A Tough Match to Start the London League Season for Hammer 1, by Captain John White
Hammersmith went down 3.5 to 6.5 away to Cavendish in our opening match for the newly-promoted team.
We really missed the experience of Paul Kennelly and Jeremy Hodgson owing to holiday and other commitments. However, new members Jay Hinolan and Matteo Bezzini stepped up to the plate.
Jay suffered a loss in his first LL match – due to a heavy cold he was not in the best of form. He’ll be back stronger – having seen him beat Sue Maroroa in the simul during the Summer, I know he was well below his best here.
Matteo playing black got a draw – a solid start to his London League odyssey.
Both of these guys will be great assets for Hammersmith in the London and other Leagues this season. Welcome aboard!
To the rest of the games – the highlight was John Woolley’s return to form with an excellent win. Fighting draws from Brian Dodgeon, Bajrush, John Goodacre (great to see him back!) and yours truly.
Sheikh, Safi and Alex all had tough losses – early season blues I think.
A disappointing result but we were out graded by 15 points or more from boards 2 to 6.
Hello fellow members – the most memorable evening since Hillary and Donald decided to get it on, took place last night in the Valhalla of West London Chess.
Chess is back at Lytton Hall!
Last night Hammersmith Chess Club returned to its home and the prospect of a tough and exciting season of league chess, blitz tourneys, events and great chess got a lot closer.
The evening was dominated by two events. Firstly – the presentation of merit awards to our most deserving players for their performances in the Thames Valley, London, and Middlesex Leagues last season.
Winners included our Chairman, Bajrush, Brian Dodgeon, Robin Lee, David Lambert and your humble correspondent.
Special mention should be given to John Ryan who received the award for the best increase in rating achieved over the 2015/16 season.
Once again the Club is indebted to our brilliant Secretary, Mike Mackenzie, who put in a lot of work to the awards to make it a special occasion.
HCC gets digital clocks in 2016!
With the gongs out of the way we got down to the first of four 10-minute Blitz tournaments of the season.
A new initiative this year, the Club will be operating a season-long series of four Blitz tournaments where members can rack up points according to their finishing positions. At the end of the final round the Club will crown our inaugural Blitz Champion.
Seventeen people took part in this first round, including a number of new and potentially-new members – we extend our warmest welcome to Phil, Ken, Paolo, Giovanni and Matteo. Pleased to say that Matteo plays his first game for the Club this Thursday – good luck!
The nuts & bolts of the evening saw our Chairman Bajrush beating League 4 Captain David Lambert in the hotly-contested final. A well deserved victory for Bajrush and a solid placing for David – a great night was had by all. Full Roll of Honour and points awarded as follows:
Winner – Bajrush (17 points)
Runner Up – David (16 points)
3rd (Joint) – Brian, Matteo (15 points)
5th (Joint) – Chris, John W, John R, Robin (13 points)
9th – Sheikh (9 points)
10th – Giovanni (8 points)
11th (Joint) – Paolo, Matt (7 points)
13th (Joint) – Ken, Rich, Danny, Mike (5 points)
17th – Phil (1 point)
Congratulations to all concerned and all the best for the coming season!!
Don’t forget – if you haven’t done so already, please get your Club Membership Fee and ECF Membership Sorted – both essential if you wish to play League Chess for Hammersmith. Please get in touch for details.
We have now confirmed all our upcoming fixtures in the Middlesex League – full details available on our calendar, and on the Middlesex website.
Please take a moment to check the fixtures in advance – with Hammersmith entering 7 teams across 6 leagues this season, the fixture list is busier than it has been in a long time! Thames Valley fixtures should be confirmed next week.
In addition, we are pleased to confirm our return to our home venue Lytton Hall on Monday 26 September, after a very successful (and hot!) Summer at the Albion.
It will be a busy evening – starting with a short presentation ceremony for our players of the season, closely followed by a blitz tournament for all-comers. Promises to be a great opener to the season & we’d love to see as many faces down there as possible!
As the new season rapidly approaches, we’ve got a couple of notices and reminders for you:
London League fixtures for the coming season have now been released! All games have been added to the Hammersmith Calendar, and are also available on the London League website. It will be a busy year for Hammersmith with an additional team in League 6, named in honour of the late Ken Hedger, as well as teams in Leagues 3, 4 and 5, along with our Thames Valley and Middlesex League teams!
Not long to go…
Library evenings at Shepherds Bush, and Kensington libraries are suspended until week commencing 26th September. Apologies to anyone wanting to attend, but owing to other commitments we won’t be there for a few weeks.
Monday 26th September also sees us re-locate to Lytton Hall for the new season. We’ll be waving goodbye to the Albion until next year!
September 15th sees an interesting tournament at Richmond & Twickenham Chess Club over in Teddington, West London: The Abraham Neviazsky Memorial Tournament. All games to start with 1.b4 (The Polish). Entry is £5 – full details on their Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/325250471147570/
