Surbiton Chess Club
Surbiton Chess Club, Surrey, England, is a friendly club playing in the Surrey and Thames Valley Leagues. Many of our players regard us as the most sociable club they have ever played for. In our Fircroft venue we enjoy that rare thing for a chess club - warm and comfortable playing conditions! Hence, for several reasons, current and prospective new members are assured of a warm welcome! We can be contacted by e-mail at enquiries@surbitonchessclub.co.uk.
The club has been in existence since 1948 (see a 1950 request for players!). We have members with a wide range of abilities, from ungraded to 200+ BCF (see our gradings), and we once had a world champion playing for us. Unfortunately, R Fulford was world champion at croquet! We have had successful players that have played for us including British Open Championship competitors, a US Amateur Championship winner and a former member of the Italian Olympiad team. Probably our most famous player is our club President, Mike Basman, an International Master and a former joint winner of the British Championship.
Annual club membership fees for the 2011-2012 season are £35 for adults and £15 for juniors, which makes us one of the least expensive chess clubs in London.
If you wish to find information on current activities and issues in the local Surbiton area we recommend visiting www.surbitonpeople.co.uk.
Venue
We meet on Wednesdays at Fircroft, 96 Ditton Road, Surbiton, (see map) from about 7:30PM. Buses 71, 465, K1 and K4 all stop near the junction of Ditton Road and Hook Road. All these routes serve Surbiton railway station and Kingston town centre.
Details of the usual meeting point for away matches can be found here.
Juniors
Chris Briscoe (202 ECF, 2220 ELO), the British Rapidplay Champion 2010, runs small, informal, juniors coaching sessions at the club on Wednesday evenings between 6:30 and 7:30pm. Coaching fees are only £5 per session. Chris can be contacted at juniors@surbitonchessclub.co.uk.
Fixtures and Results
Fixtures and links to results and league tables for the Surrey and Thames Valley competitions may be found on the fixtures and results page.
For accounts of our matches and season summaries see captains reports.
Summary of the Thames Valley first team's 2010-2011 season.
Latest News, Articles and Immortal Games
10 year old junior Max Elliot has been representing England at the World Schools Individual Chess Championships in Romania. Come on Max!
Below is a nice finish by Angus James. For those who find the idea of producing an "Immortal Game" a bit daunting please consider sending parts of games or ends of games that you think would be entertaining or instructive to the webmaster.
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Game viewer by ChessTempo
Recent months have seen a step up in the club's efforts to hold special events outside of matches with the objective of providing training and instruction to all members who are interested, with the ultimate goal of collectively improving our chess. Sessions took place at Fircroft on 26th October, 30th November and 21st December 2011. Topics covered included: Game demonstrations, mating with B+N vs K, the process of learning, how to effectively use ChessBase and playing the R+B vs R ending. We intend to continue to hold sessions of this nature when the match schedules allow. Members ideas (and volunteers) for future topics are always very welcome, please send them to Paul Shepherd.
Got any doubts about the benefits of playing chess on your longevity and mental accuity? Paul Durrant reports on a couple of former members still playing at the ages of 90 and 104 respectively!
The annual North vs South of the Thames Valley chess match for the Elam Trophy took place at Surbiton on Saturday 17th September 2011 and resulted in a victory for the North by 5-3. Seven Surbiton players participated in the match including several who defected to the North for the day!
On 31st May 2011 Surbiton put up a herioc fight against the much higher graded and serial trophy winners, Redhill, in the Alexander Cup Final. It went right to the wire but Redhill ran out eventual 5.5-4.5 winners.
During the 2nd February 2011 club night there was an event for all members that included a queen ending demonstration, discussion on the application of the laws of chess and some problem solving. More information, including all the game and puzzle information, can be found here.
British Championship 2010 - A personal account by Mark Josse features detailed round by round commentary on Mark's games as well as observations on the tournament as a whole and what life is like fighting the GM's, IM's, FM's and juniors while being kept awake by drunken teenagers until 04:00 and trying to keep your family happy on their holiday too!
Ian Henderson also competed at the British Championship and has provided an equally detailed report of Ian's British Championship 2010 experience including having to let locked out players back into their accommodation in the early hours and gaining the sartorial edge on his opponents with his flamingo-pink bicycle!
See our Surbiton Immortal Games with Nick Pelling, Angus James, Paul Durrant and Michael Nightingale in starring roles! Nick's game features "Rook,bishop, pawn and queen sacrifices, a Novotony interference and an unusual smothered mate." Angus's game features a speculative piece sacrifice followed by a rook sac to mate which earned him a best game prize from GM Jon Speelman. Paul's game features a speculative piece sacrifice that led to a pretty attack that beat IM Colin Crouch. Michael Nightingale uncorked a lovely double knight sacrifice for a long term attack on his opponent's king, eventually finishing him off with a bishop sac.
For accounts of Surbiton players' exploits in individual tournaments see Latest news.
See an account of the 2010 Summer Barbeque and our club perspective on The Quickplay vs Slowplay Debate.
Photos Section
Congratulations to Chris Briscoe who won the 2011 Surrey Challenge Cup
Further congratulations to Angus James who won the 2011 Surrey Slater-Kennington Cup