Goodwood Chess Club Weblog

Annual General Meeting

2010-02-22T08:25:00.002+02:00

Notice is given about the Goodwood Chess Club's Annual General Meeting to be held at the club's normal venue (Goodwood library) on 2 March 2010 at 19:30.

End of 2009

2009-11-25T08:06:00.003+02:00

The Goodwood Chess Club has closed doors for 2009.

Besides an abundance of tournaments which took place in Cape Town this year and the annual WP League matches, our members also played a total a total of 243 matches in the club-ladder!

We want to thank everybody for their support in 2009 and we look forward to seeing you again when we reopen our doors on 19 January 2010.

Safe travelling and may you experience a blessed festive season!

Congratulations!!!

2009-11-20T11:00:00.001+02:00

The Goodwood Chess club wishes to congratulate Jeremy Burgess, Gawie Hendriksz, David Baxter, Karina de Villiers and Jandre Vorster for being selected to the teams which will represent the Western Province at the 2009 South African Junior Chess Championships. This event takes place at the University of Cape Town from 13 to 22 December 2009.

Jeremy, Gawie and David will be playing boards 1,2 and 3 respectively for the WP Under 18A-team!!! I do not think there is any other club in the WP who can claim that their players are occupying the top 3 boards in any team!

Karina will be captaining the WP Under 14A-team and Jandre will be playing in the Under 12A-team.

Well done to all these players – the Goodwood Chess Club is proud of all of you and your achievements!!! Keep our name high at the Nationals!

Pairings for 2009/10/13

2009-10-09T08:51:00.001+02:00

Pairings for 2009/10/06

2009-10-09T08:50:00.000+02:00

Club Championships Round 6 - 2009/09/22

2009-09-14T08:41:00.002+02:00

Pairings for 2009/09/08

2009-09-07T08:48:00.001+02:00

WP Leagues Round 11

2009-09-07T08:18:00.000+02:00

WP Leagues Round 10

2009-08-25T08:40:00.000+02:00

WP Leagues Round 9

2009-08-25T08:38:00.000+02:00

WP Leagues Round 8

2009-08-25T08:37:00.000+02:00

WP Leagues Round 7

2009-08-25T08:36:00.001+02:00

WP Leagues Round 6

2009-08-11T08:26:00.002+02:00

WP Leagues Round 5

2009-08-07T17:23:00.002+02:00

WP Leagues Round 4

2009-08-07T17:18:00.003+02:00

WP Leagues Round 3

2009-07-30T13:16:00.004+02:00

Some feedback from Riaan regarding Round 2 in the Leagues:

On Monday the first team played against Uitsig. David, Lawrence and myself scored the full point, while Stephan, Gawie, Rico and Wesley all played to a draw. Thus the final team score was 5-2 in our favour. With a little bit of luck we could even have scored a bit more- but still-it is a good result, our first win in the premier this year, and a platform for the rest of the league. The good thing is that all the players that played in the first team thus far already contributed towards the team score. Our next match tomorrow is against the South-African club champions Steinitz and promise to be a very tough match indeed. Shaughn indicated that he is available and will play for us in this match.
Our second team battled the Steinitz second team on Monday. Our players fought hard, and I just want to make mention of Chezray that did it right in the end to win his match. Unfortunately that was just not enough and we lost the match 3-2 (Jeremy scored the other point on board 1).
The third team are going very well and seems to have settled as a unit immediately- and for that I think a lot of credit is due to the team captain. Charl pulled an impossible position around to turn a loss into a draw, and Kevin showed that we know our chess laws and got a draw on 10.2. All the rest of the players won. Thus the final score is 4-1 and we are now definitely amongst the front runners in the C division. Keep it up!

Tonight the A team plays against Steinitz A, the B-team faces BlackJacks B and the C team will be playing Athlone B.

WP Leagues Round 2

2009-07-27T11:33:00.003+02:00

In round 1, our first team played against UWC - It was a hard-fought battle with the result of the match going down to the last match. Unfortunately we lost 4-3. We really need to give it our all to ensure we get every point we possibly can.

