Tomorrow evening, Monday 24 November 2025 at 7 pm, we welcome IM Jovanka Houska to the Mindsports Centre for a very special event: a lecture followed by a 20-board simultaneous display.
This is a friendly reminder to all members — don’t miss one of the highlights of our calendar! Jovanka is a nine-time British Champion and one of the game’s most inspiring voices, and it promises to be a wonderful night of chess and conversation.
We look forward to seeing everyone there.
A Special Evening with IM Jovanka Houska
Monday 24th November 2025 – 7pm, MindSports Centre
Hammersmith is thrilled to welcome IM Jovanka Houska for a very special evening at the MindSports Centre. The event will feature a lecture followed by a 20-board simultaneous display.
Jovanka needs little introduction. A nine-time British Champion and one of the world’s leading commentators, she has been an inspiration in both British and international chess for more than two decades. A few highlights from an extraordinary career:
It promises to be a genuinely memorable night.
How to Get Involved
The lecture is free and open to all Hammer members.
For the simultaneous display, places are limited to 20 boards:
We look forward to seeing you there.
John White
Events Officer
🎃 Hammer House of Horrors – Final Call!
It’s Halloween, and the blood is still dripping from the board…
The Hammer House of Horrors is coming this Monday 3rd November, hosted by Adam Cranston, and we’re still hungry for your most terrifying games.
Forget ghosts and ghouls — nothing chills the soul like watching a +5 position crumble into defeat.
💀 Deadline: Midnight tonight (Halloween!)
💀 What we need: Your full PGN, with a short note on where you think it all went wrong.
💀 What’s at stake: Eternal shame… and possibly a prize or two for the most haunting games.
Submit your disasters — if you dare.
🩸 Hammer House of Horrors – where nightmares over the board come to life.
Ever lost a game so bad it still haunts you at night?
This is not about the everyday blunder — dropping a queen, missing mate-in-one, the kind of stuff we’ve all done. No, we are after something far more special…
This is for the connoisseurs of catastrophe.
The true artists of self-destruction.
The players who can take a completely winning position… and dismantle it with ten moves of pure, unfiltered incompetence.
For the first time ever, Hammersmith Chess Club presents:
Hammer House of Horrors 🩸
An evening dedicated to your worst games — the shorter, the bloodier, the better. Junior or veteran, 800 ECF or 2400 Elo, it doesn’t matter. This is the prize for those of you who have never won a chess prize in your life.
📅 Event Night: Monday 3rd November, hosted by Adam Cranston
Halloween Prizes for the most haunting games (categories revealed on the night)
👻 How to Enter: Email your full PGN to adam1234321@googlemail.com by Friday 31st October, Halloween. No photos/scans of scoresheets, please. If you can, add a brief note on where you think the rot set in.
Come along for laughs, groans, and a reminder that we are all human.
Hammer doesn’t take itself too seriously — this is your chance to prove it.
Ready to Level Up Your Game? Our Beginners & Improvers Course is back, led this season by our Club President Adam Cranston!
Starting Thursday 2nd October, this 8-week one hour long course is perfect for anyone who knows the rules but wants to improve, regardless of age.
Each week includes:
• A one-hour group lesson on strategy, tactics, and chess fundamentals
• Followed by our normal Thursday session for Hammer members
• Plus tips, feedback, and support throughout
Venue: London MindSports Centre, W6
Time: Thursdays, 5:30pm–6.30pm
Cost: £100
Discounts:
– 50% off course fees for existing Hammersmith members, or
– 50% off new Hammersmith membership for course participants
Whether you’re returning to chess after years away or starting fresh, this is the place to build confidence, sharpen your game, and join our thriving chess community.
Ready to pay and play?
Name: Hammersmith Chess Club
Sort Code: 40-03-21
Account Number: 91245120
Or ask Adam any questions at enquiries@hammerchess.co.uk
Liverpool Chess Club — this year’s host of the British Chess Championships — has thrown down the gauntlet and challenged Hammersmith to a showdown in the North.
🗓 Saturday 8th November
📍 Liverpool
• 3:00–5:00pm – Meet, greet, and soak up the Scouse atmosphere
• 5:00–8:00pm – Match play: Hammer vs Liverpool
• 8:00–10:00pm – Celebrate chess, camaraderie, and the great city of Liverpool
Think you’ve got what it takes to cross Abbey Road with us?
