This year has been again been a busy year for me within the club

As each year goes by, we lose some old faces and gain some new ones this year was no exception

It is My sad duty to report to the agm the deaths of two former members John Gorton and Alfred Mikurenda

Alfred died in May he was a man it did not suffer fools gladly and had a no-nonsense approach to life this may have been due to a hard child hood during the war . However, on the few occasions when he did open up Alfred was an extremely interesting and complicated man

I did not know John Gorton personally John was a regular team player for the GLC and was a member of the club in the eighties

I would like to express my condolences and those of the chess club to the family Alfred and John

In addition to my role as chairman I am also housekeeper and in the past year have endeavoured to get the club up to a high standard this involved cleaning and repainting the chess set also done a lot more picture hanging and generally trying club good state of repair

In club matches I am sure the match captain will give their own reports however a special mention to our first team to Mid-Sussex in retaining the title also the 4 team for gaining promotion thank you to all the captains and drivers this year

We also had a twinning match this year against Bethune nine players went to France all reporting having a lovely time many thanks to Jim Wheeler John Sugden and Martin Fletcher for doing the transport

 

Club tournaments am sure the tournament controller will give her a report on these however a special mention about William Cobb who won the rush cup at his first attempt

I’d also like to thank Rasa for fulfilling this role

 

 

Paul Buswell did a couple of his famous one-day rapid play at the club this was greatly enjoyed by everyone who played and I would like to thank Paul for his efforts

Alan Barton did a series of talks in June and July on the beauty of the game and was greatly enjoyed by those who attended I would like to thank Alan behalf of the club and myself on eight evenings which was very enjoyable

The premises officer Adrian Cload had a reasonably quiet year we did need to replaced the water heater in the kitchen and I thank Adrian for his efforts

 

Club finances seemed to be healthy a small profit this year however we should not be complacent and it only take one major bill to take away that profit

I would further point out that this is the fifth consecutive year we have not put up subs

, we need to keep a watchful eye on our finances and should be looking to try to make a good surplus each year rather than rely on reserves many thanks to James Wheeler

Ken Lucas acted as secretary of the first part of the year but found it necessary to resign consequently we were without a Secretary for about four months this year Gary Willson has now stepped into this role I thank them both

The library MR John Knott donated 50 books for which the club was extremely grateful Bernard Cafferty the librarian seems to be having a lovely time looking after the library with all these new books for which I thank him

 

The Hastings International Congress has continued to survive on a shoe string budget For many years and with the withdrawal of tradewise the future looked uncertain putting includes considerable strain on Congress official this reached a head at the begin of July with the resignation of chairman Congress director the Congress Secretary the Congress treasurer and Maureen Charlesworth at this point the future of the Congress seemed in real doubt the chess club felt it necessary to put proposal to the Congress Committee in a nutshell we’re offer fill these posts and that the club basically take over the reins of Congress after a  of the a lot of discussion this was accepted with myself taking over the chairmanship Gary Willson as Secretary Jim Wheeler was treasurer Mason Woodhams as IT media and Adrian Cload has the club rep

you’re unlikely to see much change this year as there was very little time other than get the entry form out lastly I am happy to report that the Congress does have a new sponsor in Caplin the borough council continue give there generous sponsorship I would like to thank all the above for stepping in and saving the Congress some of us reluctantly

I would like to thank all members of the committee who have served this year

I would like to take opportunity to wish all the club members a good chess 2019 2020 and remind you all the Subs are now due and on that happy note I conclude this report

Marc Bryant

Chairman

En Passant tournament

This is a sixth player tournament in the Kent league for teams averaging 140 or under

The first round was an all play all league with the top two teams qualify for the semi-final

We started the season off with wins against Tunbridge wells 5.5 v 0.5 and Rainham 1 v 5 followed by a draw against Swale we then had losses at Tunbridge wells 3.5 2.5 and Maidstone 2.5 3.5 and again at Maidstone 4 2

we now had to win our last game against Rainham to qualify for the semi-finals which we did

3.5 2.5

 

Team	Play	Won	Draw	Lost	For	Against	Points	SP	MP	IM
Maidstone 3	8	6	0	2	29½	18½	12	0	0	0
Hastings & St Leonards 3	8	4	1	3	27½	20½	9	0	0	0
Rainham (Kent) 3	8	3	2	3	23	25	8	0	0	0
Swale 2	8	3	2	3	22½	25½	8	0	0	0
Tunbridge Wells 3	8	1	1	6	17½	30½	3	0	0	0

 

this put us in to the semi-finals in second place where we played Beckenham & Bromley 3 which we won 2v 4

In the final we played petts wood we drew the match but loss on board count

we used 16 players in this tournament

marc Bryant

 

 

 

A team was entered in the Kent Summer Quickplay for 2018.

