2nd April 2020
Alan Ruffle - The Chess Scene
Dear
Cumbrian Friend in chess.
My
name is Alan Ruffle and I have written a book entitled “The Chess Scene”
Fred Clough of Penrith was involved in producing the
book. Well done Fred !
Details here.
21st March 2020
24th South Lakes Open - Postponed
The South Lakes Congress in June has been postponed..
Email from Dave Cole -
The South Lakes Chess Congress (SLC) has been postponed for the foreseeable future due to the Coronavirus outbreak. We have been monitoring the situation in the hope that the situation would improve, but the UK government's action on prohibiting events and gatherings has meant we have reluctantly to postpone the event.
When
the situation improves we will assess if the SLC can be held in future months
and will keep you informed.
Thank
you for your support.
Keep
safe and we hope to see you soon.
The
South Lakes Chess Congress organisers
Cheers
Dave
16th March 2020
Following the update by Boris, we have no option but to cancel, or postpone, all further matches.
We may decide to play some key matches, Penrith A v Windermere, Penrith 1 v Ulverston in the Whitaker, in the summer - if we are lucky !
I might start playing some Cumbria Chess Online games.
Stay safe !
14th March 2020
Coronavirus - Cumbria League Time Limits.
Apparently there is a little bug around.Ar present, Sat 14th March, there are no government guidelines to advise against meetings etc.
If you have not read or heard the info a few hundred times already here they are again. Taken from ECF notes.
HM Government has issued advice on Coronavirus which can be found here – https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-information-for-the-public and here – https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/.
There is also useful advice from the National Council for Voluntary Organisations here – https://bit.ly/2vAW9Di
I know some people are concerned about the virus. It is still up to individuals but a lot of organisations are canceling events. I do not want to put any pressure on any people to play in a match if they do not want to.
So I am not going to award any penalties if matches are not played within our usual time limits.
Play matches if you wish, or even postpone games until the crisis has gone. Maybe even play games in the summer ? If teams are midleague maybe you will simply not bother playing matches.
Stay safe !
24th Feb 2020
Cumbria Individuals
The Cumbria Individuals results be seen here, and on the Tournaments Page.
| Major | Higgins Castle | Roy Ellames |
| Minor | Keswick Knight | Frank Whalley |
| Under 100 | Greenhaugh trophy | Peter Hanks |
Frank Whalley receiving the Keswick Knight Trophy and Roy Ellames receiving the Higgins Castle Trophy.
Note from Tom Bradford of Carlisle.
3 of us travelled from Carlisle and stayed over one or two nights but all the other players were from Barrow and Ulverston clubs. Chess players from the other clubs in the county missed out big time - and were missed by those of us who were there.
Pictures show the trophies awarded and the set up for the final round.
Tom Bradford
21st Feb 2020
Cumberland v Westmorland & Furness
Saturday 25th April 2020
The match will be preceded by a Junior chess event organised by John Lydon the Cumbria Chess Junior Organiser and will lead into the Adult match.
- Junior Event 10.00-12.00
- Coaching 12.00-13.00
- Adult Match 13.00-17.00
- North Captain: Andy McAtear Taken from the following clubs: Carlisle – Maryport – Keswick - Penrith
- South Captain: Dave Cole Taken from the following clubs: Barrow – Kendal – Windermere – Ulverston
The venue is at the Rheged Centre Penrith in a large open space available to be viewed at a distance by the general public. The event is a new competition which hopefully will be an annual event and designed to encourage chess players and to publicise chess to the Cumbrian public. The press will also be invited to report on the event.
Refreshments will be available for the teams and the public invited to play off hand games in an analysis area.
Can Cumbria players who wish to play contact the respective captain below:
- Andy McAtear: andymcatear@btinternet.com
- Dave Cole: davecole5310@gmail.com
Rheged Centre Location
Redhills,
Penrith,
CA11 0DQ.
Tel: 01768 868000
The PDF can be seen here.
16th Feb 2020
Cumbria Open League
The Open League is wide open !
| Team | Games to Play | Points so far | Points Possible |
| Carlisle Bishops | 1 | 24½ | 30½ |
| Penrith A | 2 | 21½ | 33½ |
| Keswick A | 2 | 19 | 31 |
| Maryport | 2 | 17 | 29 |
So Penrith A can take the title with 2 good wins.
Maybe Keswick A or Maryport can do it ? It is possible for Windermere to get to 30½ points.
