For those who have successfully entered the tournament, some there’s some useful information below.

Hampshire Congress 2026 main features

Dates:

Friday evening, 23rd October 2026, Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th.

Rate of play

30+90: 30 minutes each plus 30 seconds added per move.

Sections and Ratings

There are 3 Sections, and all 3 are FIDE and ECF rated.

• Open
• Major – Under 1850 (ECF and FIDE)
• Minor – Under 1600 (ECF and FIDE)

Venue

The Lysses House Hotel, 51 High Street, Fareham, Hampshire. PO16 7BQ.

Schedule

• Rd 1: Friday 19:00
• Rd 2: Saturday 09:30
• Rd 3: Saturday 14:30
• Rd 4: Sunday 09:30
• Rd 5: Sunday 14:30

The draw for each round will be available on Chess Results approx. 15 to 30 minutes before each round.

The presentation of trophies will take place 10 minutes after the last round (19:30). All cash prizes will be sent to the winners by bank transfer.

Refreshments

Water, but not tea and coffee will be provided and available on the landing area outside of the three playing rooms. Tea, coffee and other drinks will be available at the bar, but there will probably be long queues just before the start of each round. Food from the Hotel bar and Restaurant will also be available, but please check opening times.

More information

The Open and the top boards of the Major will be in the Hampshire Room, the largest of the rooms at the venue. The remaining boards in the Major and the Minor will be in the Bristol and Fareham rooms.

Results and pairings will be added to Chess Results (pairings will also be available on printouts). If you have selected a bye please check this is recorded on https://www.congress.org.uk/congress/795/entrants and if you no longer require a bye, or now need one please let the organisers know.

Open
https://s2.chess-results.com/tnr1487849.aspx?lan=1&art=0&turdet=YES&fla…

Major
https://s2.chess-results.com/tnr1487850.aspx?lan=1&art=0&turdet=YES&fla…

Minor
https://s3.chess-results.com/tnr1487851.aspx?lan=1&art=0&turdet=YES&fla…

The arbiter and the tournament controller will also be based in the Hampshire room, but will be doing their normal walking around to monitor games. If you have any issues, please do speak to them.

The Georgian Room, the little breakfast room next to the main restaurant on the ground floor, will be available as an analysis room.

Prizes

There are cash prizes in all Sections for First, Second and Third, plus Hampshire trophies for Hampshire-affiliated competitors, plus Best Game prizes plus highest scoring Lady. Cash prizes will be sent by bank transfers. Here’s a list of Hampshire Trophies:

• The highest placed Hampshire player in the OPEN receives the Silver Rook Trophy
• The highest placed Under 1950 Hampshire player in the OPEN receives the Len Walters Trophy
• The highest placed Hampshire player in the MAJOR receives the Peter Marshall Cup
• The highest placed Hampshire player in the MINOR receives the Parsons Cup
• The highest scoring Hampshire lady in the Congress receives the Gillian Moore Cup
• The highest scoring lady in the Congress receives a prize of £50 (not limited to Hampshire players).

Full details

Full tournament details are available at Congress org UK

Links

HCA Congress page on congress.org

List of entrants

Chess Results Page for the Open

Chess Results Page for the Major

Chess Results Page for the Minor

Last year’s Congress reached capacity too: Hampshire Congress 2025 Full

The post Hampshire Congress 2026 now full appeared first on Chandlers Ford Chess Club.

There are 16 Qualifier events in 14 cities, with the winners of each going through to the Final. These qualifying events take place between 5th September and 4th October, and the one in our area is next Saturday, 3rd October.

Chandler’s Ford Chess Club’s Iwan Cave will be running the tournament and is the liaison between the ECF and the College. Iwan ran the event last year. He has been playing for the Welsh Team in the 46th Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan over the last couple of weeks.

ECF web page for the 2026 UK Open Blitz Championship

2026 UK Open Blitz Qualifier Rules

The Venue

Barton Peveril Sixth Form College, Chestnut Avenue, Eastleigh SO50 5ZA. The event will be in the Nobel building.

2026 UK Blitz Qualifier Tournament details

• Date: Saturday 3rd October 2026
• Venue: Barton Peveril Sixth Form College, Chestnut Avenue, Eastleigh SO50 5ZA.
• Entry fee £27
• Games: 15 Rounds in a Swiss tournament format.
• The games will be ECF and FIDE rated.
• Rate of play: 3+2 (three minutes plus 2 seconds increment per move)
• The winner qualifies for the Finals, which will be held on Saturday 21st November at Leamington Spa.
• One player will qualify for the Women’s Final.
• See the tournament Rules page on the ECF website

Schedule

Note: each Qualifier tournament organiser has the right to vary the Round times.

