News

16 April 2025

Round 4 of the Leslie Baker Swiss took centre stage upstairs at the Herdsman this evening.  Tom Dimaline took advantage of the postponement of the board one game to move into top position with a fine victory over Kieran Lappin.  Paul Barker lost on time in the heavyweight clash on board 3 with Henry Spedding, whilst Andy Jenkins defeated Mark Calderwood with the black pieces.  White fared better on boards 6 and 7 where Roger Aris and Avi Singh were victorious over Aidan Jelf and Peter Davies respectively.  It was back to black wins on the lower boards: Nick Tweddell beat young Alex Adarski, Evelina Racheva beat an improving Laura Friedlander and Richard Morrison won his game against Leanne Balsdon.

The pre-eminence of the black pieces continued in the club minor championship where Will Slater moved back into a share of first place with an endgame victory over Liam Drew; and in the challenge game where Nick Hanne used the black pieces to defeat John Preece

15 April 2025

Hereford won a six board challenge match against Leominster this evening.  Hereford had white on odd boards at the Leominster Community Centre and wins for Will Slater and Aidan Jelf (both with black), supported by 3 draws from the players of the white pieces were enough to give Hereford a 3.5-2.5 victory.  Individuol board results are on the 'Challenge Games' pages.

9 April 2025

Kieran Lappin beat Richard Morrison with the black pieces in round 3 of the Leslie Baker Swiss this evening and will play Tom Dimaline in round 4 next week for the right to play on board one in the final round with a chance of winning the tournament.

The full pairings for round 4 of the Leslie Baker Swiss have been posted on the tournament pages of this website.

Meanwhile Chris Tremayne took himself into sole lead in the Major section of the club championship with a victory over Aidan Jelf and, whilst several social games were being played on the night, Lee Davis won a challenge game against Jack Clark and the challenge game between Nick Hanne and John Preece was agreed drawn.

2 April 2025

Henry spedding only needed to make a fleeting visit to Hereford Chess Club this evening to re-affirm his commanding lead at the top of the club championship.  It was only a few moves out of the opening when his opponent; John Preece, dropped a whole knight to a forking check on d5,  This left Lee Davis to nurse home a central passed pawn in his game with Paul Barker as he attempted to cling on to Henry's coat-tails.  Paul offered a sporting resignation when his pieces were pushed back into defensive positions and the extra pawn became unstoppable.

There was a full programme of games in the Major championship.  Roger Aris took advantage of Avi Singh's oversight to force a checkmate in what Roger later reported as being a level position.  Nick Twedell tried to force through a centralised pawn but somehow along the way he lost a whole rook.  The last game to finish was a 'book draw' Rook & Pawn vs Rook & Bishop endgame between Aidan Jelf and Kieran Lappin with Aidan battling right to the end for a win before having to accept a draw offer.  Nevertheless this is a very creditable result against an opponent who out-rated him by around 200 points.  Three players now share the lead in this section but Roger Aris has two games in hand on his rivals and has white in both of the games he has still to play against them.

In the Minor championship Peter Davies moved into third spot with a win over Leanne Balsdon whilst Jack Clark won a challenge match against Richard Morrison after trapping one of Richard's pieces in a pawn fork very early in the game.

1 April 2025

The new ECF ratings are out today and congratulations go to Blake Newman who is this month's 'biggest climber' with a substantial gain of 48 rating points from his games in March.

The less said about Lee Davis' plummeting grade the better at this point, I think. 

The new ratings can be found under the 'membership' tab on this website.

26 March 2025

Five games in the various sections of the club championship were played this evening.  In the only round 8 game played in the championship proper Jack Clark saw off the challenge of John Preece with a fine exchange scarifice that forced a win in an otherwise tense position.  This result consigns John to sit in the last place in this section whilst Jack now joins three other players on two and a half points - one and half points behind the tournament leader.

