Wishing All a Merry Christmas and Happy 2025 from Broadstairs Chess Club. The Chess Club meets on Mondays at 7.30pm, upstairs at the Bradstow Mill, High Street, Broadstairs. New members are always welcome. For more information contact Andrew Flood 07880 724893, email: andrewflood042@gmail.com

The Club’s Christmas Celebration (16/12/24) this year incorporated a new annual Blitz Tournament, The Reg Pidduck 50 Tournament, which celebrates Reg’s 50 years as a member of Broadstairs Chess Club.

It was both an individual and team competition with The Reggie’s taken on The Ronnie’s. As anticipated it was a highly successful night for the Reggie’s Team who proved too strong winning 15.5 v 9.5. Reg captained a formidable team with the best performances of the evening coming from Club Champion Samuel Marsden (5/5) and Paul Carfrae (4/5).

Bob Cronin put in the best performance of the evening in the “Now and when Reg joined Broadstairs Chess Club,” Quiz scoring 14 from 17.

When Reg joined the Club the world’s population at approximately 4 billion was half of its current size and you could pick up a house in London for £12,000, there were no mobile phones and Broadstairs Chess Club was only 88 years old (founded in 1887).

Broadstairs Chess Club finished the 2024 programme of league matches the following day (17/12/24) with a good 3 – 1 win by the Steele Cup team away to Sandwich.

Broadstairs Chess Club meets on Mondays at 7.30pm, upstairs at the Bradstow Mill, High Street, Broadstairs. New members are always welcome. For more information contact Andrew Flood 07880 724893, email: andrewflood042@gmail.com

Broadstairs chess team visited Bridge for a Miller Cup match missing a few of their highest rated players, but nonetheless managed to come close to gaining a result, certainly closer than the final score would suggest.

Bridge fielded an exceptionally strong team, outrating Broadstairs on all seven boards.

First to finish was Board 7, then Board 6 and then Board 4, resulting in Bridge taking an early 3 – 0 lead, before things started to take an unexpected turn. Samuel on Board 1 achieved the first Broadstairs score with a very solid draw against his highly rated opponent.

Bob Cronin on Board 5 got an unexpected win against his opponent who had 508 more rating points. In what was overall an excellent game of good solid chess by Bob, he held his own in the opening and middle game before going into an end game which started off as a likely looking draw but soon deteriorated into a likely lost end game. He managed however to shock and checkmate his opponent to claim a win.

At 3.5 v 1.5 all eyes were on the remaining 2 games where Broadstairs Chris Stampe and Paul Carfrae both had the edge and the better positions against their opponents. With too many good moves to choose from Paul managed to find the one wrong move which effectively gave his opponent the win against the run of play.

Last game to finish was on Board 2 which saw Chris Stampe lose the end game of a match that had been played to a high standard and had presented opportunities for Chris to get a positive result.

The  final score of 5.5 v 1.5 and a Bridge win did not reflect the closeness of the encounter.

The new chess season and chess at Broadstairs Chess Club resumes on Monday 2^nd September (new members always welcome), following a three week break to accommodate the summer holidays, Folk week and the bank holiday.

Earlier in August the 2023/24 season concluded with the club’s AGM and the presentation of trophies (see photos below relating to the Hargreaves Shield, John Couzens Trophy, and the Mick Croft Cup).

It was a successful season with Broadstairs winning the Hargreaves Shield, the Thanet Shield and the Mick Croft Cup, the greatest achievement though took place in the club’s internal competition, namely the Goodall Cup.

The Goodall Cup itself, dates to 1950, although  Broadstairs Chess Club dates back to 1887.  The previous young winners had included Paul Carfrae (1997) and Ian Hames (1984), accordingly the previous youngest winner in the more modern times of the last 74 years had been in their mid- twenties. Samuel Marsden, the 2024 winner is almost certainly the youngest winner of the Club Championship in its 137 years history and certainly the youngest winner of the Goodall Cup in its 74 years history. At 14 years of age, he started the competition aged 13 and achieved the remarkable feat of winning the competition with the fantastic score of 91.18%, 15.5 points from a possible 17 points and games.

Such is Samuel’s chess ability he will be starting the new season as the club’s highest rated player and will playing on the club’s top board in Broadstairs league fixtures which start in a few weeks’ time with games against the University of Kent and then Sandwich.

Broadstairs Chess Club’s Thanet and East Kent League matches for the 2023/24 season came to a victorious end on Tuesday 18^th June 2024 with the Club winning the final of the Mick Croft Cup at and against Sandwich 3.5 to 1.5.

Congratulations to the team captain Paul Carfrae and to Manoj Natarajan, Chris Stampe, Samuel Marsden, and Paul Verrall. Broadstairs had played and knocked out Bridge and Margate in the earlier rounds with the help of Jasper Jeffs who wasn’t available for the final.

As we approach  the conclusion of various internal competitions and the club AGM next month (5.8.2024) which will bring to an end  the season, it becomes a time to reflect and of course to think about and plan for the 2024/25 season.

Overall, it was a successful season with the club fielding chess teams in the Miller Cup, Hargreaves Shield, Steele Cup, Walker Cup, and the  Mick Croft Cup. The Hargreaves Shield was again won by Broadstairs.

There is a lot to reflect on and to prepare for the AGM so more on that in a future website post.