The Cowley Blitz is Back!

On Thursday 15 December, after a hiatus of three years, the Cowley Blitz as an over-the-board event is returning!

You are invited to our 2022 Christmas Blitz at Cowley Chess Club (at Rose Hill Methodist Church in the Main Hall downstairs). Round 1 starts at 7.15 pm. We look forward to seeing you.

Five double-rounds (ten games in all) with a time allowance per player per game of 3 minutes plus a 2 seconds increment per move added from move 1.

The tournament winner may choose either a prize from the prizes table or a cash prize of 10% of the entry fees. There will be lots of other prizes of books, etc., on the prizes table, including rating prizes, prizes for juniors in various age groups, for the best slow starter, etc.

Entry fee: £5 for adults, £3 for juniors (i.e., players under 18), to be paid in cash when you arrive on the night. For full details, and to enter, click the here

 

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.

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.

Cowley Summer Blitz: Online on Monday 4th July

 

Cowley Chess club has announced that the regular Cowley Blitz tournament will be held online at Lichess on Monday 4th July. Details are below, and also on the OCA web site :

This year’s Cowley Summer Blitz will be played online on Lichess on Monday 4th July at 7:30 p.m. It will consist of as many blitz games as you want to play between 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. To play, you must have a Lichess account. You must also be a member of the Cowley Blitz Lichess team. If you aren’t already a member, you can visit lichess.org/team/cowley-blitz and click the “Join” meeting. When the admins notice, they can then admit you. Please also email David.W.Robson@gmail.com and tell me the name of your Lichess account, and also your real name, so I know who is playing. Also if you would like to be considered for an age or gender related prize, please send me the details. As there are no admission fees, the awards are for the prestige only. Finally, if you are signed up, all you have to do is to visit the tournament link on the night at lichess.org/tournament/9CJSrxxc

End of Season Awards

After the conclusion of the season last week, the OCA May committe meeting took place last night and I am happy to report that Two Cumnor Players have received awards for their performances in the Oxfordshire League this season.

Nigel Moyse won the Ray Starkie award for the best OCA game this year for his win against Dave Hackett in the Witney match on the 9th May. A match report will be published  soon, and the game will be included in that, and all the games submitted for the prize can be found here . Simon Terrington has also published a YouTube video on the game.

Andy Hudson won the David Del Nevo Trophy for the player who scores the best game points percentage in Division Three, who has played more than 50% of the League Matches. Andy managed 7 points from 8 matches giving him a win rate of 87.5%! It should also be noted that Andrey managed 5 wins from 5 but sadly didn’t play enough matches be eligible for the Trophy.

TeamPlayerPoints
Games
Percentage
1Cumnor 2Hudson, Andrew7887.50%
2Cowley 3Asquith, Ivon7.5983.33%
3City 3Rodriguez-Bachiller, Agustin6.51065.00%

Congratulations to both players! The League is now over for another season which is an achievement considering the situation, well done to every player who took part. Next season should start again around the first week of October.

Unlike some clubs we will remain open over the summer (but not during August) for players to get some Players Cup and Bill Laar Trophy matches played, information on the cups along with the current standings can be found here. It should be noted every year that the Summer Months are the best to get these matches done, I make it 10 weeks until August and once the league restarts players won’t necessarily be available to play. Get those matches played so you aren’t relying on others come December!

*UPDATED 23/05 FROM THE OCA WEBSITE*

2021-22 Prizes
Now the season has been completed, the following prizes have been awarded:

Arthur Mushens Trophy for the best percentage score in division 1 – Filip Mihov

Bernard C Wyatt Trophy for the best percentage score in division 2 – Kenneth Hobson

David Del Nevo Trophy for the best percentage score in division 3 – Andrew Hudson

Lester Millan Trophy for the best percentage score by a junior in any single division – Kenneth Hobson

Ray Starkie Best Game Prize for the best game played in the ODCL or an Oxfordshire County Match – Nigel Moyse

All entries for the Ray Starkie Best Game Prize can be found in the lichess study below.
Congratulations go to all the winners.

Link: https://lichess.org/study/FzNi1KxF/EZUsPkEe

Chess event in historic Abingdon venue

As a fundraiser for the Abingdon Passion play a 6 round rapid play event will be held at the Roysse Room, Guildhall, Abingdon on 28th May, 10:00 – 17:00.

There is a £10 entry fee, tickets can be bought here, where there is also more information.

All ages are welcome and it is restricted to the first 32 contestants. The event is not ECF rated. Registration will be at 10am, and the time table is
Round 1 10.15 – 10.55
Round 2 11.10 – 11.50
Round 3 12.05 – 12.45
Lunchbreak
Round 4 1.45 – 2.25
Round 5 2.40 – 3.20
Round 6 3.35 – 4.15
Presentation of the trophy at 4.30pm.

Thanks to Will Burt for bringing this to our attention.

Teaching chess in Oxfordshire schools with CSC

The charity Chess in Schools and Communities (CSC) is currently recruiting new tutors to teach chess to school children in the Oxford area. There has been a significant amount of interest from local schools in our classroom teaching in primary schools and in after school chess clubs recently and we expect this to expand further again next academic year.

You do not have to be a brilliant chess player as most of the lessons are at beginner level. If you enjoy teaching, have some knowledge of chess and are interested in committing to some hours in the afternoon on one or more days each week during school term time, we would be very interested to hear from you. Please take a look at the CSC website for further information about the charity and fill in the application form if you would like to apply.

We are planning a one-day initial training day in Oxford in April or May (I will post the date and details on here once it is confirmed). If you would like to know a bit more about what is involved in the training and other requirements, how the lessons themselves work, remittance and such like please also feel free to contact me (see contact pages).

Andrew Varney
Regional Organiser (Oxfordshire)
Chess in Schools and Communities

https://www.chessinschools.co.uk/we-need-you

Tournament News

The Kidlington Chess Congress was due to be played online over the the usual Kidlington weekend (the first full weekend in February), however for a variety of reasons, it will not now be possible to hold this event on that particular weekend. We hope this will be merely a brief postponement of a few weeks and are currently considering dates towards the end of February.

Looks like we will have to wait until 2023 to see Exeter Hall in Kidlington this busy again!
Further news will be posted here and on the Kidlington Tournament website as soon as arrangements can be made.

The 2023 tournament has been booked out the usual venue, Exeter Hall. As ever, the event is scheduled for the first full weekend in February, so we look forward to welcoming returning and first-time players for our next annual over-the-board tournament on Saturday and Sunday 4 & 5 February 2023.

In some good news, The Swindon 2022 Rapidplay Chess Tournament will take place in Swindon on Saturday the 5th March 2022. This new (as far as I am aware), Rapid play will be over the board and I am sure some local players might want to make the relatively short trip down the A420, more information can be found here.