In the major section Chris Tremayne got his campaign back on track with a victory over Avi Singh and he will have been cheered to see Aidan Jelf fight off Richard Morrison's attack and secure the full point.  Aidan's win makes what was already a hard-to-predict section even more open; with six of the seven contestants all in with a chance of taking the title.

In the Minor section Alex Adarski moved into sole lead with a win over Leanne Balsdon after chivalrously overlooking Leanne's illegal castling manoeuvre.  Blake Newman scored his second win in this section by beating Liam Drew ; who had been the early leader of the tournament.

The evening was rounded off with a rated challenge match between Peter Davies and Kieran Lappin which went Kieran's way with the black pieces.

19 March

The Club Championship reached it's half-way point on Wednesday and Henry Spedding, in his rookie year, has a commanding one and a half-point lead after top seed Lee Davis blundered in the better position and had to battle to draw his game against Nick Hanne.  It could have been much worse for Lee had Nick converted the difficult technical win he had as a result of Lee's blunder.

There was an upset in the Major championship when top seed Kieran Lappin lost to Nick Tweddell.  Kieran continues to lead in what looks to be a very open section, but has played more games than his closest challengers: Roger Aris and Richard Morrison, who fought each other to a stand-still in a rook and pawn ending.

Peter Davies blew the minor tournament open with a victory over Will Slater who had previously held a 100% record.  Peter used the exciting King's gambit to checkmate Will's king.  Alex Adarski now joins Will as joint leaders of this section and the title looks to be between these two.  Leanne Balsdon secured her second point of tournament when Blake Newman resigned with a small material disadvantage.

Jack Clark beat Evelina Racheva to reach the semi-final of the Plate Knock-out.

With no scheduled Club Championship Henry Spedding 'kept his eye in' with a victory over Tom Dimaline in a challenge match. 

Results and standings can be found on the 'Tournaments' pages of this website.

12 March

The drama this evening was mostly to be found in the club minor championship where Leanne Balsdon pushed Will Slater all the way before he was able to maintain his 100% record.  Alex Adarski moved into second place, only one point behind Chris, by following up his round six victory over Evelina Racheva with a round seven win against Peter Davies; all the more impressive in that Alex had the black pieces in both games.  Peter himself had beaten Blake Newman in round six but Blake bounced back strongly in round seven by defeating Evelina Racheva.

The major championship looks to be heading for a tight finish.  Kieran's return to form took him to top spot with a win over Richard Morrison.  Richard sacrificed a bishop for two pawns but never had quite enough pressure to justify the loss of material.  Roger Aris moved alongside Richard into joint second after winning a rook for a knight in his game against Chris Tremayne; who had been the early leader in this section.

In the only game to be played in the championship itself Henry Spedding beat Jack Clark to maintain his top spot and open up daylight between himself and his rivals, whilst in the quarter finals of the club knockout Paul Barker prevailed in a tactical game against Aidan Jelf and he will play either Dillan Duke or Henry Spedding in the semi-final.

5 March

Four games were played in two sections of the club championship this evening.  In the Championship proper Jack Clark was unable to take a fleeting opportunity for an upset victory over Paul Barker, and with both players under time pressure Paul came out ahead in the tactical melee to score a victory to take him into second place in the standings.  Nick Hanne won his game against John Preece.  The game could have gone either way but the victory fell to Nick to create a 3-way tie for third place in the table.

In the major section Chris Tremayne dropped a knight early on in his match against Richard Morrison and although Chris was able to recover somewhat the material disadvantage was too great to prevent Richard from going to the top of the table with 3 straight wins.  The other game in this section was a marathon struggle between old friends and rivals.  Kieran Lappin eventually came out on top against Roger Aris to move into second place in the table after a poor start to the year.

Results and standings can be found on the 'Tournaments' pages of this website.

1 March

The March ECF ratings are out and are available on the membership pages of this website.  Richard Morrison joins the list at number 4 with a provisional grade.  Somehow, despite his appalling form, Lee Davis manages to cling on to being able to refer to himself as a two thousand player,   This month's award for the most improved player in the rankings is a family affair: shared between Alex Adarski and Evelina Racheva.

