24th May 2016
Barrow A win the South League.
Congratulations
to Barrow A for winning this years South League.
5th May 2016
NCCU Games.
There have been a few games played recently in the NCCU.Minor Semi-finals - Carlisle 2 v Heywood 2 (Hetwood won)
& Beverley 2 v Penrith 2 (Penrith won)
Seniors Bradford 1½ v Barrow 2½
See the NCCU results Web Page for the full details.
28th April 2016
Peter Johnson.
The following Email has been received from Hilary Austin -
Some
sad news, I’m sorry to say. I went down to the care-home this morning
to see how Peter was getting on, and was told that he had passed away
at 6.45 this morning. He had been in failing health for a long time,
and in hospital for part of the last few weeks, but managed to get back
to his home a few days ago, which was more comfortable for him. He was
playing chess at Grange club until about a month ago, and it was one of
the things he enjoyed. Grange and Ulverston were the two clubs he
played at recently, and we shall miss him.
Best wishes,
Hilary
23rd April 2016
Windermere A win the Open League.
Congratulations
to Windermere A for winning this years Open League. In theory, Maryport could level the points with Windermere A
if they won 6-0 in both the remaining matches and Windermere A scored
no points in their last match. But even then Windermere A would take
top place because they would have won more matches than Maryport.
19th April 2016
Whitaker Final.
Congratulations
to Ulverston for winning this years Whitaker Trophy beating Barrow1 by
1 point. Ulverston were outgraded on all 4 boards and
after the handicap was applied needed just a draw on one
board to take the trophy.
Neil Foxcroft defeated George Horne and Ulverston triumphed for the second year running. See the Whitaker Page for the full score.
Neil Foxcroft defeated George Horne and Ulverston triumphed for the second year running. See the Whitaker Page for the full score.
10th April 2016
County Game.
Email From Andy McAtear ( County Match Captain )
Please find attached the result of the match between Lancashire and Cumbria. ( 8 - 4 )
Thanks to everyone for turning out on the day. I hope you all enjoyed
your games regardless of the result. Considering that, on average, we
were out-graded by 15 points per board, we didn't do too badly.
...........Andy.
Details of the match can be seen on the County Chess Page.
5th April 2016
Cumbria AGM 2016.
The 2016 AGM will be at 2 pm on Saturday 23rd July. The venue is the British Legion Club in Barrow.
Jonathan will be giving out details nearer the time.
31st March 2016
Cumbria AGM 2016.
The date for the AGM this year is Saturday 23rd July. The venue is not decided yet, but probably Ulverston or Barrow.
29th March 2016
Cumbria Individual.
The detailed results of the 2016 Cumbria Individual can now be found on the Tournaments Page.
29th March 2016
Pennine Cup 2016
The following is a copy of an email sent to Paul Bielby of Nothumberland by Kevin Southernwood ( Junior Organiser ).
Thanks for organising the Pennine Cup 2016. I think people quickly realised that we were, by and large, rather heavily outrated/overmatched. However rather than disappointment quite a few found it motivational - 'I want to play as well as them!' Also there was some real enthusiasm from the team and support from parents present to have more such events. So I think the positives far outweighed the negatives.
If you are looking for someone to take on trying to organise the event for 2017 then I'd be willing to give it a go.
Cheers
Kevin
Thanks for organising the Pennine Cup 2016. I think people quickly realised that we were, by and large, rather heavily outrated/overmatched. However rather than disappointment quite a few found it motivational - 'I want to play as well as them!' Also there was some real enthusiasm from the team and support from parents present to have more such events. So I think the positives far outweighed the negatives.
If you are looking for someone to take on trying to organise the event for 2017 then I'd be willing to give it a go.
Cheers
Kevin
A report on the recent Pennine Cup between Nothumberland and Cumbria under-16s by Paul Bielby can be found here and on the Juniors Page.
20th March 2016
Cumbria Individual.
Cumbria Chess players enjoyed a marvellous weekend of chess under the Hoad monument at The Coach House Café and Bistro in Ford Park Ulverston.
