8 NOVEMBER 2025

2025 Children in Need Campaign

The club have traditionally contributed to this excellent cause and will continue to do with contributions from parents and the club. Eric kicked off the campaign by saying a few words about the cause and children not as fortunate as us. Last year we donated £400 and are hoping to match something similar this year hopefully with the generosity of all.

We had another full house of 23 juniors yesterday to learn and enjoy chess, 14 in our 1^st session and 9 in the 2^nd. This method of two sessions is successful with coaching for all from our 5/6 dedicated team. The groups are allocated into 2/3 sections so the numbers in any one time are manageable and good value for small groups and individual coaching.

Tony continued in the advanced group with his master move challenge where all are encouraged to guess the next move from games with different openings. This is a productive and good learning tool and proving enjoyable and rewarding.

Eric invited Steve to show all his Trophy he won from the Blind Chess Association competition last weekend scoring 4.5/5 – Congratulations Steve!

The intermediate groups were managed by Paul and Martin and the theme was mating positions from both the middle and end and endgames.

Eric went through a game with Liam which went well and we are encouraging him to find winning moves in his games.

Steve carried on with Erin and Omer in the beginners and Sepanta/David and Andres in the 2^nd session. All did well and we are really hoping to see progress in the coming weeks.

Paul with the intermediates & a full house from the 1st session

The 2^nd session was broken in two intermediate groups by Paul and Martin with similar themes from the 1^st session.

Eric took Nilay through a selection of ‘Find the mates@’ in various positions – she did really well and we are seeing real progress from Nilay who is dong very well in the Intermediate section.

Ladder Board Results

1^st session

Nathaniel 1 San 0, Kautum 0 Peter 1, Neil 0 Nicolas 1 – Kit 0 Harvey 1, Liam 0 Markas 1, Liam M 0 Nirvan 1, Omer ½ Erin ½.

2^nd Session

Andres ½ Coach ½, Teo 1 Nilay 0, Mariella 1 Manvik 0, David 1 Sepanta 0, Hektor ½ Coach ½.

With 4 weeks to go Peter and Nicolas are neck and neck in the advanced group with Kautum and Nathaniel in pursuit.

Harvey is in the lead in the Intermediates with 9 points and Nilay on 8 points, very close.

Just a reminder that our Xmas competition will be on the 20/12 and prizes for the ladder board competition will be awarded at the same time. So, please keep the attendance up which gives you a decent chance of success.

Eric Sachs