The second team played against Bellville B and found the going tough indeed. They lost 3.5-1.5. Our third team played against Pollsmoor and won very convincingly 4-0.

Tonight the A team will be facing Uitsig, Goodwood B will be facing Steinitz B and the C-team will be playing against UCT B.

WP Leagues Round 1

2009-07-23T09:07:00.007+02:00

Tonight sees the first round of the annual Western Province League matches. Unfortunately we do not yet know who our opponents will be yet. Please take note of the fact that the venue for this match is the University of the Western Cape and not the Wittebome Civic Centre.

Good luck to everybody for tonight's game!

Club Championships Round 5 - 2009/07/14

2009-07-14T13:34:00.005+02:00

Pairings for 2009/07/07

2009-07-03T15:54:00.001+02:00

Events coming up in July

2009-07-03T14:59:00.001+02:00

The SA Open Chess Championships runs at the Wynberg Boys High School from 4 to 11 July. The SA Schools championships will also be held at this venue from 6 to 9 July. ON the weekend of 23 July the Malmesbury Open championship will be held. The WP Club Leagues for 2009 will start on 23 July. The first three rounds of the Leagues will be held on 23, 27 and 30 July at the Wittebome Civic Centre in Wynberg.

At the club, we will have a ladder evening on 7 July. The club championship's 5th round will be held on 14 July.

Highlights of June

2009-07-03T14:58:00.000+02:00

On the weekend of 6 June, a few of the club’s junior players participated in the WP Schools trials. These trials were used to choose players to represent WP in the SA Schools Championships which takes place next month. David Baxter ended 1st with a score of 5/6 in the U19 division, Karina de Villiers ended 7th in the U13 division with a score of 5/6 and Jandre Vorster ended 7th in the U11 division with a score of 4/6.

On the same weekend another junior member of the club, Jeremy Burgess, participated in the Paarl Open tournament and was one of the top performers in that competition.

Two ladder evenings and one club championship also took place place in June.

Unfortunately the Training and Blitz evening which was to take place on 23 June was cancelled due to a municipal power failure. This was a huge disappointment to the club as we had Kenny Solomons lined up as a guest speaker. His talk was going to be on Rook and Pawn endgames. Hopefully we will be able to organize this speech at a future training session.

Pairings for 2009/06/30

2009-06-26T13:42:00.001+02:00

Training and Blitz Evening – 23 June

2009-06-11T12:01:00.001+02:00

Please note that, although the 16th of June is a public holiday, the club will still be open for those who want to play a few social games (or maybe catch up on their outstanding games in the ladder).

Another training event will take place on 23 June. This intervention will start at 19:00 and will last for about an hour. We are fortunate to have the SA Open Champion, IM Kenny Solomon, as guest speaker at our club on that evening. I have attended some presentations that Kenny gave in the past and I can testify that they were highly instructive. This is an event that you should definitely try to attend! For more information on whom Kenny Solomon is and his achievement in chess, visit his website http://kennysolomon.co.za. Please note that this event is open to whoever wants to attend – not just club-members.

Directly after Kenny’s presentation, shortly after 20h00, the 4th Blitz event for 2009 will take place. Remember that the winner of this event will get the opportunity to represent the Goodwood Chess Club at the provincial Blitz championships.

Club Championships Round 4 - 2009/06/09

2009-06-08T16:21:00.004+02:00

Upcoming Events

2009-06-05T08:09:00.006+02:00

Event: WP Scools Chess Trials

Format: 6 Round Swiss

Time Control: 60/60

Date: 5-6 June

Venue: Aristea Primary School

Fees: R30

Event: Paarl Open

Format: Swiss

Time Control: 60/60

Date: Weekend of 5 June 2009

Venue: Community Hall, Paarl

Fees: Seniors-R50, Juniors-R30

Additional Info:
Please bring own clocks.
Email : Anton Marais
Website: http://bolandchess.angelfire.com/datums2007.htm

Event: Gugulethu Open

Format: 6 Round Swiss

Time Control: 20/20

Date: 13 June 2009

Venue: Luyolo Hall, Gugulethu

Fees: Seniors R50, Juniors R10

Additional Info: Eldo Smart (084 300 0728), Lara Chaitman (082 491 0389)

Event: FourieObergDeBruyn Ope

Format: Unknown

Time Control: Unknown

Date: 13 June

Venue: Timothy Academy, Ceres

Fees: R25 per person

Additional Info:
Registration 07:00 to 08:00
Round 1 starts at 08:30
Divisions= Open, U18, U17, U15, U13, U11, U9 and U7
A copy of birth certificate is necessary.