Teams of four play against each of the opposing team on a time handicap system with 30 minutes for the whole game; time divided between the relative strength of players as follows:

The four matches in our group stage were all won as follows:

04/07/2018 Maidstone A 4.5 Hastings 11.5

19/07/2018 Swale 5 Hastings 11

24/07/2018 Hastings 12.5 Folkestone 3.5

12/08/2018 Hastings 10 Maidstone B 6

 

In the semi-final away to Rainham on 26/09/2018, we won:

Rainham 6 Hastings 10

 

The final was played at home on 06/10/2018 with the result:

Hastings 10.5 Beckenham 5.5

 

Players who took part, and points scored, were:

Daniel Lowe (4 matches) 13/16 (81.25%)

Jim Wheeler (3 matches) 9.5/12 (79.17%)

Ollie Willson (2 matches) 6/8 (75.00%)

Paul Kelly (6 matches) 15.5/24 (64.58%)

Nicolas Varley (2 matches) 5/8 (62.50%)

Marc Bryant (2 matches) 5/8 (62.50%)

Steve Blewitt (4 matches) 9.5/16 (59.38%)

Adrian Cload (1 match) 2/4 (50.00%)

 

Of the total of 96 games played in the competition, 57 were won, 17 drawn, and 22 lost.

 

A particular mention to the four players who defeated a strong Beckenham team in the final: Nicolas Varley, Daniel Lowe, Paul Kelly and Steve Blewitt.

Many thanks to all those who played.

Jim Wheeler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mid Sussex league second-team report

It was a good season for the second team in which we use 13 players in our squad this season

We started the season off with a loss against our first team 3.5 1.5

We also had loss in the season to Horsham 2 Worthing 2 and Brighton 1

We had a win against Horsham 1 Horsham only drop points against Hastings one and two had the second team lost to Horsham 1 they would have been champion instead of Hastings 1 Horsham ended up being runners up for the second year running

We also won against Lewes 1

We had 4 draws against

Worthing 1Eastbourne 1Haywards Heath 1Brighton 2

There were four results of note   this season

Mason Woodhams Draw at Worthing against a 171  Henry Cove draw against a 190 at brighton

Jim Wheelers win at Brighton against a 189 Marc bryant draw against 179 at Brighton

And we fined s 6^th in the league

Division 1 Results
		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	plyd	MP	GP
1	Hastings & St Leonards 1	xxx	3.5	2.5	3	2.5	3.5	3	3	3.5	4.5	4.5	10	9	34
2	Horsham 1	1.5	xxx	3.5	3.5	4	1.5	4.5	4	4.5	3.5	4.5	10	8	35
3	Worthing 1	2.5	1.5	xxx	3	3.5	2.5	5	3	4	4	4	10	8	33
4	Brighton & Hove 1	2	1.5	2	xxx	3	3	3.5	3.5	3.5	3.5	3.5	10	7	29
5	Horsham 2	2.5	1	1.5	2	xxx	4	2.5	3	1.5	2.5	3	10	5	24
6	Hastings & St Leonards 2	1.5	3.5	2.5	2	1	xxx	2.5	2.5	1	4	2.5	10	4	23
7	Eastbourne 1	2	0.5	0	1.5	2.5	2.5	xxx	2.5	2.5	3	4	10	4	21
8	Haywards Heath 1	2	1	2	1.5	2	2.5	2.5	xxx	2.5	2.5	3.5	10	3	22
9	Worthing 2	1.5	0.5	1	1.5	3.5	4	2.5	2.5	xxx	0.5	2	10	3	20
10	Lewes 1	0.5	1.5	1	1.5	2.5	1	2	2.5	4.5	xx	2.5	10	3	20
11	Brighton & Hove 2	0.5	0.5	1	1.5	2	2.5	1	1.5	3	2.5	xxx	10	2	16

 

 

As the 2018/19 reached its conclusion, four teams in division 1 had moved clear of the field.  Brighton 1, perhaps not quite as strong as in previous seasons, had lost to their three main rivals and when Horsham 1 lost to Hastings 1, having already lost to Hastings 2 despite beating everyone else convincingly,  both teams were out of contention. This meant that the final match of the season between Worthing 1 and Hastings 1 would decide the title. We had won all our matches except a draw against Horsham 2 whereas Worthing 1 had drawn against Hastings 2 and lost against Horsham 1.  However, despite going into the match a point behind us a win for Worthing 1 would have brought them level on match points and would have given them the title by half a game point.

In the event the match against Worthing 1 really could not have been closer. On board 1 Bogdan won an excellent tough battle against Matthew Payne but on boards 2 and 3 things did not go as well. Nicolas had an inferior opening against Dave Graham which resulted in the loss of a pawn and eventually the endgame. Francis had a good position and won a pawn against Dominic Miller but uncharacteristically did not sense the danger and in his efforts to keep hold of the extra pawn allowed a winning counter attack. I played much too passively against Mike Nicolas on board 5 and reached an inferior middle game but had managed to equalise when Mike, in an attempt to win, played an interesting pawn break. Fortunately I found the most accurate response and he soon had to sacrifice a pawn for counter-play. However the resulting K+P ending was still very tricky and, playing on increments, I could not find the win and had to agree to a repetition. The match and title therefore depended on board 4 where John was playing Chris Jones. Chris played an aggressive opening but John defended well and reached a R+P ending two pawns to the good. With both players playing on increments the ending was still very difficult and John did very well to negate Chris’s initiative and reach a winning position at the time control. As a result the match was drawn, the league title was ours, and Worthing 1 unluckily even dropped to 3^rd place behind Horsham 1 on game points.

