Fixtures for this Season's League

Dear all

This summer's rapidplay league will again run on Wednesday evenings at Golden Lane.

The first of the 11 weeks of matches will be held on Wednesday 9th June.

Full details of (i) fixtures (ii) costs and (iii) kind sponsorship from Norman and yElena Went of Spectrum Chess fame, will follow after the Bank Holiday.

In the meantime, please mark the dates in your diaries.

Finally, one of the Wednesdays (23rd June) conflicts with an England world cup match. Unless anyone has strong objections, I will try to rearrange the chess for the Tuesday or Thursday of the same week (availability of GL permitting).

The format will be basically the same as last year, with an adjustment of the grading bands and formalisation of some of the rules to minimise disputes about grading/eligible players etc.

This year's grading bands will be:
Bd 1 - Open
Bd 2 - U180
Bd 3 - U165
Bd 4 - U150

We welcome Drunken Knights in place of Hammersmith, who have not asked to enter a team this year.

At least 3 other clubs have expressed an interest in entering a second team. Thank you for that. Unfortunately, the space constraints at GL mean that, unless we hold the event over 2 nights per week, we can accommodate only 12 teams on a 4-board basis. Since we have 11 clubs, that means only one can enter a second team. As Kings Head kindly helped us out by entering a second team last season, they have first option to enter a second team this year as well, and I believe they wish to do so.

Shaun Tracey