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.
The charity Chess in School and Communities (CSC) is looking to develop school chess within Leicestershire and can provide training and remuneration to chess players interested in helping schools with chess. This can either by running a chess club for the school or teaching a chess lesson within the school day.
The government has for the first-time allocated funding to promote chess in schools. Schools who meet the criteria have been allowed to bid for a grant on £2000 to promote chess. Schools are currently being informed if they have had their grant awarded.
There are two ways that you may be able to help:
Do you have a child \ grandchild already at a school who you think would want a chess club in some form? If we have a contact this way it is more likely to get something setup than just cold calling the school reception. CSC are interested in any school willing to setup a chess club, whether they receive the grant or not. For example, they will provide free chess sets and advice for schools where the school will be getting one of their teachers to run the club and will also provide a training course for the school.
Are you interested in doing any work as a tutor? The pay is £42.50 per hour plus travel expenses if any, and there is a good training course you can go on. Also, you would have the opportunity to shadow an existing teacher (probably me) in a school before starting your club.
If you are interested in knowing more about any of the above, please let Alan Agnew know (tel: 07434 286893 email: alanagnew_uk@yahoo.co.uk)
The 2023 Minor tournament has been won by Dominic Lennon of the Ashby Club, after an exciting play-off against Yuvraj Sadhra of Anstey. Both players finished the regular tournament with 4 /5, and then won a game each in the 2-match play-off before Dominic triumphed in the Armageddon decider.
The Summer Cups have now been completed. Congratulations to the winners:
* Chapman Cup – Loughborough
* Birstall Cup – Anstey
* Wylie Cup – Wigston
* Harrod Cup – Ashby 1
Congratulations to the winners of this summer's individual tournaments:
COUNTY CHAMPION: Shabir OKHAI. Scoring 4/5, Shabir retains the title he won last year - a feat not achieved since Alan Byron in 2009 & 2010.
CHALLENGERS TOURNAMENT: Lindsay PYUN, with 4/5
MAJOR TOURNAMENT: George GOWERS, with 4.5/5. George won the Minor tournament last year
The Minor tournament has not yet finished, with a play-off needed to decide the winner
52 players took part in the tournaments
I have heard of the death of Pat Hogan, at the age of 89. Pat played for many years for the Leicester club before joining Braunstone in 1990. He was a dangerous attacking player on his day and, against the odds, deservedly won the County Championship in 1973. He was a regular in the County first team, and a very entertaining and engaging man to be with on a long car journey! His first appearance in the Midlands grading list was in 1968, and I met him for the first time in 1969 and always found him to be a friendly and approachable man.
Andy Morley
The traditional opener to the new league season will take place on Tuesday 19th September at 19:30 at the Syston club. Team entries are open (£8 per 4 board team) and should be made to the league secretary (chess@paulmottram.com). Money raised will go to Leicester based charity 'One Roof' (oneroof.org.uk)
Whilst not common knowledge, I was made aware of the passing of the well known former Leicestershire player Peter Gibbs. Far be it for me to pass comment on either his personality or his ability, I am aware that he was a very well liked, popular and highly thought of chess player and person within Leicestershire chess. There is an article on the ECF website if you wish to read about him with a nice tribute:
Peter Campbell Gibbs ECF Tribute
Thank you for your attention and if there are any stories that you wish to share, please send them to me.
LRCA 2023 AGM minutes Full article
Hi Everyone
For those of you that may be interested, Anstey took part in and hosted a 3 way jamboree with two other clubs outside of Leicestershire in what may be the first publicised event of its kind for a while.
Please have a look at the brief summary of the evening's events in the link below, if you wish.
Jamboree Report
Thank you for your attention
Ben Vaughan
Anstey Chess Club
The British Chess Championships are being staged in Leicester at The Venue, De Montfort University from the 20th-30th July.
We hope that many LRCA players will take the opportunity to play in one of the many tournaments taking place over that period (sections for all rating levels).
See https://www.britishchesschampionships.co.uk/
In addition to that, there's quite a few opportunities to be involved by helping at some of the informal more social chess activities at the chess festival that accompanies the championships (see provisional details https://www.britishchesschampionships.co.uk/british-chess-championships-2023-chess-festival/)
The organisers would like to hear from any club players (with a reasonable level of experience) who would be interested in supporting these events. There will be some level of remuneration for this by agreement on an individual basis depending on events supported. Contact manager.british@englishchess.org.uk
There are a number of events that LRCA clubs might like to host as a means of promoting the club. There are some outdoor drop-in chess sessions on the 20th & 21st July in the DMU area and there is also a Mini-Season of Chess films at the Phoenix Cinema and Arts Centre which takes place on Saturday 22nd, Wednesday 26th and Saturday 29th. Before the film screenings the plan is to have informal drop-in chess taking place in the large Cafe area at Phoenix. It would work well if any of the LRCA clubs would like to host one of these pre film chess sessions. email manager.british@englishchess.org.uk if your club is interested in doing this.