Events coming up in June

2009-06-05T08:08:00.003+02:00

A WP Schools Chess trials are being help on the weekend of 5 June at Aristea Primary School in Kraaifontein. On the same weekend, the Paarl Open is being held in the Paarl Community Hall. The following weekend sees the Gugulethu Open being held at the Luyolo. On 16 June, the Manyanani Youth Open will be held.

The schedule for the Goodwood Chess club for June includes ladder matches on 2 and 30 June, round 4 of the Club Championships on 9 June and another training and Blitz event on 23 June.

Highlights of May

2009-06-05T08:05:00.001+02:00

The last of the 4 WP Junior Trials took place on the weekend of 8 May. Quite a few of our club’s junior players excelled at this event. In the Under 20 division David Baxter ended 2nd (5/6), Gawie Hendriksz ended 3rd (4.5/6) and Jeremy Burgess ended 6th (4.5/6).
In the Under 14 division, Karina de Villiers ended 4th with a score of 5/6.

On 12 May, a friendly interclub match took place between Goodwood and Steinitz. A full report on this event is available in an earlier posting.

In the WP Closed which took place from 14 to 17 May, David Baxter won the D-division with a score of 6/7. Well done, David!

Pairings for 2009/06/02

2009-05-29T16:30:00.002+02:00

Feedback on 3rd Training and Blitz Event

2009-05-28T15:22:00.009+02:00

On Tuesday, 26 May, the 3rd Training and Blitz event took place. Riaan Olivier did a presentation on Rubenstein's immortal game - that famous game in which he left allmost of his pieces en prise, just to win the game by force! See the game (with annotations taken from various sources below).

Play Online Chess

Directly after the training intervention, the 3rd Blitz event for 2009 took place. I will update this posting once the final results for this event becomes available.

Upcoming event: Chess Arbiter's Course

2009-05-26T09:34:00.001+02:00

A Chess Arbiter's course will take place on the 1st, 8th and the 17th of June 2009 at the Claremont Chess Club, Rondebosch Station.
Time: 19h30
A minimum fee of R60 will be charged.
The examination will take place during the SA OPEN in July 2009. For any information regarding this event, please email Günther van den Bergh.

Training and Blitz Evening

2009-05-22T12:05:00.001+02:00

On Tuesday, May 26 at 19:00, the Goodwood Chess club will host a training event. Tauriq Jenkins from Chesscube will deliver a talk on motivation in Chess. Thereafter Riaan Olivier will do a short presentation on Rubinstein’s immortal game.
At 20:00, the 3rd Blitz event for 2009 will take place. The winner of this event automatically qualifies for the team which will represent the Goodwood Chess Club at the Team Blitz event taking place in October this year.

Upcoming Event: WP Mindgames Champs

2009-05-19T08:55:00.001+02:00

The Western Province Mindgames Championships will take place on 30 May 2009 at the Bellville Velodrome The programme starts off with a 9 round Blitz competition from 09:00 to 10:30. This is then followed by a 7 round Fischer Random tournament from 11:00 to 15:00. Lastly a 6 round Doubles Blitz will be played from 15:15 to 16:30. Entry fees are R60 (R20/section). Please register for this event before 22 May. Only the first 70 entries will be accepted. For more information, feel free to contact Eldo Smart (084 300 0728) or Lyndon Bouah (073 260 9214).

Club Championships Round 3 - 2009/05/19

2009-05-19T08:42:00.002+02:00

Friendly Match: Goodwood vs Steinitz -2009/05/12

2009-05-15T01:00:00.002+02:00

The Goodwood and Steinitz Chess clubs played each other in a friendly chess match on Tuesday evening. The time control for this event was 60/60 and Goodwood played with the White pieces on all the uneven board numbers. Steinitz brought a really quality team, with almost all of their top players playing. It is a honour to play against such a strong team, and we thank them for the opportunity to do so. Just in example their top 6 boards are all over 2000. We did manage to take some points, but overall Steintiz scored an very impressive 17.5 to 4.5 victory.

