Category Archives: News

What happened in October

Tournament Results

There was a notable success for Bob Kane who finished 2nd in group D (1900 – 1750) with 6.5/9 at the ACO World Senior (50+) Chess Championship.

Edinburgh League

The Edinburgh league kicked off in October. I don’t have all of the results to report, but I do have the following:

Premier Division:

  • Edinburgh 1: 4.5 – 1.5 Edinburgh 2.

Division 3:

  • Edinburgh 5:  2.5 – 3.5 Edinburgh 4.

Allegro League

Round 1 of the Edinburgh allegro league took place on Thursday 9th October 2025. Edinburgh 1 beat Badgers Brook 1.5 – 2.5 and Costorphine 3 – 0. Edinburgh 2 drew 2 – 2 against Wandering Dragons and beat Sandy Bells 4 – 0.

Club Maintenance

A burglar alarm and monitoring system has been installed at the club premises to enhance security. All keyholders will be issued with instructions for using the alarm.

Coming up in November

Tournaments:

Two tournaments are being hosted at Edinburgh Chess Club in the near future:

Wolf of Badenoch Trophy 2025

A 5 round Swiss tournament for players graded below 1600 held on Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd November at Edinburgh Chess Club. Entries should be emailed to Calum McGillivray (calum-1989@hotmail.co.uk). Entry is limited to 28 players, so early entry is advised. See https://www.chessscotland.com/calendar/wolf-of-badenoch-trophy-2025 for more details.

Edinburgh Christmas Blitz

A 15 round 3+2 Blitz tournament held on Saturday 6th December at Edinburgh Chess Club. Entry is via Wild Apricot https://edinburghchessclub.wildapricot.org/event-6409648, or by email to President@Edinburghchessclub.co.uk. See https://www.chessscotland.com/calendar/edinburgh-christmas-blitz for details.

League Matches

The following Edinburgh league fixtures are played in November.

Edinburgh 1

  • Thursday 6th November 19:30 – home vs Civil Service 1
  • Tuesday 11th November – away vs Wandering Dragons 1
  • Thursday 27th November 19:30 – home vs Badgers Brook 1

Edinburgh 2

  • Monday 3rd November 19:00 – away vs Badgers Brook 1
  • Monday 17th November 19:30 – home vs Civil Service 1

Edinburgh 3

  • Tuesday 4th November – away vs Bank of Scotland 1
  • Monday 10th November 19:30 – home vs Pentland Hills 1

Edinburgh 4

  • Thursday 6th November 19:30 – home vs Musselburgh 1
  • Tuesday 11th November 19:00 – away vs Badgers Brook 2

Edinburgh 5

  • Thursday 20th November 19:30 – home vs Wandering Dragons 3
  • Monday 24th November – away vs Gorgie Dalry

Edinburgh 6

  • Tuesday 18th November – away vs Musselburgh 2
  • Wednesday 26th November 19:30 – home vs University of Edinburgh 2

Edinburgh 7

  • Tuesday 4th November – away vs Bank of Scotland 3
  • Wednesday 12th November 19:00 – away vs Edinburgh 7

Tiger Cubs

  • Wednesday 12th November 19:00 – home vs Edinburgh 7
  • Wednesday 26th November 19:00 – home vs Musselburgh 2

Allegro League

Games 3 and 4 of the Edinburgh allegro league will be played on Thursday 13th November 2025. Edinburgh 1 face Civil Service 2 in game 3, and Edinburgh 2 in game 4. In their 3rd game Edinburgh 2 are paired against Costorphine.

Scottish National Chess League

The Scottish National Chess League will be played at Dunfermline Learning Campus, Calaiswood Crescent, Dunfermline, which is a new venue for this season – see https://www.chessscotland.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=2391 for details of the venue. The first four rounds are played in November: rounds 1 and 2 on Sunday 2nd November and rounds 3 and 4 on Sunday 30th November.  The relevant pairings for the first four rounds are

Edinburgh 1:

  • Round 1: Away vs Bon Accord
  • Round 2: Home vs Forth Valley 1
  • Round 3: Away vs Dundee City A
  • Round 4: Home vs Wandering Dragons 1

Edinburgh 2:

  • Round 1: Home vs Kilmarnock
  • Round 2: Away vs Lenzie Basilisks
  • Round 3: Home vs CSBOS 1
  • Round 4: Away vs Edinburgh West 2

Division 3 is a swiss tournament, so the Edinburgh 3 and 4 fixtures are not known in advance, but in round 1 Edinburgh 3 are away to Costorphine and Edinburgh 4 are at home to Dundee City D.

The Dundee Chess Congress 2025 was held the weekend of 10th – 12th October 2025 over 5 rounds again at the University of Dundee’s Chaplaincy Centre. Several club members had an enjoyable weekend playing with some notable results.

Ross Blackford (2027) made a creditable score of 3/6 in the Premier, which included a draw along the way against IM Andrew Greet, and achieved a performance rating of 2109 in the process. Also in the Premier, Chris Sykes (1848) was one of the winners of the U1900 grading prize.

Calum McGillivray (1701) and Keith Aitchison (1644) both just missed out on the winners podium in the Major tournament with 3.5 points.

Several other members took part – apologies if I missed out any other notable achievements!

