…where the civil servant plays chess

 

News

 

30 January 2012

Peter Biggs has had to stand down as captain of Pimlico 2 for work reasons. James Toon is providing cover for the rest of this season.

 

28 January 2012

The ECF Grading List for January 2012 was published today. It differs from previous lists in that it includes 6-month grades for standardplay as well as rapidplay. The new grades are based on games played in the period June to December 2011.

 

I have inserted the January 2012 grades into the club grading list on each club's page.

 

What does this mean for the League? Nominations are unchanged and remain as shown in September 2011 using the grades that were current at the time. So I have not updated the nominations on the team lists on the club pages.

 

Despite that, clubs are not going to ignore the latest grades, and we may see some changes in board order in future matches. Match results on the website from now onwards will be updated to show the latest grades. And games played from January 2012 will be graded using the new rather than the previous grading list.

 

25 January 2012

The League's Chairman, Ian Pheby, invites nominations for some posts that will fall vacant at this year's AGM. Click here to read his note.

 

15 January 2012

My mobile number has changed and is now 07803 812094.

 

4 January 2012

I have uploaded a game from today's Hastings Masters Round 8. This is S.Shyam–R.Edouard [B90]. You don't often see an IM demolishing a GM in 21 moves. See the Games page.

 

2 January 2012

A Happy New Year to everyone. You may be interested to see the recent Commercial League game between Richard Fries and Carl Hetherington [C06], which I have annotated and uploaded to the Games page. This was an extremely wild game, which both players could and should have won (though obviously not at the same time). Position 48 was taken from this game.

 

17 December 2011

Some GLCC members have contributed to an obituary for Geoff Ashelford, which is on the Documents page.

 

14 December 2011

The League Chairman, Ian Pheby, wishes all members a very merry Christmas and a happy and peaceful New Year.

 

30 November 2011

The match on 6 December between GLCC 2 and Treasury 3 has been postponed.

 

28 November 2011

The film Bobby Fischer Against the World, which lasts 90 minutes, is being shown on Wednesday 30 November at 9.00pm on BBC4. There are late night repeats on 1 December at 2.30am on BBC4, and on 2 December at 1.00am, also on BBC4.

 

25 November 2011

The Division 3 matches due to be played on 30 November between DHSS 3 and Business & Innovation 2, and also between Treasury 2 and Revenue & Customs 3, have been called off, because of the TUC's General Day of Action, which is also taking place on that day.

 

Apparently the Executive Committee are not taking this lying down. Players from other clubs have been invited to come into London on 30 November and substitute for the original players to ensure that the matches get played and to avoid the disruption to the fixture list that postponement would cause. Two days of training will be offered on how to locate the relevant clubs' venues and how to get past the departmental security guards. As an incentive, the replacement players will be offered double board points and match points for their own clubs.

 

The Executive Committee is expected to announce that clubs will not be allowed to call off matches in future except by a majority vote of their players, on a turnout of at least 40%.

 

21 November 2011

SPARTA have also had to withdraw from the Bonar Law Trophy. Their opponents, UNATS, receive a bye into the next round.

 

9 November 2011

Treasury have unfortunately had to withdraw from the Bonar Law Trophy because of a player shortage. Their opponents, Pimlico, receive a bye into the next round.

 

We regret to announce that Geoff Ashelford, GLCC President, died on Wednesday evening (02/11/2011). Phil Zammit writes: GLCC members received the sad news on Wednesday evening that Geoff Ashelford had passed away. He was 81 and had been in a nursing home in Chislehurst for a few months. It was not totally unexpected as his health had been deteriorating in recent weeks. I am sure you will be as saddened as we are, as he was one of the league's stalwarts – playing in the CSCL as far back as the 60s, or even further. If you need any funeral details don't hesitate to contact me at p.zammit774@btinternet.com.

 

28 October 2011

I have re-designed the standard match result form to make it (I hope) a little more user-friendly. For example there is now space for captains to add grade information if they wish. Although saved as a DOC file, it can be opened by applications other than Word, such as Pages (the Apple word processing application). However, completed forms should be saved as DOC or RTF before being sent in.

 

22 October 2011

Some players have had problems finding the new Pimlico venue. There is some doubt over the postcode. So instead, the location is shown on a map.

 

13 October 2011

Mike Whitworth is standing down as captain of the DHSS 3 team that plays in Division 3 – he is taking up a new job outside London. Until a new captain is appointed, the contact for DHSS 3 matches will be David Gilbert (the captain of DHSS 2). David may be contacted as follows:

email: david.j.gilbert@btinternet.com

tel: 020 8317 7966.