26 February

Paul Barker and Henry Spedding played out a draw in the club championship this evening.  Lee Davis failed to take adbvanatage of this result when he messed up a simple winning endgame and had to concede a draw against John Preece.  So Henry preserves his one point lead in the championship.

Kieran Lappin blew the major championship wide open by beating section leader Chris Tremayne.  Chris had two bishops versus two knights in an endgame.  Received wisdom is that the two bishops convey an advantage but Chris had the poorer pawn structure and fell to a loss after missing an opportunity to trap and win one of Kieran's knights.

There was a full programme in the minor section with wins for Liam Drew over Leanne Balsdon, Alex Adarski over Blake Newman, and Peter Davies over Evelina Racheva.

All the results and standings are posted on the tournament pages of this website.

19 February

There was a major shock in the club championship on Tuesday night when the tournament favourite and top seed; Lee Davis was ripped apart in 18 moves by debutant Henry Spedding.  Lee made an unwise opening choice and kept his king in the centre too long allowing Henry a vast array of tactical routes to a quick victory.  On the Wednesday evening however Nick Hanne showed how to play with more circumspection against Henry and gained a vetry creditable draw.  All the protagonists have now played 3 rounds and Henry stands unbeaten one point clear of the field.  The remaining 5 players in the 'chasing pack' are separated only by one half of a point.

In the Major championship new member Richard Morrison gained his second win from two games by beating Nick Tweddell whilst Kieran Lappin got his first win with a victory over Avi Singh.  Chris Tremayne still leads this section but Roger Aris and now Richard lie only a half point behind him, each with a game in hand.

In the Minor the very short-odds favourite Will Slater survived from being a pawn down to win his game against Evelina Racheva to preserve his 100% record.  Liam Drew dropped a rook in what looked a level position when playing Alex Adarski.  Alex's 2 points from 3 games probably places him as the main challenger to Will's domination of this section.

To ensure an even number of competitors. Richard Morrison has kindly agreed to take over Les Collard's place in the Leslie Baker Swiss and will play his round 3 game with Kieran Lappin on 9 April.

12 February

Turn out was low at Hereford Chess Club this evening but four compettitve games were completed.

In the Major league there featured an exciting topsy-turvy game between Aidan jelf and Richard Morrison. Richard lost a pawn early, then lost his bishop due to a fork with his knight. Aiden then won the exchange  with a discovered attack on Richard's queen.  Richard responding by attacking with his queen and knight, which won him two pawns and severely weakened Aidan's king. Richard forked Aidan's king and queen with a knight but his own queen was attacked.  Aidan's king was by now very eexposed but with there are pieces are about to come off the board and he's a rook for 3 pawns up.  Richard won a knight back,so he was  now just down by the exchange and has 3 passed pawns.   With Aidan's king  on the run, Aiden lost a rook, but he had an advanced pawn protected by his king which forced Richard to sacrifice his rook for the passed pawn, and he also lost his knight.  So when the smoke partioally cleared it came down to Aidan's king & rook Vs Richard's king and 4 pawns.   Richard lost another pawn en route but managed to force one of his pawnds over to a queen and durly won.  Great fun to watch but exhausting and exasperating for the players I'm sure.

Leanne Balsdon's game against Alex Adarski in the minor league was also eventful and exciting.   Alex pressed against the uncastled white king and, after doubling the f pawns, he won an early pawn.  Leanne then lost the exchange, but later won a queen for 2 minor pieces.  Alex managed to queen a pawn and won the game after Leanne blundered.. 

In the club knockout  Javier Faucher pressed with the two bishops against Roger Aris' cramped position with doubled g pawns and an uncastled king.  Javier used the two bishops well supporting his queen and rooks to win material and forcing Roger to resign when a piece down with doubled pawns and a weak king.