A couple of club members recently played in the 2025 Amateur Chess Organisation (ACO) World Senior (50+) Chess Championship on Crete.

Bob Kane was first equal in Group D (1751 – 1900) scoring 6.5/9 but losing out in the tie break to Joachim Kellenberger from Switzerland.

126 players from 20 nations took part. Mike Ridge took part in Group C (1901 – 2000) scoring 5/9.

I have been asked to produce a newsletter each month so that you know what has been going on at the club, and what is coming up. This is my first attempt so I may well tweak the format for subsequent months until I find one I like. The chess season really starts getting going in October, so there are a lot things to cover.

What happened in September

Club Champion vs Club Simultaneous

The annual simultaneous match between the Edinburgh Chess Club Champion and the Club was won by 16.5 points to 3.5 by Keith Ruxton. The club champion was unbeaten, however congratulations to Simon Gibson, Findlay Haddow, Bence Mogyorodi, David Montgomery, Mike Ridge, Vandela Ruby and Vipin Zamvar who all made draws.  

Tournament Results

  • Congratulations to Simon Gibson for 1st = at the Edinburgh Park Intermediate Allegro.
  • Congratulations to Keith Aitchison for 1st at the Northumberland Major with 5/5.

Coming up in October

Club Tournaments

Adult Beginners Tournament

Edinburgh Chess Club will be holding a tournament for adult beginners on Saturday 11th October starting at 10:00 am. The tournament will consist of three rounds, where each player will have 1 hour for the whole game. See https://edinburghchessclub.wildapricot.org/event-6376409 for details.

Club Championship and challengers

Registration for the club championship closes on Wednesday 8th October. This will be a 7 round tournament open to all members held over the course of the season. See https://edinburghchessclub.wildapricot.org/event-6357757 for details.

Edinburgh League

The Edinburgh league starts in October, with the following fixtures in the next month or so.

Edinburgh 1

  • Monday 27th October 19:30 – away vs Edinburgh 2
  • Thursday 6th November 19:30 – home vs Civil Service 1

Edinburgh 2

  • Monday 27th October 19:30 – home vs Edinburgh 1

Edinburgh 3

  • Monday 20th October 19:30 – home vs Edinburgh West 2
  • Tuesday 4th November – away vs Bank of Scotland 1

Edinburgh 4

  • Thursday 16th October 19:30 – away vs Edinburgh 5
  • Thursday 6th November 19:30 – home vs Musselburgh 1

Edinburgh 5

  • Thursday 16th October 19:30 – home vs Edinburgh 4

Edinburgh 6

  • Wednesday 15th October 19:00 – away vs Edinburgh 7
  • Wednesday 29th October 19:00 – away vs Tiger Cubs

Edinburgh 7

  • Wednesday 15th October 19:00 – home vs Edinburgh 6

Tiger Cubs

  • Wednesday 15th October 19:00 – home vs Badgers Brook
  • Wednesday 29th October 19:00 – home vs Edinburgh 6

Scottish National Chess League

Rounds 1 and 2 of the Scottish National Chess League will be played in Dunfermline on Sunday 2nd November. Edinburgh will be entering three teams. Please contact Calum McGillivray if you are interested in playing.

A Pint with Kevin (Chess Magazine, September 2024)

Club member Geoff, intrepid journalist and chess-patzer, never turns down the opportunity to mix a pint and chess by interviewing actor, comedian and fellow chess-patzer Kevin James Doyle for Chess Magazine when Kevin appeared in the Fringe!

As part of its drive to support the take up of chess by women and girls, the club was pleased to host another She Plays To Win (SPTW) event in conjunction with International Master Lorin D’Costa during the February half-term. The event was made up of two 5 round Swiss-paired tournaments: one for FIDE rated players and one for Chess Scotland (CS) rated players. David Deary was Chief Arbiter and general support was provided by Jenny Wilson and Ian Whittaker.

Support was also provided by Chess Scotland.

Jenny kindly provided this event report:

Going into the fifth and final round of the FIDE rated She Plays to Win Invitational tournament at Edinburgh Chess Club on Wednesday, four of the eight players were on 2.5 out of five, making for an interesting pairing. The young women playing were all of a very similar rating and there had been many draws in the earlier rounds.

The computer decided that none of the joint leaders would be paired with each other, so there were many result combinations that could lead to a tie for first place. In the end Florence was the only one of the four to win her game and so was clear in the top spot. There was a tie for second place between Angharad and the unbeaten Elyzabeta, but Angharad had a better tiebreak so received the second place trophy.

In the CS graded section Shirya took first place with half a point lead over Maggie, and Melinda was a point behind her in third place.

Not only did the players have the opportunity to go through their own games with IM Lorin D’Costa, they could sit in on his analysis of the other games too. Despite the intense rivalry across the board the atmosphere of the tournament was friendly and supportive. There were players from primary and secondary school, University and beyond, and several different countries represented.

All the games from both sections are available to download

She Plays To Win is a UK Girls Chess Project to try and encourage more girls to participate and learn chess in a fun environment. SPTW is run by the current England International Women’s Chess Coach Lorin D’Costa who has successfully been coaching girls’ chess nationally and internationally for over 11 years.

[Pictures by Jenny Wilson and Ian Whittaker]