Chairman report

Another year has gone by and in that time we have lost three former members of the club.

Nigel Harvey until recently had been member since the 80s died in December. He had had a long battle with cancer for over 10 years, a battle he sadly lost in December.

John Driver who until recently had been a member for over 10 years was enjoying a rare visit to the club, died suddenly at the board.

Roy Harper, a member of the club for a few years, died in March.

I would like to express my condolences to all the families on behalf of the chess club.

I’ve said this before and will say it again: it is my view that nobody should get too comfortable in the roles they perform for the club. I have now completed three years as chairman. Only the membership can judge as to whether they were three years good or bad years. It is time for somebody else to take up the role of chairman. This is not to say I am not unwilling to continue in the role, I would just not oppose anybody who wishes to have a go.

It has been extremely busy year for me in relation to the club. In December the vegetation growing at the back at the club came down during a storm into the clubs back courtyard. Also with the death of Nigel Hartley there was a lot of work to get the flat back up to a level where it could be rehired. This work which was done over a period a 2 ½ months costs the club approximately £2000 and lost the club approximately £1200 in lost rent, something I’m sure Jim Wheeler will report on. I would like to thank Paul Kelly for work he did in getting rid of the vegetation at the back of the flat and welcome him as the new tenant.

Another major issue which came to light when dealing with the flat was the fact that we seemed to be paying over the odds for our water, paying two lots of standing charges, road drainage, and waste water. This seems ridiculous to me so I took on the water companies and after six months of arguing with them the water company eventually saw things my way but not before giving £220 in goodwill gestures. I’m happy to report the we are now on a water meter which means instead of playing in advance we now paying in arrears and we are only playing for what we use, a potential saving of about £1000 a year.

Another issue that came to light and is something we will need to address in the next five or six years at considerable cost is the upstairs conservatory which is in a dreadful state. This again will have a cost implication on our budget. I was hoping this year to ring fence  £1500 a year over the next five years in order to get this work done. However, because of the previous mentioned issues with the flat this year, it had to go by the board. We’d intend to start this process this year.

In what now seems to be becoming a tradition Alan Barton gave a talk at the club in June and July. I’m sure all those that attended enjoyed these talks. I would like to thank Alan for his efforts.

Paul Buswell did one of his traditional bank holiday tournaments which was greatly enjoyed by all. It was very nice to see Paul in the club and would like to thank him running this tournament.

We also ran three Weekender tournaments this year bringing in a small profit. However I’m unable to continue to do these as I’m now employed at weekends. Anyone wishing to take over these tournaments please let me know.

We have a twinning events on the 23rd and 24th of September when Bethune visits us. I’m very grateful for the fact that Mason Woodhams very kindly agreed to run this. Any members wishing to offer their support please contact Mason.

The internal tournaments seem to be running on a reasonably good timetable now and all the winter tournaments have been sent for grading. My thanks to Raza for looking after these.

Congratulations to Ollie Willson in the coming club champion in convincing style with no losses and drawing only three game. Mason Woodlands was a likely winner of the Pelton. Roy Webb and Anna Pontonutti sharing the Rush.

External tournaments.

It was not an over successful year our first team in Sussex league finished third, the second and third teams finished fourth and six respectively. At one stage it looked as if second-team would gain promotion and the fourth team in division three still remains the best 4 in Sussex

Kent league.

We failed to qualify for the semi-finals in the Harvey En Passant and Fuller in the Stevenson and went out in the semi-finals.

Roy Bourne, despite health issues, continues to function as a housekeeper although there have been a few problems with the opening of the club. It is still preferable to having no one at all in the building to open I thank him for his efforts in the past year.

Please remember that the AGM is your opportunity to express your views on how the club is run. At the last AGM everything seemed to go through on the nod which of course makes my life as chairman very easy. However I would rather have a lively AGM in which things are discussed in order to facilitate the best outcome for the club.

Lastly, I’d like to thank all the members of the committee for their work during the last year.

