Chess club is back from the Christmas break on the 9th Jan. As well as a regular club night with friendly games we’ll also have the option to review any games you’ve played with another player – always an interesting way to learn I think so just bring a game along. All welcome!

As Christmas approaches there’s still time for some more chess! Our opening / closing dates are below:

5^th Dec: Club night, Jon is running a training session

12^th Dec: Last club night before Christmas

9^th Jan: First club night of 2023

We’ve been enjoying the new season and new venue so far, great to see old and new faces for some chess. This Monday we’ll have our traditional cheese and wine quickplay, preceded briefly by our AGM. Time control 10 mins each with a time handicap to level the playing field.

Always a fun evening so new players are very welcome – though I’d suggest arriving around 8 as you might find the business part of the AGM less interesting

It was great to see lots of new and returning faces at the reopening this week, looked like lots of good games going on. I think the new bridge club venue was a definite success.

Our next meeting falls on the date of the Queen’s funeral, so as a mark of respect the club will not open that evening. The club will be open as normal on the 26^th September and look forward to seeing everyone then.

Exciting news that we have secured a new venue for next season. We’ll now be at the Oxford Bridge Club, 147 Banbury Rd, OX2 7AN

The new venue has more space to better fit the newer members we had last year and means we can more comfortably have club night activities at the same time as matches. It also has some more modern facilities.

We’ll begin again on the 12th September and looking forward to welcoming old and new faces then.

On Monday we finished the season with a fun blitz session with cheese and wine. Thanks to everyone who helped setting up / down. Arya was victorious in the blitz with full points so well done to him

In the season itself, City 3 finished the highest of our teams with 4th in Division 3. City 2 finished 5th in Division 2 and City 1 got 5th in Division 1 as well – finishing strong after a slow first half to the season.

Wishing everyone a good summer and we’ll be back in September.

just a quick note that club won’t be open tomorrow. Wishing everyone a happy Easter! We’ll be back open next week

I’m pleased to say that the club will reopen on Monday 13th from 7:30 for the first time in 18 months. I’m very much looking forward to seeing old faces again and enjoying some chess. We’ve had a few enquiries from people interested in joining so a special welcome to anyone new who’d like to come for the first time – just come along and give it a go.

A belated write up to the second half of the season, but a big congratulations to City 1 who won the 2nd Mike Duck Tournament with 12/14 points! Well done everyone 🙂

https://ecflms.org.uk/lms/node/65140/table

City 2 finished 7th with 8 points, and City 3 17th with 5 points, both very respectable finishes based on the ratings of the teams.

An enjoyable tournament all round but looking forward to playing with an actual board again next year!

The first online tournament organised by the Oxfordshire chess association was held in the Autumn term. Uni 1 were the runaway winners, fielding a very strong team throughout. City 1 finished mid table, with narrow losses in the last 2 rounds after a strong start. City 2 were the underdogs in most of their games but picked up a win and a draw to finish off the bottom. http://www.oxfordfusion.com/oca/documents/2020_MikeDuck1_FinalStandings.htm

Top performers were Jon Manley for City 1 with 5/6 and Jan Murawski for City 2 with 3/4, so well done to you, also a big thanks to our captains Sean Terry and Andy Bell for all their work to enable us to enjoy the chess.

The second tournament will start next week and we’ll be competing as before. New members would be very welcome to participate in our teams, send a message if you’d be interested.