Tag: Govanhill Chess Club

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In The Media

Feature on ITV News at Ten

Govanhill Chess Club featured in several news items on ITV on Tuesday 28 June 2022.

Rhys, Giuseppe, Caitlin, Derek and Graeme met with ITN Scotland Correspondent Peter Smith in Queens Park. They were filmed playing games and also contributed interviews.

The footage accompanied a report on the launch of a new campaign for a second referendum on Scottish independence, with chess serving as a metaphor for strategic planning.

The report featured in the UK-wide news broadcasts at 6:30pm and 10pm, and in the lead story on the ITV News website. It can be viewed here.

Rhys (top left), Caitlin & Giuseppe in a sunny Queens Park

The filming location, the picnic benches at the Queens Park boating pond, is the same place we meet on Sundays from 10-12 for casual outdoor chess, through to the end of August 2022. Non-members and beginners are very welcome – details here. 

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Club Meetings

End of Season – Returning 30 Aug 2022

Govanhill Chess Club’s 2021/22 season concluded at the end of May 2022.

Visit the blog section to learn more about our activities over the season, which featured a Club Championship, inter-club friendlies, simultaneous exhibitions, the Scottish National Online Chess League, internal rapid tournaments, and more.

A date for the diary is Tuesday 30 August 2022, when the 2022/23 season will begin at the usual 6:30pm in Wellcroft Bowling Club, who have kindly agreed to host the Club for a further season.

On Sunday mornings during the summer, we will be meeting regularly at the picnic tables near the flagpole in Queens Park, for casual chess in the park. Non-members are very welcome to join us. We plan to be there from 10am to noon every Sunday, from 5 June to 28 August.

For any enquiries during the summer break, please contact Club Secretary Derek Rankine: secretary@queensparkchessclub.com or Club President Julien Papillon: president@queensparkchessclub.com

Image: “Opgave” by Albert Ter Hamsel is licensed under CC BY 2.0

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Events

May 2022 Results Round-Up

Club Championship

Govanhill Chess Club’s 2021/22 season concluded in May.

One of various activities was the final round of our inaugural Club Championship, where the final set of eight games resulted in the following final placings:

  1. Rhys McCrosson
  2. Aidan Doye
  3. Alex Radevic

Click here to see the full results and standings.

Friendly vs Cathcart

Our thanks to Alistair Maxwell at Cathcart Chess Club, for organising a home-and-away graded classical friendly.

The first leg, in Govanhill on 17 May, was a one-sided affair, in which the visitors won 4-1. Alex Lane picked up Govanhill’s only point on board four.

Govanhill achieved a win by one point in the return leg on 23 May, with victories for Rhys McCrosson, Graeme McKinnon and Alex Lane, plus a draw by Harvey Dellanzo.

Govanhill Allegro #2

Govanhill’s second graded Allegro tournament, pictured above, took place in a three-round 15+0 format with Swiss pairings on 24 May. The mini-tournament followed the Club’s first formal Allegro event in March.

Congratulations to Strathclyde Uni‘s Zizheng Liu, a regular guest at Govanhill, on winning all three rounds, and the event. The full results were:

Round 1

  1. Rhys McCrosson 0-1 Zizheng Liu
  2. Julien Papillon 1-0 Kieran Brown
  3. Jass McNeill 1-0 Alex Lane

Round 2

  1. Zizheng Liu 1-0 Jass McNeill
  2. Alex Lane 1-0 Derek Rankine
  3. Kieran Brown 0-1 Rhys McCrosson

Round 3

  1. Zizheng Liu 1-0 Julien Papillon
  2. Derek Rankine 0-1 Jass McNeill
  3. Kieran Brown 0-1 Alex Lane

Standings

  1. Zizheng Liu (3pts)
  2. Alex Lane (2.5pts)
  3. Jass McNeill (1.5pts)
  4. *Rhys McCrosson (1.5pts)
  5. *Julien Papillon (1.5pts)
  6. *Derek Rankine (0.5pts)
  7. Kieran Brown (0pts)

* Half-point byes were awarded to Derek in round one, Julien in round two, and Rhys in round three

Livingston Allegro

Alex Lane, Derek Rankine and Zizheng Liu played in the internationally rated intermediate section of the six-round Livingston Allegro, a Scottish Chess Tour event, on 15 May in Livingston’s Mercure Hotel.

