Dear club members,

On Tuesday, 22 October we are having our very first, innovative guest night.  All guests are welcome.

We are particularly keen, however, on people who are beginners but know the moves and would like to learn more.

The plan is that members will bring friends, partners, parents or children.  The intention is to play consultation chess (as was so popular in the 19th century) so the member and the guest can talk to each other about which move to choose, and equally listen to the opponents while they choose their moves.  The idea is to allow our guests to learn more about the game.

So, it will be a more social evening than usual.

It should be fun and if it works it will be good for the membership and future of the club.

Please do your best to bring a guest. We will pair up on the night depending on how many guests come.

As usual, please arrive at 7:30 PM for a 7:45 PM start.

Neil and Raj

FIDE Master Neil Berry, the club’s first team captain for many years and previous Scottish chess champion, gave a talk last night to the club entitled ‘The President’s King.’

A thought provoking and fascinating presentation which demonstrated unusual king themes across the full game cycle – from transitioning out of the opening into the the middle game and onto the end-game.  The games were taken from both Grand Master play (e.g. Fischer vs Andersson in the picture above – no-one in the audience came up with Fischer’s next move as white!) and some of his own games.

Neil even included a losing position he had reached against GM Peter Wells – where Peter’s king moved across to the Q side leaving his pieces free to break through on the king side:

Note that post-match analysis found a missed stalemate drawing opportunity for Neil just before he was mated!?!

Another position examined was from Neil’s win against Oswald Bindrich (father of GM Falco Bindrich) where a contra-normal king move exploited the blockaded queen side:

The evening included various end-games illustrating the king traversing the board – including some “Scottish country dancing” in the following position which Neil has used in training the Scottish juniors:

The talk was followed by friendly games where everyone endeavoured to put into practice some of the lessons learned.

A great night – many thanks Neil!

Andre Antunes opened our chess season with the traditional simultaneous display.  He took on 20 opponents.

There were grandmaster draws against juniors who needed to get to bed early!  Then followed many hard fought games including long games ending in draws.  10 games had a decisive result.  Andre won 7 and lost 3.

This was very impressive given the strength of the opposition. Thanks Andre and well done.

[Report by Raj Bhopal]