Entries

Who’s entered? See List of Entries on the ECF website.

Links

The ECF web page for the 2026 UK Open Blitz Championships

Online entry form on the ECF website

Iwan Cave’s 2026 UK Blitz Qualifer article on the Hampshire Chess Association website

ECF web page for last year’s 2025 Blitz Finals

2025 UK Blitz Championship Qualifier

The post 2026 UK Open Blitz Championship Qualifier appeared first on Chandlers Ford Chess Club.

The Knockout 2026

This year 27 players entered the popular club tournament. A Preliminary Round involving 11 pairs of players, with 5 players having Byes saw the field reduce to 16 for the next Round. That Round eliminated the next 8. The 8 remaining players were then reduced to 4 for the Semi-Finals.

The Knockout 2026 games used the 80+10 time control used in other tournaments and in the League. The results were recorded on the ECF League Management System (LMS) and the games are ECF rated.

The Semi – Finals

The semi finals saw Christian Westbrook paired against Peter Eales, a win for Christian, and Graham Stuart against Bill Purkiss.

Graham and Bill drew.

Then they played with reverse colours – and drew again.

They played two rapid-play games to keep things moving – Graham won one, Bill the other…

A coin toss finally resolved the issue – and Graham went through to the Final.

LMS for the Knockout 2026 semi finals.

Knockout 2026: the Final

Graham Stuart versus Christian Westbrook.

They drew!

Knockout 2026 winners revealed

Graham and Christian have agreed to share the Trophy for 2026. Congratulations Graham and Christian!

Tournament director Steve Dunleavy congratulated the pair on their achievement:

Dear all Christian and Graham drew their game tonight and have agreed to share the trophy. Well played! I hope you enjoyed the Final and will hopefully see you in next year’s competition.

Kind Regards

Steve

LMS for the Final

The post Knockout 2026: winners revealed appeared first on Chandlers Ford Chess Club.

See the Agenda below. Topics will include various issues and will prepare the club for the forthcoming 2026-27 Season. See SCL 2026-27 fixtures on LMS

Chairman’s message

Our Chess Club AGM is being held next week in Maury’s Lounge , our usual playing room at 7.30 pm

I am attaching the agenda for the meeting, last year’s AGM minutes, kindly typed up by Keven Lamb and the details of a suggested new ladder/ tournament by Dave Frampton which current ladder players have already seen but I thought may be of interest to all club members.

In reducing costs please have a look though the minutes as I will only print a few copies for the meeting,

Best wishes

Rob Sims

Agenda

1 Apologies

2 Minutes of 2025 AGM

3 Matters Arising

4 Officer Reports:-     Secretary -Malcolm

                                                Treasurer/ Membership – Suzan

                                                President / Liaison- Nobby

                                                Website – Keven

                                                Social Secretary – Andy

5  Appointment of Officers

6  Club Tournaments:-  Book Prize / Club Championship– Peter P

                                                Knock-Out – Steve

                                                Summer Tournament – Malcolm

                                                Ladder – Rob Sims

                                                Rated Friendlies etc – Graham

                                                Rapid  – David Culliford

7 Issues Raised by Club Members:-     New / replacement Ladder Tournament – Dave Frampton

                                                                        Team mentoring – Geoff / Rob Si

                                                                        Trophies – Graham

8 The 2026-7 Season:   Team Captains/ Squads / Nominated players

9 AOB                                                

The post Chess Club AGM 2026 this Wednesday 9th September appeared first on Chandlers Ford Chess Club.

Good Afternoon All,

There were 4 games on the ladder last night in which 8 of the top 9 players were involved, reflecting the fact that there is only one more week left of the current ladder. The top 3 players, Andy M, Peter P and Dave Frampton fought off challenges from players on lower rungs! ;-

Andy Petley          0-1     Dave Frampton

Peter Przybycin   1-0     Dick Meredith

Andy Mills              1- 0    Bob D’Cruz

John Kooner   0.5 – 0.5    Geoff Parish

I attach the penultimate ladder of the 2025-26 year.

–Rob Sims

LMS for this week.

Tournament organiser Rob Sims has submitted game results throughout the year to the ECF for grading purposes using LMS.

The play offs

The top three players on Tuesday 1^st September 2026 will play off to decide the eventual winner. Players in second and third place play each other and the winner plays the player in first place.

