Tag: ODCL - Page 2 - Cumnor Chess Club, Oxford

2020-21 Season Goes Online

With the Coronavirus epidemic still being a problem and government rules changing every 10 minutes it has been decided that the Oxfordshire Chess League will move entirely to an online tournament for the coming season. Notes from the AGM can been seen below with the new tournament starting at the end of October.

More information will be published in due course.

*Notes from AGM*

For the 20/21 season, the OCA league will not compete as we normally do.

Instead, there shall be two separate Swiss tournaments played online. The platform will be lichess.org. The first tournament starts on the week commencing Monday 26th October. This tournament will consist of six rounds with a game played every week for six weeks. Game time will be 45 minutes plus 15 seconds per move.

All the teams will be pooled together, with the fixtures pulled out of a hat.

Cumnor will enter both of our teams into both tournaments. Liam will run the first team while Steve will run the second.

During the meeting we found that a number of clubs had difficulty being able to put out all of their teams to play online. Most notably Banbury, whom are only able to field one team to play online this season. Bicester said they cannot field a single team. Didcot said it could field one team and Wantage stressed they were struggling.

The second Swiss tournament will take place after Christmas, and will consist of eight rounds, with a game played each week over eight weeks. Depending on how the first tournament works, may influence how the second tournament works. For example two tiers, one for stronger teams and the other for weaker teams.
Nothing concrete was concluded, but the general consensus is to make it as simple as possible.

Your new Over the Board chess grades will not be affected by these tournaments. These online games qualify for an ECF online grade.

It was suggested that only players with ECF membership may take part. This is one of the things that Ian is going to clarify.

A few clubs stressed a preference for a team to consist of four players only for the 20/21 on-line tournaments. This was voted out by a significant majority of the clubs wishing to maintain six boards. This of course means more of us can get involved in this season’s online competitive chess.

The Swiss tournaments will be played weekly. Matches will be played on the evening of the clubs normal club night. Therefore, if Cumnor teams are drawn first, then we shall play the fixture on Thursday as usual.

I believe only Cumnor and some of Cowley’s teams play on Thursdays. No club plays on Fridays.

2020-21 Season

We need to come together to put in place how the League will work this coming season.

The season traditionally starts in October so if you have ideas, queries or concerns please let Ian or Roger know.

“The 20-21 season is rapidly approaching. Due to the current pandemic it will be very different from any in recent history. Concrete proposals to address this will be made at the AGM in September, and will be available in full later this month. However we thought it best to provide as early as possible an outline of the ways that we might play chess next season in order to obtain feedback, and to this end the document linked to below discusses how the league might be run next season. Comments on the proposals contained therein would be much appreciated. If you have any please either contact your club representative, or send an email to the League Secretary, Roger Thetford”

Ian Bush OCA Chairman

ODCL Season 2019-20 Cancelled

Sadly the coronavirus pandemic has caused life to be placed on hold for many of us. The Oxford and District Chess League is no exception. Please be aware the Ray Starkie (best game) trophy will still be awarded so get your games in.

The club will still “run” online on Thursday evening from 7pm on Lichess.

Please see the announcement below.

“Given the current circumstances, the OCA Committee has decided to cancel the 2019-20 League and Frank Wood Shield as team competitions. The Committee resolved (with no objections) that:

The dominant University 1 team will still be awarded the Division One trophy.
The Division Two, Three and Four trophies will not be awarded.
The Frank Wood Shield will not be awarded.
The individual trophies for performances in each of the divisions will be awarded.

The the Lester Millin (best junior) and Ray Starkie (best game) trophies will be awarded.
The qualifying criterion in Rule 6.9 for awarding the ‘best individual performance’ trophies will be interpreted as “more than 50% of the League Matches played by a team”.

The winners of the individual trophies are:
Arthur Mushens Trophy, Division One: Joris Gerlagh, Oxford Univ 1, 6½/7 = 92.86%
Bernard C Wyatt Memorial Trophy, Division Two: Paul Friend, Banbury 2, 5/6 = 83.33%
David Del Nevo Trophy, Division Three: Joshua Soanes, Witney 3, 5½/6 = 91.67%
Sam Phipps Trophy, Division Four: Chris Finn, Oxford Univ 3, 7/7; Alessandro Tringali, Didcot 3; Joshua Soanes, Witney 4, 5/5 (shared).

