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Vote Chess – QPCC vs CSRA

Queens Park Chess Club’s first organised activity on chess.com will be a transatlantic ‘vote chess’ challenge match against the Central Savannah Riversite Area (CSRA). CSRA is a US club with players from the city of Augusta, Georgia and the neighbouring towns of Aiken and Edgefield in South Carolina.

What is vote chess? 

Vote chess is a format in which two teams play a single game of correspondence (aka ‘daily’) chess against each other. In this game, Queens Park is playing with the Black pieces, and each team has three days to discuss and vote on every move. Both teams have access to a private message board for discussion on suggested moves. 

The normal rules of correspondence chess apply – the chess.com opening explorer and books on opening theory can be used for reference, and the pieces can be moved around on the board, but chess engines and endgame tablebases must never be used. 

How do I join? 

On chess.com, click / tap on vote chess in the Queens Park Chess Club menu, or click here.

Then select the QPCC-CSRA game and choose ‘join game’.

Those who do not already have a chess.com profile can register and play for free.

QPCC will play with the black pieces

How do I play? 

To start with, introduce yourself on the message board under the vote chess game. Then let us know what you would like Queens Park’s first move with Black to be. 

When it’s our move, we have three days to decide what to play. In the first two days, club members of all abilities are encouraged to suggest and discuss potential moves in the position. When we have around 24 hours to go, a vote will be called for the consensus move (or a choice between two or more moves if no consensus has been reached). ‘Voting’ is a case of playing a move on the board, and clicking a tick box to confirm. 

It is possible for players to vote at any time on any move they wish, but participating in discussion on candidate moves first, and voting on an agreed move, helps to make this more of a team game, in which we can learn from each other, and play higher quality moves.

Lower-rated players are encouraged to suggest their preferred moves, and higher rated players are asked to respond courteously to any potential mistakes or inaccuracies. Lower-rated players are welcome to ask higher-rated players questions about their proposed moves, to improve their understanding of the ideas behind them.

What happens after we vote on our move? 

The opposing team, CSRA, will have three days to pick their move, then it’s back to our turn. The game will continue to a conclusion. At any point, it is possible for teams to vote in favour of offering or accepting a draw, or to resign the game. The outcome of the game will be rated on the chess.com vote chess leaderboard. If there is appetite for more, Queens Park can set up a new game, or even several at once.

Any questions?  

Drop Derek a message on chess.com or ask away in the vote chess chat. Thanks to all for taking part and let’s see how our first match goes! 

Top image created with artificial intelligence using DALL-E

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Events

The Scarecrow and the Grand Prix

Hamilton Scarecrow

Queens Park Chess Club and friends were out in force at another well-organised tournament by Hamilton Chess Club (see also 2022 Hamilton Open) on Sunday 11 September 2022.

The 2022 Scaregrow Allegro – delivered as part of the Bothwell Scarecrow Festival – was a six round rapid event held at the Alona Hotel in Strathclyde Country Park.

Following on from the East Kilbride Allegro, Queens Park was again represented among the prize-winners.

The event featured in the programme for a popular scarecrow festival

Major Section

Jordan McNaught (right, above), who holds dual Queens Park and Strathclyde Uni membership, scored 3.5/6 in the under 1800 Major.

Rhys McCrosson (3rd from right) achieved 3/6, and won the grading prize with a 1427 performance rating.

Alex Lane (left) and Strathclyde Uni’s Liu Zizheng (3rd from left), a regular visitor at Queens Park, also scored 3/6, while Giuseppe Bosco (2nd from right) got 1.5.

The section winner was Hamilton’s Duncan Walker; it was a double success for the host club as Hamilton’s James Montgomery won the Open section.

Major section results from Chess Scotland.

Minor Section

10 year old Chess in the Park regular Alagu Karthick (centre) won the under 1400 Minor section grading prize with an impressive score of 4.5/6.

Alagu finished in joint third place out of 33 participants, as did smartly dressed Iain Shields (2nd from left) a dual Phones & Queens Park player, with the same score.

Chris Dinwoodie scored 3/6. The section winner was Lenzie’s Angelo Lynn, who hopes to join Chess in the Park in its remaining six weeks.

Minor section results from Chess Scotland.

Bearsden Grand Prix

Queens Park competed in a four-month long online Grand Prix

Queens Park have a long-standing friendship with Bearsden Chess Club, who donated boards and clocks to help us get started in 2019, played a series of graded friendlies with us during the pandemic, and invited us to special events like a March 2022 simultaneous match vs GM Jacob Aagaard.

Their generosity continued over the summer break, as Queens Park was offered five places in the 2022 Bearsden Grand Prix, a weekly online rapid tournament that offered cash prizes in three sections: under 1800, under 1500 and under 1200.

The games were played on chess.com on Tuesday evenings from mid-May to mid-September. The time control was 12+5, with up to five rounds played each night, points being awarded for wins, draws and participation.

The tournament concluded this week. While Queens Park’s contingent didn’t take any gold medals, Derek Rankine was runner-up in the u1500 section with 31 points and Jass McNeill was also second in the u1200 section with 25.5 points. Graeme McKinnon, Giuseppe Bosco and Rhys McCrosson also took part in the series.

Our thanks to Bearsden and our congratulations to host team winners Alan Sharp (u1800), Alistair Goodall (u1500) and Chris Monk (u1200).

We hope to continue collaborations with Bearsden in 2022/23 and are planning towards two special events – watch this space!

Above images created with the help of artificial intelligence using DALL-E.

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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.

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Events

Scottish National Online Chess League: R1, R2 Teams

Overview

Govanhill’s first foray into national competition starts this weekend with two matches in Division Four of the Scottish National Online Chess League, or SNOCL.

SNOCL was created by the Scottish Online Chess Organisation in 2021 to provide a new channel for inter-club competition while over-the-board leagues are suspended.

The second iteration of SNOCL takes place over January to March 2022, with Govanhill being one of 18 clubs around Scotland taking part. All matches will be played on chess.com at the rapid time control of 25+10.

Selection

Govanhill’s teams for rounds one and two are:

SNOCL Division Four

Round 1 – East Kilbride vs Govanhill (11am, Sun 30 Jan)

  • Board 1: Graeme McKinnon [white]
  • Board 2: Harvey Dellanzo [black]
  • Board 3: Derek Rankine (captain) [white]
  • Board 4: Niall McCamley [black]
  • Board 5: Jass McNeill [white]

Round 2 – Govanhill vs Lenzie 2 (2pm, Sun 30 Jan)

  • Board 1: Rhys McCrosson [black]
  • Board 2: Harvey Dellanzo [white]
  • Board 3: Julien Papillon (captain) [black]
  • Board 4: Jonny Stark [white]
  • Board 5: Libor Masar [black]

Results

Results and league standings will be made available on the Scottish Online Chess Organisation Website.

All individual games will also be graded and published by Chess Scotland.