Email John White at jdrw9591@gmail.com
HAMMERFEST 2025
Match 1: Hammer 1 vs Hammer 2
1. Sergiy Teslya (B) 0–1 Cian Ward (W)
2. Christof Brixel (W) 1–0 Greg Billenness (B)
3. Tom Townsend (B) 1–0 Paul Kennelly (W)
4. Bajrush Kelmendi (W) 1–0 Mark Croasdale (B)
5. Andrew Macleod (B) 1–0 Thomas Ewart (W)
Final Score: Hammer 1 – 4 : 1 – Hammer 2
Match 2: Hammer Mackenzie vs Hammer Cadets
6. Danielle Kelly (W) 0–1 Gergana Ilieva (B)
7. Alan McBride (B) 0–1 Max Mouradian (W)
8. Sarah Ewart (W) 1–0 Nico Auffarth (B)
9. Diana Andrade (B) 0–1 Maria Vinyukova (W)
Final Score: Hammer Mackenzie – 1 : 3 – Hammer Cadets
Match 3: Hammer 3 vs Hammer 4
10. Ahmed Ahmed (B) 0–1 Leon Railhac (W)
11. John Ryan (W) 1–0 Ehsan Mojahedi (B)
12. Joe Courtier (B) 1–0 Samrath Singh (W)
13. Florin Toma (W) 1–0 Julien Snell (B)
14. Zayed Ahmed (B) 1–0 Aarya Raina (W)
15. Rebecca Ewart (W) 1–0 Zab Chen (B)
Final Score: Hammer 3 – 5 : 1 – Hammer 4
Next Thursday, 18 September, promises to be one of the biggest nights of the year in London chess – and it’s all happening at the Mindsports Centre.
In a tradition designed to keep the season fair, whenever Hammersmith enters two teams in the same division we schedule the head-to-head derby early. The result? A festival of chess: teammate against teammate, captain against captain, friend against friend – thirty Hammer players across fifteen boards.
Three huge matches line up on the same night:
• Central London League: Hammer 1 vs Hammer 2 (5 boards)
• Middlesex League: Hammer 3 vs Hammer 4 (6 boards)
• London League: Hammer MacKenzie vs Hammer Cadets (4 boards)
All matches will start at 7pm sharp and will be the very first fixtures of the new 2025/26 season. With players ranging from around 2200 ECF strength all the way down to those competing in their first-ever rated game, Hammerfest offers opportunities for every level of member.
The only requirements are that you’ve renewed your Hammersmith and ECF memberships. If you’d like to play on Thursday, please contact our newly elected Club Captain at gastonfranco1990@gmail.com. Future matches, for these and all our other teams, will be organised by the respective team captains.
It’s an all-Hammer spectacular we’re calling HAMMERFEST.
Expect a buzzing club room, tough fights, upsets, rivalries, and no quarter given. Some of the boards will even be broadcast live online – so you can follow the action wherever you are.
Forget “friendly fire” – this is family fire. Every player will be out to prove themselves, and every point will matter when the season tables are counted up.
So come down to the MSC, grab a drink, and soak up what is truly the biggest annual event in London club chess.
Hammerfest: the night the Hammers take on the Hammers.
We’ll be holding a short Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) on Monday 15 September 2025, from 19:30 to 20:00, at the MindSports Centre.
The purpose of the meeting is to consider and vote on:
We expect business to be brisk — less than 30 minutes — so we can quickly return to the real reason we meet: playing chess.
All members are welcome.
Hammersmith Chess Club invited GM Daniel King once again to present our annual awards for the 2024/25 Season. Danny selected our Game of the Season and showed interesting positions from other nominated games. There were additional prizes for the best players of the season and the winners of our internal tournament series.
Danny kicked things off by scattering a few interesting positions from the games around the room and asking the audience to take a look at them and try to find the best move in each position – this ensured the session would be interactive as members were able to suggest moves, at times even surprising the Grandmaster with their creative ideas.
With his trademark charismatic and engaging style, DK walked us through the critical positions of the games, which were played throughout the season by a wide range of our members at all levels, from amateurs to masters. Indeed, it was possible to spot our top IMs Peter Roberson and Tom Rendle in the audience, as well as the winner of the previous two years, Marco Gallana.
This time, the award went to one of our top juniors, Kai Hanache, for his Round 1 win at the English Championship in July. The game featured a positional queen sacrifice which left Kai’s opponent with very passive pieces and an endangered King, until eventually Kai regained the queen while winning material in the process. Replay the game below, and watch the other nominated games on this Lichess Study
After announcing the winner, Danny also presented awards for various categories and internal tournament winners, all of whom received a certificate and a £10 voucher for Chess & Bridge. The full list of winners is below:
Many thanks once again to GM Daniel King, who will also analyse the game on his Youtube Channel (PowerPlayChess) soon. He stressed how difficult it has become to select a winner year after year given the club’s increasing success, with more members, more games being played, and more brilliant moves! As the ECF Club of the Year, let’s make it even harder to choose the 2026 Game of the Season!