14th Feb 2020
Cumbria Individuals
The Cumbria Individuals Entry Form can be seen here, and on the Tournaments Page.
4th Feb 2020
Long Marton Primary School
John Lydon has sent a report of a school chess event that he attended on Friday 21st January. It can be seen on the Juniors Page.
4th Feb 2020
County Match Game
Andy has added Alan LLewllyn's game from the recent County game. See it here.
03 Feb 2020
Statcounter Report
In response to a query here is today's Statcounter report for the Cumbria Website.
Below is a similar report for 12 months ago.
Click on the image for the full picture.
1st February 2020
County Match
Andy McAtear
Details are on the County Chess page.
25th January 2020
January 2020 Grades
The January ECF grades have now been issued and can be seen on the ECF Grading page.
The Top 10 grades
| Name | Club | Grade |
| Robin Moss | Keswick | 208 |
| Matthew Mackenzie | Barrow | 190 |
| Roy Ellames | Carlisle Austin Friars | 183 |
| Dave Phillips | Windermere | 178 |
| Stavros Karampatos | Carlisle Austin Friars | 177 |
| Holden Davis | Penrith | 171 |
| Neil Maxwell | Keswick | 171 |
| Jacob McAtear | Penrith | 171 |
| Dave Cole | Barrow | 168 |
| Alex J. Billings | Windermere | 166 |
Congratulations to Robin on leading the table ( again ) !
19th January 2020
Cross Tables
With it being such a near do in the Open League this season I have been inspired to produce cross tables for the Leagues.
Hopefully it will make it easier to visualise the possible permutations.
After trying a few different pages they have finished up on the League Tables Page.
14th January 2020
NCCU Club Championship 2020
The NCCU Club Championship will be held from January-June 2020
The Sections of the Championship will comprise the following:
- Open: Open to all players
- Major: Total grading limit (4 players) 680 Average top 2 boards 180
- Minor: Total grading limit (4 players) 520 Average top 2 boards 140
- Seniors: Open Team Championship (players aged 35 and over) A 4 player team (average age of combined players must be at least 55 years).
All NCCU and Northern Clubs can enter - £10 per team. A third team entering from the same club would only pay £5 A Team comprising three juniors – Free to enter
Could you please enter teams by January 30th.
Winners of each Section to receive an NCCU Trophy and a Digital Clock.
Could you please enter teams by January 30th (When the draw and rules will be sent to team captains.)
Teams wishing to enter should contact:
Dave Cole NCCU Club Championship Organiser email: davecole5310@gmail.com Tel: 0780171841
Apologies for the late notification, am willing to extend the closing date by another week till 9th February if that helps.
ThanksDave
A PDF version of this note is available here.
10th January 2020
Sasra Chess Club
Two members of Sasra Chess Club still meet on most Thursdays at one of the pubs in Whitehaven.
They meet in The Yellow Earl, The Waterfront, and The Whittington Cat.
Contact
-
7th January 2020
Email from Ian Mackay
Is
this the most exciting title race ever?
Six
teams in contention??
Cheers,
Ian
Well yes, it most be the most open for some years ! Looking forward to see what happens !
15th December 2019
Whitaker Semi-Finals
The draw for the Whitaker semi-finals has taken place.
Fortune has declared that 2 local derbies will take place -
Carlisle v Penrith
Ulverston v Barrow
Crowds will be out in their thousands and both matches will be televised live.
See the Whitaker Page for details.
10th December 2019
Email from Andy regarding ECF grading this January
Hello Chaps,
Just to keep you up to speed, I thought I'd pass this on to you. Please read
Brian's e-mail (below) and note the emphasis on dates played.
...........Andy.
Subject: [Graders] Year End
Date: Mon, 09 Dec 2019 19:51:26 +0300From: manager.grading@englishchess.org.uk
To: graders <graders@englishchess.org.uk>Fellow graders,
For us this year end marks the beginning of a new era.
We will be closing the grading period for all results up to 31st December
and please submit all files to Matt Carr by 14th January.
We intend to use the January list, converted to 4 digits, as the starting
point for monthly grading. Hence I would ask you to use more diligence to get
the dates of each result submitted correctly for the new year as it will be
more critical for grading correctly.
Our current plans remain to continue the old three digit process in order to
get out the next August list in traditional format. Monthly grades will have no
status until then, but as our new system gets up to speed we will publish
monthly grades for each month in 2020.
