13 July 2019 It was John Grasham’s birthday today. And he was playing for Yorkshire – against Worcestershire in the English Counties U140s Championship Final at Kettering. John won his game. Yorkshire crushed Worcestershire and won the U140s trophy by 10½ to 5½. A dream birthday indeed. John’s game is now enshrined among our Best… Continue reading »

30 June 2019 Paul Johnson (he of our cup-winning Arjay team) has created a new control program for pairing players in competitions using the Swiss System. To test it out Paul has arranged a 1-day tourney at York on Sunday 8 September. Paul writes:As I have now nearly finished my suite of Visual Basic programs… Continue reading »

12 June 2019 Two new champions were declared tonight at the club’s annual Blitz Championship event. Blitz Champion Paul Smith became this year’s Blitz Champion. He won 7 games and drew 1 out of the 9 games, playing in a style than left more experienced opponents floundering. A fine achevement! (For the record, Bob Maltby… Continue reading »

Wed 12 June: Club Blitz Championship Wed 3 July: Clubnight Wed 7 August: Clubnight Wed 4 Sept: Clubnight

1 June 2019 There’s the Hunger Games. There’s the Invicta Games. Now there’s the Sylvan Games. (That’s our name for it, not Sylvan’s.) Organised by Sylvan Clarke (Alwoodley’s answer to Brian Blessed) it’s a 5-round rapidplay with 20 minutes on the clock for each player. A rarity, too – an event exclusively for those of… Continue reading »

30 May 2019 Norman Ellis Trophy for individuals Tom Leah is the outright winner of this year’s Norman Ellis Trophy with 5 straight wins in the 5-round Leeds-wide competition. To gain the title he beat David Pedro, Peter Braham, Robert Starley, Clive Davies and Peter Mason. A fine achievement! Heartiest congratulations, Tom! Tom is reigning… Continue reading »

15 May 2019 It was the last outing of the season for our Rapidplay and Mini League teams tonight. Our Rapidplay team hammered the University’s second team by 5 points to 1, to finish in the top half of the Rapidplay table in the team’s very first year of existence. Our teams in the 3-board… Continue reading »

8 May 2019 The 4th round of the Ellis and Appleby Trophies took place tonight. In the Ellis, Tom Leah strengthened his position as leader of the pack with a win over Rose Forgrove’s doyen Clive Davies. One more round to go – can Tom keep up the momentum and become 2019’s Ellis Champion? We’ll… Continue reading »