Position 1
Black to play
Can you do better?
The first of a new series. Your challenge is to find (a) the strongest move in this position; and (b) the plausible but inferior move that was actually played. Solution next time.
…where the civil servant plays chess
News
6 September 2010
Removed 10 inactive players from the DHSS list, on advice from the club. It would be very helpful if other clubs could also look at their list of players and indicate which of them have moved on – last season, about 30% of the players listed on the website did not play any games for their club.
Also added nominations for Treasury 2.
5 September 2010
Added nominations for Business & Innovation. Only two clubs outstanding now. Also made some minor corrections in various places.
4 September 2010
Added two more games from last season to the Games page:
• Baker,MG v Baker,MJ
• Baker,MJ v Pheby,IM
4 September 2010
Information Sheet 1 for 2010/11 is on the Documents page.
The Individual Blitz Tournament will be held at 6.45pm in the Greycoat Room at the Civil Service Recreation Centre, Chadwick Street, London SW1P 2EP, on 16 September 2010. It will be a 5-minute blitz.
This year, for the first time, there will be two separate tournaments – Open, and under-150. The winner of the Open tournament will hold the Bond Trophy for one year, and will also receive an engraved pewter tankard. The winner of the under–150 tournament will receive a prize which has kindly been donated by Roland Smith.
Entries by 13 September 2010 to the Tournament Controller, Nigel Blades, at nigelblades@blueyonder.co.uk or on 020 8580 5872 (home). There is a flyer on the Documents page with more details.
Changes to the site
Generally speaking, the site looks different (obviously), the navigation menu is twice as long, there's a lot more content than before, and, for the first time, some of it is interactive. See below for a guide to the main changes.
Home
A chess position, which will change probably once a week. Do send in any interesting positions from your own games – you don't have to be a GM to play a combination.
Fixtures
Includes a list of all fixtures and other events in date order, as well as fixtures for each division and cup competition separately.
Match result form
Includes an option to complete the form online, i.e. within your browser, and submit it direct to the Senior Recorder. No printing, posting or emailing needed (but these traditional methods are still available if you want them).
Players
A list of all Civil Service League players in alphabetical order, showing their clubs, and their grades for the past three years (2010, 2009, 2008).
Clubs
Individual club pages will include nominations for this season (some still awaited), and a list of players for that club with grades for the past three years.
Handbook
Guidance to match captains is expanded and brought into one place. See also the new guidance on adjudications: read this before you consider sending off a claim.
Documents
All documents, such as AGM minutes, proposals for rule changes etc, will be kept together on this page for ease of reference. They will be saved as PDF files.
Records
A huge database of records about league and cup competition winners, league officials and more, going back as far as 1905 in some cases. There is a commentary which may help to make sense of all this information.
Archive
News items going back to May 2009, and a complete set of fixtures, results and tables for the past three seasons – 2009/10, 2008/09, 2007/08.
Polls
A monthly poll on a chess issue. September's poll asks for your choice of opening move as White. At the end of the month I will add a comparison with opening move data from ChessBase.
Book reviews
A small but growing collection of detailed reviews of chess books, written from a club player's point of view. Guest reviews are welcome – please make contact if you would like to contribute one.
Profiles
Short chess autobiographies of a range of players in the Civil Service League. If you would like to propose someone to be profiled, please let me know and I will ask the player concerned.
Games
A collection of recent games involving Civil Service League players, mostly from League competitions. You can either play through the moves and variations online, or print off a PDF copy of the game to play through away from the computer.
Please feel free to send me a copy of any interesting games you play this season. PGN format is ideal, CBH is also OK, but I can use text in any format. Annotations are welcome, but I will in any case check the game with a chess engine myself before uploading it.
Resources
Links, FAQs and more, on a range of chess subjects. If there's something else you'd like to see covered, please let me know.