Category Archives: Tournaments

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

Dear Chess Players,

We’ll be proceeding with the Edinburgh Chess Club Allegro Championship this Sunday (26th of June).

It will be a swiss system, open to all club players, starting at 11 am, at 1 Alva St. The number of rounds will be decided on the day, depending on the number of players (I expect a total of 5 games). Time control will be 25 minutes per players.

I will be organizing the pairing on the same day (registration to the tournament will be done at the club on the day, too).

If you have any questions, feel free to reach me out.

Thanks!

Andre Antunes, Tournament Administrator

Dear Club Member

This is the first of 2 messages I will be sending this week.  It will be a busy few months!

  1. Note from Andre below about the running of the Club Championship this season:

We will be organising 2022’s club Championship (on the board!) in a different format this year.

It will be an open (to club players) swiss tournament with a faster time control (45 min for each player) spread over 2 days.

I would like to accommodate the biggest number of players, so if you’d like to participate, please fill in the link below which dates you would be available:

https://doodle.com/meeting/participate/id/azp8vgZd (or let Andre know at serigado+ecc@protonmail.com)

Details on the tournament will be provided once I get an idea how many people

Thanks!

Andre Antunes

  1. There is a festival happening at the club over the jubilee weekend (1-5 June) – made up of an IM Norm event, Challengers and Blitz.  Details at the link below:

Chess Scotland | The home of chess in Scotland

  1. The Scottish Championship will be held at the club this year, as a closed event, from July 2-10.  Again details can be found at Chess Scotland.

4. We are delighted to welcome a visit fromSchaakstad Apeldoorn to the club on 15-17 July.  I’ll be looking to form a Team to play against the visitors.  Early expressions of interest is welcome, though I’ll look to make up the side nearer the time.

Best wishes

Neil

Dear Club Member

National League Kick Off

Scottish National League Online began today. The 1st Team had 2 wins against Dundee 1 and Paisley, while the 2nd Team lost both fixtures. Full results at this link.

Rounds 3 and 4 are on Sunday 20th Feb.

This Week’s Chess

The club will be open as usual for OTB chess on Tuesday. We are also playing an online allegro match against Camberley Chess Club on the same night.

We are still looking for a couple of players for this match, if you are rated 1500-2200 and would like to play then please let me know.

Blitz Arena on Wednesday at 7.45pm on lichess. The usual password to join!

Thanks

Neil, Club President

Dear Club Member,

Congratulations to Allan Buchan on making his first Correspondence Master norm in the British Correspondence Candidates event:
https://www.scottishcca.co.uk/news.html#item17

A reminder that tomorrow evening we play Liverpool in a 5+3 arena at 7.30. Open to all players with a lichess blitz rating of over 1400. You can join via the link below:
https://lichess.org/tournament/ZqdMWqdn

Our Wednesday blitz arena is at the usual time of 7.45pm. Use password 1822 to join.
https://lichess.org/tournament/7LlaNXdS

Best wishes,

Neil