 

7 October 2011

The first round of matches in Division 1 were all very close. Unlike last year, there doesn't seem to be any one outstanding team. It's going to be an exciting contest for the league title.

 

28 September 2011

The Individual Blitz Open and U-150 Tournaments took place last night. A total of 15 people took part. Nigel Blades organised the events as before.

 

In the Open, Jim Robinson (GLCC) retained his title with a score of 5.5/6, closely followed by Arne Eilers (Metropolitan Police) on 5/6. In the U-150, Richard Johnson (Treasury) was the runaway winner on 7/7. Full details below.

 

•   Open

 

Pos	Name	Grade	Score
1	J Robinson	152	5.5
2	A Eilers	186	5
3	S Lunn	175	3.5
4	A Ashby	184	2.5
5	N Fleming	188	2
6	J McDonnell	175	1.5
7	A Morina	–	1

 

•   U-150

 

Pos	Name	Grade	Score
1	R Johnson	148	7
2	I Granville	114	5
3	P Biggs	141	4.5
4	D Bennett	94	3.5
5=	O Olajide	129	3
5=	B Skinner	120	3
7	D Gilbert	134	2
8	M Pole	109	0

 

9 September 2011

All team nominations have now been placed on the website.

 

6 September 2011

Congratulations to Kevin Thurlow, who will be receiving a 2011 ECF President's Award for Services to Chess. More details in this article by Ian Pheby.

 

6 September 2011

Team nominations for this season are being added to the website as they come in. So far, Business & Innovation, and Pimlico. Nominated players are listed in descending order of grade.

 

6 September 2011

The new Civil Service League season kicks off with the annual Individual Blitz Open and U-150 tournaments on Tuesday 27 September. These are always an enjoyable evening's chess and it would be good to have a high turnout.

 

Following the closure of the Chadwick Street Recreation Centre, the tournaments will be hosted by GLCC at their venue in central London. As agreed at the League AGM, there will be a £3 entry fee to cover venue costs.

 

More details of the event are here.

 

4 September 2011

There were no correct solutions to the "White to mate in 60" problem. In fact there were no solutions at all. The detailed analysis is now on the Solutions page.

 

4 September 2011

The 2011/12 season will be starting shortly. This is to alert captains to some changes of venue and a change of playing night:

• Pimlico (formerly Home Office and Justice), and UNATS, will play all their home fixtures at The Pimlico Rooms / The Church Hall, St Saviour's Church, St George's Square, Lupus Street, London SW1V 3QW. This is very close to Pimlico tube station.

 

• UNATS will play all their home fixtures on Thursdays.

 

3 September 2011

The ECF issued a slightly revised grading list in August. This is on the ECF website and is the official version for grading purposes. This League is not much affected as the grades of only six players were changed, and by no more than three points at most. I have amended the relevant club pages.

 

I have also removed the separate page listing all players' grades in alphabetical order. This simply duplicated the information on individual club pages and caused extra work when grading details had to be revised.

 

24 July 2011

I have integrated into the website the contents of the League Handbook for 2011/12. A PDF version of the Handbook is available for download on the Handbook page.

 

24 July 2011

The ECF grades for 2011 have now been published. I have updated the player grading details on each club's web page.

 

12 July 2011

The league and cup fixtures for the 2011/12 season are now online. See Fixtures.

 

I will update the club pages when the handbook for next season is available.

 

8 July 2011

Added the game J.Toon–M.J.Baker which was played last night in the 4th round of the Pimlico Summer Tournament. The opening is the Najdorf Sicilian (English Attack with 6.Be3). So, you can expect a positional struggle characterised by slow manoeuvring with the occasional tactical shot. See Games.

 

6 July 2011

The Civil Service Games, a CSSC event, takes place at Loughborough University on Thursday 15 and Friday 16 September 2011. Chess is one of the sports featuring in the Games. Here are some details:

•   It is a rapidplay team event (25 minutes per player per game)

•   There will be individual board prizes

•   Individuals can enter, and will be placed in an appropriate team

•   Accommodation is available on site

•   The closing date is 31 July

•   Some funding may be available from your local sports association.

•   All participants must be members of the CSSC.

 

Further details are available from the event organiser, Ihor Lewyk (email ihor.lewyk@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk) or on the web at http://www.cssc.co.uk/games.

 

24 June 2011

Andrew Farthing, the Chief Executive Officer of the ECF, has published an important paper on the future funding of the ECF. The paper is available on the Documents page.

