Club newsletter No 31 – Spring 2025

By Martin Smith -- 04 April 2025

Download the newsletter as a PDF (it has the photos and diagrams that are not on this page).

Chair’s Progress Report – A Tribute to Richard Tillett – Club Tournaments – Captains’ Reports – More Standard Play Opportunities – County Chess – S&BCC Out and About – Chess in the Community – Upcoming Competitions – Games – Links & Contacts

First off: an apology to our readers! Due to unforeseen circumstances (as explained by Antony below) we have had to revert to the ‘old-style’ layout for this issue of the Newsletter – foregoing Richard Tillett’s slick design used last time. And as we are a bit pushed for space we have also been rather mean with photos! There is nevertheless the usual comprehensive update of all things S&BCC. Enjoy! Please note that content not otherwise attributed is originated by the editors Martin Smith and Antony Hall. Please email any comments to Martin (contact details are in the PDF newsletter).

Chair’s Progress Report – Antony Hall

Our various teams in the London, Central London, Croydon & District and 4NCL Online Leagues have all been busy since the last newsletter (full reports below), and several members have been active for their respective county teams (also reported below).

The Club ran its Christmas Blitz (fast becoming a tradition) in December, and New Year Rapidplay over two Tuesdays in January: both at St Thomas’ Café, and both a great success (reports below). There has been much discussion amongst the club officers about running an internal standard play competition of some form but, ultimately, we’ve decided it’s not something we could do this season. We are, however, hopeful of running something next season, so watch this space.

By the time you read this, three teams will have played in the Thorp Trophy competition, a team Rapidplay which has been revived by the SCCA. More from Martin Smith below! We are also hoping to run three teams in the SCCU/ London Club Championships in June. Ed Mospan will be organising our entry this year and has already sent out a call for interest. I played in this last year, and it was great fun, so I encourage you to give it a go.

Our secretary, Richard Tillett – held in the highest esteem by us all – had intended to step back from his duties at the end of this season. However, he has been forced to bring this forward with immediate effect, although he will continue to assist with some of his many responsibilities while we look work out how to replacement him (whole, or in several parts!). Richard has been a stalwart for S&BCC for many years and will be a huge loss. A more fulsome tribute appears below. Not unrelated to Richard’s departure is the fact that we are working to get more people involved to spread the work of running the club.

Richard Tillett – A Tribute by Antony Hall and Martin Smith

Richard Tillett’s involvement with S&B has been longstanding and multi-faceted. Our comprehensive club history, Movers and Takers, says that he was first listed as a member in 1991 - becoming involved with the club with his wife Laila and son Matthew (now a strong player for us in the London League, and captain of our 4NCL Online teams).

Richard became club secretary and treasurer in 2002, taking over from Chris Baker and Andy Thake respectively and, as Movers and Takers states: ‘He brought flair to both portfolios, combining administrative acumen with strategic vision. He safeguarded the club’s financial viability in challenging times, while providing a sense of direction through the tangle of issues concerning subscription levels.’

Richard redesigned the club website in 2007. Then and since he has grappled with the challenges and opportunities of the digital age so as to enhance the club’s impact and improve its efficiency. He was treasurer until Paul Ritchie took over in 2019 and has continued as a key member of the club’s management team over many years. He resigned as secretary in 2014 to focus on a wider development role, notably with the Library Group (whose potential he saw: guiding it through sticky patches and generously investing in it considerable time and energy). In recent years Richard has again stepped back into a secretarial role.

He had also been a contributor to the very successful S&B Chess Blog (which closed in 2016) demonstrating tenacious sleuthing skills in an epic 25-episode, 4 year-long blog series (jointly with Martin Smith) researching and tracking down a lost early 19th Century chess painting.

For many years Richard served the Surrey County Chess Association: both as a member of its Appeals Committee and organiser of its correspondence teams. He also has been a key office holder and Chair, for as long as anyone can remember, of the Croydon and District Chess League, in which he lately managed all four of our teams.

As our current secretary, Richard has been the ‘front door’ to the club, fielding a constant flow of enquiries and demands. He became the lynchpin of the club’s administration, with a purposeful strategic overview and leadership. He possesses a great talent for persuasive diplomacy – or diplomatic persuasion! His are big shoes to fill – and, realistically, we will need to reconfigure the administrative workload to make it manageable in the future. We are grateful to Richard for being so helpful in smoothing the way to these new arrangements.