Marc A Bryant

Premises officer

Several things have happened to the premises this year but mainly a lot was spent on the lower flat and there is now a new occupier there. The fire extinguishers and gas tests were completed. We have purchased a new sign for the front of the building
Items in the pipeline include repairs to some damage to the upper gable, the gents toilets are in need of refurbishing as there is a leak to the lower ladies toilet ceiling but it’s not clear where the leak is coming from, I am looking to get some quotes for the toilets, lots of the firms I use at work are not interested in “domestic” work they deal with large “commercial” works so it’s quite hard just to get someone to turn up when I want them let alone quote, the area above the gents toilet is in need of the glass roof repair which could be the cause of the leak when it rains but this will be an expensive item. The new sign needs to be put up. The small water heater in the kitchen area needs replacing.
A.Cload

Library report

I am pleased to report that the club library has again been the beneficiary of some significant donations.

Some are from the estate of the late Nigel Harvey, while pride of place must be taken by four substantial hardbacks from a US publishing firm which the ECF office has donated via the agency of James Wheeler.

The four books are on Capablanca, Joseph Blackburne, Henry Bird and our own Vera Menchik.

In addition, former mayor Paul Smith, on a recent trip to Prague, secured a copy of the 2016 Czech book on Vera Menchik on behalf of the club.

This is in the difficult Czech language, of course, but it is richly illustrated. If necessary I can decipher sample sentences in the work, should any member wish to avail himself of this service.

Bernard Cafferty,

10 JULY 2017

congratulations to  Ollie  Willson  who  wins the club championship  in convincing style dropping only 1.5  points and with no losses  a clear two points ahead of  Howard Tebbs  who finished in second place with  7 .5 point  John Sugden  finished 3th   with seven points

It is good to be able to report that members (and one former member,
Steve Giddins) have been generous enough this year to donate something
like 35 titles to the club library.

These donors include Kevin Carter, Rasa N, Francis Rayner, and BC
himself, as well as a goodly total from the estate of the late Con Power.

Your Chairman has put a lot of effort into trying to recover books taken
out but apparently not returned. It is easy to forget that an item on
your bookshelf and mixed in with your own possessions are in fact not
yours, but rather the property of the club

Bernard Cafferty

Chairman’s report

I have now spent my second full year as chairman and I’m glad to report that this year has been far less stressful than my first as things in the club appeared to settle down and the membership are getting on with the business of playing chess.

As the years go by we gain new members and we lose some old ones this year has been no exception we lost in April Con Power as I stated in my notification to the members Con was the bedrock of Hastings chess for some 50 years he will be sadly missed by all.

To our new friends. I give a warm welcome to the club and should they require any advice on club activities I am always available.

Over the last year we have run a series of little weekend chess tournaments which appear to have been successful, making the club a small profit. The next one will be run on the 24th 25th of September for players grade 150 and under. I would like to thank Jeremy Hudson for his help in this regard.

Raza continues to run the internal club tournaments in her quiet unassuming way for which I thank her.

In external club tournaments individual captains will report in detail.

The mid Sussex league second-team narrowly avoided promotion to the first division. The second team came with a late charge to survive relegation. Howard Tebbs runs our first team which finished mid-table and a fourth team was relegated.

In the Kent league our first-team defending champions run by Ray Brooks made it to the semi-final but were unable to continue their good form.  All of the other teams failed to reach the knockout stage.

Roy Bourne suffers some health issues this year, resulting in two stays in hospital but he continues to clean and open up the club and although the servings of teas have sometimes been sporadic the situation is being monitored and I thank Roy for all his efforts whilst suffering ill health. I wish him a healthier 2017.

The downstairs flat continues to provide a substantial income for the club which in affects results in a subsidised membership fee for club members. Without this income your membership fee would undoubtedly double however this being said  finances under Jim Wheeler are in a relatively good state, the club having a net surplus this year of around £2000 but we should not be complacent as any structural work on the property in any given year would easily wipe this out  plus some of our reserves. However, that being said, there is no intention to raise club subs this year.

Any member wishing to pay their subscription by instalments will need to do so by direct debit or standing order this year. Please liaise with Jim Wheeler on this.

The Library

We continue to try to chase up long overdue books so far this has resulted in about 60 books being returned this process will continue and I’m sure Bernard to will make his own report.

The premises.

Paul Kelly felt the need to resign as premises officer I thank him for the hard work he has put in over the years.

The junior chess club continues to go from strength to strength initially being run by Gary Wilson and being taken over by Mason Woodlands.