 In the club plate Evelina Racheva and Nick Tweddell played a slow  tactical game where Nick was able to use his two bishops to press in the centre against Evelina's weak pawns.  In this way Nick won two minor pieces but lost the game on time in a winning position.

6 February

Hereford Chess Club is saddened to have to inform readers of the death of the club's chairman and long-standing club member; Les Collard.

Les was Herefordshire champion outright in 1966,1967, 1973, 1987, and 1996 and was joint Herefordshire Champion in in 1968, 1990, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2010.

So 12 times Herefordshire Champion in all.

He was also Hereford club champion in 1976 and joint club champion in 1992

Les' gentle kindness was well known amongst club members and this short BBC video, although not chess related, will give a good understanding of his generosity :  Teddy bear sale to do 'lasting good' for Herefordshire wildlife - BBC News 

The club is in contact with his family and when we know more, we will keep the membership informed.

5 February 2025

Round 3 of the Leslie Baker Swiss took centre stage at the Herdsman this week with nine of the scheduled ten Round 3 games taking place.  The upset of the round came on board 4 where Andy Jenkins, in a difficult tactical game, lost on time to Tom Dimaline whose rating is more than 200 points lower than Andy's.  There were two hard fought games on the top two boards.  Dillan Duke prevailed against Paul Barker on board one when Paul got low on time , whilst Lee Davis won through after surviving an attack from Henry Spedding.  Henry missed a winning knight sacrifice on move 33.  

On board 5 Javier Faucher won two pawns in the middle game against Nick Tweddell.  This weakened Nick's uncastled king and more material soon followed.  Alex Adarski dropped his queen when the position was close in his game against Chris Tremayne.  In a tense and equal middlegame Mark Calderwood grabbed a pawn against Evelina Racheva and with a bout of manoevreing managed to get his pieces on to the winning squares.  Aidan Jelf against Avi Singh was equal until Avi blundered in the late middlegame.  Leanne Balsdon had a bit of a nightmare and lost quickly to Roger Aris and Peter Davies beat Laura Friedlander on bottom board.

One game was played in the Minor Championship and it was an important one.  Will Slater maintained his 100% winning record with a victory over Liam Drew.  This result saw Will draw level with Liam at the top of the table but crucially Will retains his game in hand on his challenger.

All results and standings are posted on the tournaments pages of this website

1 February 2025

The February ECF and FIDE grades have been published and are available on the 'Membership' pages of this website.  January was an exceptional month for Liam Drew who has improved his rating by a massive 172 points. Aidan Jelf and JohnPreece also made significant gains whilst Henry Spedding now has a full rating which takes him into 6th place on the club standings.

29 January 2025

A range of competitions were represented in the games played at Hereford Chess Club this evening.  In a game from Round 2 of the club championship Paul Barker played the opening well against top seed Lee Davis and easily secured the draw.  In the Minor championship there were wins for Liam Drew and Will Slater, both with the black pieces, over Evelina Racheva and Alex Adarski respectively. In the final two games to be played in Round 2 of the Leslie Baker swiss Avi Singh beat Laura Friedlander and Nick Tweddell won his game against Leanne Balsdon.

In the club knockout while Andy Jenkins progressed to the sem-final with a win over Kieran Lappin, Henry Spedding, playing black, accepted a draw offer from top rated Dillan Duke in a sharp tactical early middlegame.  This 3rd round tie will go to a replay.  In the club plate Jack Clark eased into the 2nd round past Laura Friedlander whilst Chris Tremayne became the first player to reach the semi-final with a win over Peter Davies.

All results and standings are posted on the tournaments pages of this website.

22 January 2025

The 3 sections of the Hereford Championship are beginning to take shape with Henry Spedding taking the early lead in the Championship proper in his first season with the club.  Henry has two wins from two games and leads by half a point from Jack Clark and John Preece.  Henry's 3rd round game was postponed but Jack secured an efficient win over Nick Hanne after Nick's early blunder.  John had  a long positional struggle with Paul Barker which was heading Paul's way with a passed pawn before Paul blundered a rook in time pressure.

