Author: Liam Glenn

Liam has been coming to Cumnor Chess Club for a very long time. His interests include Chess, Oxford United, Chess and Chess. He shows you can be handsome and good at Chess.

Oxfordshire Win

Oxfordshire stormed to a convincing 13.5-4.5 defeat of Buckinghamshire on Saturday 21 January. Although we outrated them on the bottom 12 boards, I was not expecting such a solid outcome of 11.5-0.5 on those boards, so well done for pushing home for a win – in many cases the games were long, hard fought duels. In the upper six boards the picture was reversed: we were heavily out-gunned on board one where Kenneth Hobson fought valiantly in one of the longest matches before conceding.

There was a clear difference in rating in the other five matches so well done to Danut Joian for bringing home the full point against a player rated over 100 elo points above him! Dave Hackett and Ian Bush both obtained draws against higher rated players, thus a very good result even from the top six. We have a crunch match at home against Hampshire on Saturday 18 February, so if anyone who’s name I don’t have is interested in playing, please get in touch, with our very own Nigel Moyse.

The results can be found here.

New Year, New News!

With so much going on right now I thought it was worth a quick run down on the important things to note.

Cumnor Trophy Night
Trophy presentations will take place this coming Thursday (26th), come down and give the winners a well deserved ovation!

The winners are:

Players Cup 2022
1st Nigel Moyse
2nd Mark Sayers
3rd Ian Bush

Bill Laar Trophy (BLT) 2022
1st Robin Carr
2nd Callum Brewerton
3rd Steven Jackson

More information can be found on the original post.

Frank Woods Shield
Last night our invitational team the “Six Horsemen of the Apocalypse” won their first round tie last night against Witney Spinners 4-2. The result means they move into the second round with a home draw against Wantage Alfredians, the very team they lost to last season. Is it time for some revenge?

Our second team “Six Donkeys of the Acropolis” will play Cowley Williwaws. Both of these quarter-finals will take place before mid-march.

Kidlington Tournament

The rate at which entries have been coming in makes it likely that the Kidlington Tournament will reach full capacity a few days before the weekend of the tournament. They are continuing to welcome entries, but please bear in mind that if you want to play, you risk disappointment if you delay your entry much longer.

The tournament, taking place as usual at Exeter Hall, Kidlington, is a 5-Round ECF-rated Swiss tournament, with four sections: Open, Major (U2000), Intermediate (U1800), and Minor (U1600) and a total prize fund of over £2200.

Standard entry fee (for ECF members at Silver or higher level): £28.

There is a discount of £5 for junior entrants (under 18 on 1 January 2023).

This event is disabled-friendly and wheelchair-accessible.

For full details, and to enter, see the pages under the ‘Kidlington 2023’ tab of the tournament website:
https://kidlingtonchess.org.uk/

Happy New Year!

The club will re-open tomorrow, on Thursday 5th 2023.

The 2023 Players Cup and Bill Laar Trophy tournaments will commence from 5th January.

This years competitions will be as follows:

THE PLAYERS CUP
One game played against each opponent.
Game time, 30 mins + 15

Nigel, Mark S, Gareth, Liam, John, Robin, Alex, Andrey, Rio
(and possibly Simon and Nalin. Yet to confirm, Yea or Nay).

The reduced games and increased participants are designed to make the competition more competitive and easier to fulfil ones games.

BILL LAAR TROPHY
One game played against each opponent.
Game time, 45 minuets.

Andy, Jeff, Otto, Mark C, Pedro, Jonathan, Dylan, Allan, Steven, Isaac, Alf, James, Steve

The Club’s 2022 Trophy presentations will be held on Thursday 26th January.

Annual club member fees are now due for 2023.

Kidlington Chess Tournament

After a two year absence the Kidlington Tournament is back. Venue and format very much as before. Early entry discount is still available. More information along with the entry form can be found here.