Our heartfelt thanks go to Richard for his untiring devotion and work for the club. His stepping down as a club officer is a great loss, and we hope that he will continue to support us in a more modest management role. We also hope, above all, that he will now have more time to enjoy his chess.

Club Tournaments

Here is a catch up on the winter club tournaments played at St Thomas’s Café. 12 players fought out the 6-round Christmas Blitz, with your editor Martin Smith emerging in the top spot on 5.5. Tournament controller and giant-killer Alan Romeril cleared his path by beating top seed Robin Haldane in round 4. Alan and Robin finished 2nd and 3rd respectively. The January Rapidplay (again controlled by Alan) was played over two evenings. 19 took part, though inevitably some could only do one session. Top seed Graham Keane was sternly tested as he finished joint 1st with 4.5/6: Alan (him again) beat Graham in the 2nd round and Adan Mausam held him to a draw in the last. Great result for Adan, who finished joint first. There was a pile-up for third place with Alan and Martin Smith joined by junior Charlie Pearson (who beat Alan and drew with Martin along the way – well done Charlie!). Both tournaments were played in a friendly club atmosphere - and were supported by generous cash donations by participants.

Captains’ Reports from the Leagues

For league tables and match results follow links (embedded, or at end)

London League

Division 1 – Graham Keane. Halfway through the season, the Streatham 1st team sit comfortably in mid-table with three wins and a draw from our (8-board) matches so far. One of the 2 losses was against the perpetual winners of the league, Wood Green with their team of GMs and IMs, although this year we did manage three draws through Andrew Stone, Andrew Ponting and myself. Matthew Tillett, who stepped in at the last moment, came very close to securing a 4th draw in the match despite a rating deficit of over 600 points. A win in our next match would move us up to third in the table although we have some tough games following that.

Unfortunately, we have not been able to play our strongest team consistently this year due to work and family commitments as well as badminton injuries and swimming lessons! However, we have been well supported by members of the 2nd team squad and there have been some outstanding individual performances with the majority of the team performing at a significantly higher level than their published rating, in particular: Phil Makepeace, with a performance rating of 2491, Jeremy Leake at 2402, both Venkat and Qixiang Han just short of 2400, and John Hodgson at 2306.

STOP PRESS: S&BCC1 beat East Ham 6 v 2 on 26 March but lost 1.5 v 6.5 to Hammersmith 1 on 31 March. [Ed]

Division 2 – Antony Hall. We have not been able to maintain our 100% record since Christmas, but we did draw our third (8-board) match against Wanstead to remain the only unbeaten team in Division 2. We then suffered two defeats, a close one to Imperial College which could have gone either way, and then at GLCC, a team I had high hopes of beating, after we experienced defaults on the day of the match. Caissa was not smiling on us, but we steadied the ship with a draw against King’s College London at the end of February. In the final part of our university opposition trilogy, we were crushed by a very strong UCL team which would not look out of place in Division 1 – which is where they will play next season as their win against us confirmed them as Division 2 champions.

We currently sit in 6th place (of 11), but our remaining three matches are against strong opposition, and we may need another result to be sure of avoiding relegation. Other results are making it exciting! Our top scorers so far are Qixuan Han (4½/6) and Andrew Ponting (4/6), while the best performance across games played has been from James Toon, Qixiang Han, Andrew and Qixuan (all 2200+). Only Jagdip Patel has played in all seven matches.

Minor Division – Ed Mospan. Our 4-board team in the Minor Division (for players up to 1650) of the London League has gelled very well. It has performed exceptionally this season and has been top of the league throughout, having played ten matches with two remaining. It’s a great division to be in, with zero prospect of being blown off the board within the first five minutes (barring opening blunders). This means great evenings of competitive but fun games of chess, with many opponent styles at varied venues all over London.

The best aspect of playing in this League and division is the opportunity for over the board self-improvement, time management, tactics, and seat of your pants action, all of which come with competitive match games - and a 9:30 end time allowing for post-game refreshment and analysis. For improving players, it is the perfect London League division to start out in. However, if you make it over 1650, then you will have to play in a higher division - and to know the so-called Carlsbad pawn structure (and not confuse it with Carlsberg 1883, which happens to be the captain’s preferred pint!).

