This took place at the weekend and 169 players took part. Open Section. Almost everyone expected this to be dominated by GM Mark Hebden and IM Jonah Willow, but it did not work out like that at all. In round 3, Mark lost to Nigel Birtwistle and Jonah could only draw with Shabir Okhai, great results for our league players. […]

We entered 7 teams again this season. Here is a summary of how they are doing so far. Gambit 1. Any hope of challenging for the 1st division title disappeared once Florian informed us he was moving away from Nottingham, meaning he might only be able to play in occasional away matches. Even had he been a regular it would […]

7 members entered this tournament organised by Domenico Napolitan, held at the Dunkirk Community Centre this weekend. Domenico aims to hold several more of these next year. There were two sections, each 6 rounds, 15” + 5’ increments, and we won both sections! Mike B stormed to victory in the Open section with 5.6 points. In the final round, facing […]

8 members entered the 3rd Derbyshire Congress at Trent College in Long Eaton last weekend. Mike B scored 3.5 / 5 in the Open section, ending up joint 3rd, half a point behind the winners. He had 2 wins and 3 draws. In the final round he beat the Nottinghamshire County Champion Alexandr Klimchik. There were 4 members in the […]

The Nottingham heat of the ECF UK Blitz Championship Qualifiers was held at the High School on Sunday with 37 players each playing 15 games at a rate of 3’ + 2”. With at least 25 minutes between rounds, it was a relatively leisurely pace. The national emergency test alarm fell nicely between rounds, with the control team sensibly starting […]

There were two victories by Gambit members on Sat 30 August. Drag and Mark popped up to Sheffield for the Darnall Rapidplay U1900 Major. After playing soundly to win his first 5 games Drag entered round 6 a point clear, then relaxed too much and lost his final game, yet still came joint 1st. Mark began slowly with 1 point […]

The annual pre season Swizzle took place on Tuesday. It was the usual 5 round Swiss format with a time control of 10 minutes each +/- minutes depending on the player’s rating bands. Mike B won with 4 points. After beating Mark, Felipe, Mike N-E and Drag, he faced Marshall who used his 16 minutes exceptionally well and Mike B, […]

9 Gambiteers took part in the Blitz event, last held in 2009. Mike N-E came very close to retaining the title for Gambit. After being gifted a piece in round 3 by ‘defending champion’ Drag, he defeated Jon Tait before losing to the new champion Chris Cantrill, ending up joint 3rd on 4 points. Mark scored 3.5 points and won […]

Our AGM took place in June. The following trophies were presented: Club Champion: Michael Naylor-EadeClub Rapidplay Champion: Michael BarnesGambit Trophy: Felipe LessaBrian Gretton Trophy: Graham Gibson We decided to enter 7 teams again for the 2025-26 league season. There were major changes regarding team captains, marking a new era for the club. Gambit 1: Was Florian – now is Michael […]

There were 12 competitors this season with the usual format of 5 rounds of two games at 25’ + 10” increments. This time we experimented with each pair in each round being given a date to play on which helped the event run smoother than last season. The only minor surprise in round 1 was Nikolai taking a point off […]