Lester Millin Memorial Trophy, best junior performance in all divisions: Joshua Soanes, Witney.
Automatic promotion and relegation will not take place. However, the composition of the divisions for 2020-21 will be determined by the Committee in the light of the numbers of teams declared for the forthcoming season, and some rebalancing of numbers may still be necessary.

Please send entries for the Ray Starkie best game trophy to the Secretary (see Contacts list) by 30 April, as PGN files. Games played this season in the ODCL, Frank Wood Shield and Chiltern League county matches are eligible.

The 2017-18 fixtures have been released

The 2017-18 fixtures have been released by the OCA (please see below) however they are subject to change.

Cumnor 1 start the season with two away games against Witney 2 and Cowley 3 and play the final match away to newly promoted Banbury 2 in April. While Cumnor 2 start away to MCS in late October and finish away to Cowley 5.

The season concludes with the Frank Wood Shield (FWS) Final which starts after Christmas.

With all the away matches at the beginning and end of the season we have no away matches between 20th November 2017 and 19 February 2018 nearly 3 months, not that we are complaining some away venues have better heating than others.

The complete list can be found here.

We hope to see many of you on Thursday night because some of us need some serious pre-season training.

2016-17 Fixture Lists

The fixtures for the 2016-17 season have now been released and can be found here.

Cumnor 2 kick off the season with a home match against Cowley Workers 2 next Thursday (13/10) while Cumnor 1 play their first game a week later (20/10) at home to Bicester 1.

Peter Hemmings who has been producing the fixtures for previous seasons has now stepped aside and Asif Hameed from Cowley has taken on the job.

The fixtures are subject to change.

Frank Wood Shield Draw

The draw for the Frank Wood competition 2015/16 was made during the Cowley Blitz. Thanks to Dave Robson, Gerard O’Reilly and all who helped.

The draw is cascading as usual. The Round 1 ties (5 of them) are formally scheduled for the week Jan 04 – 08. But as Univ 2 are involved and will not be back this tie will need re-scheduling.

1) University 2 v Cowley Workers 1
2) University 1 v bye
3) Witney 1 v bye
4) Wantage 1 v bye
5) Cowley 3 v Cowley 1
6) Banbury 1 v bye
7) City 1 v bye
8) Cumnor 1 v bye
9) Cowley 4 v Witney 4
10) Wantage 2 v bye
11) Banbury 2 v bye
12) City 2 v bye
13) Witney 3 v Cowley 2
14) MCSB/1 v bye
15) Didcot 1 v bye
16) City 3 v Witney 5

The draw means Cumnor 1 get a bye in round one and will play Oxford City 1 away before the 12th February, most likely on Monday 8th, in a repeat of the second round tie of last season (check out the match report for the game by clicking here). Oxford City 1 won the competition last season beating Cowley 2 in the final 4-2.

The winner of the tie will play one of Cowley 3, Cowley 1 or Banbury 1 away at the end of February.

Going down to the wire…

We are into the last few weeks of the season, but there is still plenty to play for.

In Division 1, Witney 1 are the champions winning 11 games out of 11, while MCS/B1 are going to be relegated back to division 2.

At the top of division 2, Witney 2 and Didcot 1 have only one game between each other to settle the title, a shoot out!

A win or draw for Didcot 1 will mean they are Champions while a win for Witney 2 means they will receive the title.

Both have been at the top of the division for most of the season with a massive 9 points between Witney 2 in second and Cumnor 1 in third, the difference between third and last is 8 points.

At the wrong end of the table it’s gone down to one game. Cowley 3 play Cumnor 1 on Monday and any result for Cowley 3 will save them at the expense of Bicester 1.

In Division 3, is all done and dusted with Didcot 2 winning the title and Abingdon School being relegated with a game in hand.

Division 4 is an all-Witney affair, at the top is Witney 4 and at the bottom are Witney 5. Cumnor 2 currently sit 4th with 5 wins 2 draws and 5 losses.

The Frank Wood Shield, in the final is between Didcot 1 and Oxford City 1.

Cumnor 2, Division 4: season report for 2012/2013

With the chess-playing season over, it’s time to look back over our second team’s performance in the last year.