The table below despicts the individual board results of this event:

Pairings for 2009/05/05

2009-05-01T18:11:00.001+02:00

Events coming up in May

2009-05-01T18:09:00.001+02:00

May is another busy month in the club’s chess calendar. On 5 May, another round in the club’s ladder will be played. On 12 May, Goodwood will be playing a friendly match against Steinitz Chess Club. Being the winners of last year’s National Interclub Championships, they can rightfully claim to be the strongest chess club in South Africa! We look forward to this encounter. On 19 May, we will be playing the 3rd round in the club championships. Another training and Blitz event will take place on 26 May.

The 4th WP Junior Championship will take place the weekend of 8/9 May. Another annual event coming up is the WP Closed Championships taking place from 14 to 17 May. See this weblog’s archives for April for more details on both of these events.

Highlights of April

2009-05-01T18:07:00.001+02:00

Due to all the public holidays and the national elections, April was a quiet month. A highlight in the annual chess calendar is the South African Junior Closed Championship. This year’s event took place in Rustenburg from 7 to 12 April. One of our club’s junior players, Karina de Villiers, was invited to take part in the Girls Under 12 section. She ended in 4th place, qualifying for Chessa colors and was invited to represent South Africa in France later this year. Congratulations to her on the great performance – we are indeed proud of her!

Another highlight in the club’s calendar is the annual friendly encounter between the Goodwood and Bellville chess clubs. This year, Bellville emerged victorious with a score of 15 to 12. A full report on this encounter is published on this weblog in an earlier posting for April.

Upcoming Event : WP Closed 2009

2009-04-30T16:20:00.003+02:00

The Western Province CLosed Championship will take place from 14-17 May at the Theo Marais Park, Koeberg Road, Milnerton. The 7 round Swiss tournament will have a time control of 90/90. You need to pre-register for this tournament before 11 May. Entry fees for this tournament is R100 for the A- and B-sections. All other sections only pay a R70 entry fee.

For more information on this tournament, please contact Lyndon Bouah (0732609214), Eldo Smart (0843000728) or Gunther van den Bergh (079 798071).

Upcoming Event : 4th WP Junior Trials

2009-04-30T16:01:00.004+02:00

The 4th Western Province Junior Trials will take place at Aristea Primary School, Brighton Road, Kraaifontein (opposite the Civic Centre) on Friday, 8 May and Saturday, 9 May. The format of this event is a 6 round Swiss tournament with a time control of 60/60 (first round = 30/30). Two rounds is being played on Friday evening. Round 1 starts at 17:00.

Registration for this event takes place on 5 May from 18:00 to 19:30 at Welgemoed Primary School (Northern Suburbs) and Claremont Chess Club (Southern Suburbs). The Entry fee for this tournament is R50. Players who have not yet registered this year for other WP tournaments also have to pay an additional R50 registration fee.

For more info regarding this event, please contact Lente Marais (084 710 2434).

Feedback on 2nd Blitz-event for 2009

2009-04-30T15:59:00.004+02:00

The 2nd Blitz event for 2009 took place on 28 March. Eighteen players participated in this 7 round event where each player only has 5 minutes to complete his/her game. The winner of this tournament was Brian Owen with a score of 7/7. Gawie Hendriksz ended 2nd with 6/7 and Paul Dias 3rd with 5/7.

Club Championships Round 2 - 2009/04/21

2009-04-21T09:47:00.003+02:00

Friendly Match: Goodwood vs Bellville -2009/04/14

2009-04-15T10:08:00.003+02:00

The Goodwood and Bellville Chess clubs played each other in a friendly chess match yesterday. This is an annual event which Goodwood has won for the past two years, but yesterday Bellville beat the Goodwood Chess Club with 15 points against 12. It was a nail biting event and up to 10 minutes before the end of this event, it still was not clear which club was going to emerge victorious. The time control for this event was 60/60 and Goodwood played with the White pieces on all the uneven board numbers, while Bellville played with the White pieces on the even board numbers. Thank you for the support of all 54 players who participated to make this an unforgettable event! Congratulations to Bellville team on an outstanding performance and a well deserved victory – we look forward to next year’s encounter!!!

