The World Senior Team Chess Championship 2023 has been taking place at Lake Ohrid in North Macedonia.
The Scottish team in the over 50’s event included our new President Raj Bhopal, and former Treasurer Rob McAndrew. Raj played on top board and despite strong opposition added 10 points to his FIDE rating.
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:
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.
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
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).
The full cross-table of results:
Report on the Allegro Championships by organiser Raj Bhopal
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