STOP PRESS: S&BCCM beat HackneyM 3 v 1 on 26 March. [Ed]

Central London League

Division 2 – Andrew Stone. S&B’s first team (5-boards) in the Central London League Division 2 moved closer to promotion with two wins and a draw. Either Hammersmith 1 or Battersea Galacticos could match our points total if they win their remaining games, so a draw against Hammersmith 2 or Pimlico 3 will see us over the line for certain.

Two of the matches were against one of our promotion rivals, Hammersmith 1. In the first match, we got off to a bad start where transport issues caused us to default the bottom board. Jeremy Leake then drew on board 1, and I lost after going wrong in a complicated line. However, Venkat continued his good form with another win and then John comprehensively outplayed his young opponent (Harry Bryant) in an ending to salvage something. The rematch came just two weeks later. James Toon won quickly, winning the b pawn and pushing his own to touchdown. Graham then punished his opponent’s erratic opening play. Venkat for a change, failed to win and John lost. I was under pressure but managed to turn the tables, and then under great time pressure decided to go for a perpetual rather than try for a likely win (but with some risk of losing) - and this won the match 3-2.

The Battersea 1 match was a slightly more relaxed affair (a 3.5-1.5 win). The main interest came with John Hodgson mating with a bishop and knight against Tim Spanton who kept John (and the spectators) waiting 17 minutes so as to get his time under 5 minutes and thus avoid having to write down his moves. Maybe his plan was to claim a draw under the 50-move rule, but it was immaterial as John clearly knew what he was doing.

The campaign (conducted in the bar downstairs!) to get the organisers to allow us to enter an additional team next season continues apace.

STOP PRESS: S&B1 beat Hammersmith 2 5 v 0 on 27 March and so win Division 2! [Ed]

Division 4 – Paul Ritchie. After suffering two losses from the first three matches in the Central London league 4th division I wasn’t optimistic about our chances of defending our league title in the 24/25 season.

However, the team have managed to pull together and we now stand top of the league by two points after nine matches (six wins and 3 defeats). Our remaining match is against Hackney 2 on May 1st. Five of the six teams in the league still have a chance of topping the table come the end of the season which shows how competitive it is. Special mention to Joe Barr who, since returning to the club, has scored a fantastic 6.5 from 8 for the team this season.

Croydon and District League – Richard Tillett

Lots of chess still to come: as usual we entered four teams in the Croydon & District Chess League this season, one in each of the four standardplay divisions. This league is always the last to get started and for a good reason – we don’t arrange the fixture dates until all the other leagues have announced theirs. This season has been even slower than usual for S&B, not least because two of our opponents could not raise teams (and will now play us later in the season). So there’s not much to report yet, but lots of opportunities for players of all strengths in the coming weeks and months. Our club calendar is here – if you’d like to be considered for our teams, and are not already receiving our emails, just drop Richard Tillett an email (contact details are in the PDF newsletter).

Here’s how we stand: Our A team in div 1 (the Croydon Shield) has yet to play its first match of the season. Our B team in div 2 (the Martin Cath Trophy) has played two matches, winning the first 1-3 away to South Norwood but losing the second 2.5-1.5 away to a strong Coulsdon team. Our C team in div 3 (the Dave Luckin Trophy) has struggled for points with just one draw after four closely contested matches. However, there are three fixtures remaining, two of which are at home, so we could still achieve mid-table respectability by the end of the season. Our D team in div 4 (the Deric Cox Trophy) has played just one match, against HMRC Croydon which we won 4-0.

For more on the Croydon League, including results, divisional tables and match cards, click here.

STOP PRESS: Robin Haldane has taken over as captain on our A team, Richard carries on with the other three. [Ed]

Surrey League – Martin Smith

Although not a League event (we don’t play in the SCCA League competitions – away matches are not practicable), we fielded three teams in the revived Thorp Trophy team 4-bd Rapidplay on 22 March. The Thorp had not been contested for some 20 years, maybe because, as someone quipped, they might have lost the trophy. Our Super A team (average rating 1869) came =2nd with 11/16 game points from 4 rounds. Our B (average 1695) and C (1662) teams clocked up 8.5 and 8 game points apiece. Great teamwork, with standout individual performances from John Hodgson with 3 points (A bd1), Alan Romeril 4pts (A/4), Charlie Pearson 3pts (B/3), and Robin Haldane 3pts (C/2). A nice feature of this well-organised event was that boards 3 and 4 had to be below 1750. All board-by-board results are on the SCCA Competitions page here.