In the Major Championship Chris Tremayne regained the lead from Roger Aris, despite Roger's 2-game 100&% win record.  Roger didn't have a game this evening and Chris benefited from his opponent, Aidan Jelf, playing too quickly and missing a knight fork leading to a loss of the game.  The shock early leader in the Minor Championship is Liam Drew who beat Peter Davies on the night and has scored two wins form two games.  Leanne Balsdon scored a good win against Evelina Racheva to move into 3rd place.

All results and standings are posted on the tournaments pages of this website.

8 January 2025

The Hereford Championship kicked off the new year upstairs at the Herdsman club this evening.  Henry Spedding took a very early lead in the championship section with a victory over Les Collard whilst in the two other games played Jack Clark drew with John Preece and Paul Barker drew with Nick Hanne.  Jack may have had the better position but agreed a draw with very little time left on his clock.

In the Major section Roger Aris won quickly with black against Nick Twedell whilst top seed Kieran Lappin fell to a sharp tactical shot from Chris Tremayne. Liam Drew's first victory in a competitive OTB game was the highlight of the Minor section.  Liam shares top spot in this section with Will Slater whose opponent, Peter Davies, resigned in a difficult position but one where he still had chances to hold.

Meanwhile in the club KO tourmnament Aidan Jelf defeated Laura Friedlander and will play Les Collard in the second round of the competition.  The club was also pleased to welcome a potential new member who played a series of social games with Manuel Gonzalez.

All results and standings are posted on the tournaments pages of this website.

18 December 2024

A Christmas Lightning Buzzer Tournament was held upstairs at the Herdsman this evening.  There were ten contestants following a late withdrawal, and thanks should go to Evelina for volunteering to act as a replacement entrant should we have found we had an odd number of competitors.

The tournament started a little late due to the vagaries of the local, still privatised, rail transport system.

The tournament was played over 6 rounds and one noticeable feature was that all of those who subsequently came to form the top 3 finishers were losers in the first round.  Les Collard was in sole lead after 3 rounds with a perfect score but faded as the evening wore on.  The key match-up was probably the round 5 game between Paul Barker and Henry Spedding.  Paul won with black and also won in the final round to score 5 from 6 and win the tournament.  Henry's win in round 6 took him into 2nd place where he was joined by Tom Dimaline who after losing in the first two rounds finished with 4 straight wins.  Buoyed by a first round victory over Henry Spedding, Aidan Jelf won the under 18 prize, and a special mention should go to Richard Morrison who, with no significant previous OTB experience, scored 50% at only his second week at the club.

Thanks go to Laura for keeping the administration of the tournament going smoothly when Lee had some problems with the technology (including bits of his keybaord falling off his laptop).

The cross-table for the event is shown below..

18 December 2024

In the club championship Nick Hanne's victory over John Preece this evening secured top spot in Qualifying Group B and denied John a place in the championship group after Xmas.  The 'Magnificent Seven' qualifiers can now be confirmed as being (in order based on their qualifyong performances):  Lee Davis, Nick Hanne, Les Collard, Dillan Duke, Jack Clark, Paul barker and either Henry Spedding or Kieran Lappin who have decided to arrange a play-off game between them for the final spot.  Roger Aris  (who tied for 2nd place with Henry & Kieran in the group)  has graciously agreed to accept a place in the Major competition.

11 December 2024

Round 2 of the Leslie Baker Swiss took centre stage at the Hereford Chess Club this evening.  On Tuesday Lee Davis had been very fortunate to win his game against Chris Tremayne, when Lee's oversight gave Chris a won game, but Chris misplayed the attack.

Wins for White were the feature of Wednesday's game with only the draw between Tom Dimaline and Les Collard bucking that trend.  On Board 3 Henry Spedding will be pleased with his win over 3rd seed Andy Jenkins whilst on board 4 paul barker proved too strong for Evelina Racheva.  Alex Adarski won the 'Battle of the Juniors' by beating Aidan Jelf and mark calderwood beat a very tired Peter Davies.