Please Note - Please read the note from Andy dated 23rd September nearer the bottom of the page.
5th December 2019
24th South Lakes Open
The entry form for the 24th South Lakes Congress, 5th- 7th June can be seen here and on the Tournaments Page.
1st December 2019
County Match
Andy has added details of Saturday's match between Cumbria and Lancashire Under 140 in which Cumbria won 7-5.
Details are on the County Chess page.
6th November 2019
Cumbria Rapidplay
Email from Peter Hanks -
1st: Tynedale
2nd: Crown Jewels
3rd: Carlisle Kings
Best board 2: Neil Jones (Maryport).
Best board 3: Jonny Kearney (Tynedale)
Full results can be seen on the Archives Page.
31st October 2019
Martin Gawne at Scarborough
Andy has added a game Martin Gawne (W) v Corbyn from the recent Scarborough Congress.
Martin tied for 1st place in the Major. Well done !
See it on the Games Page.
29th October 2019
Cumbria Chess Publicity
Note from Dave Cole
At the Cumbria AGM it was agreed that we allocate £250 towards helping clubs publicise chess in their areas.
We also agreed to set up a small working party to look at areas where there are no clubs at the moment and also chess publicity around the county in general.
If anyone would like to take part in the working party please let me know and we can discuss a way forward – normally by email/tel.
Clubs can also apply for some of this money for chess promotional activities to be considered by the working party.
I would like to kick things off at the end of November, so a response before then would be appreciated.
Could you pass on to anyone else not on this distribution who you think may be interested.
Thanks
Regards
Dave
26th October 2019
North v South
At the Cumbria AGM and indeed last year’s
AGM, a North v South match was proposed. Nothing happened last season, but
there is a possibility of a match this season if enough players express
interest.
Hopefully if enough are interested we could
have either an 8, 12 or 16 team match – hopefully the latter, played in either
Penrith or Kendal in the new year.
North team: made up from
Carlisle/Maryport/Penrith/Keswick – Captain Andy McAteer
South team: made up from Windermere/Ulverston/Kendal/Barrow – Captain Dave Cole
Interested players should contact the appropriate captain. Deadline might be 16th December, but at the moment all details are very likely to change.25th October 2019
Carlisle withdraw Carlisle Rooks
Carlisle have had to withdraw their Carlisle Rooks team from the Open League.
League and fixtures have been amended.
20th September 2019
Cumbria Individuals
The Cumbria Individuals Entry Form can be seen here, and on the Tournaments Page.
21st -23rd February 2020.
21st October 2019
Cumbria Tournaments
The Cumbria Rapidplay is on Sat 2nd November at The Crown Hotel, Eamont Bridge, Penrith.
Full details and an Entry Form can be seen here and on the Tournaments Page.
If you wish to play and cannot get a team together email Dave Cole and Peter Hanks and they will try and make teams up.
23rd September 2019
ECF Grades
The ECF are starting monthly grading this coming January so we need to send our internal club results to Andy every week.
We could no no worse than follow Bill Hardwick's example which he has been doing on a weekly basis for years now. An example of an email to Andy -
Last night's results - 19.9.2019;-
Club Championship - 90 mins
M Byrne 1 - 0 B Hardwick
Club Rapidplay - 30 mins
J Ovens 0 - 1 A Kirkbride
D Millar 0 - 1 S Barnes
D Millar 1 - 0 J
Ovens
So please start sending Andy your emails every week with your internal club game results.
Thank you !
20th September 2019
Cumbria Tournaments
The Cumbria Rapidplay is now on Sat 2nd November at The Crown Hotel, Eamont Bridge, Penrith.
The Cumbria Individuals is still planned for 21st - 23rd February 2020.
18th September 2019
Barrow
Unfortunately Barrow are not running a team in the Open League this season.
The fixtures have been amended.6th September 2019
Whitaker Round 2 Draw
The draw for Round 2 of the Whitaker took place at Kendal Chess Club last night and can be seen on the Whitaker Page.
The last date that these matches can be played is Sunday 15th December.
10th September 2019
Cumbria Tournaments
Saturday 26th October is the likely date for the Cumbria Rapidplay, though Peter Hanks is to confirm.
21st - 23rd February 2020 is the date for the Cumbria Individuals.
6th September 2019
Whitaker Round 1 Draw
The draw for Round 1 of the Whitaker took place at Kendal Chess Club last night and can be seen on the Whitaker Page.