The table below despicts the individual board results of this event:

Just a reminder to our members that next week is the 2nd round of the Goodwood Club Championships. Please make an effort to attend. Remember that this is a 7-round event with less than 30 people participating. Even if things did not go your way in Round 1, the competition is still open and anybody can still win it!

Pairings for 2009/04/07

2009-04-03T12:12:00.001+02:00

Highlights of March

2009-04-03T12:11:00.004+02:00

March was the month where the junior players of the club performed quite well in various provincial competitions.

The 2nd WP Junior Trials were held on the 1st weekend of March. In the U20 division, Jeremy Burgess ended 2nd with a score of 4.5/6, Gawie Hendriksz ended 4th with 4/6 and David Baxter 5th with 3.5/6. In the U12 division, Janre Vorster ended 2nd with a score of 5/6.

The Boland Closed Tournament took place on the following weekend and Gawie Hendriksz ended 2nd in the B-division with a score of 5/6. In the C-division, Karina de Villiers ended 2nd with a score of 6/7.

The 3rd WP Junior Trials were held on the last weekend of the month. In the U20 division, Gawie Hendriksz ended 3rd with a score of 4.5/6 and J Burgess (despite having a sleepless night due to him being ill) ended 6th with a score of 3.5/6. In the U12 division, J Vorster ended 2nd with a score of 5/6.

Congratulations to these young players for their excellent performances. I also want to invite other young players staying in the Goodwood area to come and join the club. As you can see from the performances of these juniors, we are not just a bunch of grey-bearded old men, sitting in a smoke-filled room, pushing around wood on a checkered board! We believe in developing the youth so that they can proudly carry forward the tradition of this great game to future generations.

Other highlights of March were the 1st round of the Goodwood Club Championships, the Annual Prizegiving ceremony for 2008 and the 1st Goodwood Blitz Championships which took place.

Events coming up in April

2009-04-03T12:11:00.003+02:00

April will be another busy month on the calendar of the Goodwood Chess Club. On 7 April, we will be playing another round of the club’s ladder.

The next week we will be playing a friendly match against the Bellville Chess club. Please try and support this event as it is an annual event between these two neighboring clubs. Despite the desire to emerge victorious, this event is always held in a spirit of good sportsmanship.

The evening of 21 April will see the 2nd round of the club championships for 2009 being played. Even if you missed the first round, it is not too late to join. There are still 6 rounds left to be played and anything can still happen.

On 28 April another combined training and Blitz evening will be held. Please try to support these events as it promises to be great fun.

Pairings for 2009/03/31

2009-03-27T13:04:00.006+02:00

Feedback on Training, Prizegiving and Blitz Evening

2009-03-25T13:07:00.004+02:00

Yesterday evening’s club activities started off with a training event led by Shaughn Davies, the current club Champion. Shaughn explained the importance of following the basic opening principles, as taught by Aaron Nimzowitsch, which can be summarized as (1) controlling the centre, (2) developing your pieces as quickly as possible and (3) ensuring the safely of the King (normally by castling). He indicated how, by not following these principles, a person can face all kinds of problems in the middlegame and endgame. A game played by two strong players was used to demonstrate how violating these principles led to the opponent exploiting the weak squares and open files to eventually win the game. The audience, who also included non-clubmembers, actively took place in analyzing the game from both players’ perspective and possible alternative lines were also explored. Well done on this excellent presentation Shaughn – I certainly look forward to many more such sessions where we can tap from your vast knowledge!!!

After this presentation, Shaughn posed a problem on the demo-board from an actual game he played a few years ago. The first person to come up with a solution to this mate-in-7 problem would win a book prize. It was solved by a group of players after a lengthy debate. Because this problem was not solved by a single person, it was decided to carry over the book prize to the next training evening where another problem will be posed.

