Happy New Year everybody. Normally there is a slight lull in activity around Christmas, but the club seems to have had a lot of events this time, and I am looking forward to lots of interesting chess events in 2026.
What Happened In December
Nigel Short Simultaneous
Legendary English Grandmaster Nigel Short played a twenty board simultaneous at Edinburgh Chess Club on Tuesday 30th December. Short was undefeated, but Edinburgh Chess Club members Archie Drysdale, David Montgomery and Vipin Zamvar all made draws. Congratulations to all three of them, and thank you to Nigel Short for visiting our club.
Blitz Tournaments
Two strong Blitz tournaments were held in Scotland in December and Edinburgh Chess Club members won both of them
- Nurlykhan Kudaibergen won the Glasgow Winter Evening Blitz with 7.5/9
- Keith Ruxton won the Edinburgh Chess Club Christmas Blitz with 12.5/15.
Freestyle Chess
Congratulations to Ross Blackford who was winner of the first ever Chess Scotland rated chess 960 tournament – the Hamilton Chess 960 Allegro with a perfect score of 5/5. I Presume he is now Scotland’s number 1 player in this form of the game.
Rilton Cup
Freddie Gordon is playing in the Rilton Cup, a strong open tournament in Stockholm. At the time of writing he is on 3.5/5, including a draw with Polish GM Bartlomiej Heberla. His progress can be followed here https://s1.chess-results.com/tnr1301931.aspx?lan=1&art=9&fedb=SCO&fed=SCO&turdet=YES&snr=39&SNode=S0
Top Scot Edinburgh
Congratulations to Dheeraj Kosuru who finished 1st= in the Top Scot Edinburgh Under 800 tournament with 5.5/6.
Edinburgh Allegro League
Games 5 and 6 of the Edinburgh allegro league took place on Thursday 11th December. Edinburgh 1 drew 2-2 against Civil Service 2, and defeated Edinburgh 2 3-1, while Edinburgh 2 lost their other game to Costorphine 1.5 -2.5.
The current league standings are:
- 1. Musselburgh: 19.5 pts
- 2. Civil Service 1: 16.5 pts
- 3. Edinburgh West 1: 16 pts
- 4. Edinburgh 1: 14 pts
- 5. Edinburgh 2: 14 pts
Edinburgh League
The club is seeking more players of all strengths for the Edinburgh league teams. If you are a new player and would like to play for a team please contact Craig Thomson at president@edinburghchessclub.co.uk – beginners especially are welcome.
The following league results are reported from December.
- Edinburgh 1 (Premier Division)
- Away vs Edinburgh West 1: Draw 3 – 3
- Edinburgh 2 (Premier Division)
- Away vs Edinburgh West 1: Lost 2.5 – 3.5
- Home vs Wandering Dragons 1: Lost 0 – 6
- Edinburgh 4 (Division 2)
- Home vs Bank of Scotland 2: Lost 2.5 – 3.5
- Edinburgh 5 (Division 2)
- Away vs Bank of Scotland 2: Result not available yet
- Edinburgh 6 (Division 3)
- Away vs Badgers Brook 3: Won 5 – 1
- Edinburgh 7 (Division 3)
- Away vs Edinburgh West Juniors: Lost 0 – 6 (by default).
- Tiger Cubs (Division 3)
- Home vs Civil Service 2: Lost 2.5 – 3.5
The current league standings are:
Premier Division
- Edinburgh 1: 11 pts
- Wandering Dragons 1: 6 pts
- Edinburgh West 1: 6 pts
- Civil Service 1: 5 pts
- Badgers Brook 1: 2 pts
- Edinburgh 2: 2 pts
Division 1
- Bank of Scotland 1: 8 pts
- Wandering Dragons 2: 6 pts
- Pentland Hills 1: 4 pts
- Costorphine 1: 4 pts
- Edinburgh West 2: 3 pts
- Edinburgh 3: 1 pts
Division 2
- Musselburgh 1: 8 pts
- Edinburgh 5: 6 pts
- University of Edinburgh 1: 6 pts
- Badgers Brook 2: 6 pts
- Sandy Bells 1: 3 pts
- Wandering Dragons 3: 3 pts
- Bank of Scotland 2: 3 pts
- Gorgie Dalry: 3 pts
- Costorphine 2: 3 pts
- Edinburgh 4: 2 pts
- Pentland Hills 2: 1 pt
Division 3
- Civil Service 2 – 8 pts
- Musselburgh 2 – 7 pts
- Bank of Scotland 3 – 4 pts
- Edinburgh 6 – 4 pts
- Sandy Bells 2 – 4 pts
- Edinburgh West Juniors – 3 pts
- Costorphine 3 – 3 pts
- Badgers Brook 3 – 3 pts
- Tiger Cubs – 2 pts
- University of Edinburgh 2 – 2 pts
- Edinburgh 7 – 0 pts
Christmas Quiz
Edinburgh Chess Club Christmas was held on Tuesday December 23rd, and a good time was had by all. Thanks to Bob Kane and Alastair White for organising and running the quiz, and to NewInChess for the book prizes.