Note that we have an unusual situation as there are only 2 teams in the first round.
5th September 2019
Carlisle New Team Names
Please note that Carlisle have renamed their 3 teams from the Open League. They are now called Carlisle Bishops, Carlisle Kings, and Carlisle Rooks. Contact details are on Clubs Page.
They are not in any order of strength.
Other clubs are very welcome to do similar if they so wish. Either for the Open League or the Whitaker. If clubs still want to have a first team and a second team in order of playing strength they are very welcome to do so, but there is no obligation to do this.
22nd August 2019
Cumbria Membership Form
Note -
Players can join the ECF individually on-line or through Cumbria – a £1 discount no longer applies on line. A £1 discount does still apply if names are submitted to Cumbria before 31st October.
Clubs can submit en bloc ECF membership applications to the Membership Secretary. If players join on-line, please include their names in this list.
20th August 2019
Junior Organiser
17th August 2019
Fixtures
The 2019-20 fixtures are now on the Fixtures page.
Please note that these fixtures are a simple reverse of last season's fixtures.
Reversing the fixtures means those teams that had 5 away games now have 5 home games.
31st July 2019
Cumbria AGM
Following from our AGM here are the -
There were little changes to match rules -
- Games to played within 4 weeks and 2 days, not 4 weeks and 1 day. This is what was actually used in the latter part of last season
- There is a point deducted from the total team score if a team plays an illegible player, or player out of grade order in League and Whitaker matches.
- Rule 4 2 e) allowing some clubs to amend board order for up to a maximum difference of 5 points was retained.
| 1) applies to League games, NOT Whitaker games. |
| 2) states - " if a club's estimates of playing strength differs from the grading order.....". So it is NOT a method for tactical manoevering. |
25th July 2019
July 2019 Grad25th July 2019
July 2019 Grades
The July ECF grades have now been issued and can be seen on the ECF Grading page.
The Top 10 grades
| Name | Club | Grade |
| Robin Moss | Carlisle Austin Friars | 201 |
| Matthew Mackenzie | Barrow | 187 |
| Stavros Karampatos | Carlisle Austin Friars | 182 |
| Dave Phillips | Windermere | 180 |
| Dave Cole | Barrow | 170 |
| Neil Maxwell | Keswick | 168 |
| Alex J. Billings | Windermere | 167 |
| Holden Davis | Penrith | 165 |
| Roger Hart | Maryport | 163 |
| Martyn Harris | Kendal | 160 |
Congragulations to Robin on leading the table !
es
The July ECF grades have now been issued and can be seen on the ECF Grading page.
The Top 10 grades
| Name | Club | Grade |
| Robin Moss | Carlisle Austin Friars | 201 |
| Matthew Mackenzie | Barrow | 187 |
| Stavros Karampatos | Carlisle Austin Friars | 182 |
| Dave Phillips | Windermere | 180 |
| Dave Cole | Barrow | 170 |
| Neil Maxwell | Keswick | 168 |
| Alex J. Billings | Windermere | 167 |
| Holden Davis | Penrith | 165 |
| Roger Hart | Maryport | 163 |
| Martyn Harris | Kendal | 160 |
Congragulations to Robin on leading the table !
25th July 2019
NCCU AGM Minutes
1st July 2019
Cumbria AGM
Email from Jonathan Rashleigh -
Dear Association Officers and Club
Secretaries
I attach the agenda for the AGM to
be held in Kendal on Saturday 20th July together with the proposals received
for changes to the rules.
The Minutes of last year's AGM held
on 23rd June 2018 and the Special General Meeting held on 1st September 2018
were previously circulated and are available in the library section of the CCA
website together with the current version of the Constitution.
The Abbott Hall Social centre is
not licensed, but tea and coffee will be available during the meeting.
Regrettably there is no adjacent free parking on a Saturday afternoon but there
are pay and display car parks next to the hall and in the adjoining streets.
Kind Regards
The Agenda is here. Please note that the name Bill Henderson was incorrect on that circulated by email and has been changed to Bill Hardwick.
13th June 2019
South Lakes Congress
White to move.
The game between Gary Sharkey and Colin Rees can be seen on the Games Page.
Brilliant game.
11th June 2019
South Lakes Congress 2019
The results of the 2019 South Lakes Congress can be seen here
and on the Archives page.
Another great congress !