4 December 2024

The club knock-out compettitions dominated proceedings at Hereford Chess Club this evening.  Nick Tweeddell put up stiff resistance before Andy Jenkins prevailed in their Round 2 encounter.  Andy will now meet Kieran Lappin in the quarter-finals whilst Nick will meet Evelina Racheva in the Plate.

Also in Round 2 Paul Barker won his game against Avi Singh.  Avi will face Leanne Balsdon in the plate whilst Paul must await other games to be played before revealing his quarter-final opponent.  At the top of the pairings Dillan Duke beat Alex Adarski to secure a quarter-final clash with Henry Spedding, and Alex will play Cassian Powell in the Plate.

In Round 1 of the Plate Peter Davies won a fine game against Manuel Gonzalez and will face Chris Tremayne in the Quarter-Finals.  Chris kept one eye on that game whilst he was winning a challenge game against Roger Aris, where Roger lost control of the dark squares after missing a queen move.

All of the pairings for the Knock-out competitions have been posted on the relevant pages of this website.

27 November 2024

The big result of the night was the drawn game between Jack Clark and Les Collard.  Although a draw suited both parties the game went all the way to an endgame before the outcome was established.  The result confirmed Les as the winner of Qualifying Group C with Jack joining Les in the Championship group after Christmas.  Jack finished second in the the group ahed of Paul Barker on tie-break.  Paul must now wait on other results to see if he can qualify as the best 3rd placed finisher.  Also in Group C Aidan Jelf beat Peter Davies with black -  a result that consigns Peter to the Minor Championship but gives Aidan chances of avoiding that fate.

in Qualifying Group B Dillan Duke beat Evelina Racheva to secure top spot in the Group and ensure qualification to the Championship proper,  whilst in Group A Alex Adarski beat Leanne Balsdon in the battle to avoid the wooden spoon and Roger Aris beat Nick Tweddell to preserve an outside chance of qualification to the Championship.

Whilst this was going on Paul a played a short and thrilling challenge game with Henry Spedding, which Paul won with the black pieces. 

20 November 2024

It was good to see three new potential members at the club this evening, each of whom were able to spend the evening playing social chess with a variety of opponents who provided both competition and some guidance.

At the formal end of the room possibly the key match of the evening was played in qualifying group C between Chris Tremayne and Jack Clark.  A win for Jack Clark would have guaranteed him a spot in the championship proper in the new year, but it was Chris who prevailed on the night leaving Jack needing to get a draw in his last qualifying game to ensure his qualification.  That game will be against group leader Les Collard who earlier won his game against Liam Drew.

In group B Dillan Duke beat Blake Newman to strengthen his hold on a qualifying spot alongside John Preece who won his game against Avi Singh.   

Lee Davis became the first player to guarantee his place in the championship group with a somewhat arduous victory over Nick Twedell in Group A on Tuesday night.  Nick then completed an unwanted double by losing to Henry Spedding this evening.  Henry has completed his six qualifying games and must await other results to see whether his score of 4 points will be enough to get him into the championship group.

Elsewhere, Roger Aris won a challenge game with the black pieces against Tom Dimaline so confirming Roger's return to form and Tom's slight loss of grading points after a good run of results last season.

13 November 2024

A fluctuating game in Qualifying Group A between Roger Aris and Henry Spedding fell Roger's way in a dramatic fashion last night at the Herdsman.  On a night where team members had been looking at a grandmaster game from the last century which included "The Most Amazing Move of All-Time" (according to a British jury of chess players), Roger put forward his own contender for that title with a stunning queen move that turned what looked like a losing position into a totally won game.  The result blows the qualifying places from this group wide open and puts Roger back into contention for a place in the championship proper in the new year.  In Group B Dillan Duke leapt from 4th to 1st place with a crushing victory over erstwhile leader John Preece, whilst in round one of the Lesie Baker Swiss there were wins for Tom Dimaline and Lee Davis.