A quick summary of the resuls -
OPEN
1) Barry Hymer
2) Mathew Mackenzie Higgins Castle Trophy
MAJOR
1) Peter Shaw Keswick Hotel Knight Trophy
1) David Shaw
1) Syd Cassidy ( remember Syd ? )
MINOR
1) Paul Doherty
2) P. Jackson
3) Bill Henderson Greenhalgh Trophy
I did take some photos of the Prize giving, but they did not take properly. Sorry. We need an official photographer !
The whole congress was relaxed, friendly, and smoothly organised by Peter Hanks of Ulverston Chess Club. Many thanks Peter. Well done !
Full details will be published in a day or two after Peter has had a well earned break.
13th March 2016
Cumbria Individual.
Please remember that the Cumbria Individual starts this Friday. If you are playing and not yet entered please ring Peter Hanks on 01229 480584 as soon as possible as he needs to plan for numbers.
Thanks !
Full details and the entry form can be found here.
18th February 2016
Dumfries Allegro
There is an allegro competition at Dumfries on Saturday16th April.
Please note that the venue has changed from last year and from the previous notice posted on the 1st December.
Note the change to timings with games being 25 minutes each now.
The
entry form includes a map and directions and you will see from this
that the venue isn't too far from the previous one which was situated
on St Mary's St.
All the details and an entry form can be found here.
17th February 2016
Cumbria Individual.
Please note that the Major is now open to players graded 150 & under ( not just under 150 )
and the Minor is now open to players graded 125 & under ( not just under 125 )
As it happens the only Cumbrian player affected by the change is Mark Mallard of Sasra who can now enter the Minor if he wishes to !
I think you must have a good chance of winning this section Mark !
There are 3 sections -
Open - open to all
Major - open to players graded 150 & below
Minor - open to players graded 125 & below
Full details and the entry form can be found here.
17th February 2016
County Game.
Details of the recent friendly match between Cumbria & Greater Manchester can be seen on the County Chess Page.
10th February 2016
Cumbria Individual.
This years Cumbria Individual is to be held on 18th, 19th, & 20th March at the Coach House Cafe & Bistro. Ford Park, Ulverston, LA12 7JP
There are 3 sections -
Open - open to all
Major - players graded under 150
Minor - players graded under 125
Full details and the entry form can be found here.
3rd February 2017
Sasra appeal.
The following is an email from Mark Mallard of Sasra.
Hi
Could you possibly run my appeal for guest players again.
I am going to be forced to default boards or matches in the coming months with the retirement of Phil Almond (again). I cannot raise a full team for the next 6 weeks at least.
Thanks.
Regards,
Mark
Note from Dave Shaw - According to our constitution ' No one may play for more than one club in the same league'. However that means that people who have only played in the South League could still play for Sasra in the Open League.
Contact Mark Mallard. markmallard7@aol.com 01946 591012
26th January 2016
ECF Grades 2016
The January 2016 grades have been released. The details are on the Gradings Page and also on the ECF Grading page.
14th January 2016
Cumbria Individual.
The following is an email from Peter Hanks of Ulverston who are this year organising the Cumbrian Individual.
Hello Jonathan, Dave & Dave,
The dates of the Cumbrian Individuals are :- 18th, 19th, and 20th March. To be held in Ford Park.
Do you have any information about last years congress ? Prize money, fees etc. so I can fix them for this year.
I will have further information ready for the website next week,
Peter Hanks
4th January 2016
NCCU Club Championship 2016
Once again the NCCU will be held from January to June. There are Open, Major, Minor, and Senior sections. All the details can be found here.
4th January 2016
4NCL 6th Fide Rated Congress 8-10th January 2016
The above congress takes place at Wetherby this weekend. All the details and an entry form can be found here.
22nd December 2015
Christmas Jokes
Email from Ian Mackay -
Christmas joke for your website.
