Author Archive: Chesster

Southend 2023

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The SOUTHEND EASTER CHESS FESTIVAL 2023,  including the Southend FIDE Rapid and the 65th Southend Easter Chess Congress, has been launched on the Festival website. The Festival runs from Thu 6 April (Maundy Thursday) to Monday 10 April, at the Southend Adult Community College, Southend-on-Sea SS1 2UN, its home since 2014. Last year, there was a strong congingent of a dozen Wanstead members who entered and all enjoyed the event. Let’s see if we can swell that number. The principal […]

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red lighted candle

A Christmas cracker

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The “Club evening that wasn’t” turned into a Christmas Cracker to remember. Originally, Wanstead House was not going to be open on this last Tuesday before Christmas, but reversal of this decision allowed one more Club evening for which, of course, nothing had been planned. A perfect opportunity to generate more Blitz results for members to add to their new ECF Blitz ratings by holding a Christmas Blitz. And very popular it was! There were 28 entries, including three invited […]

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red lighted candle

Christmas Blitz

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Last call to members for entries to the Christmas Blitz. With the House now being open for 20 December (today) we are organising a Christmas Blitz which will be submitted for ECF Blitz rating (new this year). The format will be dependent on the number of entries but will be a minimum of 9 rounds of G4+2 and a maximum of 15 rounds of G3+2 or somewhere in between. The event has been circularised to the Club’s mailing list. To […]

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White to play, what’s the best move?

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This remarkable position occurred in actual play. Imagine you have this position in a match game; you have White and you have to find your next move, what will you play? Your clock is ticking and, by the way, you have less than five minutes plus 10 second increments. Black has around the same, but his clock is not ticking. If you don’t want to play the “clock game” just analyse the position and find White’s best move, then see […]

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battle black blur board game

Summer rapid season round up

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Mark Murrell draws together the details of an active and successful summer: Synopsis Lawrance Cup retained (on tie break) Summer League Champions (after a play-off) Essex Knockout Champions (regained from Wanstead 2!) Finchley Cup runners up (Barking had to win something !) Ashley Freeman leads the John Philpott Trophy (NCCL Cups & Rapid Championship to come) 47 members in action (including 13 juniors) in 446 appearances !! The summer of 2022 was one of the most keenly contested rapid seasons […]

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Ashley – whoosh-bang champion!

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Lightning Championship 2022-23 The 37th running of our Lightning Championship, played annually since 1986-87 without a break, even for covid. The history of lightning tournaments at W&WCC goes back even further, before it was run as a championship. The latest incarnation produced a new champion from the ranks of our recent recruits: Ashley Freeman set a pace that none could live with and he won with a round to spare, finishing with 5½/6. Philip Staniland having been one of Ashley’s […]

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Wanstead retain Sims Cup

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Having defeated Writtle away in the Semi-Final, the Wanstead A team had one more stern test to retain the Sims Cup for the Essex Summer Rapid Knockout: another showdown with Barking A. Wanstead has held the Sims Cup since 2019, while the Knockout was sidelined by Covid lockdowns. Wanstead A has had to wait a long time to erase the memory of 2019 when it was Wanstead B team that won the all-Wanstead Final that year. Congratulations to Skipper Ashley […]

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