The pairings for round 2 of the Leslie Baker Swiss have now been posted on the tournament pages of this website.

6 November 2024

The scramble for qualifying places in the club championship is growing to a cresecendo as the year-end deadline date approaches.  All the results and standings can be viewed on the 'Tournaments' pages of this website.  

In Group A five players are in contention for the guaranteed two qualifying places, whilst in Group B only one player has dropped out of the running for that prize.  In Group C Paul Barker is the first club member to complete his full quota of six games in the qulaifying competition.  His score of 4.5 points is enough to guarantee him 3rd place in the group and he now must wait and watch to see if this will be enough either to gain one of the top two spots or to qualify for the Championship as the highest scoring 3rd place finisher.

Meanwhile, in the Knock-out Henry Spedding has become the first player to reach the quarter-final stage.

16 October 2024

The season of upsets continues at Hereford Chess Club.

After Nick Hanne got the ball rolling two weeks' ago by overcoming a 463 grading points deficit to win his game against Dillan Duke, and Blake Newman bettered that the following week by overcoming a 563 points deficit to beat Will Slater, Evelina Racheva raised the bar even higher this evening with a win over Roger Aris; making light work of a massive 606 points difference between their ECF ratings.  An absolutely stunning performance.

The game was played in the first round of the Leslie Baker Swiss where Les Collard won his game quickly against Kiegan Vallely, and Nick Tweddell pressed long and hard against Paul Barker's stronghold before losing to an error.  New member Cassian Powell played out a hard-fought draw with experienced Kieran Lappin and there were wins for Dillan Duke, Andy Jenkins, Javier Faucher and Chris Tremayne.  Meanwhile Lee Davis was under pressure from Jack Clark's Leningrad Dutch in a Challenge game before Jack gave up a key square and dropped the exchange.

9 October 2024

The crucial clash of the evening took place in qualifying group C where Paul Barker needed a win over Chris Tremayne to rescue his season and get him back on track for qualification into the club championship after Christmas.  Chris came into this match with a 100% record but Paul's greater experience won the day and enabled him to leapfrog Chris into top spot in the group.  Chris' chances of qualification still remain good;  but two of his three remaining games are against fellow contenders for that qualification place.

October is becoming the month of upsets and Dillan's loss to Nick last week was followed by a stupendous victory for Blake Newman over Will Slater in qualifying group B.  Blake was giving away 563 ECF rating points to his opponent but won Will's queen early on and continued to win material and convert that advantage into a win.

Lee Davis avoided a further upset when he beat Alex Adarski in a short game in qualifying group A - even though Lee missed a one-move win of Alex's queen !

In the first round of the Club Knockout, Roger returned to form with a good victory over Kiegan Vallely,  Avi Singh beat Evelina Racheva with an attack down the rook's file, and Cassian Powell won a hard fought game against Pter Davies.  Alex Adarski progressed into round 2 by virtue of a bye when his opponent failed to show.

2 October 2024

More club championship games were played at the Herdsman this evening.  All results and standings are available on the 'Tournaments' pages of the website.  The standings now feature a column for each player's Tournament Performance Rating (tpr).  This feature is available because results are now entered on the ECF's League Mangement System (LMS) and automatically submitted for rating purposes.

The big shock of the evening was Nick Hanne's victory over top seed Dillan Duke.  This correspondent is informed that there was no obvious one move blunder and Nick won the game by outplaying his much higher rated opponent.  The score of the game with light note is reproduced on the 'Games' pages of this website.  Nick's ECF rating is a massive 463 points below Dillan's and last year Dillan went through the full club season without losing a single game; winning all 3 trophies available to him, so Nick will be delighted with this remarkable result, and the performance that secured it.

Also in Group B John Preece followed up his earlier victory over Will Slater and made it 3 wins from 3 games by defeating Evelina Racheva,  whilst Avi Singh claimed a default win over Will Slater.  

