Leicestershire & Rutland Chess Association is the body recognised by the English Chess Federation as being responsible for chess in the city of Leicester and the counties of Leicestershire and Rutland. The Association is affiliated to the Midland Counties Chess Union.
This season, following the changes to 4 figure ratings and also the grade boundaries for county teams, Leicestershire has entered an U1850 and an U1450 team into the midlands competition.
The U1450 team, captained by Neil Roberts have already played one match (a 4-8 loss to Notts) on 27th Nov but have further matches against Warwickshire and Notts Juniors on the 22nd Jan and 26th Feb respectively.
The U1850 (captained by Paul Mottram (email: chess@paulmottram.com) have just one match against Greater Manchester which has been moved from its' original February date to Sat 5th March. County qualified players are welcome to get in contact if they would like to be considered for either team.
Market Harborough played away at Kettering in an eight-game friendly on December 6th. The match is thought to be the first over the board encounter for any Northamptonshire club, since the first lockdown in March last year.
Players from all three of Harborough’s LRCA teams were represented in the line-up. Over the board debuts were also given to Conor Hackett, who drew on board seven and Omar Oliveri, who won on board eight. Harborough’s 5 ½ v 2 ½ win might have been helped by Kettering’s inactivity, but the Northants club will be satisfied just shaking off the OTB cobwebs.
A return match has been pencilled in for January…Kettering won’t have far to travel, unlike the majority of LRCA teams when they face Harborough.
This website is now fully up and running on the new host, and logins are re-enabled.
This website is in the process of being moved to a new hosting provider. The final transfer will be carried out during the afternoon of Sunday 28 November. It is expected that, while this transfer is in progress, the website will remain accessible but logins will be disabled, possibly until Monday morning.
We are sorry to report that John Periam, former president of the Market Harborough club, has passed away after a long illness.
John was 89 years of age. He had been at the club since the 1960s, mainly playing social rather than League chess. He is remembered for his sharp wit and that he played chess with a smile on his face.
We are very sorry to report the recent loss of Gerald Botteley and his wife Florence. Gerald was an accomplished violin maker/restorer, musician, a published poet and writer. 'Magnanimous in victory, gracious in defeat' aptly describes his conduct at the chess board. We enjoyed his affable company and his memorable, daring playing style. And he got to play none other than Gary Kasparov at Oakham in 1997! - Here's the link:
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1359345
The 2021-22 LRCA league season is due to start on Tuesday 28th September. 29 teams have entered and will be split over 4 divisions.
A number of rules have been changed/introduced to take account of COVID and to help clubs navigate the new season with the inevitable uncertainties over player availability.
There is a new section regarding player responsibilities surrounding COVID:
Players agree to play at their own risk and are responsible for their safety and that of others. In particular:
i) Players should not play if they are experiencing Covid-19 symptoms (as outlined on the Public Health England website: www.gov.uk/coronavirus) or if they are required to self-isolate.
ii) Players should comply with the Covid rules in force at the match venues. These will be advised on the ‘Clubs’ section of the LRCA website.
iii) There is an expectation that players will be vaccinated against Covid. This does not apply if there is a valid medical reason for a person not taking the vaccine. It also does not apply to people who have not yet been offered the vaccine due to their age. Players will not be required to provide evidence that they have been vaccinated.”
Clubs are encouraged to provide good ventilation in the playing area and provide plenty of space for the players if possible. It’s also requested that players not involved in the match do not cluster round match games in progress.
A fixture list, the 2021-22 league rules and a summary of rule changes are provided below: Full article
Leicestershire qualified for the U1850 final back in August by managing to beat Essex 7.5-4.5. The final was played on Saturday 18th September and Northumberland proved tough opponents averaging nearly 200 grading points higher per board. Even so the match was in reality a good deal closer than in might appear from the final scoreline (8.5-3.5 to Northumberland) as Leicestershire were definitely well ahead in 3 of the lost games before blunders reversed the outcome late on. Well done to Rene Butler, Peter Mottram-Epson and Bob Collins for their wins.
Alan Agnew writes “68 players took part in the Leicestershire Online rapidplay on Saturday 1st of May. The tournament was hosted on the Tornelo software platform with all players taking part in a Zoom call during play, and Fide arbiter Adam Raoof undertaking the controller duties. More than 30 Leicestershire Junior players took part, as well as others from all around the country.
Everyone made a good effort to get to grips with the technical requirements, from young to old! It was great to be able to see so many people playing, perhaps we will be able to play an ‘over the board tournament’ soon.
In the Open section Alan Agnew came out top after a few precarious moments. With a fantastic performance Lindsay Pyun took second place with a score of 3.5 points. Lindsay had to play all the other top placed players and so was able to pip Martin Burrows and Lewis Turner on tie break.
In the Under 1700 section three players finished on 4 points out of 5, with Nick London taking 1st place on tie break from Andrew Wilson and Paul Mottram. Sophie Mehta took the trophy for best placed Junior with three wins and one draw.
In the Junior U1300 section there were trophies and medals available for the top three finishers. there was a fantastic turnout of 21 players with Ismaeel Khalid taking 1st place. Mihir Sharma took clear second place. Amelia Ahmed took third place and was the best placed Leicestershire Junior player in this section, just beating Sofia Hilmi and Yuvraj Sadhra on tie break
The Junior U1000 section took place in the morning, with a great turnout of 16 players, again fighting it out for three trophies. Zac Paintin was the clear winner this a perfect 5 out of 5. Thomas Mcarthy-Bonfield took second place on tie break from Leicestershire player Ashley Smith both with 4 points out of 5. “
Thanks must go to Alan for organising the competition.
The LRCA is staging a 5 round Leicestershire Online Rapidplay on Saturday 1st May with Open, U1700, Junior U1300 and Junior U1000 sections. The time control for the top 3 sections is 15 mins + 10 secs with the 1st round at 1pm (the Junior U1000 section begins at 10am with a 10mins + 5sec time control). Fide International arbiter Adam Raoof will be running the tournament on the Tornelo platform https://home.tornelo.com/ and all players will take part in a zoom call whilst games are taking place as a fair play measure.
You can enter at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/leicestershire-online-rapidplay-tickets-148486554281 and the entry fee is £5
Any queries should be directed to competition organiser Alan Agnew tel 07434 286893 / email alanagnew_uk@yahoo.co.uk Full article