Linton shares East Anglian Team Championship

The Linton club was attempting to retain its title of East Anglian champions for the fifth successive time at Bury St Edmunds on 22 October. Well, we kept one hand on the trophy, sharing it with long-standing rivals, Broadland. Usually there is a good entry in the Open Championship, but with a lot of events on at this time of year it was a straight battle between Linton Tigers and Broadland. After two rounds Broadland had a commanding two point lead, but a late Linton fightback in round 3 left the scores all square at 6-6. Congratulations to the team of Chris Davison, Alan Richardson, Konrad Scheffler and Anthony Chan for an excellent result against the higher-rated Broadland team.

The numbers in the two supporting rating-limited tournaments made up for the Open entry, with record numbers in the U6400 category in which the Linton Zebras played. Seeded eighth out of nine teams the Linton Zebras came third with 7/12, just half a point behind the joint winners Bury St Edmunds and St John’s, Norwich. So another good performance from the team of Simon Marsden, Nate Weersing, Ben Varea and John Nevin, with John winning all three of his games.

The Championships are named after their founder and long-time organiser (and Linton member) Patrick Ribbands who sadly passed away in the spring of 2021. In his memory and from his legacy the Linton Chess Club has provided a magnificent shield for annual presentation to the winners of the Open Tournament. The photo below shows the Linton Tigers team of (left to right) Alan Richardson, Chris Davison, Anthony Chan and Konrad Scheffler.

Linton Prizewinners at Bury St Edmunds Chess Congress

Five Linton players competed at the Bury St Edmunds Chess Congress on 7&8 October, all of them scoring 50% or better. Chris Davison scored 3.5/5 in the Open Tournament to finish fourth, just behind three International Masters. Just behind him was James Cole on 3/5 and English U16 champion Ruben Evans on 2.5/5. Ruben was awarded the Bob Jones trophy as the highest-placed East Anglian junior player competing.

In the Major Tournament Anthony Chan and James Briginshaw both scored 2.5/5 with James winning the giantkillers prize for his win over a much higher-rated competitor.

Ruben Evans receives the Bob Jones trophy from Congress Director John Wickham.