4NCL Online – Matt Tillett

S&B once again entered the 4NCL Online competition, which is now in its 11th season, having started during Covid with two seasons per year. Games are played bi-weekly on the LiChess platform, ECF rated, on a 45 minute plus 15 second time control. It’s a pleasant way to get some proper rated Chess from the comfort of your own home. We entered two four board teams into the competition. The A team plays in the top division, where ratings range from around 1800 at the low end all the way up to 2400 on some of the teams’ top boards. After six rounds, the A team is holding its own against strong opposition and is currently mid table with one round to play. The B team, playing in the 4th division, is currently in second place, with a shot at reaching the playoffs if we can win our last match. Ratings in the 4th division typically range from 1300 up to 1800. We have struggled in one or two rounds to field a full B team, so if anyone not currently in the squad is interested, please let me know and we can get you involved for the next season.

Not Getting Enough Rated Standardplay?

The energetic Ed Mospan, who runs our LL Minor team, and who is also active at Kingston Chess Club, is the centre of a great local inter-club initiative: to offer rated games at club venues outside the usual league/match framework. We call them ‘rated friendlies’ for want of a better description, though they’re not all that ‘friendly’ as they are played under strict competitive conditions and to the same rules as the league matches that typically take place at the same time. There is no charge to play, and results are submitted for grading via the League Management System in the usual way by the clubs hosting the games.

Ed has been spreading the word at S&B, Kingston, and Epsom clubs, all of whom are participating, and he has other clubs in his sights as well. So far this initiative is mostly being taken up by lower rated players, who often have fewer opportunities to play in league teams; however players of all strengths are welcome. Just let Ed know if you fancy a game and he will pair you against a suitable opponent. Game nights, when they happen, are Tuesdays (S&B), Mondays (Kingston). Ed can be contacted by email (contact details are in the PDF newsletter).

County Chess

A steady stream of Streatham and Brixton players enjoy spending Saturday afternoons at the board for their county. In Surrey’s top team, the 16-board Open, our London League 1st teamers Robin Haldane, Graham Keane and Qixiang Han have all played – and when they met Middlesex, they would have found fellow S&B 1st teamers Venkat and Andrew Stone on the other side. Oh, and our Club Chairman Antony Hall runs the Norfolk Open team, our LL player Steve Ledger is top board for Bedfordshire, and our Croydon League regular Chris Bernard, who is Secretary of the umbrella Southern Counties Chess Union, plays for Kent!

Back in Surrey, Martin Smith occasionally plays for the under 2050 team (16 bds), where – if playing Essex – he might have a chat with fellow S&BCCer John Hodgson appearing for the opposition. James Fox and Alan Romeril have both turned out for the Surrey u1850s (16 bds), and Alan is a regular for the u1650 team (winning this season on board 1 v Essex). Charlie Pearson has played for them too (winning on board 12 v Middlesex); he has also played, and won, for the u1450s (12 bds).

So, if you if you fancy some chess on a Saturday afternoon, your county can help!

Streatham & Brixton Players Out and About

Streatham & Brixton members have been active at several congresses in the last few months. At the London Chess Classic in December, Venkat (1.5/5), John Carlin (2.5/7) and Andrew Stone (4/7) competed in the very strong Masters (minimum 2000 Elo rating), while Qixuan Han and Antony Hall (both scoring 5.5/9 and finishing above their seedings) competed in the U2000 Elo. Both events were tough nine-rounders, but it was good to see several S&BCCers come to watch us (and the Elite players!) in action.

Venkat was top seed at the Earlsfield Christmas FIDE Open, scoring 4.5 to finish 1st. He was 2nd seed at the Hastings Weekend Open and finished =2nd, while Andrew Ponting, seeded 18th, finished 18th with 2.5 points. Results here. Qixiang Han won the Hastings and St Leonards Chess Club W/E U2200 with 4.5 points, beating his brother Qixuan (who also performed creditably) on the way. Paul Ritchie scored 4/6 in the Con Power U1750 - had he won in the final round, he would have finished =1st. Last month, Charlie Pearson was joint winner of the U1550 section at the famous Blackpool Congress. Robin Haldane finished =2nd at the Coulsdon Chess Late Autumn/ Winter 2024 Congress. Andrew Ponting also played in the Wells Congress beating a WFM and drawing with an FM during the event. More recently Qixiang finished =2nd in East Devon Congress, Open section, drawing with an IM along the way.

