5 September 2021
Limewood Chess Club is about to resume Over-the-Board chess after the Covid-induced break ever since March 2020.
A meeting of Leeds clubs on 1 September has prepared the way for League chess to begin again, with the first league matches being played on Wed 6 October. More details will be given here as information becomes available.
Meanwhile, Paul May has arranged a first Limewood clubnight meeting to mark the start of the new season.
Paul writes:
“The first club meeting will now be held on the 22nd September at the Fox and Grapes (7pm).
“John Grasham has volunteered to run a Swiss competition. We will look into handicapping this event to even things up a bit. (More details to follow)
“20 teams of 5 players will be entering the Leeds league this season across 9 clubs (Copperworks will not be entering a team this season), so the number of divisions will reduce from 3 to 2. The league is due to start on 6th October, so if you’ve not already contacted me stating that you wish to play in the league, please do so as soon as possible. At the moment we have enough players for 2 teams, but we are close to 3.
“The league will have optional mask wearing, but if you have a strong preference that your opponent should wear a mask, then we will try to arrange this up front, but no guarantees.
“All matches should have hand gel available, boards spaced out as much as possible and good ventilation.
“We will follow the same Covid advice for our Swiss competition on 22nd September.
“For anyone who hasn’t played in the league before, and as a reminder to the rest of us:-
~ The season runs from the start of October until the end of April, and usually consists of 14 matches per team, so roughly 1 match every two weeks.
~ Each match will always be played on a Wednesday evening from 7pm with a time control of 1 hour 20 minutes + 10 second increments per person, so most games finish by 10pm.
~ In non-Covid times the Leeds league usually consists of 3 divisions of 8+ teams so that a player of any experience can usually face a player of similar strength. (Leeds Chess Association also normally run a number of other competitions throughout the year, and I will inform you of these if they plan to proceed with these).
~ There are no club membership or game fees in the Limewood club. (ECF Membership is required after playing a couple of league matches)
~ All of our home matches will be played at the Fox and Grapes on York Road (A64) LS15 4NJ
~ Away games are played at various locations across Leeds.”