..When we played Penrith a few days ago & lost, I was bemused to hear a few of the Penrith chess players in the Crown Hotel entrance talking over their first win of the season....so...“What do you call a bunch of chess players bragging about their games in a hotel lobby? Chess nuts boasting in an open foyer!”
Cheers Ian
Note - I am supplying Ian's name so that I do not get blamed ! Dave.
Since I have put Ian's joke on the page, I may as well get rid of the 7 remaining chess jokes that are known to exist. That means we that we can be done with all this frivolity. Merry Christmas.
Interviewer: Do you prefer sex or chess?
Boris Spassky: It depends on the position.
Sally: Really? I didn't know you played chess.
Margaret: I don't. My husband does.
A man is sitting outside of his house with his
hands over his face. when his neighbour, a fellow chess player, asks
him whats
wrong. My
wife says if I attend the chess tournament tomorrow she will take the
kids and
leave me. Thats awful, what are you going to do? 1.e4
as always !
There's a 16
year-old girl
that wants to start dating. She would like to date some guy on the
football
team, but her father doesn't approve. In fact, her father seems to not
approve
of anyone that she starts to date. So the girl comes to her father and
asks,
" Who am I allowed to date?" The father reples, " Someone from
the chess club." The puzzled daughter asks, "Why?" The father
replies, "Because they take hours to make a move."
A scientist stationed at the North Pole spent half
the 1960s
playing postal chess with a scientist stationed at the South Pole. Once
every
few months a dog sled would arrive with supplies, and the scientist
would send
off his move. (No satellite phones or Internet in those days.) After a
few
years, the play had reached a critical stage in an ultra-sharp line of
the
Sicilian Najdorf (Poisoned Pawn Variation). Three months went by and
there was
no reply. Six months, no reply, and the long Arctic winter night had
set in.
The scientist wondered what had happened to his counterpart. Then,
suddenly, he
heard the faint sound of barking across the snow. He stepped out into
the
bitter cold and peered into the starlit darkness. There it was! A sled
speeding
across the ice, its fearless Eskimo driver grinning as he whipped up
his
huskies. Soon the sled drew to a halt by the research station and the
supplies
were unloaded. Then the Eskimo handed over an envelope, gave a cheery
wave, and
was gone into the dark. The scientist hurried in, dropped the envelope,
scrabbled for it with clumsy gloved hands just before it could fall
into the
stove, pulled his gloves off and with trembling hands fumbled at the
envelope.
Finally he managed to unseal it and took out the folded slip of paper.
He
hurried over to the chessboard and turned up the little oil lamp to
read the
long-awaited reply. Taking a deep breath, he unfolded the paper and
read: "J'adoube".
12th December 2015
2016 South Lakes Congress
Trevor Blower has issued the 2016 South Lakes Congress 2016 entry form.
12th December 2015
Capablanca
Notes, photo, and game supplied by Ian Mackay.
I am just back from Cuba...where I visited Capablanca’s impressive grave in Havana (photo attached).
I also attach one of his greatest games; and here are some notes to go with it....
Capablanca has just played Bxc6 and Matisons resigned. What brilliant combination and Queen sacrifice had Capablanca planned after ...Qxc6 that forced Black to resign ?
See the Games Page for the full details.
1st December 2015
Dumfries Allegro Saturday 16th April 2016
There is an allegro competition at Dumfries on Saturday 16th April 2016. All the details and an entry form can be found here.
15th November 2015
Phil Almond v Andy McAtear
Yesterdays (Sat. 14th November) game between Sasra and Penrith C had a surprising result !
Have a look on the Games Page.
14th November 2015
A Short History Of Cumberland Chess by M.J. Armstrong
I have added a pdf of the book
- A
Short History
Cumberland Chess Association 1884 to 1984 Cumbria Chess
Association. - to the Library Page under the heading Historical
Articles. Written by M J Armstrong when he was a student it contains some history
of Cumbria Chess from 1884. The following is a copy of the email that
he sent in reply to my seeking permission to show it. Thanks also to
Dave Phillips for suggesting I read the book, and also for the loan of
it.