Zizheng finished in joint third place in a field of over 30, with an impressive score of 4.5 out of 6, while Alex scored 3 points and Derek got 2 points. The players met each other in the tournament, with Zizheng emerging victorious against Alex in round 2, while Alex beat Derek in round 6. The full results are available on the Chess Scotland and FIDE websites.

Govanhill Chess Club’s season finished at the end of May. The club will return in the new season on Tuesday 30 August 2022.

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Club Championship

21/22 Club Championship – The Winner Is…

Background

Govanhill’s 2021/22 Club Championship concluded in May 2022. The five-round Classical tournament, which uses Swiss pairings to match winners against winners, was a tightly fought contest.

The results follow, and are also available on the Chess Scotland website.

Wellcroft Bowling Club’s Ian, pictured above, made the ceremonial first move on board one in the final round.

The Winner Is…

Congratulations to Rhys McCrosson, who wins on tiebreak after finishing joint first with Aidan Doye.

Rhys and Aidan both finished with an impressive four wins each, but Rhys edged ahead on tiebreaks using the Sonneborn Berger system, which takes opponents’ strength into account.

Alex Radevic finished in third place, one half point behind. 20 players competed in the Championship, the first in the Club’s history, and 11 played all five rounds.

Final Standings

PositionNamePointsSBgr*Rating
1Rhys McCrosson412.51634
2Aidan Doye4100
3Alex Radevic3.58.251411
4Harvey Dellanzo381356
5Graeme McKinnon350
6Derek Rankine2.54.751272
7Peter Mark2.540
8Libor Masar2.53.50
9Giuseppe Bosco231411
10Julien Papillon231192
11Ethan Small230
12James Todd220
13Jass McNeill120
14Angus Gillies120
15Niall McCamley110
16Alex Lane100
17Harry Thomson100
18Jonny Stark000
19Jegan N’Dow000
20James Higgins000
* The Sonneborn-Berger score is used to determine placings in the event of tied scores.

Round 5 Results

  1. Alex Radevic 1-0 Rhys McCrosson
  2. Harvey Dellanzo 0-1 Aidan Doye
  3. Derek Rankine 0-1 Graeme McKinnon
  4. Peter Mark 1-0 Julien Papillon
  5. Libor Masar 1-0 Jass McNeill
  6. Giuseppe Bosco 1-0 Niall McCamley
  7. Angus Gillies 0-1 Alex Lane (default win)
  8. Jegan N’Dow 0-1 Harry Thomson (default win)

A second Club Championship is planned for the 2022/23 season.

Following a summer break, next season will begin with the first Club meeting on Tuesday 30 August 2022.

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Events

Phones 4 – 4 Govanhill

In the latest of our series of graded friendlies against other local clubs, Govanhill won four and lost four away to Phones Chess Club.

Phones was founded in the 1960s, taking their unusual name from a long-term sponsor relationship with British Telecom. The friendly was played on the evening of Monday 27 April in their base at St. Andrew Bridge Club in Charing Cross. 

The Phones team featured Ayr Major winner Peter Clarke on board two, and Govanhill performed well to get wins on boards one, three, six and seven. The home team played with white on odd boards. The full results are:

BdPhonesRtgResGovanhillRtg
1Guy Lyons17480-1Rhys McCrosson0
2Peter Clarke16111-0James Todd0
3Colin Paterson15180-1Alex Radevic1359
4Aditya Srivastava6541-0Graeme McKinnon0
5Kieran Rafferty01-0Derek Rankine0
6Iain Shields00-1Alex Lane0
7James McGlaughlin00-1Julien Papillon1202
8Clive Boothby01-0Jass McNeill0
4-4

The results have been graded by Chess Scotland. Our thanks to John McIntyre and Colin Paterson at Phones for organising and hosting.

Govanhill look forward to playing south Glasgow neighbours Cathcart for our last friendly of the 2021/22 season. The home game is scheduled for Tue 17 May in Wellcroft Bowling Club, and the away game will be in Cathcart’s venue, Park Church in Giffnock, on Mon 23 May.

Pictured above: Govanhill’s Alex Lane (left) and Alex Radevic (right) playing a pre-game warm-up in St Andrew Bridge Club.

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Club Championship

Club Championship – Round 5 Draw – Tue 10 May

Background

The penultimate round of Govanhill’s 2021/22 Club Championship took place in April.