And congratulations to James Toon who has just been awarded the title of International Master of Correspondence Chess, by the International Correspondence Chess Federation. Well done, James! Next up James Toon Grandmaster?

Chess in the Community Boom! Chess at Streatham Library Is Flourishing

An update from Richard Tillett

Community chess is already a Big Thing in South London and it just keeps on getting Bigger, fuelled by publicity such as this video on BBC News from January.

Our Chess at Streatham Library group is benefiting from the boom, though we had a couple of hiccups this year due to refurbishment work at Streatham Library depriving us of access to the community hall. Not surprisingly, attendances were down during our temporary relocations, but numbers quickly recovered once we were able to return.

We launched a new initiative on 11 March, which Ed Mospan and I had been planning for a while but had to postpone because of the relocation. The idea was to offer library group members the opportunity to play rated rapidplay games during the Tuesday sessions, on a similar basis to the ‘rated friendlies’ Ed organises at other clubs (as mentioned above). We decided to allocate up to five boards for the rapidplays, situated at one end of the hall and separated from the rest of the group. Ed is to act as controller and organise the pairings in advance, retaining some flexibility on the day. Two rounds of rapidplay per session scheduled with an option to squeeze in an additional round when games finish quickly. Results to be submitted for rating the following day. What could possibly go wrong? I held my breath… but I shouldn’t have worried as Ed had everything under control.

We’ve now had five weeks of the rapidplay games: 23 players have participated and have played a total of 132 games. You can see the results here on the LMS. Thank you Ed, you’re doing a great job! The word has been getting around and the prospect of rated rapidplay games is bringing in new faces, some of whom I expect to see playing in our S&B league teams before long.

By midway through the Tuesday sessions, we are usually at full capacity with 40 or more people in the room. What restricts us is not the space in the community hall – there’s plenty of that. The issue is shortage of tables – budget constraints at the London Borough of Lambeth are preventing the purchase of more tables. I do sometimes wonder how big we could be if we had more capacity but maybe 40 is just fine.

Chess in the Fresh Air! We hope to organise some Saturday sessions up at the Rookery chess tables now that the weather is warming up. In the meantime, a big shout out for the new Ruskin Park tables. David Marshall reports: there are two new chess tables in Ruskin Park with chess sets to borrow from the café. On Saturday 22 March there was a successful launch event with about 30 participants, including from the Streatham and Carnegie library groups, plus enthusiastic locals and passers-by. They are hoping to hold monthly ‘chess in the park’ mornings over the summer and create a WhatsApp group for players. [Editorial Note: John Ruskin, the eminent Victorian polymath, after whom the Park is named, lived locally, and was himself a keen student of the game.]

Chess on the Page! Lovely piece recently by Nick Pearson (Charlie’s dad) in the highly regarded fortnightly London Review of Books. It’s a great read weaving together the recent upsurge in chess, the Ding Liren/Gukash World Championship match, and the experiences of a chess-dad (with a talented son). You can read it here.

Upcoming Competitions

Guildford Chess Congress: Friday 25 to Sunday 27 April 2025 at Guildford University GU2 7XH. 5-round Swiss tournament: Open, Major (U2000), Minor (U1600), and Senior sections. All ECF-rated and FIDE-rated. Total prize fund £3,300. Entry fee £45/£60; Closing date 10 April. 160 places – filling up fast. All details and online application form here. Organised by James Toon, of this parish.

