Champions win high-octane encounter

The traditional Essex League challenge match Champions v The Rest has a chequered history, but whenever Wanstead are the Champions, the challenge is made. These affairs usually favour The Rest, but Mark assembled a star-studded line-up over 15 boards with an average of 1909 against The Rest 1832. Wanstead built a 3 point lead and held it, winning the top six by 4-2 and a clean sweep of the bottom three boards. Picture gallery on the match card page. Board-by-board: […]

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Plate winners!

Congratulations to the B team in a comprehensive victory over a good Loughton team in the Final of the Essex Knockout Plate competition. Though the B Team had the edge on ratings, the margin of victory was a complete surprise, R1 going to Wanstead B by 4-1 and R2 by 3½-1½ for an overall score of Loughton 2½-7½ Wanstead B. You can find full details of this splendid win on the ECA Website: Essex Knockout Plate Final This victory sets […]

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White to play, what’s the best move?

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

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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Wanstead retain Sims Cup

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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black white and brown chess board game

Wanstead Festival postponed to 2 October

The Wanstead Festival, which was to have taken place on Sun 18 September, has been postponed to Sunday 2 October 2022. Those members who had pledged support to Paul Barclay for the original date, please confirm to Paul your availability for the new date. The revised “September programme” is: Tue 13 Sep Summer League Play-off Final   Inbetweeners 3 + 2 rated blitz   Start of U1650 Ladder Tue 20 Sep Essex Knockout Final – Wanstead A v Barking A […]

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London League Fixtures

The London League Fixtures are published. Two Wanstead teams have been entered, the first team in Division 2 and the second team in the Minor Division. The first fixture for each is on 6 October 2022 and both are travelling west, to the Mind Sports Centre and both play opposition from Wimbledon. The first team has two fixtures at Mind Sports, five fixtures at St. Margaret’s House, Bethnal Green and three fixtures at opponents’ venues in central London; 10 in […]

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