Over the summer there have been a few warm up matches played as we all get used to playing real chess again.

Paul Errington (Bournemouth) and Eric Sachs (Poole) report on two over the board matches between Bournemouth and Poole Chess Clubs played in September, the first one at the Winton Liberal Club, which is Bournemouth’s home venue and the second one played last Thursday at the Poole Royal British Legion, which is Poole’s home venue. These were friendly, unrated yet exciting chess matches which made for two enjoyable evenings. Poole won the combined match over the two evenings 13 – 5 but due to the significant rating difference between the two teams it was agreed in advance that Poole needed 14 points, therefore Bournemouth were declared the overall trophy winners. Well done to both clubs on this initiative!   Reports can be found on the clubs’ websites here and here. The lines up for the Bournemouth leg are pictured below.

This follows a pair of matches organised a few weeks ago by Adam Ursell (Highcliffe) and Martin Clancy (Ringwood) between Highcliffe and Ringwood Chess Clubs (pictured top).  There was no handicapping here but the teams were organised to make them evenly matched.  Highcliffe narrowly took both legs which were played outdoors at the Fish Inn and Amberwood Pub.   You can see the reports here and here

You can also see Adam’s annotations of some of the games from those matches here and here.