Mixed fortunes for Guildford teams in league competitions this week.

In the Surrey Border League Division 2 on Monday, Guildford B drew with Crowthorne B 2.5–2.5. Apparently one of the Guildford players was short of time and was no longer required to record the moves, having less than 5 minutes on his clock, and a Guildford spectator recorded the moves on his behalf. This prompted some discussion among the Crowthorne players at the A team match later in the week. The FIDE Laws of Chess do not make specific provision on whether such recording is allowed. But in other places the Laws clearly emphasise the importance of recording the moves, so this action by a spectator seemed to us to be within the spirit of the rules.

In the Surrey Border League Division 1 on Wednesday, Guildford A beat Crowthorne A 3.5–1.5. Another good win for Gwilym Price, who defeated FM Paul Cooksey (2316) on board 1. Mixed fortunes also for two of the other Crowthorne players, who won against their Guildford B opponents but lost against Guildford A two days later.

We fared worse in the Surrey League on Monday. In Division 3 (Ellam Trophy), Guildford 3 lost 0.5–5.5 to last year's runner's up Richmond. And in the Fred Manning Trophy, Guildford lost 1–3 to Wimbledon B.

Anyway. Early doors. Thanks to all our players for turning out this week.

Guildford teams came off second best in their encounters with Epsom last Monday.

In the Surrey League Division 1 (Surrey Trophy), Guildford 1 lost 3.5–4.5 to Epsom 1. The teams were evenly-matched in rating terms. We had to default bottom board following a late withdrawal and that made the difference. Our best result was Gwilym Price's win over Graeme Buckley on the black side of a Sicilian on top board.

If we had been playing home rather than away, we could easily have found an 8th player to complete the team. Away matches are always harder to select for. We were unable to fill the gap despite trying 15 players in the 24 hours before the match.

Home advantage did not help Guildford 4, who lost 1.5–3.5 to Epsom 4 in the Surrey League Division 4 (Epsom Trophy). Surprisingly, we did better on the lower boards despite being clearly out-rated.

Last night we played two home matches in the Surrey Border League. In Division 1, Guildford A won 3–2 against a strong Farnham A side. Although we had a rating advantage of over 100 points a board, this was a tough match, with the outcome in doubt until the end of the evening. In Division 6, the all-junior Guildford F team did very well to beat the higher-rated Farnham E team 4–0.

The Internal Rapidplay and (new) Internal Standardplay events continued. We welcomed Oleg Maksak and his daughter Liubava to the club, from Ukraine and now living in the UK. Liubava is the current British Under 8 Girls champion.

Thanks also to Mike Gunn for running the Beginners' Group this week.

Our annual recruitment event takes place on Guildford High Street from 10.00am to 2.00pm on Saturday 14 September. Club members will be playing chess against each other and anyone else who wants a game, and there will be a large demonstration board as well. This is to publicise the club and we hope to attract some new members.

Following the AGM on Monday 2 September, the main elements of our programme for 2024/25 are as shown below. Everything starts at 7.30pm except for the Junior Club which runs from 5.15pm to 7.15pm. All competitive games are submitted for ECF rating. All events are free to club members except the club dinner in September 2024 and the Guildford FIDE Congress in April 2025.

On pre-arranged match nights:

• League and cup matches in a range of competitions – for teams of between 4 and 10 players. Mostly standardplay, some rapidplay.

Every week from September 2024 to May 2025:

• Internal Rapidplay – 3 rounds an evening, time control 15 minutes for the game plus 15 seconds a move.
• Internal Standardplay – Time control 75 minutes for the game plus 15 seconds a move (or 45 minutes for the game plus 15 seconds a move if both players agree).
• Beginners and Improvers groups – casual games, commentary, informal coaching by club members. On some dates there will be a training session with IM Andrew Martin.

In term-time (3 terms a year):

• Junior Club, with training by qualified chess coaches in a range of different ability groups.

Tournaments:

• Guildford FIDE Congress – 11 to 13 April 2025 at the University of Surrey.
• Guildford Summer tournament – on 8 Monday nights in June and July 2025.

Special events:

• High Street recruitment event – 14 September 2024.
• Club Dinner – 27 September 2024 at 7.30pm at Olivo's in Guildford.

20 players entered the end-of-season blitz at the club. This was a 9-round individual blitz at the time control of 3 minutes a game plus 2 seconds a move. The top seed, Jon Ady, was the runaway winner, finishing on 9/9. Second equal on 6.5/9 were Anton Barysenka and Riyad Bensoussane. Thank you to everyone who played. For the final table see the tournament page on Chess-Results.

The tournament is now finished. Thank you to all the players who took part. Congratulations to the section winners, who each become club champion for their section for 2024:
Open – Gwilym Price on 6.5/8
Minor – Sean Sussex on 7/8.

A total of 59 players entered the tournament, which sets a new record.

Round 2 took place tonight. As before, the results mostly went the way of the rating in both sections. In the Open, 7 players share the lead on 2/2. In the Minor, 3 players share the lead on 2/2. Expect to see some heavyweight clashes next week.

The tournament numbers increased to 57 with one further entry to the Open from next week onwards.

There was a late flurry of entries bringing the total to 56 (Open 41, Minor 15). This is a new record. Setting the upper limit of the Minor at 1550 seems to have achieved the aim of bringing members of the Beginners' Group into competitive tournament play. Well done them.

In both sections, the results very much went with the ratings. Although this is less meaningful in the Minor where more of the ratings are estimates. The last game in the Open did not finish until 10.30pm. One of the most heartening features of the evening was the beginners' post-match analysis in the downstairs room with Seb Galer, Peter Hegarty, Sean Sussex and others.

The Surrey Border League finished on a high note for Guildford when the A team beat Sandhurst A by 3.5–1.5. The highlight was Gwilym Price beating Steven Jones on board 2, taking revenge for his loss to Steven in this fixture earlier in the season. This means Guildford A finish runners up to Sandhurst A in the Division 1 table.

The internal rapidplay has finally ended, after 30 evenings and 93 rounds featuring 62 players. Riyad Bensoussane and James Toon both finished on 25 points so will play off for the title over the summer.

All eyes now turn to the summer tournament, due to start on 3 June. This will be the only organised event in the club for a period of 8 weeks from 3 June.