Date: Tuesday 1 September 2026
This is an all club activity. All members are invited.
Our traditional Opening Night event is a multi-player simultaneous given by a selection of the Club’s trophy-winners of the previous season.
Originally, this was the Club Champion and the winner of the David Wood Memorial Trophy. More recently, we have expanded this group by adding one or two other trophy winners.
Some terminology
A simultaenous display is one player playing many opponents simultaneously – usually called a Simul
A simul given by two players is called a Tandem
A simul given by more than two players is called a Caterpillar
On this Opening Night of the new chess year, the Caterpillar of Ashwin GopiKrishna (Club Champion, Junior Club Champion and David Wood Memorial Trophy winner), David Spearman (Roy Wagstaff Memorial Shield) and Paul Barclay (Rapid Club Champion) will take on the Club in a Caterpillar Simul.
For those who have not taken part in a caterpillar simul before, this diagram shows the setup with the Club players seated on the outside while the Caterpillar circulate on the insde. This diagram shows the caterpillar circulating clockwise. They may, however, choose to circulate anti-clockwise! The diagram above represents a simul of 12 boards. Roding room can take a setup of something like 27 boards.
The Caterpillar take White on all boards, circulating round the arena one behind the other making a move at each board in turn, without conferring, while trying to maintain an even space between themselves, an equal number of boards apart. Club members, playing Black, must wait until a member of the Caterpillar comes to their board to make their next move. Remember, four ply moves (two moves by either side) have taken place since each member of the Caterpillar last saw the position on each board; that’s a lot of change in the position, so let them see your next move. And no passing! Have your move ready and make it when the player comes to your board. The Caterpillar will not confer, so neither should you!
We like to keep a record of these events, so when your game has finished please report your result before you leave. Results will appear below.
Good luck and enjoy your game!
Results in finishing order
…will appear here.