Congratulations to those who played for the 1^st team as everyone achieved at least a 50 percent score with top performers being Bogdan 3/3, Daniel 1/1, Alan 3.5/4, Bernard 2.5/3, Howard 4.5/6, Francis 6.5/9 and Nicolas 4.5/8. A special thanks to Bogdan as there are not too many GM’s who would be prepared to turn out in a local league games without payment and to John and Jim for driving especially as Jim was not even playing in two of the matches. Equally important to our success was the performance of the 2^nd team who managed to take vital points off both of our main rivals.

Howard Tebbs

 (merit in matches)

 

This trophy is generally very hard to award as it is very subjective, players play at different strength against players of different strengths and in different tournaments therefore is not always awarded to the player that does best in matches but to players that it is considered have done best relative to his grade and strength

 

This year in matches the club played total of 435 games71 games up on last year at the time of writing with 187 wins up 48 on last year 113 draws down 9 and losing 135 up 34 

 

42 players represented, the club this year 10 up on last year

 

Of them players only 4 players who played more than 3 games remained undefeated

 

The shortlist, for the trophy year has been narrowed down to 7 players who are for the third year running Howard Tebbs for the second year running Francis Rayner and also Daniel. Lowe Alan. Barton Mason. Woodhams Tobias. Stock Henry. Cove

 

Daniel. Lowe record was played 9 Won 5 Drew 4 and no loss this gave him a percentage rating of 77.7% and +24 performances against his grade

 

Howard Tebbs played 17 games for the club winning 6 drawing 8 and losing 2 this gave him a percentage rating 58.8 and = against his grade

 

Alan. Barton played 19 games for the club winning 8 drawing 9 and losing 2 his percentage performance was 65.7 with a +9-rating performance

 

Tobias. Stock played 11 times for the club winning 7 drawing2 and losing 2 his percentage performance was 73% with a +3-grading performance

 

Mason. Woodhams played 27 games for the club winning 14 drawing4 and losing 9 his percentage performances was 59.2% and grading performance was +4

 

Francis Rayner played 10 games for the club winning 6 drawing 1 and losing 3 his percentage performances was 65% and grading performance was -3

 

Henry. Cove played 23 game for the club winning 11 drawing 4 and losing 8 percentage performances was 56.5% and a Grading Performance was +11

 

 The Winner of this trophy will be decided by a vote at the AGM by the members attending

 

Marc A Bryant

 

 

 

We had a good tournament, topping the league table in the Mid Kent Section.  Unfortunately we lost to Petts Wood and Orpington –  the eventual trophy winners  – on the way to the final. Many thanks for your efforts to all the players who participated in the campaign. Umberto

 

MICHAELMAS DAY

RAPID PLAY

FOR THE BOURNE TROPHY

(holder: Rasa Norinkevičiūtė)

ORGANISED BY PAUL BUSWELL

by courtesy of

THE CHAIRMAN & COMMITTEE OF

HASTINGS & ST LEONARDS CHESS CLUB

 

TO BE HELD ON

SUNDAY 29 SEPTEMBER

CLOCKS START 2:00 p.m.

(arrive and pay by 1:45 p.m.)

 

7 Round Swiss of 10 minutes per game plus 5 seconds per move.

Results will be submitted for English Chess Federation rapidplay grading.

 

 

ENTRIES ONLY FROM PLAYERS who will be both Hastings & St Leonards club members, and also ECF members, in 2019/20.

(If the event was open more widely it would mean the Club paying fees to the E.C.F. when the results were graded).

 

Many modest (sometimes silly) prizes to be won by players at all levels.

Prize giving is expected to be finished by 6:30 p.m.

 

Entrance numbers strictly limited to 20 absolute tops

and people will be turned away after that number is reached,

so advance booking is strongly recommended.

 

Book by contacting Paul Buswell, on e-mail paulbuswellchess@aol.com or otherwise phone 01424 444321

Don’t give your entry through anyone else,  I do not accept indirect or word of mouth entries.

No tournament if fewer than 12 entries by the equinox (23 September, 08:50).

 

Entry fees:

1        if entering by the equinox:  (a) £4;  or (b) £2 if grade <120; or (c)           £-2 if grade <120 and you’ve never played in one of these before);

2        5 guineas for later entry.

 

Tea time refreshments (self-service) included in entry fee.

Visitors’ parking vouchers from Jim Wheeler beforehand, contact him direct.

 

*****

 

Hastings	1½ – 5½	GLCC
B. Cafferty (176)	½ – ½	J. Rihel (179)
M. Bryant (139)	0 – 1	T. Pelling (189)
M. Fletcher(92)	0 – 1	D. Hadley (119)
K. Hossack (98)	1     0	M. Pole (110)
W. Cobb (84)	0 – 1	G. Broadbent (101)
J. Umberto (73)	0 – 1	D. Bennett (93)
C. Parry (UG)	0 – 1	T. Fleming (88)