Club Competitions

club championship

The Club Championship is ‘standard play’ (1 hour or over time control) which is run as a 7 round ‘Swiss’ competition. Each round is allocated a time period of about 6 weeks in which to play the games. Games are usually played at the club on a Wednesday evening but can be played anywhere, any time. Players drawn with the white pieces must contact their opponent to arrange the game.

The dates, which are displayed below each round, are the dates by which the round is to be completed and any unplayed games will, without good reason, be defaulted in favour of black. White needs to contact their opponent within 2 weeks of the pairings being drawn to avoid losing by default, even if it’s to say that they won’t be available for a while. If you don’t, your opponent can claim a win by default. So, don’t wait until you know when you can play and if that might be after the deadline, tell me, I will, within reason, extend your deadline but if you don’t tell me, you will lose by default.

Although thare are still 3 games left to play in the 2nd round, we must move on and from now on, I must get stricter with the default rules. Otherwise we won’t get competition finished by the end of July. So, white need simply contact black, within two weeks, to avoid being defaulted. If, as black, you are planning a holiday etc, please let your opponent know.

The draw for the third round of the Penrith Club Championship 2024-25 can be seen below.

Nathan played Dave H in round 3, last night. It was a long tough game but eventually, Nathan won a pawn and Dave threw in the towel shortly after.  Yousef contacted me to say that he has too much going on at the moment, so is withdrawing from this year’s competition. Consequently, His opponents from outstanding games, will receive a full point bye.

Good luck in your games…

……………Andy McAtear 16th January 2025

club Knockout

The Penrith Club Knockout is, as the title says, a knockout competition played at 1 hour each on the clock. The winner will progress to the next round, the loser is knocked out of the competiton. If the game is drawn, then you will play another game with colours reversed and if that game is a draw, there will be 30 minute rapidplay games, again with colours reversed. If after the rapidplay there is no winner after two games, an ‘Armageddon’ game (6 minutes for white and 5 minutes for black but black need only draw to win the game) will be played with colours decided at random. So, bear in mind the possibility of several games to be played by the deadline and contact your opponent early.

The date above the round in the table below, is the date by which the round must be completed. Colours will be decided at the board with a coin toss. There is a possibility that your game will end in a draw, so please take that into account and leave enough time to play rematches before the deadline.

The player on top of the pairings, in the table below, should contact their opponent to arrange the game.

On Wednesday, Alice played Jacob in the second round of the Knockout and Alice won. It just shows that anything can happen but one thing is for sure, this year we’ll have a new knockout champion. There’s still a couple of games to be played in round 1 and if they’re not played soon, I’m going to have to default someone.

The draw for the first round can be seen in the table below. Good luck in your games.

………………Andy McAtear 13th December 2024

club ladder

The Ladder is ‘rapid play’ (over 10 minutes and under 1 hour time control). There are many ways to run a ladder competition but these are our rules:

1) Anyone can challenge anyone.

2) The player on the higher rung has black in the first game and colours alternate thereafter.

3) The time control is 30 minutes all the moves.

4) The higher placed player must win or draw to retain their position on the ladder. If they lose, they drop one rung and their opponent takes their original rung.

5) The player on top at the end of the season (July 31st) , provided that they have played at least 10 games, will receive the trophy ….but, after every third session there is a time-out, anyone who hasn’t played a game since the previous time-out will drop one rung and be replaced by someone who has played.

SThree more games last night, all between Dave H and Andy. Despite an odd scare, Andy won all three so, no change on the Ladder.

All results and current positions below:

…………….Andy McAtear 9th January 2025

Club Quick Ladder

By popular demand, we have started a Quick Ladder competition. The rules are the same as the Rapid-play Ladder but with 15 minutes, instead of half an hour, to play all the moves.

Only two members at the club last night but we played four games between us. Cameron was getting the sets out when I arrived. We played a few games last week in which I came out on top. However, this week it was Cameron who came out on top by winning the last game. The actual result was 2-2. We were about to call it a night when Eggert arrived so he and Cameron had a couple of games. Eggert, defending the top rung, won the first game with black but Cameron found an excellent reply to Eggert’s attack, in the second game, to find a forced mate and with the landlady locking up, Eggert didn’t have time to play another so, well done Cameron, we have a new top rung.

Positions and all results below:

……………..Andy McAtear 23rd January 2025

Club Blitz Ladder

Again by popular demand, we have started a Blitz Ladder competition. The rules are the same as the other two Ladders but with 4 minutes + 6 seconds per move.

Four games in the Blitz Ladder, last night and the positions were changing after almost every game. Eggert took the top rung after deposing Cameron, then Olly beat Eggert and was briefly on top rung but Eggert took it back in the final game of the evening.

Positions and all results below:

……………..Andy McAtear 4th December 2024

blitz championship

The Blitz Championship is, as the name suggests, a blitz (all the moves in 10 minutes or less) all play all competition. The time control is 4 minutes plus 6 seconds per move. Each match must be won by 2 games in order to pick up 1 match point. As some matches can last many games, they need not be finished in one session, colours are recorded, along with the score, so that adjourned matches can continue where they left off.

Alice and Lewis finished their Club Championship game quite early so continued hostilities in the Blitz arena. Lewis, however, fared no better at the quick time control than he did at the long and lost 2-0 on time. Perhaps he struggled with the transition from long play to blitz.

…………..Andy McAtear 4th December 2024