Category Archives: News

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]

Dear Club Member

First of all, another success to report. Last weekend the club defeated Edinburgh West 6-2 in the final of the Richardson Cup, Scotland’s premier team competition.

Activity over the next few months:

  • We have 2 teams entered in the Edinburgh Summer Cup, Edinburgh and Tiger Cubs;
  •  Club Championship and Challengers events final rounds;
  •  Tuesday evening casual games will continue as usual over the summer;
  •  The Club Allegro Championship will take place next month – details to follow;
  •  We will run some Junior Training sessions on early Wednesday evenings. The first one will run from 6.15pm to 7.30pm this Wednesday 24th May. It will be open to all junior members. No pre registration required – but do get in touch if you have any questions;
  • We will also host a blitz event after the training on Wednesday from 7.30pm – open to all members. Again just arrive at the club to play.

Best wishes,

Neil, President