2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament

You can follow the progress of the 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament from the Chess Base link on the right hand side of this page.

GM Mick Brown and IM Ian Maskery have so far made no impact at the tournament and are unlikely to be challenging for the World Championship in 6 month's time.

Current Ashby Player Ratings

I have just published the Ashby player ratings as at 1st April - please use the tab at top of the page to view them. Once again, to be clear, these are NOT the ratings used by the LRCA for league matches. This is the current rating list published by the ECF on the 1st of each month.

This Week's Matches

Ashby 3 travelled to Melton Mowbray 2 on Wednesday and consigned the Pork Pies to their ninth loss of the season. There was a very early win for Steve on board 3, followed by Josh on board 1, to put us 2-0 ahead. Larry took his customary draw on board 2 to ensure that we won the match, before Nick conjured up a loss from a draw position on board 4, to make the final score 2.5 - 1.5. We have now moved into the top half of the table and, with a match in hand of Braunstone, who are our next opponents and just a point ahead of us, we have visions of a 3rd place  finish.

On Thursday evening  a decimated Ashby 2 went to Syston, with two Ashby 5 players on boards 4 and 5, and were hammered 4.5 - 0.5 by a strong Syston 2 team, who massively outrated us on all boards. It was left to Chris to get a draw on board 3 to enable us to avoid a whitewash.

Ashby 4 were at home against Latimer and drew 2-2 in a match we should have won. The evening started badly when Nick Wyld forgot he was playing and failed to materialise for his game on board 1. GM Mick Brown moved up the board order and was unlucky not to get a draw from his game. The talking point of the night though was IM Ian Maskery's game on board 2, where he blundered a Knight in the middle game but stumbled into an endgame where he had 4 pawns against a Knight and two Pawns. Two of Ian's Pawns were connected on the 5th and 6th rank and there was no way that his opponent was able to stop one of them from Queening. However, with just a minute on his clock he failed to see the finish and accepted a draw. Boards 3 and 4 resulted in a win for Ric and a draw for Ben.

Elsewhere, Steve beat Dan Vernon in the 1st round of the Club Championship.

Les Fancourt Comes Out Of Hibernation

Les re-surfaced this weekend in the Staffordshire Congress. He finished joint 12th out of 47, with a score of 3/5, in the Standard Section. 

Honours Even Against Anstey

We had 3 matches against Anstey last night, resulting in a win, a draw and a loss.

Ashby 1 are still looking for their first win of the season following a 3.5 - 1.5 home loss against Anstey 1. With the team weakened by the absence of Gheorghe Albu it was always going to be a difficult night, with losses on boards 1 and 4 for Richard Vann and Paul Gibson, and draws on boards 2, 3 and 5 for Tom  Dove, Reece Whittington and Patrick Buckley.

Ashby 3 drew 2-2 at bottom of the table Anstey 4 in Divsion 3.  Anstey fielded the same 3 juniors as in last week's match against Anstey 2.  There was a guest appearance on board 4 for Ashby by GM Mick Brown against Ashby old boy Mike Griffiths. All 4 games ended in Grandmaster draws and we were back at the Club for a pint by 10:15 !!

Ashby 5 fared somewhat better with a 3-1 home win against Anstey 7. There were wins for Paul Harrison, Graham Bird and Dan Vernon on boards 2,3 and 4, with only Neil Roberts letting the side down with a loss on board 1. This was only our 2nd win of the season, but it's too little too late as we are virtually guaranteed the Wooden Spoon. Even if we win our remaining 2 matches, and the teams just above us all lose, our vastly inferior game point difference will count against us.

There was one game played in the Club Championship, with Tom Gerrard beating Paul Mayer, and one game in the U1450 Championship, with Ollie Fordham beating Ben McDermott.

Ashby 5 Beaten At Wigston

Despite a good win for the Bird Man on board 2, and a draw for Peter Anderton on board 4, losses on boards 1 and 3 condemned us to a 2.5 - 1.5 defeat at Wigston 5 on Thursday evening. With only 3 matches left to play we are 6 points adrift of the teams above us and the Wooden Spoon looks inevitable.

Ashby 2 Share The Points With Anstey

Ashby 2 held title chasing Anstey 3 to a 2.5 - 2.5 draw in last night's Division 2 match. Anstey fielded 3 juniors, whose ability far exceeded their official rating, on boards 3 to 5. There was another win for Tom on board 2 and draws for Paul, Chris and Steve on boards 1, 3 and 5. Larry disgraced himself on board 4, where the game was briefly interrupted while his opponent's mother changed his nappy !! Our recent slide down the table continues and we now sit third from bottom of the table, just a point ahead of Shepshed, who have a match in hand.

There were also two games played in the Club Championship, with Tom Dove starting his title defence with a win against IM Ian Maskery, and Roy Evans beating Ric Dawson.

Ashby 4 Beaten At Latimer

Ashby 4 cemented their position at the bottom of Division 4 following a 3 1/2 - 1/2 loss last night at fellow strugglers Latimer. Only a draw from Paul Mayer on board 4 prevented the whtewash.