Horsham Chess Club

With a few regulars missing, Horsham 1 still ran out comfortable winners down at Eastbourne 1...

The new gradings have come out to reflect recent results. I thought the graph of the distribution of gradings might interest you (see graphic) - our average grade is 138 but we range all the way from 201 to 66.

Biggest improvers were Alex Freeland (+10 to 182) Ian Comley (+18 to 169 ), Lucy Bennett-Stevens (+9 to 141)

Check out your own grading at:

http://www.ecfgrading.org.uk/new/menu.php

Amazingly there are still 24 weeks of this season so this is a good time for a little reminder about keeping up to speed with your games.

If you dont have a match please prioritise the knockout then all play all (Rook, Bishop or Knight) before the quickplay. It is particularly important that we keep the Knockout on track.

Just a quick note to remind all parents that the junior club returns after the Christmas break tomorrow... See you at 6:25pm.

2016 kicks off with the knockout on Tuesday...an opportunity for some excellent chess with always a good chance of an unexpected result!

The latest version of the KO shows these games to be played and the web version is completely up to date...let me have any updates! Please check with your opponent to ensure that we can keep on track with this tournament.

Knockout

Taylor - Lock
Comley - Roberts
Forster (Sr) - Freeland (date to be arranged)
Heath - Higgs

Plate

Just a reminder that we are meeting tomorrow at chess..I know many people have already arranged their games.

A great opportunity for a fresh start after Christmas!

A final reminder that we are not meeting this Tuesday so it gives extra time for chess players to begin xmas shopping :) The club will next meet on 29 December so you wont miss out for long.

Many of you will be keen to play in Hastings Tournament over christmas and full details can be found:
http://www.hastingschess.com

If you are travelling by train please take special care as it seems there is wide spread disruption.

My boss went to a Christmas party with a supplier , those fine people at NIIT, and very unusually amongst the other festivities he found himself playing a simultaneous chess match against a very strong player.

He was kind enough to get an autograph addressed to me ...I am absolutely delighted and the account manager has promised that I will be there for the next opportunity.

So the quiz question is ... whose signature is this .... answer to follow

As Mark Baldock reveals below...it is none other than former World Champion Vishy Anand

A team that married experience with youth travelled down to Brighton but was ultimately unsuccessful in their knockout match...

Horsham 4 again failed to field a full team last night on our visit to Woodpushers. Our intended board 1 pulled out at the very last minute - indeed I only found out by a phone call at 7:45. As we hadn't actually started yet, we had to move everyone else up a board. The Woodpushers captain (Julian Mitchell) would have played on board 3, but then elected to move himself down to board 5, allowing all his other players to get a game.