The 44th KIDLINGTON CHESS TOURNAMENT
4 & 5 February 2023

Exeter Hall, Oxford Road, Kidlington, Oxfordshire OX5 1AB

5-Round ECF-rated Swiss tournament
4 sections: Open, Major (U2000), Intermediate (U1800), Minor (U1600)

Total Prize Fund – £2,210 along with gaining points towards the Oxfordshire Individual Championship 2022-23 within the open section.

Oxon Junior Chess Trials and Championship

Calling all Oxon junior chess players! The annual junior county trials and championship are taking place over the weekend of 7th/8th January 2023 at Cumnor Primary School.

The U9 competition is on Saturday 7th January, U11 on Sunday 8th January and U13/15/18 on both 7th and 8th January. This is a closed competition, with only Oxfordshire children eligible to enter.

For the U9/11 sections, this means children living and/or attending school in Oxfordshire. For the U13/15/18 section, this means children affiliated to Oxfordshire by any of birth, residence, school / college or attendance at an Oxfordshire chess club.

Full details can be found via the entry form. We look forward to welcoming you.

Please email oxfordshirejuniorchess@gmail.com for any queries.

9th Witney Weekend Congress

A message from our friends over at Witney Chess Club:

I’m delighted to be able to confirm that the Ninth Witney Congress will take place on 5th and 6th November 2022 at our usual venue Cokethorpe School, Witney OX29 7PU.

You can find all the details you need here: http://www.witneychess.co.uk/9thwitney_information.htm

and the entry form is here: https://form.jotform.com/221761196679367

Sunday morning on the 2016 congress, Liam, Mark and Daniel can be seen in the top left while Gareth can be spotted below the fireplace

New Season

The Fixture List for the 2022-23 has been released!

Cumnor 1 will again be playing in the First Division (being in the division since the 2019 season) and will start with an Away match against the newly promoted Oxford University 2 team on Thursday 27th October before playing the Oxford University 1 team Away on the following Monday.

Cumnor 2 will be playing in the Third Division (which is again the bottom division) and will start in two weeks with a Home match against Wantage 2 on Thursday the 13th October. The fixtures are very much subject to change so keep an eye out just in case.

All the information for all the clubs can be found on the Oxfordshire Chess League website which can be found here.

The fixtures can be found here.

New Members

Since we opened up after our Summer Break we have seen an influx of new members which is great to see. The new season will be starting in about a months time so there has never been a better time to join the club.

New members of any ability are always welcome to join the Club. We offer a stimulating evening in a friendly atmosphere, with the opportunity to learn from some highly experienced players.

We are open from 7pm every Thursday until Christmas.

More information can be found on our New Member Page.

New Members

The Chiltern League

The first county match of the season is away at Buckinghamshire on Saturday 24 September at 2pm.

Could all of you who are interested in playing please get back to me and let Nigel know ASAP?

The other dates for your diary (subject to change) are:

Hants – Oxon 29 October 22

Oxon – Berks 3 December 22

Oxon – Bucks 21 January 23

Oxon – Hants 18 February 23

Berks – Oxon 4 March 23

Matches start at 2pm and last 4 hours as you get 2 hours on the clock each.

If you know anyone who may be interested and you think I may not know about, please forward this message to them.

Best wishes
Nigel

Nigel Moyse, acting Oxon Captain

Club Reopens

We’re up and running again from this Thursday (1st September).

Please take advantage of the few remaining weeks that we have left before the OCA 22/23 league commences at the end of September, early October. Once the season starts you will find there are fewer Thursdays available to play any outstanding in-house matches that you may have for the remainder of the year.

The last club night for matches to be played in The Players Cup and The Bill Laar Trophy, will be on Thursday 15th December.
The club will close for the last two weeks in December after this date.

Current positions:

The Frank Wood Shield, Players Cup and the Bill Laar Trophy
Players Cup
1. Nigel, 7 points
2. Mark, 4 points
3. Ian, 3 points

Bill Laar Trophy
1. Callum, 8 points
2. Robin, 7.5 points
3. Steven J, 7.5 points

In January we shall present trophies for the top three players in both tournaments.

I’ve asked Asif, (OCA fixtures composer/arranger), to make sure we have a free Thursday on either the 19th or 26th January for this to take place.