The next Ladder for 2026-27

Dave Frampton has proposed an alternative ladder or new tournament which takes into account the differences in rating between two opponents. Dave has provided a detailed summary of how this would work and is happy to explain more about it at the AGM. The proposed version will be presented as an agenda item for our AGM on Wednesday 9th September.

The post Ladder 2025-26: the Penultimate step appeared first on Chandlers Ford Chess Club.

Sections

The Sections are highest of your ECF or FIDE rating:

• U2300: ECF and FIDE rated
• U1800: ECF and FIDE rated
• U1500: ECF rated.

Who’s entered the Fareham FIDE Congress?

The venue

The Lysses House Hotel, 51 High Street, Fareham, Hampshire, PO16 7BQ.

Accommodation

Players can book accommodation at the Lysses Hotel by emailing the Organiser (Psyon Chess) at satish@chess-uk.com and paying by Bank Transfer to avail the best rates. There are 21 rooms reserved by the Organiser until 15th August.

Time control

60 minutes + 30 seconds increment from the start.

Fareham FIDE Congress playing schedule

• Please arrive by 09:30 on Saturday 5th September 2026 to enable a prompt start to the tournament.
• Round 1: 10:00 Saturday
• Round 2: 13:30 on Saturday
• Round 3: 17:00 on Saturday
• Round 4: 10:00 on Sunday
• Round 5: 13:30 on Sunday
• The tournament should finish by 17:30
• Players may request a half-point Bye for any Round except the last Round.

Prizes

An email announcing the Winners on Chess-Results will be sent to all participants and money prizes (as published) will be sent via bank transfers within two to five working days from the receipt of Winner’s bank details. No player can win more than one prize & if a player qualifies for more than one prize, the higher of the prize money will be awarded.

Links

Fareham FIDE Congress online Entry

Psyon Chess Fareham Congress details on Congress.org

Psyon Chess Fareham Congress: entrants list

Hampshire Chess Association

Fareham FIDE Congress on ECF website

Chess-Results.com

The Final Castle Chess Congress

The post Fareham FIDE Congress 5-6 September 2026 appeared first on Chandlers Ford Chess Club.

The tournament is an official qualifying event for the Gigafinals. The UK Chess Challenge is sponsored by Delancey. It is open to all juniors born after 31/08/2007.

The Tournament director is Chandler’s Ford’s Maha Chandar.

Tournament details

• Date: Sunday 21st June 2026
• Venue: Winchester College (New Hall), College Street, Winchester, Hampshire, SO23 9NF
• Time control: 20 minutes + 10 seconds
• Entry £35.00
• ECF rated: Yes
• Eligibility: Open to all juniors born after 31/08/2007
• Schedule: Arrival from 9.30 for a 10.00 start. Approximate finish time 17.00
• Organiser Details: Maha Chandar, kidschess@hotmail.com
• Closing date for last entries: 19th June

Online Entry

Entry online via the Delancey UK Chess Challenge website page:

Who has entered?

See the chess-results Page via the button below:

Links

Hampshire Junior Chess Association

2026 Hampshire Megafinal Page on the Delancey website

The Delancey UK Schools Chess Challenge website home page

Chess-Results.com player list

Chandler’s Ford Junior Chess Club

The post 2026 Hampshire juniors Megafinal appeared first on Chandlers Ford Chess Club.

The 2026 SCL AGM

Southampton Chess League AGM, Wednesday 10 June 2026, 7.30pm, Chandlers Ford Central Club (2 Winchester Road, Chandlers Ford, Eastleigh, SO53 2FZ)

