And now Nigel has provided us with his usual thorough analysis of the A team's fortunes - this time concerning last week's win against University A.

The weekend saw plenty of activity on the rapidplay front.

In Peterborough, juniors from all over the country came to compete in a two day Challengers event over nine rounds. It was divided into age groups and we had representation in the Under 12 and Under 10 sections.

In the Under 12s (43 entries) Carolus managed six wins and a draw to finish just a point behind the winner, equal in second place on 6½ points.

In the Under 10s (48! entries) Yaksh also did extremely well to finish equal fifth on 6 points.

Hector (4 pts.) and Yuri (2½ pts.) also competed at Peterborough. A great effort all round by the juniors!

Meanwhile the Swindon Rapidplay was split into rating groups played over six rounds. The Open section was too hot to handle but Alejandro (3½ points) and Alan (2 points) had a crack at the Under 1800 section. Newcomer Luke came equal first with two others in the Under 1600s, finishing on 5 points. Well done!

University A put up a stout fight last night but, with three wins in the last ten minutes, our A team, the current league champions, prevailed 4-2. Reinhold reminded us what it must have been like to watch Nimzowitsch play the immortal zugzwang game just over 100 years ago.

The B team were disappointed to lose 4-2 at Clevedon. A somewhat depleted team was heavily out-rated by Clevedon A, although Carolus notched up an excellent win against our former player Matthew, who is rated the merest 200 points higher!

Peter has written a report on how the match unfolded.

UPDATE AND WARNING!!

On 15th September Alan and Ian received £100 parking fees for not logging their registration numbers with the pub where Yate now play. (It's not made clear enough that you have to do this.) The fees were cancelled but please be aware if you ever play at the Brimsham pub.

Now that we have feedback on several games, it’s worth adding a few more comments on the C team’s excellent win against Clifton D.

Another busy night with several players starting the new season. First the F team travelled to Harambee where they lost narrowly 3½-2½ but not before Shaun notched up a win. "All close games" we are told.

The juniors also kicked off season 14 of the J4NCL with teams in the top two divisions. In division one the Upstarts lost a close match against Lancashire Red Roses A by 4½-3½. In division two the Bishops somewhat out-rated Brentwood School C to win by 5½-2½.

There's a huge range of talent according to the average team ratings which range from 2014 to 1012 in division one and from 1563 to 764 in division two! (Last night our teams averaged 1636 and 1322.)

Two matches at the club last night and a slight delay in reporting because new players needed to be added in to the League Management System.

The most notable of these was Andrew Munn who appeared for the C team after a break since March 2020 when Covid caused the truncation of the season. And he started with a draw against one on Clifton's top juniors - great to have him back!

The C team had an excellent start to the season with 100% on the even (White) boards for Aleksei, James and Alan making the final score 4-2.

The E team were not so successful, losing 4½-1½ against a very strong South Bristol B.

There were some comments on the A v B match on WhatsApp but these are thought to be a spoof, so it’s a good job that we have the real McCoy from Nigel, which is attached here.

The B team were somewhat under optimum strength for the clash with the A team and went down by 5½-½.

The first result for tonight is a win for the E team against South Bristol C - well done! It was narrow - just 3½-2½ but a great start to Archie's captaincy of the E team.

The D team started well with a win away to Yate B. Solid draws on the top boards were backed up by wins on boards 4-6, giving us a final score of 4-2. And, hey presto, we also have a tad more detail on how this win came to pass.

And now we have Nigel's excellent description of how we beat Hanham in the first round of the Knockout.

Our Knockout team travelled to Hanham last night in their quest to retain the cup and the result went pretty much according to plan, resulting in a 7½-½ win. We shall be away to Clevedon in the next round, possibly early in the New Year.

UPDATE

Here is more information on how we got two of our teams through to the next round of the Minor Knockout.

In the MKO the Knights exceeded all expectations with a win by 3½-2½ against a very experienced Cabot side. Highlights were Joe's and Shaun's wins against much higher rated opponents, Alastair and Richard; but perhaps the star turn was John's draw against Oleksii, who is rated over 300 more than John.

Meanwhile the Rooks also had a tough game, much more evenly balanced, at Thornbury, coming through by the same narrow score-line of 3½-2½. Here solid draws on the top two boards and board six were the foundation of the win, while wins by Ian and Grant clinched the victory.

The league season began last night with the Bishops travelling to Clifton in the Minor Knockout. They were up against some of Clifton's best young players and succumbed by 5-1, with Hector and Greg achieving well-earned draws. We'll hope for better news on Thursday when the Knights and the Rooks travel to Thornbury and Yate for their first round matches.

UPDATE!

18 souls presented themselves for examination by Oli and achieved the combined score of a Norwegian entry at the Eurovision Song Contest - that's "nul points". So well done to Oli for scoring a perfect 18. And let's hope everyone else learned a valuable lesson.

Thanks to Oli kindly offering to take on anyone rated under 1900, we are having a Simultaneous Exhibition at the club next Wednesday 26th August.

You can just turn upon the night but preferably let Grant know in advance on the Members' WhatsApp.

