Last Monday, Hammersmith Chess Club hosted something special for half-term: Beginners Take Over, a juniors + adult beginners rapidplay tournament in the Mindsports Centre’s main hall, with feedback provided by volunteer mentors.
On a normal Monday we run both a Junior Hour and an Adult Beginners‘ session at Hammersmith. Both offer games and coaching for those starting out in chess – whatever age they are.
We know that the most enjoyable and competitive chess games are often against opponents whose level is close to your own – even more so when you’re newer to chess.
Since you’ll typically see most nights at any chess club full of intermediate and advanced players, we wanted to give some space to our growing ranks of Hammer beginners, and shine the spotlight on them for an evening 🙂
So we created Beginners Take Over – an unrated 5-round 10+5 rapidplay tournament for those rated <1000 Elo/unrated. More experienced club colleagues volunteered to notate each game and provided feedback and tips to both players between rounds.
As well as being a good opportunity for our adult beginners to face off against their junior counterparts and gain experience playing in a tournament setting, it also felt like a great way for club members of all levels to get to know each other better.
The tournament outcome came down to a nailbiting playoff between two talented juniors, Marcus and Alexander – ultimately Marcus clinched the win despite a strong fight from his opponent.
Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and appreciated the feedback they got on the games – a big thank you to everyone who volunteered their time as a mentor! We hope to start making this a more regular feature of our Monday club nights on half-terms.
– Jenny Mulholland, Hammersmith Beginners’ Officer