The Northumberland Rapid Play Chess Championships will be held on Saturday 5th February, 2022 at Forest Hall Club on Great Lime Rd. The entry form is https://1drv.ms/b/s!ApJgqClPJioLyVubUcxGQKn3ewEm?e=sfnxgY

The six round event runs from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m. and will be held at Forest Hall Chess Club’s (relatively) new venue, Forest Hall Social Club, Errington Terrace, Palmersville, Newcastle upon Tyne NE12 9DQ.

There are 3 sections: Open, Minor (Under 1500) and Junior (Under 16 on 1st Jan. 2022). Time rates for Open and Minor is 20 mins + 10 sec increments, whilst the junior even will be ‘double round’ of 10+5.

Please make club mates and friends aware and let’s get a good turnout for this enjoyable event! All proceeds after venue hire and prizes will go to the Northumberland Chess Association. Please note: If you would like to play, but your club is not affiliated to Northumberland Chess Association (and you live outside the catchment area of Northumberland or Tyne and Wear) you could either affiliate your club to the NCA or join an NCA-affiliated club.  

The downstairs Concert Room at the Forest Hall Social Club is well-ventilated and very large – 300 square metres – and there is ample free car parking either outside the Social Club or outside Aldi, 150 metres away.

Please enter by email to me and pay by bank transfer (details according to the entry form).I will send you a confirmation once your email entry and entry fee have been received.(If you prefer to pay cash on the day, please note there is an extra £2 late fee). I look forward to seeing you there!

Best wishes,Tim Wall

2021-22 NCA Rapidplay Championships

Email timpeterwall@gmail.com OR

Tel/WhatsApp: 0750 372 2366

Happy New Year to one and all. To begin –

Our document inventory https://1drv.ms/x/s!ApJgqClPJioLyRCgPU8hDjoVCzHD?e=6WZZZ2 has been updated with Tim Wall’s latest Chronicle articles. Worth a look.

The latest League Tables can be viewed at League Table | ECF League Management System (ecflms.org.uk) and

You can browse match results at Fixtures | ECF League Management System (ecflms.org.uk) . From there if you click on a result you will be presented with the match card details.

Finally – the Northumberland Rapid Play Chess Championships will be held on Saturday 5th February, 2022 at Forest Hall Club on Great Lime Rd. The entry form is https://1drv.ms/b/s!ApJgqClPJioLyVubUcxGQKn3ewEm?e=sfnxgY

Enjoy – Mick

The inventory at

https://1drv.ms/x/s!ApJgqClPJioLyRCgPU8hDjoVCzHD?e=6WZZZ2

has been updated to include Tim Wall’s latest Chronicle articles and a Links tab, initially populated with links to LMS Results and Fixtures. Cut and paste it to load and see what’s going on across our chess scene 🙂

To see all matches played to date go to

https://ecflms.org.uk/lms/node/1396/ofixtures (paste this link into your browser)

From there you can click on the individual Result to see who played who and/or click on the League Tables button to get standings in all divisions.

Thank you to everybody who participated and/or helped make the congress what it was. Arbiters, players (137 – including 2 GMs and an IM), local volunteers and Parks staff ensured the event was a wonderful success. Major prize winners were –

OPEN
1st Daniel Gormally 4.5/5
2nd= Nigel Davies, David Fitzsimmons 4

MAJOR
1st Andy Hill 4.5/5
2nd John Turnock 4
3rd= Ned Carmichael, Andy Trevelayn, Roger Murrell, Stuart Skelsey, Mark Taylor, Greatorex Mark 3.5

MINOR
1st = Ian ROOK, Noel BOUSTRED, Eddie CZESTOCHOWSKI, Daniel SHEK, Ross BLACKFORD 4/5

FOUNDATION
1st Neil Simpson 7.5/10
2nd Deborah Edmundson, Max Piotrowicz 7

The same venue/rooms have been booked for next year, weekend September 23 – 25.

The following link will get to to our inventory of NCA documents.

https://1drv.ms/x/s!ApJgqClPJioLyRCgPU8hDjoVCzHD?e=6WZZZ2

Cut and paste this into your browser and you will get an Excel spreadsheet containing links to all documents pertaining to NCA that I have identified to date e.g. Tim Wall’s Chronicle reports, Constitution, Minutes etc.

I will commit to updating this and reissuing first Friday ever month commencing Nov 5.

This way everything we do is in ‘our’ public domain and a small step towards engaging members at individual level – well that’s the idea!

Any issues contact mickriding@hotmail.co.uk

So….drum roll…….

Open Northumberland 7 Devon 5
Minor Open Northumberland 7 Essex 5
U1800 Northumberland 8.5 Leicestershire 3.5

Despite fewer entries this year we are obviously delighted, we did our bit 🙂 Thank you to all NCA members for your wonderful support in both this and last year’s events. We will find a way to celebrate, just need to get everybody back and happy playing over the board.

That’s it from me am afraid. Don’t care if it’s an alien invasion next time. Over to one of you guys – it is very very rewarding mind 🙂

Greetings and I hope this post is finding you well. It is an attempt to summarise events of the last few months. Sorry for any duplication – and any omissions/queries shout at mickriding@hotmail.co.uk So….

Following our AGM –

Andy Trevelyan has replaced Chris Goodall as League Conductor. Thank you Chris for all your hard work over the years.
Gradings will now be automated via the ECF League Management system, as will fixture generation. Feasibility work has completed and training material is being produced. Work is also ongoing to migrate fixtures, results and league tables from LMS to NCA Website so that people who are used to referencing the NCA website for this information can still do.
Mike Smith has stood down as Chronicle reporter after 5 years. Tim Wall takes over.
Lara Barnes is now NCA President.

I will publish minutes from the AGM and other Exec meetings in the very near future.

The (over the board) Summer KO is underway and an advanced. Jay Steel is doing a great job organising. The current draw is –

Cup Semi-Final
Gosforth A v Morpeth
Gosforth B v South Shields B

Plate Quarter Final
Jesmond v Leam Lane
South Shields A v Forest Hall C
Forest Hall D v Forest Hall A
Tynemouth v Forest Hall B

All our teams will play in the three sections of the ECF Online County Championships this year. Finals day will be streamed live online and I will advise you of the link when it is set up. A great achievement following last year’s Open win and thanks are due to the 50+ players who have represented us so far.

The North East league has concluded it’s third season. – with 24 teams competing in 4 divisions. Winners this time out were Gosforth Empire (D1), Gosforth Nomads (D2), Durham City C (D3) and Tynemouth and Morpeth Colliers (D4). Teams including Leeds, Darlington and Bishop Auckland competed. A great organisational effort by Tim Wall. I should also add Gosforth’s success was very aided by some strong ‘guests’.

The OTB Forest Hall Rapid Play was held July 31 and a great success. James Moreby (6/6) and Richard Symonds (4.5) were 1 and 2 in the Open whilst Albert Griffiths (10/12) and George Bowman (9.5) in the New 2 Chess event. Again, thanks to Tim Wall for organising this.

The latest NCA Bulletin – 163 – is with proof readers and expected to issue w.c. August 30.

The League will start first week after the Northumberland Weekender (60+ entries to date) https://northumberlandchess.wixsite.com/congress – an event preceded by Tim Wall’s Masters https://northumbriamasters.com/2021/05/. Clubs open to date include Forest Hall, Gosforth, Leam Lane, Morpeth and South Shields. Am I missing any?

A big write up. I will consolidate the above into an NCA update and post it in a file containing links to various items of interest – hopefully this weekend. And remember, if there is anything missing from the above that you believe is important I’d welcome a prompt.

Best – Mick