East Anglian Club Championship – Linton Chess Club

Review of the Season 2022/23

This has been one of the most successful seasons I can recall. First and foremost six new members joined during the season are now regular League players: James Briginshaw, James Cole, Peter Jones, Simon Marsden, Konrad Scheffler and Greg Thompson. Without them we would not have achieved the same success over the board.

In September Linton won the Bury Jamboree. Whilst this is not unusual, this season we won every game, a perfect 12/12. A much more significant challenge was defending the East Anglian Club Championship in November. We entered a team in each of the rated sections: the Tigers (Liam Varnam, James Cole, Alan Richardson and Mark Lim) won the Open with 8/12, the Zebras (Paul McMahon, Neil Greenwood, Simon Jackson and Michael Osborn) shared first place in the U7200 with 7/12 and the Pandas (Anthony Chan, Simon Marsden, Ben Varea and Greg Thompson) romped home in the U6200 with 9.5/12.

In the Bury League the Lions were second in division 1, the Llamas and Leopards were first and second in division 2, whilst the Lynxes won division 3. The Llamas deserve a special mention. After a shaky start they won every match in the second half of the season with Ruben Evans winning the division 2 Player-of-the-Year award, closely followed by Anthony Chan. High-scoring Linton players in the third division were Vikram Banerjee (8/9) and Greg Thompson (9/11). In the Roger Goldsmith tournament the Larks finished second in division 1. In division 2 the final match saw a remarkable 3.5-0.5 win for the Lapwings against a stronger Bury team, which resulted in a triple tie for first place between the Lapwings, the Linnets and Bury Beehive. All in all a highly successful season!

A memorable Christmas treat was provided by Anthony Chan who kept us busy over the festive season with a puzzle collection to work through. And throughout the season we ran the club championship, with Paul Kemp winning the Jim Carr trophy, and Nate Weersing the John Dawson trophy for lower-rated competitors.

Away from the chessboard the club received a substantial bequest from the estate of Patrick Ribbands, who passed away in 2021. At the club’s AGM on 2 May it was agreed that the club would remain open throughout the summer for the Ribbands Rapidplay summer special and a programme of special events; a significant investment would be made in junior chess, perhaps in partnership with local schools; and the club would support and sponsor other local chess events and tournaments that benefitted Linton members.

In conclusion I must thank the club’s officers, especially Michael Osborn, our Secretary/Treasurer, and the team captains: Paul McMahon, Oded Pilowsky-Bankirer, Alan Wadsworth, Michael Osborn, Alan Richardson, Anthony Chan and Nate Weersing.

Paul Kemp

Linton Are East Anglian Champions Again

Linton Chess Club are East Anglian champions again after winning the EACU Patrick Ribbands Team Championship for the fourth year in a row. Not only did we win the Open Championship but also won the two supporting rating-limited championships, repeating our triple success of three years ago!

This was the fifteenth team championship, now named in memory of club member Patrick Ribbands who founded and ran the event until his untimely death two years ago. Linton entered a four-player team in each of the separate championships: Open, Under 7200 rating, and U6400 rating.

In the Open Linton Tigers were third seeds, but beat the top seeds 4-0 in the opening encounter. A narrow victory and narrow defeat in the remaining rounds was enough for victory for Liam Varnam, James Cole, Alan Richardson and Mark Lim with a score of 8/12.

The Linton Zebras U7200 team of Paul McMahon, Neil Greenwood, Simon Jackson and Michael Osborn scored 7/12 to share this title with Lowestoft. Last year they similarly shared this title.

Anthony Chan captained Linton Pandas to the U6400 title along with Simon Marsden, Ben Varea and Greg Thompson. They were all unbeaten and finished with an impressive 9.5/12.

My thanks and congratulations to all who took part.

Paul Kemp

Linton Chess Club Online

It is now just over a year since playing over-the-board chess became impossible and we transferred our activities online. Initially we played internal club competitions, but seeking fresh opposition we joined the newly-formed Iceni (East Anglian) League in the early autumn of 2020. As of April 2021 we have 35 members in our online club on chess.com, and are the most active East Anglian club in online chess.

Iceni run both a rapidplay League (in three divisions) and a standard play individual championship. Our successes so far include our second team twice winning division 2 of the League, and our first team coming second once. In the individual championship both Chris Davison and Aarnavh Trivedi have won the top division once.

Perhaps our most notable success has been retaining the East Anglian Club Championship online that we won over-the-board in March 2020. There were five divisions, and Linton fielded teams in every division, giving opportunities for players of all standards to gain experience.

Currently we are continuing to play in Iceni competitions and hoping to be able to return to the chess club and playing face-to-face at the beginning of September, in time for the new season.

Review of 2017/18 Season

The Linton club had a successful season and Linton members achieved distinguished themselves in local and national events. We have a particularly strong junior section, and as I write this three of them (Gavith and Kian Dharmasena and Aarnavh Trivedi) are preparing to represent England in the European Junior Chess Championships in Poland at the beginning of July.

First the team news. We narrowly failed to win all three divisions of the Bury Area Chess League, finishing a close second in divisions 1 and 2. However we were first and second in division 3, and expect to have both teams promoted as we enter two additional sides in division 3 for the 2018/19 season. Kian Dharmasena was the third division’s player-of-the-year, scoring eight wins, one draw and no losses.

The Linton Lions and Linton Tigers each won their respective sections of the grade-limited Roger Goldsmith Tournament, with the Lions winning the final. Three teams played in the East Anglian Club Championships, gaining two second places and one third in their respective divisions, a very creditable performance as four juniors made their debuts for the club.

There were many individual highlights, so apologies for those I have missed, but in rough chronological order I’ve picked out the following. In September Giulio Sahinoz, Aarnavh Trivedi, Gavith and Kian Dharmasena (together with Cambridge player Arnav Srivastava), playing as Cambridge Knights, won the 4NCL Junior Congress against stronger and older junior players. In January Aarnavh, Gavith and Kian repeated their success, playing this time with Arnav Srivastava and Julia Volovich from Cambridge.

Following on from winning the Danish Girls’ Championship Abigail Weersing scored 5/5 in the Minor Tournament at the Bury St Edmund’s Congress, the only player to get a perfect score. Twelve Linton players competed in the Cambridgeshire County Championships in November, with Peter Koiza coming second.

Moving into 2018, Gavith Dharmasena and Julian Ray shared first place in the Under 170 East Anglian closed championships. Later on, fourteen club members played in the East Anglian Congress at Newmarket. Kian Dharmasena came third in the Under 170 tournament, while Mel Kirwan and Michael Osborn finished second and third in the Under 130 tournament.

Finally, congratulations to Gavith Dharmasena (again) for winning the club championship with a perfect score of 6/6. We look forward to the next season!

Paul Kemp

Annual General Meeting

Paul Kemp reported on a very successful season for the six Linton teams, winning division 3 and the Roger Goldsmith tournament and also coming second in these competitions and divisions 1 and 2. The club also entered three teams in the East Anglian Club Championship and acquitted themselves well.

Paul presented the results of the club championship, which was won by Gavith Dharmasena on 6/6, followed by Julian Ray on 4.5 points. It was agreed to run next year’s championship as a five round Swiss, with an additional trophy (the John Dawson trophy) to be presented annually to the highest-scoring player in the lower half of the draw.