Hello Dave,
That's nice, I'm glad to know that the book is still of interest. I would be very happy for you to put as much of it on your website as you wish - unfortunately of course it was written in the pre-computer era so I'm afraid that I don't have anything electronic that I can send to you.
It was never done as a "purchasable" book - I just handed over the script and I think that some of the Barrow players arranged the printing, with the printing costs covered by the Cumbria CA who just sought to recover them with a small unit price.
If you are interested, one of my main sources of information was a rather large box full of papers including the Minute Books back to day 1, which at the time seemed to be the duty of the Secretary to keep, but I think that shortly afterwards they were all handed over to Whitehaven Library for safe keeping.
I was a student at Cambridge University at the time and spent a few days after the end of a term in the University Library which I think had a copy of every book and magazine ever published in Britain, so including a complete set of British Chess Magazines and BCF yearbooks, which were very interesting to peruse. I also spent time in the Carlisle Library trawling through the local newspaper archives, which at least were on microfilm.
I saw Bruce Wallace in Carlisle a few years ago (very sad to hear of his recent death) and he reminded me about the book, saying how proud it made him to be recorded as a member of the first Cumbria team to win a match!
I hope that is of interest, and good luck with using the book on your website.
Best wishes,
Malcolm Armstrong
Hello Dave,
That's nice, I'm glad to know that the book is still of interest. I would be very happy for you to put as much of it on your website as you wish - unfortunately of course it was written in the pre-computer era so I'm afraid that I don't have anything electronic that I can send to you.
It was never done as a "purchasable" book - I just handed over the script and I think that some of the Barrow players arranged the printing, with the printing costs covered by the Cumbria CA who just sought to recover them with a small unit price.
If you are interested, one of my main sources of information was a rather large box full of papers including the Minute Books back to day 1, which at the time seemed to be the duty of the Secretary to keep, but I think that shortly afterwards they were all handed over to Whitehaven Library for safe keeping.
I was a student at Cambridge University at the time and spent a few days after the end of a term in the University Library which I think had a copy of every book and magazine ever published in Britain, so including a complete set of British Chess Magazines and BCF yearbooks, which were very interesting to peruse. I also spent time in the Carlisle Library trawling through the local newspaper archives, which at least were on microfilm.
I saw Bruce Wallace in Carlisle a few years ago (very sad to hear of his recent death) and he reminded me about the book, saying how proud it made him to be recorded as a member of the first Cumbria team to win a match!
I hope that is of interest, and good luck with using the book on your website.
Best wishes,
Malcolm Armstrong
27th October 2015
Gradings List - October Revision.
The grading list was revised on the 25th October. I have updated the Gradings Page with the new details.
25th October 2015
Email Address
Please note that John Dobson, Kendal captain, has changed his email. Details are on the Clubs page.
15th October 2015
Email Addresses
In response to some concerns about 'web-crawlers'
I have replaced the text of email addresses with images.
Web
crawlers do actually trawl the internet for legitimate reasons - that's
how Google works, but some spammers use them to search for email
addresses. This has meant changes to the County Officers and the
Clubs pages. 12th October 2015
Gradings List - September Revision.
The grading list was revised
on the 27th September. I have updated the Gradings
Page with the new details. I was a little late doing this.
Apologies ! I will keep my eyes on the ECF gradings page.
12th October 2015
Whitaker
5th October 2015
Ulverston
Ulverston have unfortunately
had to withdraw from the Open League due to shortage of weekend players
and transport. Fixtures,
Open League table,
and Clubs pages have been
amended.
3rd October 2015
Home Page
I have added a quick reference to the League Tables to the right of the home page.
Any similarity to the BBC News Football page is entirely coincidental !
21st September 2015
Grange
This is to clarify the sutuation about Grange Chess Club and the forthcoming season. They will not be entering any League or Whitaker matches, though they will hold a club night on Monday evenings at 7:30 at Hampsfell House Hotel in Grange. See the Club Page for further details and how to find the venue.