Next we held the club’s prize giving awards for 2008. The Willem Stipp trophy was awarded to Jason Davies as the Goodwood Blitz Champion for 2008. The Best Junior trophy was awarded to Gawie Hendriksz for his consistent outstanding performance in 2008. The Eric Whitehorn trophy was awarded to Karina de Villiers as the club member who had the best performance in the WP League Games for 2008. This 11 year old girl scored a total of 9.5/10 in this tournament last year (only conceding half a point to another club member)! The title of Club Champion for 2008 was shared by two brothers, Jason and Shaughn Davies. Congratulation to all these players on receiving their well deserved awards! After the awards, refreshments were served and despite the great effort put in by Gawie and me, a lot of food still remained left over at the end of the evening. It looks as if I will have to practice my eating skills before the next prize giving!!!

Next the club’s first Blitz tournament for 2009 was held. Eleven players participated in this 5 round event where each player only has 5 minutes to complete his/her game. The winner of this tournament was Shaughn Davies who managed to beat Riaan Olivier in a closely contested play-off for the title. Just before Riaan blundered his rook away in the endgame, he was actually a pawn up! Both players ended with a score of 4/5. Stephen Gallied ended in third position with a score of 3/5. Although he shared this score with three other players, he was awarded the third place because of his superior progressive score.

Lastly, do not forget that next week we have our normal ladder matches again. I have already received some challenges. Remember that the cut-off date for submitting challenges for next week is Thursday, 26 March. On Friday morning the challenges for next week will be emailed to our members whose email addresses are known. These challenges will also be published on this weblog.

See you at the club next week!

Training, Prizegiving & Blitz Evening.

2009-03-20T09:24:00.005+02:00

On Tuesday, 24 March from 19:00 to 20:00, the Goodwood Chess Club will hold a training session, titled "Learn from the past Masters". Riaan Olivier, the Chairperson of the Goodwood Chess Club, will do this presentation.

Directly after the presentation, the club's prizegiving for 2008 will take place.

From 08:30 on, a Blitz competition will be held.

We invite everybody, even if you are not a club member, to attend the events of this evening. Who knows, you may be able to learn something - or even enjoy playing a game or two of Blitz!

Chess for Change Tournament with Maurice Ashley

2009-03-18T15:40:00.003+02:00

Chess for Change is hosting a Rapid Chess Tournament on Saturday, 21 March at the MTN Science Centre in Canal Walk.

The entry fee for this tournament is R50. The first 9 top rated players will playing in a Round Robin tournament together with the first African-American Grandmaster, Maurice Ashley.
The rest of the entrants will be playing in a 5 round Swiss tournament with a time-control of 30/30.

Registration for this tournament takes place on Friday, 20 March at the MTN Science Centre. Round 1 kicks off at 09:00 on Saturday morning.

For more information about this event, please contact Lente Marais via email or telephonically on 021 705 7863 or 084 710 2434.

Club members, please note that you cannot submit the results of this tournament for ladder-rating purposes. Only matches with a minimum time-control of 60/60 is eligible for ladder-rating purposes. But it sounds like a fun-event, so please support it if you can.

Club Championship Round 1 - 2009/03/17

2009-03-13T09:38:00.006+02:00

Club Championship - Round 1

Boland Closed Tournament

2009-03-11T17:26:00.004+02:00

The Boland Closed Tournament will be taking place this coming weekend in the Paarl Boxing Hall. The tournament will be a 5 round round robin with 6 players in a group.
The time control for this tournament is 90/90. Round 1 will start at 08:30 on Saturday, 14 March. Entry fees are R80 for senior and R60 for junior and disabled players.

Click here for an entry form for this tournament.

For more information on this tournament, please contact Anton Marais.

Ocean View Rapid Tournament

2009-03-10T09:07:00.002+02:00

The Ocean View Chess Club will be presenting a Rapid Chess Tournament on Saturday, 14 March at the Ocean View Multipurpose Centre. This is a 6 round swiss tournament with a time-control of 20/20. There will be a junior and an adult section.

Directions to the Multipurpose Centre: Turn into Ocean View off Kommetjie Road (at the robots). Turn right at the 2nd Stop Street and the Multi-Purpose Centre is just after the School on the left side of the road.

