John Belinger reports that the New Milton Chess Club held its annual Yuletide Frolic on Tuesday 13th December. It took the form of seven rounds of blitz chess playing with a time control of 7 minutes plus a 5 second increment from move one.

The result was a three-way tie for first place  between Reenen du Toit, Tim Jones and John Belinger (pictured below), each with 6 points out of 7.

Exhaustion and a lack of time meant there was no time for a play-off and the joint winners were presented with the Mihail Nutu Trophy in memory of Mihail who died in tragic circumstances earlier this year.