 

The main point is that the ECF is moving towards a membership scheme for individual players, to replace the game fee. There will be different tiers of membership depending on what type of event you play in. Most players take part in league, club and county chess only, for which the annual fee would be in the region of £13. Those playing congresses or FIDE-rated events would have to pay more.

 

The incentive to become an ECF member is that you would get a published grade. Non-members would have their grades calculated but not published.

 

The proposal needs to be ratified by the ECF AGM in October and would then come into force in the 2012–13 season. For 2011–12, and beyond if the ECF AGM rejects the proposal, the game fee will continue in place.

 

Players wanting to express a view on the proposal should send their comments to Roland Smith by Friday 15 July so that they can be considered by the League's Executive Committee in advance of the ECF AGM.

 

17 June 2011

Further information about the Civil Service Club. Trial Membership is available at £5 for 30 days, and if you join at the end of the trial period the normal £17 joining fee is waived. These trial membership cards can only be issued from 7.00am to 8.00pm Mondays to Fridays. Roland Smith suggests that applications are channelled through him until further notice.

 

12 June 2011

The first Information Sheet was published in 1950. Now, 394 issues later, the final Information Sheet is published today. Available on the Documents page.

 

8 June 2011

Roland Smith has provided the following article about the Civil Service Club.

 

Civil Service Club, 13/15 Great Scotland Yard
As part of the arrangements following the closure of the Chadwick Street premises, the CSSC have arranged for members of CSSC to join the Civil Service Club at a much reduced rate – £20 p.a. and no initial fee. You have to produce your CSSC membership card and complete an application form and mention the special membership discounted rate.

The normal charge for non-CSSC members is initial fee of £17 and then £50 p.a. I suggest that anyone wishing to join at this higher rate should do it through me and if I get a decent number I will try and negotiate a better rate before committing anyone.

I have joined the Club, Nigel Blades will do so and I am sure that others will follow.

It  has a nice central location very near Embankment tube station and makes a good meeting place for a bite to eat and drink. The Club serves a wide variety of hot and cold bar food. The sandwiches & baguettes are excellent value at £2.60 with a super bowl of large tasty chips only £1. Drinks are good value – the cheapest  lager £2.10  a pint and various good beers between £2.50 - £2.80.  In the open areas  adjoining the bar there is different seating with some in alcoves for four with a table – ideal for a quiet game of chess or bridge. There is no background music! 

The Club has kindly agreed to store our chess cupboard from Chadwick Street free of charge. Our Civil Service Chess League will be using the Club for Blitz tournaments, committee and annual general meetings.

For more information contact Roland Smith:
roly_smith_chess@yahoo.co.uk or phone 020 8658 6959.

 

27 May 2011

I have updated the Records section following the AGM, including the Length of Service spreadsheet.

 

20 May 2011

The Civil Service League AGM took place last night. The AGM took many decisions in the course of a very long evening. I have set out the main points in a thematic way below.

 

Venue

• When the Chadwick Street Recreation Centre closes, the League's new home will be the Civil Service Club in Great Scotland Yard (just south of Trafalgar Square). The Club will store the League's equipment and host at least some of its events. Membership costs £50 a year (£20 for CSSC members), and non-members will be able to attend events as the guests of members.

 

Comings and goings

• Roland Smith will continue as President but resigned as Secretary. Ian Pheby made a presentation. The meeting gave Roland a standing ovation for his 60 years of service to Civil Service chess.
• Nigel Blades was elected Secretary to replace Roland.
• Chris Reeve became a Vice-President of the League. He will continue as Treasurer but will definitely stand down next year.
• Ian Pheby will stand down as Senior Recorder next year, when he will have completed 30 years in post.

 

Finance

• No change to the player-fixture fee this year. Indeed there would be little point pre-empting the outcome of the ECF's deliberations on its own funding arrangements.

 

Blitz Tournaments

• Next year the Team Blitz will revert to a single end-of-season event. If enough 2nd teams enter, it may be possible to run an Open and a Minor Section (as for the Individual Blitz this year). Entry fee £5 per team.
• The Individual Blitz will be held on Tuesday 27 September at the GLCC venue in Bloomsbury. Nigel Blades will be the Tournament Controller. Entry fee £3 per person.

 

Presentation of Trophies and Awards

• The only one not reported so far is the Tony Ashby Shield. This went to Ali Manuchehri of DHSS for his superb performance in scoring 80% from 10 games against opposition graded on average just one point below him.

