Background to the competition

The Durrant Trophy is organised every year in honour of our friend and club Chairman, Paul Durrant, in recognition of his kind support and hard work to promote chess in Surrey and the Thames Valley, and most importantly, for taking such good care of all players at the Surbiton Chess Club: organising teams, sorting logistics for away matches, running the club and, of course, being such a nice fellow with all club members.

The tournament is open to all Surbiton Chess Club members who have a current grading of under 150. Junior players are welcomed. The competition aims to provide playing opportunities to all those players that are keen to improve their game and to promote chess among newcomers and juniors in Surbiton Chess Club. It will also help to fill in the gaps in those weeks when players may not have scheduled league matches but would like to have a game in a friendly and easy to access chess environment.

The main objective of this competition is to bring Surbiton Chess Club players onto a par with the best in the Surrey and Thames Valley chess leagues.

2016 Report

In 2016 we had a great tournament with two very competitive sections in the U-150 and U-100 categories.

In the U-100 section we had a clear winner: Alexey Markov, with a mind-blowing 100% win record: 8 wins out of 8 matches. His grading this year has gone up to an impressive ECF grading of 127. Congratulations to Alexey. In 2017 Alexey will play in the U-150 section. This will be an interesting test for Alexey.

The U-150 section witnessed very stiff competition amongst very strong opposition. The main battle was among the three section leaders: Malcolm Groom, Stephen Moss and Adam Nakar. Although the player with the highest absolute score was Malcolm Groom, with 8.5 points, because of the fact that players were unable to complete all their games it was decided that the fairest outcome would be to determine the winner based on calculating the percentage scores of those who had played 70% or more of their games. The winner was Adam Nakar (left in the photo above receiving the trophy), who played 71% of his games, with a percentage score of 70% and in doing so beating very experienced and higher graded players than himself. His grading has gone up to 138 this year. Congratulations to Adam, Malcom and Stephen for such a great battle.

I trust all participants enjoyed the tournament and improved their chess in doing so. Thanks for your participation in 2016 and good luck to all in this year's Durrant Trophy Tournament! Details now follow.

2017 Competition

The tournament will run until the first week of December 2017, the month in which the winner for each category is to be announced (at the club's Christmas Party).

Each player, as far as he/she is able, should play two games vs. each player in their respective section of the tournament - one with white and one with the black pieces.

By the end of the year, the winner will be the player that achieves the highest number of points (Note: 1 point for a win, 1/2 point for a draw and zero points for a loss). All games will be ECF graded and results will go towards your National Grades.

What happens when a player withdraws or is not able to play all their games?

a) If they have played less than half their scheduled games their results are cancelled for the purposes of the tournament (but the game results will still go towards ECF National Grades).

b) If they have played more than half their games then their results stand and the rest of their scheduled games will be scored as a win to their opponent by default.

Time limit U-150 section

The default time control is 35 moves in 75 minutes and 35 moves in the following 75 minutes. Alternatively you may agree to play a Quick play finish (by mutual consent only) in which case the rate of play is 30 moves in 60 mins with all remaining moves in 15 mins.

Time limit U-100 section

The time limit is 65 minutes a side for the entire game.

Arranging a game

Each section will have a limit of 8 participants representing a total of 14 games per player in the year.

Agree a game with other participating members in your category and send me an email of the results of each game you played (include exact date and who played the white pieces) so that I can track and submit results for ECF grading purposes.

When you are available to play a game please email everyone else on the list of participants. If a player is available to play on a coming Wednesday he/she should send an email to everyone on the list of participants offering to play. He/she then is to play the first person who replies agreeing to play.

Venue

If you are to play at Surbiton Chess Club, play should start at 7.30pm or no later than 7.45pm if a 75 minute time limit is to be used. If no result is reached by 10.20pm, then the game will need to be adjourned by sealing a move.

It is nice to have plenty of people playing at the Surbiton Chess Club as it contributes to the club's atmosphere but obviously if not all the tournament games can be fitted in around matches then an alternative venue (by mutual consent only) could be arranged.

Please prioritise playing for any Surbiton team you have been asked to play for ahead of any of the individual matches in this tournament.

Thanks, regards & good luck,

Gonzalo Shoobridge 15 Feb 2017

E-mail