Season 2024-25

Welcome to the new season. Activities planned for September include:

• Monday 2nd September
  Simultaneous Exhibition Match:
  IM Peter Roberson v St Albans Club.  Result:  W17  D1  L1
• Monday 9th September
  Silver Rook Qualifier, Round 1
• Monday 16th September
  Social chess
• Monday 23rd September
  Challenge Match: St Albans (away) v Hemel Hempstead
  Challenge Match: Early Knights (home) v Watford Juniors
• Thursday 26th September
  Allenbury's: Herts & District Team Jamboree
• Monday 30th September
  Start of Herts League and other inter-club competitions.
• Saturday 19th October
  Puller Cup: inter-club team rapidplay

St Albans Club Championship - Silver Rook

Tuesday, 10 September 2024

Three rounds of rapidplay qualifiers are scheduled to take place on the following dates:

• Round 1, 9 Sept 2024
• Round 2, 11 Nov 2024
• Round 3, 6 Mar 2025

The top eight qualifiers determined by individual rating performance in any one of the three qualifying rounds will progress to the knockout rounds.

See the current ranking of qualifiers, which will be updated after each qualifying tournament: Silver Rook Qualifiers 2024-25

ECF Book of the Year - Shortlist

Tuesday, 3 September 2024

There are four books under consideration by ECF for Book of the Year 2024:

• In Black and White
  Paul van der Sterren 
  New in Chess pp754 £38.95
• Korchnoi Year by Year: Volume II (1969-1980) 
  Hans Renette and Tibor Karolyi 
  Elk and Ruby pp 518 £53.95
• Theoretical ROOK Endgames
  GM Sam Shankland 
  Quality Chess pp447 £29.95
• Zwischenzug!
  Natasha Regan & Matt Ball
  Chessable pp280 £26.95

A brief review of each title can be found in the ECF news article.

Attentive readers might recognise one of the co-authors of the last nominated book as our very own Matt Ball, organiser and coach of Early Knights Juniors.

Originally, Matt and Natasha developed Zwischenzug! as a Chessable Online course. Having been so well received, they have taken the next step and published it in book form.

Congratulations to Matt and Natasha on having your book shortlisted.

Uxbridge FIDE Rapidplay

Sunday 15 September 2024, 1.00pm-6.30pm

Venue: Our Lady of Lourdes Church Hall, Osborn Road, Uxbridge UB8 1UE 

Three sections: Open, Major (u1600), Minor (u1200)

6 round rapidplay (10 min +5 sec/move).

See who's playing: Open, Major, Minor

If not already FIDE registered, simply ask ECF Office to obtain a FIDE Identity Number (FIN).

Full details of tournament are available at ECF Event Calendar

Hertfordshire County Team: u1650

last updated: Wednesday, 11 September 2024

Hertfordshire is entering an u1650 team to the SCCU County Championships. It is captained by Martin Hill (St Albans) who welcomes enquiries from players.

Fixtures are available on the results website, ECF LMS.

• Saturday, 5th October 2024.
  Home v Middlesex
• Saturday, 2nd November 2024.
  Home v Kent
• Saturday, 16th November 2024.
  Away v Surrey
• Saturday, 25th January 2025.
  Away v Essex

History: Hertfordshire last competed in the SCCU competition during the 2019-20 season (the last before Covid lockdown) with teams playing in both the u140 Ebony and u120 Harry Woolverton leagues.

Hertfordshire County Team: u1850

last updated: Sunday, 15 September 2024

Hertfordshire is entering an u1850 team to the EACU County Championships. As usual, matches will be played at a central venue on three dates with one game in the morning (10.00 am) and a second in the afternoon (2.00 pm).

• Sunday, 17th November 2024*.
  Norfolk v Herts, Herts v Cambs
• Sunday, 2nd February 2025**.
  Herts v Suffolk, Norfolk v Herts
• Sunday, 30th March 2025**.
  Herts v Cambs, Suffolk v Herts

* Venue 1: Turner Hall, Church Lane, Newmarket, Suffolk, CB8 0HP
** Venue 2: King Edward VII Memorial Hall, High Street, New Market, Suffolk, CB8 8JP

Last season, Herts, captained by Matt Ball (St Albans), had a good season and qualified to the ECF Knockout Stages.

Herts successfully negotiated the early rounds with wins against Kent and Yorkshire before meeting Greater Manchester in the Final. The match played at a 'halfway' venue in Coventry finished in a draw (8-8), but Greater Manchester were declared winners on board count. So close!

Pre-season Friendly: St Albans v Hackney

Monday 19th August.

St Albans welcomed first time visitors, Hackney Chess Club, to a pre-season friendly over 15 boards and two rounds of Rapid play.

On winning the toss, the home team took white on odd boards in the first round and black in the second.

Hackney slowly gained an advantage to take the lead at half time when drinks were taken in the bar. In the second half, St Albans tried to make a comeback but Hackney maintained the pressure to finish comfortable winners: home 11½, visitors 18½. 

St Albans v Hackney.   Round 1 score: 6-9,   Round 2 score: 5½-9½