Category Archives: News

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:

  • We have 2 teams entered in the Edinburgh Summer Cup, Edinburgh and Tiger Cubs;
  •  Club Championship and Challengers events final rounds;
  •  Tuesday evening casual games will continue as usual over the summer;
  •  The Club Allegro Championship will take place next month – details to follow;
  •  We will run some Junior Training sessions on early Wednesday evenings. The first one will run from 6.15pm to 7.30pm this Wednesday 24th May. It will be open to all junior members. No pre registration required – but do get in touch if you have any questions;
  • We will also host a blitz event after the training on Wednesday from 7.30pm – open to all members. Again just arrive at the club to play.

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

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
 

From Andorra WFM Andrea Henderson De La Fuente is competing

 

 

 

Andrea Henderson De La Fuente
 

                                                                  Suzie Cooke

  

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/).

 

 

Following up on the previous post here are the final placings and a short summary by Alan Scrimgour.

Scotland finished in 23rd position out of 42 teams, winning 4 matches and losing 5.
The players’ score were:

Peter Jamieson 4½/7
Alastair White 2/6
Alan Scrimgour 2½/7
David Levy 3½/7
Raj Bhopal 6½/8

It was good to finish with a win after a hard competition.
We all agreed that the tournament had been well run with friendly and
efficient arbiters in a spacious playing hall, the hotel was excellent and
Dresden an excellent location with many cultural attractions that would
make for a good city break destination.

Full report: www.chessscotland.com/news/european-seniors-dresden-2022/

Scotland's finest
Scotland’s finest – Photo by Alastair White

Club members Alastair White and Raj Bhopal are representing Scotland at the European Seniors team event for players over 65.

The team is performing pretty well so far with three wins (all 3-1) and four very narrow (2½-1½) losses. Alastair, playing mostly on board 2, has so far scored 4 draws and 1 loss, while Raj is in fine form with 4½/5 on board 4.

Details can be read on the Chess Scotland site

The following game is one by Raj

Notes by Raj
This was a tense positional struggle, where I had a modest advantage throughout most of the game. Black equalised once or twice but at no time had any advantage. Everything hung on whether White could take advantage of Black's bad Bishop.
Paradoxically, and surprisingly, White offered an exchange of bishops,
leaving knights and 6 pawns each. This offer of exchange must have come as a welcome relief, but exchanging bishops was a mistake for black. White's king penetrated into the black queenside. There seemed to be, nonetheless, an impasse. White had, however, reserved one tempo. P to a4 created a Zugwang. Black's blockading king had to give way for the loss of a pawn, making the a pawn passed. Black resigned on the 47th move when material was equal.

 

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