Rhys maintains the lead with a 100% record, while Harvey and Aidan also won their games to move up into second and third place respectively. A point separates the top three, and the mid-table is also closely bunched, with one point between 4th and 11th.

The Swiss format tournament will conclude with a final round in May. The results, standings and round four draw follow.

Individual results and overall standings are also available on the Chess Scotland website.

Round 4 Results

  1. Rhys McCrosson 1 – 0 Derek Rankine
  2. Graeme McKinnon 0 – 1 Harvey Dellanzo
  3. Ethan Small 0 – 1 Aidan Doye
  4. Alex Radevic 1 – 0 Libor Masar
  5. Julien Papillon 1 – 0 Jass McNeill
  6. Niall McCamley 0 – 1 James Todd
  7. Alex Lane 0 – 1 Giuseppe Bosco
  8. Jegan N’Dow 0 – 1 Peter Mark (default win)
  9. Harry Thomson 0 – 1 Angus Gillies

Standings After Round 4

PositionNamePointsSBgr*Rating
1Rhys McCrosson410.51499
2Harvey Dellanzo361334
3Aidan Doye35.50
4Derek Rankine2.54.251266
5Alex Radevic2.53.251394
6Ethan Small22.50
7Julien Papillon221192
8Graeme McKinnon220
9James Todd21.50
10Libor Masar1.51.50
11Peter Mark1.510
12Giuseppe Bosco11.51407
13Jass McNeill11.50
14Angus Gillies11.50
15Niall McCamley110
16Alex Lane000
17Harry Thomson000
18Jegan N’Dow000
19James Higgins000
20Jonny Stark000
* The Sonneborn-Berger score is used to determine placings in the event of tied scores.

Round 5 Draw

Designated date: Tuesday 10 May, 6:45pm

  1. Alex Radevic (w) vs Rhys McCrosson (b)
  2. Harvey Dellanzo (w) vs Aidan Doye (b)
  3. Derek Rankine (w) vs Graeme McKinnon (b)
  4. Peter Mark (w) vs Julien Papillon (b)
  5. Libor Masar (w) vs Jass McNeill (b)
  6. Giuseppe Bosco (w) vs Niall McCamley (b)
  7. Angus Gillies (w) vs Alex Lane (b)
  8. Jegan N’Dow (w) vs Harry Thomson (b)

For any questions about the Club Championship, please contact secretary@queensparkchessclub.com.

Categories
Events

Points & Prizes at 2022 Hamilton Open

The 2022 Hamilton Open provided a welcome boost to classical chess in Scotland, as the first national over-the-board tournament of its kind since the start of the pandemic. 

Hamilton Chess Club’s well-organised event brought together 50 players, from talented ungraded juniors to experienced International Masters, to compete in a single open section in Bothwell Bowling Club on the weekend of 2/3 April. The format was a five-round Swiss pairings at a time control of 75+0.

Govanhill were represented by two players, Alex Radevic and Derek Rankine, pictured above with Zizheng ‘Friend of Govanhill’ Liu of Strathclyde University (l-r: Alex, Zizheng, Derek).

Derek and Zizheng both achieved a score of 2.5/5, and were pleased to share the best ungraded player prize. 1359-rated Alex went even better, scoring 3/5 and narrowly missing out on the award for the best u-1500 player. 

In round three, Zizheng faced 2400+ International Master Andrew Greet on board one. IM Greet went on to win the tournament with a perfect 5/5.

The full results have been published by Chess Scotland.

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Events

Nat. League & Friendly Results

Scottish National Online Chess League R4

Govanhill won their first game in the final round of the Scottish National Online Chess League, a 3-2 victory against Lenzie 2.

The games were played at the 25+10 rapid time control on chess.com, with the scores as follows:

BoardGovanhillScoreLenzie 2
1Faidon Filipsson (w)1-0Angelo Lynn (b)
2Julien Papillon (b)1-0Chrysa Mitraka (w)
3Derek Rankine (w)0-1Humam Al Dakl Alla (b)
4Jass McNeill (b)0-1Yashwardhan Shankar (w)
5Niall McCamley (w)1-0Tavish Railwani (b)

On the back of a run of defeats, the result unfortunately wasn’t enough to prevent Govanhill finishing bottom of Division Four. Congratulations to Division winners East Kilbride, who achieved promotion.