Our players, being a mixture of well-known members and newcomers to the club, had a very successful time overall at the Newport Congress this weekend.

Shaun played in the Minor Section and Alan and Grant in the Major, while In the Open Section Aron excelled with 4½ from the five rounds to be the absolute winner with a tournament rating of 2389!

We had new members in the Major and Minor sections. Matthew Baxter scored 4 out of 5 in the Major to come second on tie-break and Luke Stilwell scored 3½ in the Minor.

Well done to all.

This year the Club Championship will take on a new look, using a format that served us well in the past. It will consist of two rounds, the first played broadly before Christmas and the second in the New Year.

In the first round the entries will be seeded so that there is a variety of playing strength in each group. Watch out for giant killing!

In the second round the winners from the first group will play off for the Championship in Final Group A, the runners up will be in Group B and so on. So, in this round players will be more evenly matched and many tough fights can be expected.

We currently have 23 entries, which is enough for a successful tournament but it will be even better if we can increase it to 30 or more. So, if this challenge suits you, please let Grant know and then we can finalize the groups so that we can start next month and get some games in before the league season begins again.

69 players competed in the recent Stroud Rapid Play with four of them rated over 2200, all titled - one of them a GM.

They duly took the top four places, scoring, 6½, 6 or 5½ from the seven rounds. The chasing pack had six players on 5 points and nine more on 4½, including Carolus and Keith Baxter.

Carolus was equal fifth after six rounds but then his success was rewarded by having to play Zack Norris in the final round. Still, it was an excellent result in such a strong field. Alan rebounded from a tough mid-section to reach 3 points.

Eighteen players braved the extreme heat to play seven rounds in the Summer Blitz. Many thanks to Derrick for controlling!

Nigel managed six wins to be the outright winner again, so he retained the trophy that he won last year.

One point behind were James T, Carolus and Alejandro. Five more players achieved four points - Mark, James H, Charlie, Yuri and Yaksh, so there had been a tough struggle for high places including challenges by juniors and newcomers. Yaksh won the President's Trophy for the best result by a player rated under 1500.

Next Wednesday, 24th June, we are holding a blitz tournament and all members are welcome to join in. The time control will be 5 / 2 and quite a few members and friends have already signed up, including some seriously strong players!

It's a good idea to let Grant know if you plan to attend or just turn up on the evening for a 7.30 start.

Please make a note that the club AGM will be the following Wednesday, 1st July, when there will be successes to celebrate and plans for next season to discuss.

In the Bristol Megafinal we had some great results from our junior members.

In the under 14 section Alexis came 2nd with 5 points from 6 games and Vivaan scored a very respectable 3½ points. Newcomer Struan also did well, scoring 3 points in his very first tournament.

In the under 12s Hector also came 2nd with 5 points.

In the under 10s Yaksh had the best result with a perfect 6 from 6. Hector's sister, Lydia, also had a good event, scoring 3½.

Alexis, Hector and Yaksh will therefore progress to the Gigafinal. Well done!!

UPDATE

The final round started with a win for Oli in the Open, taking him to 4½ points for a share of second place. James finished with a draw to bring him up to a very respectable 3½ points.

In the Major, Grant, Dave T and Dave W finished with 3½, 3 and 2 respectively, while in the Minor, Shaun finished with another win.

Extremely well done to all of them for carrying on during the hottest day of the year, when sheer stamina played a significant part.

This weekend, attention turned to the Cotswold Congress at Gloucester with two rounds on each of the three days.

We had Oli and James in the Open section and they both had tough games on Sunday - Oli won both of his and James recovered from losing to the leader so they finished on three points out of four. After playing two exhausting games yesterday, Oli opted to take a bye in round five and avoid the sweltering Bank Holiday heat. James chose to play on and, for his troubles, faced another leader. They both have plenty to play for in the final round.

In the Major we have Grant and two Daves. Dave W had a bye in the fifth round but Grant and Dave T both won, to put them, respectively, on 3½ and 2½ points. Three of Dave’s opponents so far were born in 2011, 2017 and 2017 (twins?), so he was relieved not to have to play at the league faster rate!

Shaun has kept the D&F flag flying in the Minor with several very hard fought games.

We shall have the final “scores on the doors” a little later.

We were very well represented in the Frome Congress last weekend with James Thomas in the Open, Carolus in the Major and Yaksh in the Standard section. But our biggest entry was in the Intermediate section, where we had James Hennefeld, Alan, Elmira, Alejandro and Nigel.

They all had their moments but James H was the star performer with a share of first place in the Intermediate with four points from the five rounds.

Several of the performance ratings from the tournament significantly exceeded their current ones, notably James H registering 2014 points, Carolus 1919 and Yaksh increasing by an excellent 240 points. Very well done!

The Knockout final at Clifton provided eight interesting games with two high board wins to clinch the trophy on board count. Thanks again to Nigel for providing the last match report of the season describing the events of the night.

The Knockout Final was a real nail-biter but we have retained the Cup and therefore completed the League and Cup double. The score was 4-4 but thanks to wins by Oli and James on high boards we prevailed on board count! Congratulations to the team on another resounding success and also to Clifton for putting up a great fight.