Coming up in January
Lothians Allegro
The Lothians Allegro (Organised by Chess Edinburgh) is being played at Bainfield Bowling Club on Sunday 18th January 2026. There are four sections: Open, Under 1900, Under 1600 and Under 1300, with the top two sections being FIDE rated. This is a good tournament for new players because it is local, has a short time control and it only takes one day – you can enter at https://congress.org.uk/congress/651/home.
League Matches
The following Edinburgh league fixtures are played in January and early February.
- Edinburgh 1
- Thursday 15th January 19:30 – home vs Edinburgh 2
- Monday 2nd February – away vs Civil Service 1
- Edinburgh 2
- Thursday 15th January 19:30 – away vs Edinburgh 1
- Monday 26th January 19:30 – home vs Badgers Brook 1
- Edinburgh 3
- Monday 5th January 19:30 – home vs Wandering Dragons 2
- Wednesday 21st January 19:30 – away vs Edinburgh West 2
- Edinburgh 4
- Tuesday 13th January 19:30 – away vs Wandering Dragons 3
- Thursday 29th January 19:30 – home vs Gorgie Dalry
- Edinburgh 5
- Monday 12th January – away vs University of Edinburgh 2
- Thursday 15th January 19:30 – home vs Bank of Scotland 2
- Thursday 29th January 19:30 – home vs Sandy Bells 1
- Edinburgh 6
- Wednesday 4th February 19:30 – home vs Bank of Scotland
- Edinburgh 7
- Tuesday 20th January – away vs Sandy Bells 2
- Tiger Cubs
- Wednesday 14th January 19:00 – away vs Edinburgh West 2
- Wednesday 4th February 19:00 – home vs Sandy Bells 2
Allegro League
Games 7 and 8 of the Edinburgh allegro league will be played on Thursday 8th January 2026. Edinburgh 1 are paired against Badgers Brook and Sandy Bells, while Edinburgh 2 face Wandering Dragons and Bank of Scotland.
Adult Beginner Training Sessions
Vipin Zamvar will be running training sessions for beginners on Tuesday 20th January and Tuesday 3rd February for an hour starting at 18:30.
Talk by Grandmaster Daniel King
Grandmaster Daniel King is giving a talk on Friday 6th February. The title is “The Greek Gift Sacrifice”. Tickets are £29 for club members – register at https://edinburghchessclub.wildapricot.org/event-6470549
Future Events
Talk by Chess Historian Douglas Griffin
Noted chess historian Douglas Griffin will be giving a talk on Thursday 12th March. The subject will be the 1969 World Championship match between Boris Spassky and Tigran Petrosian. Douglas has translated books for Quality Chess, and has published his own translations of many interesting annotations by players from the Soviet Union on his website https://dgriffinchess.wordpress.com/
Other Information
Merchandise
Edinburgh Chess Club has launched a merchandise store – https://edinburgh-chess-club.teemill.com. Thanks to Jenny Wilson for organising this.
Edinburgh Chess Club Links and Social Media
Edinburgh Chess Club has:
- A website – https://www.edinburghchessclub.co.uk/
- A membership site – https://edinburghchessclub.wildapricot.org/
- A facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/edinburghchessclub
- A facebook group – https://www.facebook.com/groups/284858918909145
- An account on X (AKA Twitter) – https://x.com/EdinburghChess
Information about non-club chess events
I was asked a question about finding tournaments to play in outside of the club. I recommend the following:
- Chess Scotland Calendar – https://www.chessscotland.com/calendar– The best place to find events in Scotland.
- ECF Calendar – https://www.englishchess.org.uk/events/ – for events in England and Wales. Occasionally includes events outside the UK.
- FIDE Calendar – https://calendar.fide.com/calendar.php – a well designed calendar, but events seem to appear in it late.
- https://chess-calendar.eu/ – this is comprehensive, but is difficult to search and suffers from having almost every over the board chess event worldwide.
- https://www.echecs.asso.fr/Calendrier.aspx – for events in France – there is also a list of open tournaments https://www.echecs.asso.fr/Default.aspx?Cat=21. It helps if you can read French.