Snodland go National!

Snodland Chess Club have entered the Four Nations Chess League  (4NCL) Rapidplay competition for the first time ever.

The event will see Snodland compete with the best in the UK for a prize fund of £1000.

Five club members, Matt Bunn, George Hollands, David Lettington, Rob Thompson and Matt Gazes make up the squad for the competition which occurs on 29th September in Milton Keynes.

Four players will play in each round, with one player sitting out. There are seven rounds in total and, in each game, each player will have 10 minutes on the clock, with an additional 10 seconds per move, which is added automatically by the digital timer.

Good luck to the team!

Club Championship to start

The Snodland Club Championship is about to start. We look set to have fifteen players competing for the title of Club Champion (known as the A-league Champion) this year, with the top seed being Matthew Bunn.

The club will also award titles to the Most Improved Player, the B-league Champion, C-league Champion and Speed Chess Champion. Once the season draws to a close we also hold our popular knockout competition, the Challenge Cup.

Good luck to everyone taking part!

4th Len Hammond Memorial Match

Snodland Chess Club will kick off the new season with a friendly match against local rivals Maidstone on Wednesday 19th September. The match will be held in honour of Len Hammond who played for both clubs. Maidstone have managed to win all three of the previous encounters, so hopefully it will be our turn this year!

Kent County Chess Association website

The KCCA have moved their website to: www.kentchess.org.uk

The Caro-Kann Crusher

It's good to play games face to face, but a little practice on the internet at fast time limits can sharpen up your skills too! This game was played with 15 minutes each on the clock.

Below is a game played earlier this week, where white crushes the Caro-Kann opening after black nabs all of the material on offer without any regard for white's attacking possiblities.

Look out for a pawn sacrifice on move 10, a bishop sac on move 14 and a rook sac on move 22!

5th Snodland Rapidplay

The 5th Snodland Rapidplay took place on 21st July and the winner, for the fourth time, was FM Martin Taylor of Rainham. Full results here: www.snodlandcongress.blogspot.com

Presentation Evening 14/06/12

This year the Deputy Mayor of Tonbridge and Malling, Councillor Howard Rogers was in attendance to present trophies to the prizewinners. First however, there was one game being played to decide the winner of the Challenge Cup.

This game was being played in isolation between George Hollands and Rob Thompson with the moves being transferred to FIDE Master Steve Giddins in the main club room where he analysed each move for club members and answered any questions they had about the game. This was an exciting game made all the more interesting and informative for members by being able to look at alternatives moves before they were played.

A hard fought game ended with a win for George. The Deputy Mayor then presented trophies to the following winners:- "A" league George Hollands, "B" league Bob Fenn, "C" league Brian Stock, "Speed Chess" George Hollands, "Most Improved player" Hugh Broadbent, "Challenge Cup" George Hollands, "Best Game" David Lettington.

This has been an excellent season for Snodland Chess Club, because in addition to the above David Fowler and his team won the Harvey Cup competition and Nick Allen and his team won the Intro Cup in the Kent Chess Association inter club competitions. Well done to all who took part. Report by Bob Fenn The Deputy Mayor presenting George Hollands with the Speed Chess Cup.
 The Deputy Mayor presenting Brian Stock with the "C" league trophy.
 The Deputy Mayor presenting Hugh Broadbent with the Most Improved player trophy.
 The Deputy Mayor presenting David Lettington with the Best Games Trophy.