Category Archives: Club events

Dear Club Member,

There is a new Team event scheduled to begin on Sunday January 31st – the Scottish Online Chess League (SNOCL). Format is 2 rounds per day, rapid format (25mins + 10s / move), teams of 5 players. Further information is here.

Please let me know if you are interested in playing. We may enter a number of teams if there is sufficient interest.

We had good numbers for last week’s Tuesday and Wednesday events and will continue with the same formats again. Both start at 7.45pm and run for 90 minutes.

Finally, we will play against the Mechanics Institute on Saturday Feb 6th. If anyone has experience of Team matches on chess.com then please let me know.

Thanks

Neil

[The Mechanics’ Institute Chess Club in San Francisco is the oldest chess club in the United States.]

Dear Club Member,

Happy New Year! Hopefully 2021 will see a return to over the board chess, and we will be able to meet in person at the club.

This week, as well as the Wednesday blitz event, we will run a friendly event with a slower time control on Tuesday.  This will hopefully appeal to those who like a bit more time for their games, and less experienced players as well. Both events will start at 7.45pm and will last 90 minutes, but you can join whenever suits.

Tuesday event: 10 mins + 5 sec/ move:
https://lichess.org/tournament/OPJd8F8Y
(you need to be a member of the Edinburgh Chess Club lichess group to join)

Wednesday event: Blitz 3 mins + 2sec / move
https://lichess.org/tournament/ifvbJrHP
(password is 1822 to join)

Best wishes,
Neil

Dear Club Member

Tuesday Evening Social

We have arranged a zoom meeting for Tuesday (15th December)  at 7.45pm for which members have been sent an email invitation.  It will be an informal meet, with a chance to catch up with other club members.

If there are a few newcomers I can give a quick tour of lichess online, and there will be an opportunity to play or watch some chess too.

Match against Spartak Vlasim

We lost a blitz match on Tuesday against Czech side Spartak Vlasim by a score of 46-35. Our team was Calum MacQueen, Sergio Bermudez, Neil Berry, Daniel McGowan, Graeme Kafka, David Oswald, Willie Rutherford, Duncan Grassie, Mike Ridge. Calum and Sergio led the way, scoring 8 and 7.5 /9 respectively. An enjoyable (but tough!) match.

Spartak have close ties with Czech GM David Navara, and David kindly sent us a signed copy of his book “My Chess World” for our library.

Wednesday Blitz

Link is below. Password 1822 to join, kick off is 7.45pm as usual.
https://lichess.org/tournament/rz54FtR4

Best wishes,

Neil

Dear Club Member,

Thank you to Andre for getting the Online Club Championship up and running.

Tuesday 8th December

We are playing an online match tomorrow evening against a very strong Czech side Spartak Vlasim.  One of their players visited the club last summer – see the link [get Google to translate the Czech into English in your browser – their visit to the club itself in Edinburgh was probably the highlight of the trip and see a lovely photo of Colin!].  The club have contacts with GM David Navara, who has sent us a signed copy of his new book!

Wednesday 9th December

This Wednesday’s blitz tournament has a 7.45pm start. [Members have been emailed link and password to join: password is 1822 click on https://lichess.org/tournament/OylbsQ2a to join.]

Tuesday 15th December
I suggest we have an informal catch up on Zoom as an alternative to the Christmas evening.  There will be an opportunity to play some informal chess on lichess – and can also go through the basics of online chess for any new members. [Members have been emailed link and password to join].

Best wishes

Neil

On May 23rd, we played an online match against Andre’s old club from Germany, SK Bebenhausen. The format was a 9 player Scheveningen tournament, which means that each player from Edinburgh plays 1 game against each of the Bebenhausen team (and vice versa). The time control was 5 minutes + 3 second increment, so all games were played in one session. The system was very efficient, you challenged each opponent in turn and submitted the result afterwards on the lichess group forum.

The final Score was Edinburgh 42 – 39 Bebenhausen. We edged a close match! Our top scorers were Calum MacQueen (7/9), Adam Bremner and Sven Stocklose (both 6.5).

Some highlights from the event:

Rudolf Brauning top scored for Bebenhausen, but ran into an inspired performance from Alastair. Notes mainly from the winner.

Thanks to our opponents, and to Andre for arranging the match. It was great fun and played in a friendly spirit.

With the UK in lockdown, the club are considering what activities can be run online for the time being. We are openly looking for suggestions and feedback from members. I have created a very simple online survey (3 questions) to do so:

Online Chess Survey

The blitz events have proved popular so far. With people being asked to stay indoors for more weeks to come, other events may also appeal and we will take forward those that are of interest.

Neil