We are still without a club secretary.

Committee meeting Have been held approximately one a month over the last year however there seems to be a lack of enthusiasm for attending them on no less than three occasions we have only just made a quorum.

We require more people to become committee members.

Many thanks to Ken Lucas who has continued to be the minute secretary without actually being a member of the committee this a great help to me.

I’d also like to thank Paul Buswell acting as company secretary even though he is no longer a member something I still hope to remedy.

Mr. Arjun Kolani played in the under 10 British championships this year and succeeded in coming first equal winning the Neil Carr Scholarship Prize. The prize entitles Arjun to one year of funding for the 3 year ECF International Programme which he will begin in January 2017. He achieved his win and prize on the very day of his 9th birthday On behalf of the club. I congratulate him.

Lastly anybody who feels they wish to run for chairman please feel free to do so as I stated before on many occasions you get what you vote for it is no good complaining if you do not like the odd decision the committee or chairman might make. If you do not wish to get involved, then do not get involved!!!

I hope everybody will have a very enjoyable Chess year

Mark A Bryant

Chairman

The club was visited in February 2016 by Atiyab Sultan, the granddaughter of Mir Sultan Khan, the three times British Chess Champion (in 1929, 1932 and 1933). She was welcomed by Marc Bryant, our club chairman, Bernard Cafferty, our club librarian (and many times club champion), and Pam Thomas, Press Officer for the Hastings International Chess Congress.

Mir Sultan Khan came to Britain from India where he adjusted his knowledge of Indian chess sufficiently well not only to win the British Championship but to come third in the 1930-31 Hastings Tournament behind Euwe and Capablanca, the latter of whom he beat in their individual game (see below), fourth at the Hastings Tournament of 1931-32 and the winner of an individual match with Tartakower in 1931. He also represented England on top board three times in Olympiads, beating Flohr and Rubinstein and drawing with Alekhine, Grunfeld and Bogolyjubov.

After he returned to India he played little chess and disappeared from the world chess scene. He would not teach chess to his children, enjoining them to do something more useful with their lives (Source Wikipedia). He died in 1966.

White Mir Sultan Khan Black Capablanca Hastings 1930-31 A47: Queen’s Indian Defence

1.Nf3 Nf6 2.d4 b6 3.c4 Bb7 4.Nc3 e6 5.a3 d5 6.cxd5 exd5 7.Bg5 Be7 8.e3 0-0 9.Bd3 Ne4 10.Bf4 Nd7 11.Qc2 f5 12.Nb5 Bd6 13.Nxd6 cxd6 14.h4 Rc8 15.Qb3 Qe7 16.Nd2 Ndf6 17.Nxe4 fxe4 18.Be2 Rc6 19.g4 Rfc8 20.g5 Ne8 21.Bg4 Rc1+ 22.Kd2 R8c2+ 23.Qxc2 Rxc2+ 24.Kxc2 Qc7+ 25.Kd2 Qc4 26.Be2 Qb3 27.Rab1 Kf7 28.Rhc1 Ke7 29.Rc3 Qa4 30.b4 Qd7 31.Rbc1 a6 32.Rg1 Qa4 33.Rgc1 Qd7 34.h5 Kd8 35.R1c2 Qh3 36.Kc1 Qh4 37.Kb2 Qh3 38.Rc1 Qh4 39.R3c2 Qh3 40.a4 Qh4 41.Ka3 Qh3 42.Bg3 Qf5 43.Bh4 g6 44.h6 Qd7 45.b5 a5 46.Bg3 Qf5 47.Bf4 Qh3 48.Kb2 Qg2 49.Kb1 Qh3 50.Ka1 Qg2 51.Kb2 Qh3 52.Rg1 Bc8 53.Rc6 Qh4 54.Rgc1 Bg4 55.Bf1 Qh5 56.Re1 Qh1 57.Rec1 Qh5 58.Kc3 Qh4 59.Bg3 Qxg5 60.Kd2 Qh5 61.Rxb6 Ke7 62.Rb7+ Ke6 63.b6 Nf6 64.Bb5 Qh3 65.Rb8

Positions:

After White’s 11^th move
After Black’s 22^nd move
Final position after White’s 65^th move