Report

As is customary, after arriving at Furzebrook Village Hall at around 8.00am, Nick and I started setting up the tables and chairs for the games in the main hall and for the diners in the small hall while Martin got going in the kitchen. Quite how Martin gets everything into his car I’ll never know – there’s half a dozen slow cookers containing his famous meals, sets, boards and clocks and what must have been around 50 books that had been donated, not to mention sundry wallcharts we use for displaying the draw and results. Next to arrive was Nikki who this year decided to have a change from her signature South African vegetarian bobotie and instead made a sweet potato casserole. The team was complete when my wife Lindsey arrived with her six puddings – this was up one from usual as we’d had a record entry of 46 and we didn’t want to run out of puddings!

As Nick and I made good progress setting up the sets and clocks, the smell of bacon rolls was soon wafting around the hall and the first players started arriving.

As one player didn’t show up, we ended up with 45 entrants which equalled the 2024 record. Unlike in 2024, all the players were in one group which made doing the draw a challenge! As I’ve said in previous reports, rather than using a computer, Martin and I enjoy doing the draw manually and it certainly provides some between-game entertainment for the players!

It soon became apparent that the only question about the winner was whether or not Finn Schell was going to win all his games … he did and therefore became the Dorset Chess Blitz Champion for the third time in a row. Second on 9½ points was James Forster and third was Anuhas Gamage with 8 points. A complete list of prizewinners is given elsewhere.

On the whole the day ran very smoothly with only a smattering of illegal moves and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves which is what we aim for.

Apart from my usual thanks to Nikki and Lindsey for helping in the kitchen and to Nick for his help setting up and putting away, I’d also like to thank those parents who helped with the washing up and others who helped put away tables and chairs at the end. As always, a massive thank you to Martin who does a tremendous amount of work before the tournament drumming up support and then on the day splitting his time between cooking and controlling.

I hope to see you all again next year and, before then, at the Dorset Rapidplay which will be held in March/April time – same venue, same team!

Steve

Results

46 players took part in the 11-round Dorset Blitz Championship on Sunday 4th October 2026.

There was a £600 prize fund, which included an extra £100 to the £500 that was originally declared.

22 players (almost half of the participants) won prizes!

1st and Dorset Blitz Champion 2026: Finn Schell – 11pts

2nd: James Forster – 9½pts

3rd: Anuhas Gamage – 8pts

Rating Prize – Under 1900: Ivan Georgiev & Milan Bennett – 7pts

Rating Prize – Under 1800:  Phil Pinto, Stephen Pollyn & David Eland – 7pts

Rating Prize – Under 1700: Samuel Gorsuch – 7pts

Rating Prize – Under 1600: Arjun Sal Krishna Vurukonda – 6pts

Rating Prize Under 1300: Ashton Smith & Anish Iyengar – 5pts

Rating Prize Under 800: Milan Marinello, Akshay Iyengar, Sonny Luciano Coulter, Omer Ege Yilmazer, Mithulashree Devadoss & Atlas Shterev – 4pts

Veterans Prize: Stephen Pollyn & Phil Pinto – 7pts

Super Veterans Prize: William Adaway (not in the above photo), Derek Mount & Alan Wykes – 5½pts

Junior Prize: Hugo Melling (above) plus Milan Bennett & Samuel Gorsuch (in earlier photos above) – 7pts

The allocation of the £600 prize fund is given below:

Finn Schell – £100 (1st)
James Forster – £60 (2nd)
Anuhas Gamage – £40 (3rd)
Ivan Georgiev – £16 (Rating)
Milan Bennett – £26 (Rating & Junior)
Stephen Pollyn – £36 (Rating & Veteran)
Phil Pinto – £36 (Rating & Veteran)
David Eland – £16 (Rating)
Samuel Gorsuch – £50 (Rating & Junior)
Arjun Sal Krishna Vurukonda – £40 (Rating)
Ashton Smith – £20 (Rating)
Anish Iyengar – £20 (Rating)
Milan Marinello – £15 (Rating)
Akshay Iyengar – £15 (Rating)
Sonny Luciano Coulter – £15 (Rating)
Omer Ege Yilmazer – £15 (Rating)
Mithulashree Devadoss – £15 (Rating)
Atlas Shterev – £15 (Rating)
Hugo Melling – £20 (Junior)
Bill Adaway – £10 (Super Veteran)
Derek Mount – £10 (Super Veteran)
Alan Wykes – £10 (Super Veteran)

Wallchart