In Group A Roger Aris suffered his second loss in two days when falling to Kieran Lappin after a short and disastrous game against Lee Davis the evening before. Henry Spedding moved into second place in the group with a win with black against Alex Adarski, whilst in Group C Les Collard beat Aidan Jelf with the black pieces to move into second place in the standings.

1 October 2024

The October ECF ratings have been published and are available on the membership pages of this website.  Many members now have ECF Blitz ratings following the club's blitz championships in September.  Dillan Duke maintains his lofty position at the head of the classical ratings, whilst Henry Spedding has made the most progress in the last month.

25 September 2024

A busy night of club championship games was in evidence at the Herdsman this evening.  In qualifying Group A Henry Spedding unleashed a violent attack on Kieran Lappin's castled king to secure his first win in the competition, whilst Roger Aris maintained his lead in the group with a victory over Leanne Balsdon.

In Group B there was a routine victory for Dillan Duke over Avi Singh after a level opening, and John Preece used the black pieces to secure a victory over Blake Newman.

The shock result of the night came in Group C where Paul Barker blundered his queen to Jack Clark, whilst Chris Tremayne's victory over Aidan Jelf placed him in top spot in the group.

24 September 2024

Two games in the club championship were played in the small downstairs room at the Herdsman this evening.  In Group C Peter Davies won his game with the black pieces against new member Liam Drew whilst, in a later start, Lee Davis beat Henry Spedding in Group A - again with the black pieces.

18 September 2024

The club championship started quietly this evening at the Herdsman, with Group C being the only qualifying group where all scheduled games were played.  Chris Tremayne's game with Peter Davies ended early with Peter finding concentration difficult in the evening game.  Aidan Jelf beat debutant Liam Drew with some decent tactical play, and Paul Barker drew his game with Les Collard.  Although later analysis by a chess engine assessed the endgame as equal, to human eyes Les seemed to have the advantage in the endgame, but as the evening wore on Les began to tire and offered a draw.

In Group B Avi Singh beat Evelina Racheva with white, whilst in the only game played in Group A Roger Aris beat Alex Adarski in a Bishop vs. Knight endgame.

This was the first evening where games were played under the newly agreed 'Incremental' time controls using the club's new clocks.  The players found the clocks easy to set up and enjoyed the new time controls: no one got into time trouble. 

All results can be found on the 'Tournaments' pages of this website.

11 September 2024

16 players competed for the delayed 2024 Club Blitz at the Herdsman this evening.  Lee Davis blundered a rook in round 2 when trying to win a drawn rook and pawn ending against Paul Barker and Lee's draw with Dillan in round 5 effectively put him out of the running for the top prize.  That result, coupled with Dillan's victory over Paul in Round 4 suggested that his route to the title would now be very smooth, but a superb draw from Cassian Powell in the final round held Dillan to a final score of 6 points from 7 games, and allowed Paul to draw level with Dillan with a last round victory over Henry Spedding.  

So Paul and Dillan tied for first place and the tie-break rules meant that the top spot should go to Dillan, but in a very sporting gesture Dillan proposed that a play-off game should be played.  So 14 players gathered around the board that would decide who would win the  tiitle and the trophy.   Paul got the white pieces in the pre-game lottery and, in a long and tense game where the players' moves were almost hidden by the huddle of spectators, won a pawn with winning possibilities.  As the game edged towards an ending Paul spent too long checking that a pawn capture was sound and allowed his flag to fall,  thereby handing the win to Dillan.

So Dillan Duke was confirmed as the club Blitz champion in a very enjoyable tournament.  The final standings are posted on the 'tournaments' pages of this website.

9 September 2024

The Calendar of events, the format of the Club Championship, the seedings for the club knockouts, and the 1st round pairings for the Leslie Baker Swiss have all been published on the 'Schedule' and 'Tournaments' pages of this website.

Following the AGM's decision regarding time controls the new playing rules for Hereford Club Tournaments have been posted on the 'Tournaments' page of the website.