Brighton and Hove Chess Club

The Railway Club, Belmont House, 4 Belmont, Dyke Road, Brighton, BN1 3TF (near Seven Dials)

Joint 1st Prize: John Smuts & Bob Davies
3rd Prize:

1st Prize: Charles Holcombe & Kevin Gee
2nd Prize:3rd Prize:

Joint 1st Prize: Felix Haxby
2nd Prize: Bob Davies
Joint 3rd Prize:

1st Prize: Dona Strauss (her second 1st prize this year - see immediately above)

A very nasty accident

Neil Tasker, one of our most popular members, who was the club's tournament controller for several years, had a very nasty accident on 22nd August 2009. We understand that he had swum a race in the sea on the morning of the accident - a one mile race - before attending the club. He fell on the stairs and, without going into details, had to be taken to hospital, where he was taken into intensive care. His family has asked that we do not contact them about this (presumably because they don't wish to be bombarded with messages) and has said that they will keep us informed. Although Neil did briefly come out of intensive care, he caught a chest infection and returned to intensive care. The prognosis is that he will probably remain in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. He has been given a placement in a rehabilitation unit in Salisbury but is currently too ill to go there. At the time of writing (19th October 2009), he remains in intensive care although he has been transferred to Haywards Heath, where he cannot receive any visitors, owing to the type of ward he is on. Needless to say the club did send a card to him (signed by very many members) and wishes him all the very best and hopes that it won't be too long before we can meet him again over a board, where ever that may be.

Felix Haxby, aged 12, played in the Sussex Junior Chess Team, which won this event. Well done to Felix, who scored 3½ points out of a possible 4.

Congratulations go the club's 3rd and 4th teams. This year the 3rd team was captained by the Club President Sue Chadwick, who led her team to the top of the third division and it is therefore promoted to the second division where its opponents next year will include our own 2nd team! Simon Hayward, in his first year of captaining, led the 4th team to the top of the fourth division. The 4th team was unbeaten throughout the season and will now be promoted to play in the third division.

2nd Prize: Dona Strauss (Neil noted that had Dona joined the club before March 2008, she would have won the Challenge Shield)

Geoffrey James won the Sussex Veterans Championship and Neil Tasker came second. Well done to them both! The Sussex Veterans do not maintain a website.

(Since photography is banned during the matches, these photographs were taken through a window in an upstairs balcony corridor and stiched together - thus the curved edge.)

Paul Batchelor (159), Brian Izzard (133) and Duncan Badham (116) entered the Weekend Major (a competition for those graded under ECF 160). Paul got 3½ points out of a possible 5 and his grade over the competitions fell by two points. Brian got 1 point and his grading dropped to 99. Duncan got 2 points and raised his grade to 129.

Neil Tasker (125) entered the Weekend Minor (a competition for those graded under ECF 130), winning 2½ points out of a possible 5, dropping his grade to 104. Michael Cain (105) also entered the Minor. He won 1 point out of a possible 4 and his grade over the competition dropped to 60.

John Smuts (93), Simon Hayward (79), Sue Chadwick (73), Andrew Caswill (73) and Duncan Roy (55), and Andrew Shoulders (50) entered the Under 100 competition (previously known at the 'Novices'). John scored 3 out of 5 and his grade became 86. Simon won 1 point and collapsed both his grade (now 5) and his morale. Sue won 3½ points and raised her grade to 103. Andrew Caswill won 3 points and his grade went down to 71. Duncan Roy (that's me, writing this) only got one point and then only because his opponent didn't show up for the match; his grade went down to 13. Andrew Shoulders, who began the competition with a grade of 50 got 1 point and his grade went down to 30.

Club Competitions

Steve Diver Andrew Caswill Simon Hayward and Charles Holcombe

David Norton & Neil Tasker tied with 7 points for the Challenge Shield, with John Smuts coming third on 5.5 points. 80% of the games were played in the Challenge Shield.

The Plummer Knight Trophy was won by Neil Tasker with 7 points. Sue Chadwick came second with 5 points and there was a three way tie for third place, between Peter Benson, David Langridge & Charles Holcombe who each had 4 points. 100% of the games were played in the Plummer.

Geoffrey James won the Club championship with 2.5 points. Neil Tasker came second with 2 points and Bas Geelhoed came third with 1.5 points. In contrast to the other competitions, the Club Championship again seriously lacked commitment from club members. 3 members who entered played none of their games. Another 3 played only 1 game each and one of those withdrew after losing his 1 game. As a consequence the result is a travesty. Neil Tasker was seriously minded to declare the competition null and void for the year. The committee decided to alter the competition from an all plays all basis to a knock out tournament. It will now be open to ALL club members (as it should be) and hopefully more appealing to the better players in the club whom it is hoped will hope will enter.

David Norton continued his smooth rise through the grades by winning the Major (under 160) at the 2nd Weald Congress in Copthorne (14th/15th July) with 4.5 out of 5 (a grading performance 169).

Brian Denman has won the 2007 Sussex Championship after beating Feliks Kwiatkowski 1.5 - 0.5 in the Final, which was completed in May. Brian has also won this year's Mid-Sussex League Tankard for the best Match Average over the full season with 7.5 out of 8. This pipped International Master Simon William's score of 9/10, mathematically, although Simon won more games. There were also individual Tankards for each division and Brian naturally won this for the first division.

In March, Geoffrey James has returned from Dresden where he played for the English Veterans in a pan-European Championship.

Earlier in the year (in January), at the Hastings 82nd International Chess Congress, Sue Chadwick won a grading prize, John Smuts came joint second in the Weekend Under-100 Competition and David Norton won the Weekend Under-130 Competition.