2023 AGM Minutes

The Minutes of the 2023 GM are now available to view here - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XZTsXZ40JJzPKFzd7FzT3xJsMo0xMe9b/view?usp=sharing - or from the tab at the top of the page.

Staffordshire Junior Chess Championships

The Staffordshire Junior Chess Championships will be held on Sunday 19th November at the Co-Op Academy, Tunstall. Click here for full details and an online entry form - http://staffsjuniorchess.co.uk/.

Newcastle Junior Chess Tournament

A junior chess tournament is being held at Newcastle Bridge Club, 6 King Street, Newcastle, ST5 1EL. The tournament will be ECF rated and will consist of 2 sections - U11 and U18. Entry fee is £5, payable on the day. It is a 5 round Rapidplay tournament. Please contact Jonathan Blackburn - jonathan.blackburn1985@gmail.com or 07891 600114.

2023 AGM

The 2023 AGM was held at Meir on Monday evening. Several changes to both the Constitution and League Playimg Rules were made. These will be distributed by our new General Secretary, Neil Hankey, along with the Minutes of the Meeting, in due course.

There were a couple of changes to the NSDCA Officers, with Neil Hankey taking over from Robert West as General Secretary and Colin Abell taking over from Steve Emmerton as LMS Administrator. Steve will, however, continue as Webmaster. All relevant Contact Details have been updated on the NSDCA website.

We also welcomed a new Club to the league - Gables Chess Club, run by Chris Hankey.

Would all Clubs please notify Colin Abell, by the 31st August, how many teams they will be entering in the coming season, and the likely overall playing strength of each team, in terms of rating. Colin will then allocate Teams to Divisions, in the same way as we did last season. You do not need to let Colin know of your potential Cup Competition entries until the end of December, as the draw(s) for these will not be made until January.

ECF Player Profile

Your ECF Player Profile is accessed by clicking on your ECF code on the ECF Rating Database. Amongst other things, it shows your rating history from 2020, and all of your ratings (grades) going back to 1994. Grades were re-calibrated in July 2009. 

For more information on your Player Profile, and what the various items of information mean, please click here - 

https://www.ecfrating.org.uk/v2/help/help_profile.php

6th Crewe Chess Congress

This weekend's 6th Crewe Chess Congress was a resounding success, brilliantly organised and run by Dave Price, Nigel Gardiner, Colin Abell and Chief Arbiter, Matt Carr. I've played in a lot of chess congresses and this is up there with the best of them, and the Crewe Alexandra FC stadium is a wonderful venue. If you're looking to play in a chess congress, then look no further than this one. The 7th Congress, I'm told, will be over the same weekend in 2024, so put it in your diary.

Congratulation to those local players who were successful, with Martin Burns (Crewe) winning the Major (U1950) with 4.5/5 and Lukasz Michalek and Julian Hawthorne (both Crewe) finishing joint 2nd in the Intermediate (U1725) with 4/5 and Jonathan Blackburn (Alsager) finishing joint 2nd in the Open with 4/5.

All of the results can be found on www.chess-results.com - just do a Tournament Search for Crewe.