Agenda

1. Welcome Thanks to Chandlers Ford club for hosting us.
2. Apologies for absence
3. Minutes of previous AGM (25 June 2025) and matters arising
4. Secretary report (Fraser McLeod)
5. Fixtures Secretary report (Malcolm Clarke)
6. Treasurer report and league subs (Michael Pope)
7. Webmaster report (Graham Stuart)
8. Proposals
   a) (From SCL committee) – that the use of clocks be mandatory in all competitions. (Rule 10a is currently worded as “Clocks shall be used in divisions 1,2,3 and, if available, in lower divisions.”)
   b) (From Southampton club) – that the number of boards played in Division 4, Division 5, and Clarke Cup matches be increased from four to five.
   c) (From Chandlers Ford club). Suggested additional option for games involving juniors:
   Current Rule 10f For any game involving a junior player (under 18), the junior player or their captain, can require a time control of 60 minutes per player for all moves. Proposed new Rule 10f For any game involving a junior player (under 18), the junior player or their captain, can require a time control of 50 minutes + 10 seconds per move, or 60 minutes per player for all moves, if other games in the match are played with no increment.
9. Election of officers
   The committee roles and current officers (all willing to continue) are:
   League Secretary: Fraser McLeod (Southampton)
   Fixtures and Results Secretary: Malcolm Clarke (Chandlers Ford)
   Treasurer: Michael Pope (Salisbury)
   Chair: Matthew Coldwell (Salisbury)
   Vice-Chair: Michael Pope (Salisbury)
   Webmaster: Graham Stuart (Chandlers Ford)
10. Planning for next season
    The Southampton Club plans to enter a D team to Division 5.
    The Basingstoke Club has proposed to enter 3 teams only, and would like to play in Divisions 1,3,5
11. Presentation of trophies

Important: All current trophy holders to bring to AGM for presentation to this season’s winners.

12. Any Other Business

Photos of the 2025 SCL AGM

Click on any image below and scroll through the full size photos:

The post League AGM Wednesday 10th June 2026 appeared first on Chandlers Ford Chess Club.

Peter announces the 7th Round

We have reached the final round of this tournament.

This round is different, in that the closing date is three months away, on 28^th July.

This will also be the closing date for the whole 2025-2026 tournament, after which no further result will be accepted.

The winner of theClub Championship, and of each Book Prize groups, will be the player with the highest score on 28^th July, regardless of games played.

Games can be played out of sequence.

All games should be played at Chandlers Ford Chess Club, or alternatively at the home of one of the players if both players agree.

Rate of play will be 80 minutes each for the whole game, plus 10 seconds per move.

If a digital clock is not available, e.g. when playing at home, the rate of play can be 90 minutes each for the whole game.

When playing at Club, clocks must start by 8:00pm.

Online games are not permitted.

If two players tie for first place in any section, the trophy or book prize will go to the winner of their individual game. If that was a draw, then there will be a replay with reversed colours. If the replay is drawn, the player with the lower published grade (at the time of the replayed game) will take the prize.

Enjoy!

Best wishes,

Peter P.

See Chandler’s Ford’s David Culliford explain how to set the DGT 2010 clocks for increments in his YouTube video:

Tournament Sections and LMS

The players are spread over four Sections: the Club Championship, and Book Prize Sections A, B and C.

The tournament is an all-play-all within each section. This format means that games can be played out of sequence – so the tournament isn’t delayed by games not yet played from previous rounds.

The games are ECF graded. The player pairings and results can be found on the ECF League Management System (‘LMS’). Links to the relevant LMS pages below:

• Club Championship
• Book Prize Section A
• Book Prize Section B
• Book Prize Section C

The post Championship and Book Prize 2025-26 Final Round appeared first on Chandlers Ford Chess Club.

The Summer Tournament is a 5-round Swiss format contest between April and September. In the previous Summer Tournaments, the winner’s name was engraved on the Kooner Cup and the winner received a replica of the Cup, presented by John Kooner annually at a club dinner. The organiser is Malcolm Clarke.

The tournament comprises of 5 Rounds over the summer months – about a game per month . The winner receives the Kooner Cup for a year and usually gets to keep a replica. The games are standard play in terms of time control, 80 minutes each player plus 10 seconds per move.

Whilst all the results will show on the Summer Tournament 2026 Page, please also see LMS (League Management System) for more up to date results as it will be updated more frequently.

Player Pairings for Round 1

• Matthew Staniforth v Andrew Petley
• David Culliford v James McIlroy
• Christian Westbrook v Sam Murphy
• John Davis v Eric Jones
• Philip Tarrant-Edwards v Keven Lamb
• Patrick Pavey v Graham Stuart
• Andrew Mills v Rob Strachan
• John Kooner v Peter Przybycin
• James Hale v Alan Weaver
• Geoff Parish v Richard Meredith
• Robert Sims v Robert D’Cruz
• Steve Dunleavy v Sam Spencer

2026 Summer Tournament Rules

• The 2026 Summer Tournament is a 5-round swiss event.
• Rate of play: 80 mins + 10 secs.
• When the Round Pairings are announced, the first-named plays as white.
• Notify Malcolm Clarke of the results.

Click on the button below to see last year’s Summer Tournament Page, the John Kooner Cup 2025:

The post The 2026 Summer Tournament begins appeared first on Chandlers Ford Chess Club.