The fixtures and standings are available on the league website.

Home Leg: Friendly vs Bearsden

Govanhill suffered a 6-2 defeat at home to Bearsden on 29 March, in the latest of our series of graded friendlies.

While the away leg on 1 March saw Govanhill take a narrow win, Bearsden took revenge with wins on five of the eight boards. James Todd scored Govanhill’s only win on board six, while Rhys (board two) and Giuseppe (board five) achieved draws.

The full results are available on the Chess Scotland website.

Away Leg: Friendly vs Strathclyde

The club also scored a 3.5-1.5 defeat away to Strathclyde University, in a game played on 4 April (pictured above is board three, Zizheng-Harvey).

Rhys, Derek and Harvey lost to strong opponents on boards 1-3, while Giuseppe drew on board four, and Alex Lane, in his first game for the club, scored a win on board five.

Credit to our opponents for winning home and away, following a first leg on 28 February. The results have been published by Chess Scotland.

Categories
Club Championship

Club Championship – Round 4 Draw – Mon 11 April

Background

Govanhill’s five-round Club Championship moved past the halfway point in March.

Rhys (pictured above, right) is leading the way by half a point after emerging victorious in a top-of-the-table battle with Aidan in round three.

The Swiss format tournament will conclude with round four in April and the final round in May. The results, standings and round four draw follow.

Individual results and overall standings are also available on the Chess Scotland website.

Round 3 Results

  1. Aidan Doye 0 – 1 Rhys McCrosson
  2. Harvey Dellanzo 1 – 0 Alex Radevic
  3. Derek Rankine 1 – 0 Julien Papillon
  4. Ethan Small 1 – 0 Niall McCamley
  5. Graeme McKinnon 1 – 0 Peter Mark
  6. Libor Masar 1 – 0 Jonny Stark (default win)
  7. Jass McNeill 1 – 0 Jegan N’Dow
  8. James Todd 1 – 0 James Higgins (default win)

Standings After Round 3

PositionNamePointsSBgr*Rating
1Rhys McCrosson360
2Derek Rankine2.52.750
3Harvey Dellanzo22.51338
4Ethan Small22.50
5Aidan Doye21.50
6Graeme McKinnon21.50
7Alex Radevic1.52.251359
8Libor Masar1.51.250
9Julien Papillon111202
10Jass McNeill110
11Niall McCamley110
12James Todd10.50
13Peter Mark0.50.50
14Giuseppe Bosco001416
15Jegan N’Dow000
16Alex Lane000
17Harry Thomson000
18Angus Gillies000
19James Higgins000
20Jonny Stark000
* The Sonneborn-Berger score is used to determine placings in the event of tied scores.

Round 4 Draw

Designated date: Monday 11 April, 7:45pm

  1. Rhys McCrosson (w) vs Derek Rankine (b)
  2. Graeme McKinnon (w) vs Harvey Dellanzo (b)
  3. Ethan Small (w) vs Aidan Doye (b)
  4. Alex Radevic (w) vs Libor Masar (b)
  5. Julien Papillon (w) vs Jass McNeill (b)
  6. Niall McCamley (w) vs James Todd (b)
  7. Alex Lane (w) vs Giuseppe Bosco (b)
  8. Jegan N’Dow (w) vs Peter Mark (b)
  9. Harry Thomson (w) vs Angus Gillies (b)

For any questions about the Club Championship, please contact secretary@queensparkchessclub.com.

Categories
Events

Strong Performances vs GM Jacob Aagaard

This month, we joined our friends in Bearsden Chess Club for a special joint simultaneous exhibition with the renowned Danish GM Jacob Aagaard.

Govanhill took nine players to the event, including two friends from the Strathclyde University team, all pictured above with GM Aagaard. The venue was Bearsden’s home in Cairns Church in Milngavie.

Prizes were awarded to Govanhill’s Derek Rankine and Strathclyde’s Zizheng Liu, who both achieved strong positions and were rewarded with a draw. In addition, Govanhill’s Harvey Dellanzo was praised for his dynamic, enterprising play, and several Govanhill players were among the final games to conclude, in a strong field of almost 30 players.  

Our sincere thanks to GM Aagaard for the opportunity, and to Rob Colston and Mel Burt of Bearsden Chess Club for their efforts in a highly well-organised, welcoming and enjoyable event.

An event report is available on the Bearsden Chess Club website.