Another enjoyable Saturday morning with 24 junior players coming to learn and enjoy playing chess.
Some additional items to start with before the chess report.
The T shirt sponsorship has been successful with 17 T shirts for the club and these will be delivered by next Saturday. Some of our players and parents have mentioned this would be a nice thing to have to connect with the club and have as a recognition of when and where they developed their chess skills.
The 2023 children in need campaign has started which is for next Friday 17/11 and thank you for those parents that have kindly donated. Just to remind all we will match donations on £ for £ basis and last year we donated £160 and hopefully we can at least match that and who knows maybe more – this is a great cause and the children are our future!
Final point to wish all our players the best of luck who are playing in the Hampshire 2023 open junior congress today at Badgers Farm. I am aware that Leo, Tristan and Harry have entered and maybe some more. Results to follow.
Back to the chess
Tony gave the 1st advanced group a selection of puzzles from actual games at different levels and remarked how good the group are progressing at finding the solutions. This should hopefully help their over the board chess skills.
Eric provided the 2nd advanced section with a puzzle from The Times – winning solution and worked through the analysis with the group. This was followed by a look at a game where white blundered in the opening and resigned after only 12 moves. The losing player with a grade of 2200 – remains nameless but kindly offered the game to be shown as an example of how quickly things can go amiss without correct analysis.
Graham/Paul/Steve entertained the mix of young and beginners.
Latest Ladder Positions
Winners today included Leo. Noah, Nathaniel, Markus, Joey, Jesse, Woody, Yash, Tudor and Filip.
Leo being our strongest player looks to have the Championship in the bag, whilst a good tussle between Joey, Jesse, Blake and Jashith have Woody closing in fast.
In amongst our beginners, Larissa is edging Shriya by only a few points and Alfie and Tudor, closely followed by Filip fight over the top spot in the later class. All good stuff. Well played to everyone!
Many thanks to all our 5 coaches/tutors – namely, Tony, Graham, Steve, Paul (back from Iceland – the country) plus Leo and yours truly. By having this number of coaches, we can provide more 1-1 coaching and concentrate on those players that really wish to progress.
Eric Sachs