Welcome to the home of Nottingham’s largest chess club. The club welcomes players of all ages and standards – you can come along and play casual games in a friendly atmosphere, or join one of our teams in the Nottinghamshire League or the Derby and District League.

This site contains news about the club, its teams and its players, as well as links to other web sites of interest to chess players.

The club meets on Monday evenings from 6:15 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. for juniors and from 7:30 p.m. for adults and juniors involved in league matches at Bramcote Memorial Hall, Church Street, Bramcote, Nottingham NG9 3HD. Visit the Information page for more details about where to find us and how to join.

Summer programme

Events

The club reopens on Monday 1 September for the 2008–09 season. Until then – have a great summer!

Junior session

The junior session runs from 6:15 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. Parents are asked to collect their children well before 7:30 p.m. so that the later match session can start on time.

Children playing in matches, or who have other family members playing in matches, are welcome to attend during the post-7:30 p.m. session.

Results

WN1 | WN2 | WN3 | WN4 | WN5 | WN6 | WN7 || WNA | WNB | WNC

Recent news

For older news and further details, see the News, Teams and Events pages.

Site changes (26 September)

When this web site first started, just over three years ago, there wasn’t any reliable way to get hold of news and results from the Notts League. One example: at the end of the previous season, WN2 (then in Division 3) believed, on the basis of our own results and rumours about those of other teams, that a win in the final match of the season would take us up to Division 2. But it didn’t. The rumours were wrong and we missed out by a point, even though we whitewashed Fiveways 1 in that last match.

The NCA web site in those days published results once every couple of months, while league tables appeared in printed form at roughly fortnightly intervals. Because of that, I made this a very detailed site as far as the club was concerned. Things have changed since then – the NCA site carries detailed results, updated as soon as the results are received, and the Derby & District League now also puts its results online.

This means that there’s a lot of duplication, especially between this site and the NCA site, which in turn means duplication of effort. And since it’s my effort in both cases, I need to find a way to slim things down a little. It can’t have escaped anyone’s attention that this site lagged considerably behind the NCA site last season – sometimes by almost two weeks.

At the same time, I want to make WNCC’s web presence better, which is one reason for starting up En Passant, the club’s blog.

So the plan is this: here, I’ll summarise all of the club’s NCA results, with links to the relevant pages on that site for more details. The league tables are already drawn automatically from there, so they should always be up to date. I’ll also link to any blog entries for particular matches. D&DL results will continue in the old format for this season at least, but there’ll be blog entries about those as well.

Formal news items (AGM announcements and such like) will appear here and on the blog. Some (the really important ones) will also be sent out via email and post. Anything that requires a permanent record will definitely appear here. Fun items might only appear on the blog.

All of this might be revised as time passes and we see what works and what doesn’t.

Finally, I’m undecided about what to do with The Passed Pawn, the club’s printed newsletter. Last year’s efforts were pretty poor, largely because I didn’t have time to publish frequently enough to include anything other than a boring summary of results. It may be that En Passant effectively takes its place.

Junior Bowling Evening (26 September)

Penny Mackay organised a bowling competition for the juniors on 17 September, so while the first team were starting the league season off, the kids were having some fun. And there were prizes:

Amisha at the European Junior Championships (26 September)

Amisha Parmar competed in the Under 16 Girls competition at the 17th European Youth Championships. More details.

NCA Jamboree (16 September)

The club organised and competed in the NCA’s season opener, a team jamboree tournament, held at Navigation Chess Club. The team was in contention for first place until a poor final round, resulting in us finishing 5th of the 10 teams with a score of 12½/20. Individual scores (all out of 5): David Levens 3; Ian Kingston 3½; Michael Keetley 3; Jonathan Day 3. West Bridgford took first place.

ECF Club of the Year presentation (16 September)

The ECF Club of the Year Award – a new digital clock, a certificate and a plaque – were presented by ECF Treasurer Robert Richmond on 10 September. A couple of photos:

Rob Richmond, David Levens, Ian Kingston, John Crawley
Rob Richmond presents the award to committee members David Levens, Ian Kingston and John Crawley.

Club members with the award
Members of the club at the award presentation.