 

Decisions on club and Executive Committee proposals

• The proposal to make Quickplay the default option gained a simple majority (10 votes to 8), but not the two-thirds majority required for changing the League Rules.
• The time control for matches will change from 36 to 42 moves in 90 minutes (i.e. no adjudication before move 42).
• There will be a Minor Division for the 2011–12 season. This will be a stand-alone division for teams of four boards with a grading limit of 120 or below on each board. Ian Pheby will shortly contact clubs to invite entries.
• There will be a Rapidplay League in the summer of 2012. Again for teams of four boards, playing two 30-minute games in each match. Games will be graded. No decision on whether to have grading limits for the competition.
• The voting entitlement was changed. The only Committee members who may vote in future are the Senior Recorder, the Secretary and the Treasurer. Clubs to have one vote each, as now.
• The proposal to require only a simple majority for rule changes and not a two-thirds majority was not successful.
• Where clubs enter two or more teams in the League, it will not be necessary to nominate a player for the bottom board in any team for which nominations are required.
• There will be right of appeal against a declaration that an adjudication claim is frivolous.
• Clubs will be able to field external (i.e. non-Civil Service) members in League teams two calendar years (previously three full seasons) after their membership of the club is notified to the Senior Recorder.
• The Web Manager is now a member of the Executive Committee.
• The Rules for cup competitions were completely restructured to provided a general section applicable to all competitions followed by sections with Rules unique to each individual competition.
• A number of minor and technical amendments to the League Rules were also made.

 

13 May 2011

The third and final round of the Team Blitz Grand Prix took place at the Recreation Centre last night. Metropolitan Police turned out a very strong team and ran away with the event. But a weakened Home Office & Justice team did just enough to win the Grand Prix itself and take the Barford Trophy for the third year in succession.

 

Well done to the Metropolitan Police 2nd team, who were the only 2nd team to take part in the Grand Prix. They put in a fighting performance despite being heavily outgunned.

 

Most people seemed to enjoy the event, but given the number of entries it had to be played over 14 rounds and this was probably too much. The alternative would have been a 7–round event and that would not have been enough. So if there is another 7–team event in future, it may be worth thinking about a Swiss format instead.

 

The full Grand Prix results are in the table below, showing Match Points (MP) and Game Points (GP).

 

	Rd 1	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 3	All	All
	MP	GP	MP	GP	MP	GP	MP	GP
Home Office & Justice	10	28.5	8.5	30	6.5	26.5	25	85
Metropolitan Police 1	5	20	8.5	30	11	37	24.5	87
UNATS	4	20	4.5	17	7	24.5	15.5	61.5
Revenue & Customs	3	18	2.5	13.5	8.5	28	14	59.5
DHSS	4	17.5	2.5	13.5	3	15.5	9.5	46.5
GLCC	–	–	3.5	16	4	22.5	7.5	38.5
Treasury	4	16	–	–	–	–	4	16
Metropolitan Police 2	–	–	–	–	2	14	2	14

 

10 May 2011

There were a further two entries for the Team Blitz, from DHSS and UNATS, bringing the total to seven. It seemed there might also be an entry from Home Office & Justice 2nd team but this turned out not to be possible.

 

The event will run as an all-play-all double header with 14 rounds, each team playing every other team twice. One team will have a bye in each round. There will be a short break after round 7. This is more games than we normally play so it would be good to make a prompt start at 6.45pm.

 

The event will use digital clocks on all boards. Eight from the League's own supply, and a further four from Metropolitan Police (our thanks to them).

 

6 May 2011

A reminder that the venue for the Team Blitz competition on 12 May, and the League AGM on 19 May, is the Westminster Hall on the 3rd floor of the Recreation Centre.

 

Five teams have entered the Team Blitz: GLCC, Home Office & Justice, Metropolitan Police 1, Metropolitan Police 2, and Revenue & Customs. There's still time for more entries before the deadline. Home Office & Justice may also enter a 2nd team if they can get enough players.

 

25 April 2011

Round 3 of the Team Blitz competition for the Barford Trophy will take place on Thursday 12 May from 6.45pm in the Westminster Hall at the Civil Service Recreation Centre in Chadwick Street.

 

The deadline for team entries is Tuesday 10 May. Captains should bring a team list with them on the night.

 

22 April 2011

All material up to 21 April 2011 has been moved to the Archive. So have the completed Fixtures, Results, Tables and Adjudications for the 2010–11 season.

 

22 April 2011

Added the game P.Jaszkiwskyj–H.Carter from a recent London Commercial League match. This was an extraordinary game. There was an unusual balance of material, and both sides missed chances to win. At one stage Black was down to 4 seconds for his last 3 moves (he made the time control). See Games.