Welcome

This site has gone live in July 2011 to replace the rather limited Friends’ online presence that was previously incorporated into my general chess freeserve website, and to provide information about the Friends that should be of interest both to those who might be prepared to give, and to those considering seeking, support.  Friends’ activities for the current financial year, which began on 1 May 2011, are reported below as blog posts: the buttons above enable information to be accessed about the organisation, the present Committee, how to join and who to contact in respect of membership enquiries or grant applications.  Over time, a full year by year summary of the period since I became Secretary in 1999 will become available via the “past support” button.

John Philpott, Secretary of The Friends of Chess

Jessie Gilbert Celebration International

The 4th Jessie Gilbert Celebration International Chess Festival is being organised by Coulsdon Chess Fellowship from 20 to 28 August 2011.  This is being supported by the Friends, as have the first three Internationals.

The key event from the Friends perspective in the 9 round GM Open Swiss.  However, several FIDE-rated sections for all are being organised, as is a junior training challenge event on 24 August.

Further information can be found by clicking on the following link to the Coulsdon website.

Sarah Hegarty

Sarah is a Chemistry undergraduate at Bristol University currently rated 2065 who was a member of the England women’s team at the 2010 Olympiad, finishing unbeaten with a score of 7½/9.  For the second time, the Friends are supporting her summer programme, in which she is seeking WIM norms and the retention of her place in the England team.  The programme includes:

Gatwick Open (17^th-19^th June)
Big Slick (25^th June – 3^rd July)
Scottish Championships (9^th-17^th July)
British Championships (24^th July – 5^th August)
Uxbridge (10^th-14^th August)
Harlaam BDO Championships (20^th-28^th August)
Paington Chess Congress (4^th-10^th September)

Adam Hunt

IM Adam Hunt has so far achieved two GM norms.  The Friends are supporting him while he takes a year off his job from July 2011 to try to achieve the GM title by obtaining a third norm and getting his rating sufficiently high.  The programme that Adam envisages includes the Artemis Cup and Paleohora in July, the 1st Metropolitan Open in August, the Singapore Open and Queenstown.

2nd Big Slick International

The Friends supported the 2nd Big Slick International, organised by Simon Williams and Lawrence Cooper and held at the Big Slick Poker Centre in Purley from 25 June to 3 July 2011.  Unlike the first International in 2009 (which the Friends had also supported) which had comprised one all-play-all and a weekend tournament, the second featured separate GM norm and IM norm sections (both 10 player all-play-alls).

The GM norm section was won by Simon Williams with 6½ points.  Khoslva Shiven secured a 3rd IM norm and the title.  The cross table and PGN downloads for this section can be accessed from here. The IM norm section was won by Danny Gormally with 7½ points.  Nicolas Croad achieved an IM norm.  The cross table and PGN downloads for this section can be accessed from here.

Simon Williams – Co-organiser and winner of the GM norm section.

English Deaf Chess Association

The Friends have been regular supporters in the past both of the English Deaf Chess Association (EDCA) and of the Braille Chess Association.  This support has extended to the two ICSC (International Committee for Silent Chess) Tournaments that EDCA organised in Liverpool from 8 to 13 June 2011.  There was both a closed event, the 20th European Club Team Deaf Chess Championship, in which London Deaf (Christopher Kreuzer, Alasdair MacLeod, Phillip Gardner, Neil Dunlop and Richard Dunn) participated and the first ICSC Open Deaf Club Team Championship, in which Sheffield Deaf (Stephen Gibson, Peter Sharpe, Michael Freund, David Whiston and Michael Summers) participated.

The 10 team closed event was won by Zagreb, who were victorious in all 7 of their matches.  London finished a respectable 6th scoring 50%.

 The 10 team open event was won by Dresden, who also won all 7 of their matches.  Sheffield finished 4th, with 4 wins and a draw.

For more information, following this link to the event website.

The London Deaf team.