Vinuda wins National Final!

Over the last weekend the English Junior Coaches and Organisers Association ( EJCOA) held the National Youth Final U16/U18/U20 in Nottingham.

Vinuda Gunathilake scored an oustanding win with a 4.5/5 score, defeating many higher grade players on his way to victory.

As Vinuda was only the 18th seed this was a truly great result.

Many congratulations!!

2023 League AGM

The 76th Annual General Meeting of the League will be held at 7:15pm on Monday 21 August at Chichester Chess Club, Fishbourne Centre, Blackboy Lane, Fishbourne, Chichester  PO18 8BE.

Note this will limit chess until after the meeting.

McArthur cup semi final

McArthur Cup ½Final– 2023 Horsham v Chichester 25.04.2023 

For the first time in decades, our Chichester Club entered a team into the McArthur Cup tournament – the premier inter-Club competition in West Sussex.

After a default win at home to Brighton we found ourselves away to Horsham in a semi final.

Horsham is a thriving chess club with an excellent venue and a great deal going on. Immediately the teams were announced it was clear that Horsham were fielding a very strong team with 4 players well over 2000 rating.

On board 1: Jaimie played Gavin Lock in a tussle of the giants. Unfathomable to spectators and eventually agreed drawn

On board 2: Andrew, playing black again, had a long and tense positional struggle with the equally strong Mark Broom. A wonderful finish and this game can be found here.

On board 3: Rolandas played the equally strong James Mansson and this always promised to be a game of extreme complications and it lived up to this billing. A wonderful win by Rolandas to take this scalp.

On board 4: Norbert met the 2029 rated Antony Higgs – quite a challenge and illustrating the massive strength in depth that Horsham can muster for their A team. Again, some significant complications and Norbert slowed his opponent but some accurate play prevailed.

On board 5: Ian was facing the evergreen Phil Stimpson and had much the best of it in a heavyweight game. Alas , when approaching critical simplifications to convert, Ian fell for a cheap tactic and the point was lost. 

On board 6: Steve was 200 rating points adrift of the well experienced Ian Comley. On the defensive for much of the game, Steve made it very difficult to identify the winning combo but Ian played with extreme care and a powerful Queen and Bishop battery proved too much to defend against. 

Summary:

  1. G.Lock        ½ ½ J.Wilson
  2. M.Broom    0 1 A.McDougall
  3. J.Mansson  0 1 R.Lukosius
  4. A.Higgs        1 0 N.Gyorke
  5. P.Stimpson 1 0 I.Judd
  6. I.Comley     1 0 S Coe

Horsham  3½ 2½ Chichester

A match in which the chess was the winner. All good wishes to Horsham in the final where they meet Lewes. This was some distance for Chichester players to travel so my thanks to Rolandas for driving the Bognor contingent. Andrew persisted in the face of a diversion on a diversion and some small country lanes so well done on that tour of West Sussex. My thanks also to Mike Spence who attended as reserve and offered good moral support.

Club Championship Round 6 Draw

Bd No   White                                (Score) v (Score) Black             

1           Steve Coe [1805]                     (4) v (4½) Bill McDougall [2107]  

2            Rolandas Lukosius [2089]  (3½) v  (4½) Andrew McDougall [2147]

3            Ian Judd [1790]                   (3½) v (3½) Jaimie Wilson [2206]      

4           Chris Squires [1716]              (3) v (3) Tom Howeson [1725]  

5           Mike Spence [1676]              (3) v (3) Paul White [1686]                             

6           Alan Reed [1470]                (2½) v (3) Steve Smith [1833]       

7           John Hargreaves [1626]     (2½) v (2) Laurence Ellett [1473]   

8           Mike Webber  [1680]        (1½) v (2½) Lloyd Jolley [1385]

9            Ian Richardson [1631]         (1) v (1) Paul Simpson [1378]   

10         Ryan Kinzett [1565]             (2) v (1) Lucas Summers [1300]  

11         Penny Cullum [1365]            (0) v (1½) Isaac McDonald [1393]  

Club Championship Round 5 draw

Draw for Round 5 – To be played on Monday 3rd April 2023

Bd No   White                       (Score) v (Score) Black             

1            Bill McDougall [2107]   (4) v (4) Andrew McDougall [2147]

2            Jaimie Wilson [2206]    (3) v (3) Rolandas Lukosius [2089]  

3            Steve Coe [1805]           (3) v (3) Chris Squires [1716]

4            Ian Judd [1790]           (2½) v (3) Mike Spence [1676]                            

5            Tom Howeson [1725]   (2) v (2½) Alan Reed [1470]   

6            Steve Smith [1833]        (2) v (2½) Lloyd Jolley [1385]

7            Ryan Kinzett [1565]       (2) v (1½) John Hargreaves [1626]   

8            Paul Simpson [1378]     (1) v (2) Paul White [1686]           

9            Isaac McDonald [1393] (1) v (1) Mike Webber  [1680]   

10         Laurence Ellett [1473]     (1) v (1) Ian Richardson [1631]

11         Lucas Summers [1300]   (0) v (0) Penny Cullum [1365]