The second team gives a chance for the Juniors and the improving players to have a competitive game in the league, playing in OCA Division 4.

In our first game we started well with a 5-1 win over Cowley 4.

However, despite that good start there was bad news on the horizon. We lost the next 4 games against MCS/B2 (1.5-4.5), St Claire’s (2-4), Cowley Workers 2 (2.5-3.5) and City 4 (2.5-3.5).

We did manage to pick up form before Christmas with a 4-2 win over Wantage 2, and carried on after the new year with a 5-1 win over Cowley 4.

Cumnor 2 ended January with a 4-2 win against Witney 4.

A loss to MCS/B2 4.5-1.5 was followed by a 5.5-0.5 win over St Claire’s which was the highest win for either team of the season.

There was an unfortunate blip when we forgot an away fixture against City 4. As we defaulted on all six boards we were penalised one point. Ouch.

However, we picked a win against Cowley Workers 2, 4.5-1.5, and our only draw 3-3 versus Wantage 2. Our final game was against Witney 4 which ended with a 4-2 loss.

Cumnor 2 ended up finishing 6th with 12 points (one defaulted point) which means we will continue to compete in Division 4 next season.

Well done to Pako, Susana, Steve, Roger, Graham, Liam, Richard, Leo, Marc, Mike, Michaela, Nathan, Robert, David, Daniel, Zoe, Clive and Ann – who all played this season, and for the rest of Cumnor Chess Club for their support.

Stat of the season: 18 chess players competed for Cumnor 2 this season, enough for 3 teams! This demonstrates, I believe, the healthy state of Cumnor Chess Club – as we can draw on a lot of talent!

The final table can be found here on the OCA website and the scores of individual team players can be found here.

Cumnor 1, Division 2: season report for 2012/2013

With the chess-playing season over, it’s time to look back over our first team’s performance in the last year.

As the new boys in Division 2 of the Oxford and District Chess League (ODCL), we knew it was going to be a difficult season, playing against many well-established teams.

Our best hope was to finish above Cowley Workers (who also were promoted with us from Division 3 due to the leagues being rearranged).

Our first game was against Witney 2, who were clearly looking for a strong start as they put out a strong team meaning we lost 5-1.

We picked up our first point with an away draw at Bicester who were the team relegated from Division 1 last season.

Another draw against Cowley Workers didn’t really help either team pull away from each other.

This was followed by two 2.5-3.5 losses – to City 2 and MCS/B1 – and we ended 2012 at home to Wantage 1 with a 3-3 draw.

At the mid point we hade picked up 3 draws and 3 losses from our first 6 games.

The new year started with the first league win away to Witney 2, beating them 3.5-2.5. This was followed by another 2.5-3.5 loss to Bicester 1.

The Cowley Workers game looked like it could decide who was going to be relegated back to Division 3, with us on 5 points and them still on 1, a real 4 pointier.

Fortunately, we managed to scrape past the finishing post first (but Steve did make us sweat a little) 3.5-2.5. This put Cumnor Chess Club’s first team 6 points clear.

Our final 3 games were a mixed bag with a 5-1 loss to City 2, followed by a close 3.5-2.5 defeat to (champions-elect) MCS/B1.

Our final game was away to Wantage 1 in which we picked up a win, finishing the season on a high.

Cumnor 1 ultimately finished 6th in the division with 9 points – 8 clear of the relegated Cowley Workers whose solitary point was from our draw back in November – and only (!) 10 points from top.

It was our highest league finish and has kept us in the same division for next season, which is a rarity for Cumnor 1.

Well done to Andrew, Daniel, Gareth, Graham, Liam, Mark, Michael, Pako, Robin, Roger and Steve who played for Cumnor 1 this season, and everyone else for their support!

Stat of the season: Out of the 72 boards Cumnor 1 played on during the 2012/2013 season we were outgraded on 52 occasions.

The final table for Division 2 can be seen here on the ODCL website, and players’ scores can be found here.

The Frank Wood Shield

During the year, The Frank Wood Shield (The Oxfordshire chess equivalent to the FA Cup) was a welcome distraction from the league. We had a bye in the first round so our first game was in round two versus Witney 3 who we beat 4-2.

Our next game in the cup was the quarter-final where we played Witney 2. Witney 2, who were eventual finalists, beat us 4-2 which ended our little run.