English Chess Forum

The annual Chess Congress took place over three days at the end of last week at the Westwood College. Players from as far afield as Exmouth and Carlisle took part and it was good to see so many juniors taking part once more. After a long and gruelling competition, with most of the prize-winners uncertain up to the last half hour, the joint winners were declared as Rob Shaw of Cheddleton and Gavyn Cooper of Newport.

The full list of winners is as follows:-

The Main tournament – sponsored by Alton Towers.
1st equal Robert Shaw (Cheddleton and High Peak) and Gavyn
Cooper (Newport)
3rd equal David Buxton (Cheddleton) and Mark Ruston (Beckenham,
Kent)
Slow Starters’ prize David Cork (Coulsdon, Surrey)
There were 27 players in this event, of which 8 were from the home club.

The Intermediate tournament – sponsored by AH Brooks and Co.
1st equal Vlade Luzajic (Cheddleton), Chris Lewis (Newport) and Steve
Jones (Warrington)
Slow Starters’ prize Kevin Engelbrecht (Wimbledon) and Sandra
Blackburn (Holmes Chapel)
There were 31 players in the event of which 4 were from the home club.

The Minor tournament – sponsored by Moorlands Housing.
1st Dean Madden (Spondon)
2nd equal David Hallen (Cheddleton), Patrick Coleman (Lytham), Keith
Hodgson (Bramhall), Ellen Scattergood (Holmes Chapel), Sellick
Davies (Newport) and Karl Walklate (Fenton)
There were 30 players in the event of which 8 were from the home club.

The Landon Memorial Trophy for the highest placed North Staffordshire player went to Rob Shaw and the team trophy went to Newport.

Eighty eight players took part.

The Annual General Meeting of the Cheddleton and Leek Chess Club will take place at Norbury House at 7 p.m. on Friday 25th September. Afterwards the annual Lightning Chess Tournament will take place

A note to the Congress organisors....good to see the congress again proved a success...but can I advise the organisors to perhaps do a little more to promote this congress, by contacting some of the major north west websites and asking the webmasters of these to put a notice in there news section with details for next years event.
I`m thinking of Manchester, Stockport League, Chester, Merseyside (Atticus perhaps..), Preston.....and others, perhaps the Sheffield League website, Nottingham, and Huddersfield. It might be worth looking up the congress organisors for other North West events/congresses and asking them to do a mailshot from there circulation lists...
Direct emails/reminders nearer the event date, can be helpful in attractinbg late entries.
I`m sure that some efforts in these matters are already in place...but I do believe that getting the message out MORE EFFECTIVELY across the whole northern/midland region could be helpful. This applies to other congresses. Its worth trawling various websites for LINKS and contact details...and picking up congress/contact details for other Congresses from the ECF Calander....using this sort of information for networking can be helpful I think....and I`m sure that some efforts in this regard are made by Congress organisors.
County captains could use a similar networking approach for ientifying & recruiting players for county matches....looking particularly at club websites in there region. I`m sure many already do........

Good chessing.................