Luke McShane has made a welcome return to chess journalism as the columnist for The Spectator. At fifteen Luke provided a regular column for The Express on Sunday and, until recently, was a busy full-time trader at Goldman Sachs.

The first chess columnist for The Spectator was Conel Hugh O’Donnell Alexander who was followed by Raymond Keene who “retired” in 2019.

Luke’s most recent article may be found here.

We look forward to original and interesting articles from Luke !

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A glorious Saturday (the 14th) in September was the date and Camberley Baptist Church was the location of the third tournament in memory of correspondence Grandmaster Keith Bevan Richardson.

A field of thirty-two gathered at the home (since 1982) of Camberley Chess Club for a six round rapid-play event (R20′ + 10″) that was free to enter raising money by donations to The Cure Parkinson’s Trust. Players were invited to choose books from Keith’s library

and donate to charity in return.

Top seed was recently qualified IM Adam C Taylor (ECF230)

whose chances were dented by losing in round 4 to Clive Frostick (Farnham) who, like Keith, was a highly successful correspondence player (a SIM : Senior International Master)

Other pre-tournament favourites were FM Andrew P Smith (IRE and Bourne End)

and FM Richard M Webb (Crowthorne)

along with WFM Louise Head (Crowthorne)

Following three rounds we stopped for lunch (in some cases liquid only) and on 100% were Adam, Clive and Andrew so round four could well be a key decider. Clive beat Adam with the white pieces whereas Andrew and Richard drew a hard fought Sicilian Dragon. In round five Clive breathed a sigh of relief to survive a “dodgy” position against Colin Purdon in one of the candidate games for the “Best Swindle” Prize.

The drama continued into the final round as Adam beat strong junior Ranesh Ratnesan
and everything hinged on Clive’s game with Richard Webb. After a long and interesting struggle the game was drawn and the tournament was decided.

The award for Best U-150 player went to rapidly improving Jessica Mellor (Guildford)

the award for Best Junior went to Radesh Ratnesan (Surbiton)

and the title of Camberley Chess Club Champion (highest placed local player) went to Colin Purdon

In overall first place with 5.5/6 was Clive Frostick :

The event collected more than £300 for the Cure Parkinson’s Trust and we are sure Keith was looking down from above and was pleased with what he observed.

Past Winners of Keith Richardson Memorial :

2017 : Julien Shepley
2018 : Ken Norman
2019 : Clive Frostick

Full results may be found from UTU Swiss

Camberley Chess Club would like to thank :

Camberley Baptist Church, Berkshire Junior Chess Association, Ken Coates and Christine Coates.

The organiser was John Upham.

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Sixty-four (!) players entered the South-West qualifier for the British Blitz Championship 2019 held at Bristol Grammar School for a fifteen round tournament employing a 3′ + 2″ FIDE approved time control.

The entry was headed by GM Matthew Turner (SCO) scoring 13.5/15 and gaining a mere 8.8 FIDE Blitz rating points drawing quickly with Keith Arkell and losing to FM Lewis Martin (ENG).
Paignton based “local” GM Keith Arkell (ENG) took runner-up spot with 12/15 losing 15 rating points having drawn with Lewis Martin but losing to in-form IM James Cobb (WLS) and IM Malcolm Pein (ENG). Malcolm’s son Jonathan elected to play in the much weaker Belfast qualifier which was probably a good move.

Highest placed lady player (and therefore qualifier) on 8.5/15 was University of Warwick student and reigning English Ladies Champion, WFM Louise Head (ENG) who was supported by her Crowthorne team mates FM Richard Webb, Colin Purdon and Mark Taylor.

Surprise performance (perhaps?) was from FM Lewis Martin (title awarded in 2018) who beat Matthew Turner, Malcolm Pein, Richard Webb and Louise Head of the titled players to earn a 64.8 rating increase.

Full results may be found at Chess Results . com

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Veteran IM James T Sherwin (FIDE 2231) brought home possibly the most pleasing result of the 2019 British Championships in Torquay.

Infamously featured in game one of Bobby Fischer’s Sixty Memorable Games, James has been resident in the London area for many years specialising in rapidplay events such as the Richmond and Golders Green series of rp tournaments.

James and FM Andrew Lewis (somewhat less that 86!) tied first equal in the orange lit Forum area of the Riviera Centre with 7.5/9 with James beating Gerald Moore (FIDE 2132) in the final round whereas Andrew (FIDE 2283) drew with Josiah Haynes (2132).

Well done James and Andrew !

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BCN has joined the action in wonderful Torquay at the Riviera Centre.

On Board four we have IM Richard Pert vs GM Nick Pert (Richard won the game) :

and on board three : GM John Emms vs GM Justin Tan (the game was drawn) :

and on board two : IM Richard Palliser vs GM Stephen Gordon (the game was drawn) :

and on top board we have GM David Howell vs GM Michael Adams (the game was drawn) :

Follow the action at Twitch with GM Danny Gormally and IM Adam Hunt

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