2nd Len Hammond Memorial match

Congratulations to Maidstone Chess Club for winning the Len Hammond Memorial match for the second year running.

It was a well deserved victory for Maidstone, who managed to win 5 out of the 8 games.

The Snodland players Matthew Bunn, Tyrone Jefferies and Hugh Broadbent all played extremely well to get draws against higher graded players.

A special mention also goes to Zibby Koncki who defended for a very long time before turning a cramped position into a strong attack which threatened to breakthrough. However, both Zibby and his opponent got into severe time trouble just as the game became extremely complicated and David Munford won a rook, forcing Zibby to resign.

The photo above shows Snodland Captain David Lettington presenting the trophy to Maidstone Captain Bob Fenn.

Snodland success at British Chess Championship

Snodland player David Fowler (pictured) is the new British Chess Champion for players graded under 140. David scored 4.5/5 and achieved a grading performance of 162, which is 26 points above his new grade.

Congratulations go to David for his success, which is well deserved. David's experience in tournament play enabled him to win his final round game with a strong attack after a lot of manoeuvring in a tense middle game.

Another Snodland player, Matthew Bunn, also excelled himself and was the runner-up in the U160 section and the Afternoon Open. Matt scored 4/5 in both competitions, with respective grading performances of 171 and 198.

Ben Spink scored a creditable 5.5/11 in the extremely competitive Major Open, which features many internationally rated players.

Club Championship 2009-10 Final Positions

The Club Championship 2009-10 finished with Bob Fenn as clear winner of the A-league and Hugh Broadbent as clear winner of the B-league.

There were some excellent games played this year, including a nice win from Doug Smith over the pre-tournament favourite Norman Blake.

The Most Improved Player was Pete Hickey who started the season with an estimated grade of 92 but had a tournament performance rating of 116.