(Chronicle Chess 20 October 2023)

Club chess on Tyneside is thriving, with six divisions, 37 teams and up to 150 players taking part in the 2023-24 Northumbria League. Many of these players and teams are new to league chess.

This week Divisions 1, 3 and 5 have been in action.

Newcastle A, who won Division 1 last season as Forest Hall A before joining the newly formed Newcastle Chess Club, won narrowly 2.5-1.5 against just-promoted Jesmond.

On Board 1, Newcastle’s Tim Wall was held to a draw by Chris Goodall, while on Board 3 Jesmond’s Andy Trevelyan scored a surprise win over Matthew Forster. The two remaining boards went to Newcastle, with Andy Burnett and Zheming Zhang triumphing over Gary Murphy (a new Jesmond signing from Tynedale) and Sophie Atkinson, respectively.

The other four teams in Division 1 have yet to report results. Gosforth Empire, who have recruited Roger Coathup from Morpeth and Jack Erskine-Pereira from Liverpool, travel to South Shields A in what is expected to be a close match. Leam Lane Aces, with David Walker and Graeme Oswald on top boards, are slight favourites against Tynemouth A.

In Division 3, Morpeth B, Tynemouth B and Gosforth Centurions have all won their first matches.

Leam Lane Comets and Tynemouth C currently lead Division 5.

In the Northumberland County Championships, a total of 41 players in three competitions (Zollner, Sell and Gilroy) are playing the first of seven rounds.

In the Zollner, Tim Wall (Newcastle), David Armbruster (Gosforth) and Andy Trevelyan (Jesmond) lead with 1/1.

In the Sell, Paul Bielby (South Shields), Stuart Skelsey (Forest Hall), Mick Riding and James Ross (both Gosforth) are leading.

And in the Gilroy, eight players have won their first round games: Denise Mosse (Gateshead), Andrew Robinson, Mark McKay and David Pritchard (all Gosforth), David Peardon (South Shields), David Simm (Morpeth), Jeff Baird (Forest Hall) and Joseph Miller (Leam Lane).

On 14 October, Gosforth ran a blitz tournament, with all proceeds donated to Beam Café on Gosforth High Street, run by the Smile for Life Children’s Charity.

Next Monday, 23 October, Newcastle Chess Club is holding an open training session for members and visitors at Tyneside Irish Centre from 6:30pm to 9:15pm, with Tim Wall, a FIDE Trainer, leading a session with puzzles and exercises on “Attacking the Castled King. Entry is £2 and open to adult and junior players from any chess club. Anyone interested in coming along should contact: timpeterwall@gmail.com

(Chronicle Chess 6 October 2023)

Many people are aware (from films and shows such as ‘The Queen’s Gambit’) of chess being played in city parks around the world, particularly in New York’s Washington Square Park, where Bobby Fischer used to hang out. In Moscow’s Gorky Park, to this day chess aficionados young and old wrap up warm and enjoy a friendly game.

Now chess in parks could be about to take off in this country.

Under the government’s plan for £1 million to support the development of chess, chess tables could be installed in parks in some North East local authority areas. The plan is for 100 permanent chess tables to be put in parks and green spaces as part of the Levelling Up Parks Fund. The total cost is £250,000, or £2,500 for the installation, upkeep and marketing of each chess table.

The North East local authorities chosen to be part of the project (assessed as areas of ‘multiple deprivation’) may be somewhat contentious, however. Northumberland, South Tyneside and Sunderland are part of the project, but Newcastle, North Tyneside and Gateshead are not. Further afield, County Durham, Hartlepool, Redcar and Cleveland and Stockton-on-Tees will get chess tables.

The North East chess community first became aware of the government funding when the announcement was made on August 22. But no one from the English Chess Federation has contacted North East chess organisations about which areas will get chess tables, and what they should do to get involved.

The short deadline for councils to apply for a chess table was September 25 – just a month after the funding was announced. According to the government prospectus – https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/installing-chess-tables-in-parks-and-public-spaces-prospectus/ – the tables should be installed by February 2024.

It is not clear how many North East authorities have applied for the chess tables, where they will be situated, or what arrangements have been made for them to be used. Will the chess tables in parks initiative work, or turn out to be a white-and-black squared elephant? Only time will tell.

It is also not clear how the rest of the £1 million funding will help anyone in the North East. £500,000 will go to the ECF, with the intention to spend it on elite players in the England Open team and a handful of promising juniors. Little or none of this funding is expected to be spent in the north of England.

In the last tranche of £250,000, up to 125 schools nationally (with a focus on socially deprived areas) are scheduled to receive funding of £2,000 each to buy chess equipment and view chess lessons online.

The Department for Education has the responsibility to allocate the funding, and the charity Chess in Schools and Communities, run by ECF International Director Malcolm Pein, is widely expected to be involved in the delivery of this project.