both men and women – but with priority bookings to women;
Daytime Sunday 4/9/22 10am to 4pm – free entry – covering the morning’s Beyond Beginners / Intermediate training session(s) and, after a lunch break between 12 and 1pm, in the afternoon a Rapid tournament [which is open to both males and females but with priority bookings to women and a team prize for a team of 2, male and female if possible].
The event is being supported by Edinburgh Chess Academy, Chess Scotland and Lothians Junior Chess.
She Plays To Win (SPTW) is a UK Girls Chess Project to try and encourage more girls to participate and learn chess in a fun environment. SPTW is run by the current England International Women’s Chess Coach Lorin D’Costa who has successfully been coaching girls’ chess nationally and internationally for over 11 years.
Games will be graded on the Chess Scotland Allegro Grading list for 2022-2023
Ian Whittaker, Curator
Suzie Cooke