The finale of the league season as far as our club is concerned takes place tomorrow, when the Knockout team (eight players) go to Clifton to try to retain the title and clinch a famous league and cup double. The very best of luck!

And hot on Greg's heels is Peter, with his report on the B team's last match of the season and, for once, his choice of words didn't need to be toned down by the editor!

Greg has produced a report on the E team's last game of the season - a 4-2 win.

We find that University B seem to be in the same boat as their A team, since they were also only able to field four players! Aldrin and Dave agreed to take the wins by default.

So the B team’s final match of the season was a bit of an anti-climax but it doesn’t take away from the fact that seven players, that’s Humphrey, Aldrin, Martin, Alexis, Alexei, Dave and skipper Peter appeared regularly throughout the fourteen matches and reserves were only needed on four occasions.

The four boards that were played ended in our favour with three wins and one draw, making the final score 5½-½.

As a result the B team in the end comfortably achieved promotion back to Division One. Well done!

It transpired that University A are in the exam season and were unable to field six players. Although the C team were handed a two game points start we were still up against the runaway leaders of Division Two, and it was very well done to James for his win to enable us to secure a 3-3 draw.

So, after a very tough season the C team finished with two draws! We can hope that life will be a bit easier in Division Three next season.

Clifton C won 4-2 last night against Horfield B. It means that our B team only need to draw at University B tomorrow to be sure of promotion back to division one! Also in division two, the C team host University A tonight, so the best of luck with that.

The E team remain in the bottom two places in division four but they cannot be relegated as long as they continue to field a team of six players next season. This is because division four is in the "higher section" of the League and there is no promotion / relegation between the two sections.

The E team finished their season with a satisfying win at Clifton E - more wins for Carolus and Alan!

Nigel has provided his thorough report on the A team's final match of the season. In passing, he makes some very valid comments on the use of the faster time rate in higher divisions of the League.

The D team faced a Clifton D side armed with three currently rated 1800 plus players and an average of over 200 more than us, so it was an excellent result to run them close in the 3½-2½ defeat. Well done to Nigel and Archie for their wins and to Hector for another draw.

Tonight's first result comes from the F team, who beat Clifton F 3-2 which will be pro-rated to 2½-1½ for the league table. Well done to Carolus, Charlie and Danny.

In the dead rubber game to complete the division one season our A team were missing three of their top boards but still fought hard against Clifton B with draws for Mark, Nigel and Alexis in the 4½-1½ defeat.

Greg has provided his usual interesting take on the E team's match at home to South Bristol C which ended all square.

Peter has provided a very fast turnaround with his report on the B team's hard earned draw against the division two champions, University A. Here we go.

The first result in tonight is that the B team have drawn 3-3 with University A. This means that we are one point ahead of Clifton C with one match (against University B) to play.

The E team also drew 3-3 in their bottom of the table clash with South Bristol C.

Now we have a report on how the C team fought hard at Clifton C last night.

The C team did the B team a favour by only losing against Clifton C by 3½-2½ with wins for El and Dave plus a draw from Alan. Not at all a bad performance, in view of the fact that their average rating of 1807 considerably exceeded our own. We shall have a better idea of the situation concerning promotion to division one after the B team's match at home tomorrow against University A. Good luck with that!

If we had any notions of an all Downend final in the Minor Knockout they were rudely shattered in two home semifinals last night. The Bishops did well to hold South Bristol to a draw but lost on board count. The Knights fared rather worse and went down by 4½-1½ against Bath. Well done to Alan, Nigel and Charlie for winning their games.

Greg has brought us up to date with his report on how the E team fared against Clifton J2.

What with the excitement with the A team and the Artemis launch, we are a little late reporting the E team's game against Clifton J2. Our mix of seasoned campaigners and youth were no match for the tyros from Clifton, who ran out winners by 5½-½ but not before Hector had played well again to secure our only half point.

To put the match with Clifton A into context, their B team had beaten Horfield A the day before, to come just one point behind us at the top of the table. A draw or a loss for us would mean everything depended on our final match against Clifton B and you can be sure they would scour their considerable resources for the best possible team.

But if we could beat Clifton A, it would be, in the words of Kenneth Wolstenholme, “all over”! It would not be straightforward, since Clifton brought James Cobb, John Curtis, Gareth Morris and Duncan Grossett, four players who, along with David Collier, had represented Clifton A for twenty years according to Chessit, and possibly longer than that. In that period they had won the league nine times, including seven years running. Last night they brought in Chirag Hosdurga (formerly of this parish) and Brian Lau to complete the usual very strong line-up.

For our part, we were without Haroon and Nigel, so we were glad that Aron was home from University for the Easter break and that Peter was also able to step in.

The report on the match which might decide the League follows.

The final score was 4-2. A great result against a strong Clifton A to secure a well-deserved league title, the first since 2016/17. We are three points ahead of Clifton B with only one match to go.

The A team have beaten Clifton A and are now unassailable at the top of division one. Well done! More details to follow.