Surrey CCA Individual Summer Tournaments (standard play). Four tournaments organised according to player strength (in all-play-all sections of four or five) - played at four venues: Epsom and Wimbledon on Mondays; Surbiton on Wednesdays; Dorking on Thursdays - according to demand. Three or four games a month, starting at 7.30pm. Closing date 18th April; start date 28th April. ECF Bronze or higher required. Entry £20/12.00 Entry form via: https://www.scca.co.uk/SCCA/docs/SCCAIndividualTournamentsL2025.docx

SCCU/London Team Rapid play 21 June. Let Ed Mospan know if you want to play in this team rapid play event all day Saturday 21 June venue: St Luke’s Church, Kidderpore Avenue, London NW3 7SU. (Finchley Road and West Hampstead tubes). 6 rounds; 4 bd teams in 3 sections: Major (average rating max 2100); Inter/1850; Minor/1600. No cost to play. Let us know NOW if you want to play (but ECF bronze, or higher, members only, and you must have played already twice for S&BCC). It’s a hugely popular event, and we don’t want to miss out because of a late entry. More details here.

British Chess Championships 2025. To be held in Liverpool 31 July to 10 August. The elite event is a full 8 days, but there are loads of shorter side tournaments for us lesser lights. Follow link above for details.

Games

Here we feature some nice league games played recently by club members.

From the 4NCL Online:

Graham Keane’s elegant win, with Black, in Division 1 round 2

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 d6 3. d4 Nbd7 4. Nc3 e5 5. g3 Be7 6. Bg2 O-O 7. O-O c6 8. e4 a6 9. a4 a5 10. h3 Re8 11. Be3 exd4 12. Nxd4 Nc5 13. Qc2 Qb6 14. b3 Bf8 15. Rad1 g6 16. Kh2 Qc7 17. f4 Ncxe4 18. Nxe4 Nxe4 19. Bxe4 Qe7 20. Bxg6 hxg6 21. Rfe1 Qf6 22. Bf2 Rxe1 23. Rxe1 Bd7 24. Qd2 d5 25. Re5 Bd6 26. Rg5 Qh8 27. h4 Be7 28. Re5 Bf6 29. Re2 dxc4 30. bxc4 Qh5 31. Qe1 Qg4 32. Qf1 Rd8 33. Nc2 Be6 34. Ne3 Qf3 35. Re1 Rd2 36. Kg1 Bh3 37. Ng2 Bd4 38. Re8 Kh7 39. Rh8 Bxh8 0-1. For the GIFF click here and scroll down to Cooke v Keane.

And a fine sacrificial win by Charlie Pearson, with White, in Division 4 round 3

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Bxc3 6. bxc3 Ne7 7. Nf3 b6 8. Bd3 c4 9. Be2 Nbc6 10. O-O Bb7 11. Kh1 Qd7 12. a4 O-O-O 13. Ba3 h6 14. Bb4 a5 15. Bxe7 Nxe7 16. Qc1 Bc6 17. Qb2 Kb7 18. Rfb1 Nc8 19. Nd2 Bxa4 20. Bxc4 Bc6 21. Rxa5 Kb8 22. Bd3 Qe7 23. Nb3 Rd7 24. Nc5 Ra7 25. Rxa7 Qxa7 26. Ba6 Kc7 27. Bxc8 Rxc8 28. Nd3 Rb8 29. Nb4 Qa4 30. Ra1 Qb5 31. Na6 Kb7 32. Qxb5 Bxb5 33. Nxb8 Kxb8 34. Rb1 Ba4 35. Rxb6 Ka7 36. Rb2 Ka6 37. f3 Bb5 38. Kg1 g5 39. Kf2 h5 40. Ke3 h4 41. Ra2 Kb6 42. Ra8 Bf1 43. g3 hxg3 44. hxg3 1-0. For the GIFF click here and scroll down to Pearson v Edmunson.

And in Division 1 Round 6 Angus French pulled off an impressive defensive-cum-offensive win with Black. He has annotated the game on Lichess here.

From London League Division 2, a fluid win with Black by James Toon.

To save space we have inserted this game, and James’s instructive notes, as a pdf, which you can open from the PDF newsletter.

But first, to whet your appetite, and test your chess: what was James’s winning 33rd move, with Black, in the diagram?

Check your answer by opening the pdf (Gautam Jain (2178) v James Toon (2143)) attached to the PDF newsletter.

Contacts, Links, etc.

Editorial contacts: Martin Smith, Antony Hall.

Links: Streatham & Brixton Chess Club; Streatham & Brixton Chess Club: calendar; Chess at Streatham Library; London Chess League: results, general information; Central London Chess League; Croydon & District Chess League: results, general information; Surrey County Chess Association; Southern Counties Chess Union: results, general information.

Photo credits: Laila and Richard Tillett