The 2023/24 Season is reaching its crucial stage, and many of our teams have been doing well and fighting for the top stop at their respective League Table. With 15 different teams across 4 Leagues and 12 Divisions, there is still a lot to play for! We bring an update on how we’ve been doing and what to look forward to.
Team Stats and Ranks:
So far, 98 Hammersmith members have taken part of League Matches this season, playing a total of 765 games and scoring 423.5 points (55%). We’re hoping a few more newer members will join a team so we can make it to 100 before the season ends!
As for team stats, below are our standings and scores for each of them:
Notice many of them currently sitting on the top 3, with special mention to Hammersmith 1 who have already become Champions of Middlesex League Division 2 with a few matches to spare, and Hammersmith 2 securing first place on Central London League Division 3, with one final match remaining (Wanstead vs Battersea) where the former could catch us at the top – though we trust the tiebreaks will work in our favour. Congrats and big thanks to both Luke and Nick, respectively, on captaining these teams.
We also have good chances to win the trophy for the third time in 4 years in the Thames Valley League, where we are currently tied for first alongside defending champions Kingston with one more match to be played for each team – make sure to contact Bajrush if you want to take part in the final match against Maidenhead on Monday 29th of April.
Another team with good chances to end up at the top is Hammersmith 3 (Middlesex League Division 3), trying to catch up with Willesden and Brent, who started slow (2 draws and a loss) and then went on a furious rampage with 9 wins in a row. Even then, Hammer 3 has won all their matches against other clubs so far, and keeps chances to win the league by doing well in the last 3 games.
Last but not least is the remarkable campaign of Hammersmith 2 (London League Division 3), where competition has been extremely tough and several teams are still in contention: the unis UCL and KCL have had tremendous seasons and are currently tied at the top with 16 points. Hammer 2 could overtake them by winning our remaining 2 matches – but one of them is against Lewisham who could also get promoted if they don’t drop any more points in the rest of the season, so we can expect them to bring their very best.
Notable Upcoming Fixtures
In addition to the aforementioned match against Maidenhead where we’ll try to win the Thames Valley League, there are plenty other matches to look forward to!
Next Tuesday (16th April), our Women’s team will be facing Lewisham at the Mindsports Centre, where a win would take us to second place behind the runaway leaders London Universities. We are hoping to be able to use our DGT board to livestream the game and provide commentary from some Hammer players – stay tuned for more details.
A week after that (23rd April), our First team will be playing our hardest match of the year against the unstoppable Wood Green – champions of the London League every season since 2002/03. We will also use our DGT board, but we are hoping people can show up in person and support the team, there will be a commentary room at the MSC where we will analyse the game and try to get into the mind of a strong GM – an amazing chance to hear how experienced players come up with ideas during their games, don’t miss it!
There will be many matches as well during the month of May, that will help clarify the situation in most of the Leagues and Divisions, and only a handful to be played in June. While it still depends on other results over the next few weeks, there is great anticipation already for our very last match of the season: Lewisham 2 vs Hammersmith 2 (11th June)! If both teams win their remaining matches, then the result of this encounter will decide the promotion to Division 2 of the London League (while a draw could mean UCL will be the team getting promoted!).
Lewisham has had a fantastic season so far, with their first team in Division 1 beating strong clubs such as Hackney and Cavendish, and they’ve shown strong results in other Leagues they play in. This undoubtedly strengthens the competitive landscape of London Chess and we look forward to high quality games in what could be the SuperBowl of Division 3!
Game of the Season Award
Like we did last year, we will be awarding the best game of the season played by a Hammersmith member with our favourite GM, Danny King, selecting the winner and publishing a video with his analysis of the best game. Getting your game analysed by a fantastic commentator such as Danny is a great honour and we encourage everyone to send in their most entertaining game of the season – please contact Gaston with your submission (highly preferable in .pgn format or text notation rather than a photo of the scoresheet). Please also include the date and teams involved, if you can.
We hope everyone has enjoyed the season so far and wish our players good luck in the remaining matches!
Gaston