Entry fees are R50 for adults and R10 for juniors. Registration can be done via email to Eldo Smart, Dion Johnson or Lyndon Bouah. You will also be able to register at the centre on Saturday morning until 08:30. The first round starts at 09:00.

Good Luck to everyone participating!

Pairings for 2009/03/10

2009-03-06T13:31:00.002+02:00

Events coming up in March

2009-03-05T15:19:00.002+02:00

The 2nd WP Junior Trials are being played in the first weekend of March at the Spes Bona School, Athlone. Also look out for the Boland Closed, taking place in the Paarl Boxing Hall, as well as the Ocean View Rapid Open. Both of these events will be played on 14 March. The weekend of 20 March sees the Western Cape Students Championships taking place at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT). The 3rd WP Junior Trials will be played at the Monte Vista Primary School on the last weekend of March. Good luck to all our players who will be participating in these events.

At the club, we will play another round in the ladder on 10 March. The 17th of March will see the commencement of the Goodwood Club Championships. This will be a 7 round swiss tournament, with only one round being played every month over the next seven months. A training session will be held on the evening of 24 March. A blitz tournament will be held on the same evening immediately after the training has concluded.

PLEASE NOTE that all the club activities will officially start at 19:00 in the evenings. If you cannot be there on time, make the necessary arrangement with your opponent. Failure to do so will result in your clock being started at 19:00. If more than 30 minutes have expired on the clock before your arrival, the game is awarded to the opponent.

A list containing the contact numbers of all registered club members has been distributed earlier this week via email. If you are a club member and have not received it, feel free to request it again from any committee member. I want to encourage you to contact the club members in the list and challenge them to a game in the ladder!

Highlights of February

2009-03-05T12:30:00.002+02:00

The Boland took place from 6 to 8 February. Gawie Hendrickz managed to end in 11th position with a score of 5/7 and Jeremy Burgess ended 15th with a score of 4/7.

The following weekend saw the 1st Western Province Junior Trials being played at Welgemoed Primary School. Our junior club players showed their strength with Jeremy Burgess winning the U20 division, Karina de Villiers ending 3rd in the U14 division and Jandre Vorster ending 2nd in the U12 division. All three players had a score of 5/6.

On the weekend of 20 February, a few of our club's players supported the South Western Districts Open tournament which took place in George. Matthew Phillips and Shaughn Davies ended 3rd and 4th respectively, both with a score of 4.5/6.

Two tournaments took place on the weekend of 27 February, namely the Western Province Open and the Grabouw Open. Our club was represented at both these tournaments with Gawie Hendricksz winning the Grabouw Open with a score of 6/7. Congratulations Gawie, you are now the official Grabouw Chess Champion!!! Jandre Vorster won the U13 division of this tournament with a score of 7/7.

In the Western Province Open, two club players put up noticable performances with Shaughn Davies scoring 4.5/7 in the A-division. Abraham de Villiers took the 3rd prize in the B-division with a score of 4.5/6.

Congratulation to all the players. As ambassadors of the Goodwood Chess Club, you did us proud!

Introducing the Goodwood Chess Club

2009-03-05T11:52:00.001+02:00

This blog will be used to keep everybody informed of the activities taking place at the Goodwood Chess Club. This club meets on a weekly basis every Tuesday evening at 19:00 at the Library in Goodwood, Cape Town, South Africa. We are always looking for new players, so please feel free to join us on Tuesday evenings.

We run a ladder system to determine the strength of our players. A player's ranking in the ladder will be used to determine his/her board position when representing our club at the annual Western Province League matches. The league matches will start towards the end of July 2009. Not only does the ladder matches determine your board position - it will also be used to determine how many opportunities you will get to represent the club in the league matches: the more games you played in the ladder, the more games you will play in the leagues.

We will also host a 7 round swiss tournament this year to determine the club champion. This championship is run independently from the ladder, but the results of this tournament will also be fed into the ladder. We will be playing one round of the Club Championships per month, the first round starting on March 17, 2009. The Club Championship therefore will end in October.

Anybody interested in joining the club, please feel free to email me.