Results of the blitz tournament held immediately afterwards:

PosNameTotal
1 Ian Kingston4
2 Robert Willoughby4
3 Jonathan Day4
4 Nikolai Berdunov3
5 John Collins3
6 Phillip Burley3
7 Ross Mackay3
8 Michael Zhang3
9 Mohammed Mozaffari2
10 Arun Maini2
11 Matthew Pethick2
12 Jordan Nicholson2
13Lucien Holliday2
14Arnaud Banon1½
15David Somers1
16Ruth Chadwick½

Ian took first place on tie break.

Fixture updates (3 September)

Changes to the published fixtures: Ashfield 3–West Nottingham 3 is on Tuesday 9 October, not Wednesday 10 October; University 2–West Nottingham 1 will be rearranged to a date to be confirmed; and West Nottingham A and B’s matches on Friday 9 November will be rearranged, as the hall is not available that night. Update: the WNA and WNB matches will now be played on the date originally scheduled – the room is now free.

Another update: At Belper’s request, Belper C–West Nottingham B moves from 9 January to 30 January.

And another: West Nottingham C–Foremarke B moves from 15 February to 9 November; West Nottingham B–Foremarke A has been moved to Monday 26 November.

West Nottingham A–Burton A has been shifted to a neutral venue (Spondon) at Burton’s request, with a date of 11 December. As that clashes with a West Nottingham 1 fixture, we’ve asked for a new date. The away match against Burton is also at Spondon, and is now on Tuesday 8 April, not Monday 7 April.

UK Chess Challenge Terafinal (22 August)

The West Nottingham representatives put on a good show at this year’s UK Chess Challenge Terafinal, held in Leamington Spa on 18 and 19 August. In the Terafinal itself, Lateefah Messam-Sparks added the Girls title (shared) to her British Championship with a score of 4/6, winning the tidy sum of £500 for her efforts. In the Challengers sections, Eamonn Lim finished =5th (4½/6), Andrew Garside shared the best Under 11 prize (3½/6), Sanat Kulkarni scored 3½/6, Lucien Holliday 3/6, and Saaras Mehan 2/6. Unlike the Mega- and Gigafinal stages, all ages play in the same tournament in the Terafinal and Challengers.

British Championship (12 August)

A contingent of six West Nottingham players visited Great Yarmouth for this year’s British Championships, held from 29 July – 11 August. Once again, Lateefah Messam-Sparks claimed a British Championship – this year the Girls Under 15 title. A summary of results:

More local players’ results can be found at the NCA site, and full details are at the Championship site linked above.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable competition. The playing conditions were excellent, and the weather was sunny but not too hot. As luck would have it, David and Lateefah were drawn to play against each other in the Major Open, resulting in a long and fluctuating draw. Lateefah also played another Notts opponent (Ashfield’s Richard Webster), winning after a blunder by her opponent. Ian was in contention for both the U150 title and the Afternoon Open on the last day, but couldn’t win either game and ended up in a six-way tie for second place in the latter event.

Some pictures (Ian Kingston took the first; Bob Taylor of Ashfield took the other two):

Great Yarmouth College
A view of the venue.

David Levens and Ian Kingston
David Levens and Ian Kingston just before the start of the final round.

Lateefah Messam-Sparks
Lateefah Messam-Sparks prepares for her last game.

AGM/Prizegiving (31 July)

The Prizegiving and AGM were held on 30 July – see the pictures. The AGM itself was a quiet affair, with little business to discuss. The existing committee was re-elected en bloc and unopposed. The club made a very small surplus over the year, but since there was no expenditure on new equipment, which is needed, and the cost of hiring the hall has risen again, it was decided to raise all annual membership fees by £5.00. John Crawley uncorked a bottle of bubbly at the end of the meeting to celebrate our ECF Club of the Year Award, and that took care of the 2006–07 season.

UK Chess Challenge Gigafinal (31 July)

The usual large contingent of West Nottingham juniors competed in the northern Gigafinal of this year’s UK Chess Challenge, held on 14 and 15 July in Manchester. There were lots of good performances, and the following players qualified for the Terafinal on 18–19 August:

Lateefah won her section outright. More details are at the competition’s web site.

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