05th September 2015
Whitaker
The Whitaker
draw
has been done. Following comments in the AGM the draw was totally
random. 4 teams were pulled from the hat and these were given byes. The
following 8 teams were written down in order and the 1st team of each
pair are the home team. The same process will be followed after the
first round (without the byes). So you may be at home twice, or away
twice.
Colours are decided by the toss of a coin and the winner can choose.
See section 4.3 of the Constitution for further details Useful link - Whitaker Result Form
Colours are decided by the toss of a coin and the winner can choose.
See section 4.3 of the Constitution for further details Useful link - Whitaker Result Form
05th September 2015
Email from George Horne
Dave
Can you put the following on the CCA website:
I would like to know if any clubs are interested in playing a team in a club competition, with no requirement to be an ECF member. If so please could you let me know.
George Horne
email(georgehorne20@yahoo.co.uk)
These are presumably friendly games as not being an ECF member would mean that the games could not be graded - Dave Shaw
29th August 2015
2015-16 Fixtures
The coming seasons fixtures are now on the Fixtures Page. Please note another version was placed on the Web on Friday 28th August. That has now been replaced. Hopefully this will be the final version ! Please check before you arrange any matches ! Whitaker fixtures will follow in about a week. The following notes have been sent as an email to our Secretaries & Team Captains.
Hello Captains & Secretaries,
If you don't already know I am the new league controller. A few points before the coming season -
- I do not intend to keep sending out emails, so please watch the website for the latest news, fixtures, etc. This is probably the first and last email I will send out.
- The fixtures are out. If you feel that some of your matches aren't that good, eg a long away match, then please be aware I will do my best to reverse this seasons fixtures for next seasons fixtures. i.e simply reverse the home & away teams. This does not apply to the Whitaker for which a random draw takes place after each round.
- The dates given on the fixtures are a guide. Last season seemed OK, so please arrange your matches to suit. If you are going to be a few weeks late, maybe a quick email will stop me worrying. Please be aware that there are no nominated players this season. See the website for further details.
- Please be as quick as you can sending results in. The same day is ideal !
- There was a case last season of a player not being a member of the ECF and the club not paying a game fee. None of his/hers games played were graded. So an ECF member playing this player did not get a grade for the game. This is not fair. I am not entering into arguments, I shall always try to implement our constitution. At the moment a player must be a member of the ECF, or the club pays a game fee, for Cumbria matches. If neither of these apply then, as said already, the game is not graded. Also I will consider this as a walkover for the other player.
27th August 2015
Grange
It is with a mixture of sadness and apprehension that I have to report that Grange have withdrawn from chess competition for the forthcoming season. They simply do not have enough members to run a team or a club night. Some details have been left on the Club Page for any future interest.
26th August 2015
Appeal from Sasra
We
are low on members and are
looking for players to play on our team this season from any part of
the county
(or outside) to either join our club or play on a
guest basis to
assist us in fielding a full team this season. We would welcome offers
from all
grades but we particularly lack a strong top board so anyone
looking to
play Cumbria's top
players might consider this opportunity. Even if you
only play one game close to your home you would be helping us.
Contact Mark Mallard. markmallard7@aol.com 01946 591012
29th July 2015
2015 Congress of the Year !
The ECF awards for 2015 have named the South Lakes Congress as Congress of the year.
Extract from the ECF website -
Approximately 180 people play in five sections, each with £500 prize money. There never seem to be any arguments. However, the crowning glory is the ballroom at the Cumbria Grand Hotel – there are glorious views from the playing area.
Well done to Dave and Trevor, and everbody concerned ! It really is a great congress !
29th July 2015
2015 Constitution
The 2015 Constitution is now available here, and on the Library Page.
26th July 2015
2014 Potter/Wason English Federation for Correspondence Chess Best Game Prize
Wes Bell has been awarded the 2014 Potter/Wason Prize.
More details and the game on the Games Page.
26th July 2015
July Grades are out
Yes, it's that time of year already ! The new grades are out and can be seen on the Gradings Page.
Windermere hold the top 3 spots. No wonder they keep winning everything !