Leyland Chess Club

Welcome to Leyland Chess Club's web site.
Leyland chess club was formed in 1975 and currently has about a dozen members. We meet regularly on a Tuesday evening in an upstairs room at the Broadfield Arms on Leyland Lane. For more detail about the club and how to find us, check out the club details page here.

Juniors
Leyland Chess Club have a fine tradition in promoting junior chess in Leyland and the surrounding area. We currently provide a junior coaching chess club in Croston We meet on Tuesday evenings from 6 to 7pm during term time in Croston Old School.

Club Championship 2011
08 May 2011
Round 1 of the Club Championship has commenced.

Round one. Went asleep at the board against Kevin Winter, who I swindled out of a win in the last round at Blackpool, and had to resign on move 27.

Round two. A draw in 30 moves with the Scandinavian against John McKeown.

Round three. A bye Saturday evening as 3 games in a day is too much for an old chap!

Round four. A very satisfying win with the KIA against Brian Slater. He just made the time control of 40 moves in 100 minutes (I was over an hour ahead on the clock at this point). One move later he realised his situation and resigned!

Round five was the first opportunity I had to try the Leningrad Dutch, which I'd been preparing. Sri Sriharan instantly played the Staunton Gambit. I'd looked at 1.Nf3 f5 2.e4 but not with 1.d4. Not wanting to show I hadn't a clue, I played the text (which is not the best move). The result was a very lively game which I unfortunately threw away in the endgame. The analysis in blue is by Fritz.

1.d4 f5 2.e4 fxe4 3.f3 e3 4.Bxe3 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Bd3 Bg7 7.Nge2 d6 8.0-0 Nc6 9.a3 e5 10.Ne4 0-0 11.Nxf6+ Bxf6 12.Bh6 Bg7 13.Bxg7 Kxg7 14.d5 Ne7 15.c4 Bf5 16.Ng3 Bxd3 17.Qxd3 Nf5 18.f4 Nxg3 19.Qxg3 exf4 20.Rxf4 Rxf4 21.Qxf4 Qf6 22.Qxf6+ Kxf6 23.Re1 Kf7 24.g4 h6 25.h4 Re8 26.Rxe8 Kxe8 27.Kf2 g5 28.hxg5 hxg5 29.Kf3 Ke7 30.Ke4 Kf6 31.b4 a6 32.a4 c6?? [32...b6 33.Ke3=] 33.c5 dxc5 34.bxc5 a5?? [>=34...cxd5+ 35.Kxd5 Ke7=] 35.d6 Ke6 36.d7 1-0

New venue for the summer.
22 June 2010
We are planning to hold 6 meetings over the summer months at Buckshaw Retirement Village. We hope to be able to attract some new members to the club from those who have moved to the retirement village since it opened a few years ago. We hope to have our first meeting on Tuesday 20 July and the rota below will indicate which club members have promised to be present for coaching and help to new members. Other club members will of course be present.

Completion of League matches
14 May 2010
All our teams have completed their league matches.

The A team are in 3rd position (from 6), just one point behind the current leaders who have one game to play.

I Received this from a chap I've played nearly 400 postal/email games with over the years (although we've never met) :-

Just look at those players!
They sit and they squirm on hard, wooden chairs,
Engrossed in the secrets of sixty-four squares,
Shuffling and groaning and pulling their hairs
Till suddenly one of them loudly declares
'Checkmate! ' to his rival, and everyone stares! !

The loser stands up with a grimace of hate
(He's never been good at accepting his fate)
'You were lucky! ' he snarls, 'but don't underrate
Me! I'll beat you tomorrow, just you wait,
When the chess-club opens, so don't be late,
We'll see who's the master, I'LL CRUSH YOU, mate! ! '

John Thorkild Ellison

Congress Prize Winners
02 April 2010
Charlie Williamson won the 95-92 grading prize in the Standard section at Blackpool with 3½/5 and winning £100.

Matthew Walsh came 3rd in the Intermediate (U150) section of the Atherton Rapidplay with 4½/6.

Ruminations of a Septuagenarian
18 October 2009 -
Bill has sent us a copy of his letter that was published in Correspondence Chess, the quarterly magazine of the British Correspondence Chess Association. Here it is below, thanks Bill.

In 1981, in a letter entitled "Twenty Years with the BCCA", I described how I had commenced playing the Scandinavian (or Centre Counter as it was more popularly known). I have found it fascinating to see it emerge s a "respected" defence, even being chosen by Anand in his game with Kasprarov in the PCS World Championship of 1995.
In the early days I ensnared many opponents, both OTB and by post, with the Kiel variation but, as the Scandinvian became more recognised as a playable defence, I had to abandon that idea. It was about that time that I discovered that 2...Qxd5 is considered by theory as to be stronger than 2...Nf6. I now ply both, which brings me to the reason for this letter:-
In the former variation 3...Qa5 is considered the main line but I find this hard to comprehend when compared to 3...Qd8. Given that the queen will return (usually!) to d8, it takes three moves, rather than two , via a5. Also, on a5 the Queen is just asking for the Nc3 to move thus freeing the white c-pawn which is strategically misplaced; being shut in behind the knight. Perhaps the downside of 3..Qd8 is that it allows white's QB to develop freely. I welcome readers comments.
Only James Plaskett's book covers 3...Qd8 and I quote from it:-
"Michael Adams liked this opening whenever he was playing with the back pieces against the big boys in Frankfurt 1999."

13 October 2009 - Bill Clews is the new Club Champion. Well done to Bill. I think by all accounts Dave Humphries was have a good game against Bill in the final round, but some how wasn't able to make his advantage win him the match. So Bill wins the title out right with 5 wins. This is the first time Bill has his name on the club championship trophy, but I am sure he would have won the summer swiss that was run when the club championship didn't run for a number of years as a mark of respect to Harry.

29 September 2009 - Into the final round of the club championship. With some withdrawals, the top match between Bill and Dave will decide the club championship.

23 August 2009 - The 2009 club championship is well underway, but holidays are having an impact on some of the rounds. With John Mackenzie not back from holiday until the end of the month, and last year's champion James having been beaten by Bill, almost half the players are in contention for the championship.

The annual congress is set for next weekend. Our fear of a very low entry are diminishing. This is one of the first congresses with new gradings being applied and we weren't sure of the impact this would have on the congress.