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Welcome to the Ashby Ivanhoe Chess Club website. We meet on Thursday evenings from 19:30 onwards at the Ivanhoe Social Club, Wilfred Place, Ashby, LE65 2GW. We are open to members of all ages and abilities, whether novice or experienced, so please come along and join us. You are assured of a warm welcome. Use the tabs below to navigate the website. Use the Contact Form lower down the left hand side of this page if you would like more information.
Pages
- Home
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- Club Officials
- LRCA
- ECF Rating List
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- Chess Puzzle Of The Day
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- Members Games
- Club Fees
- Privacy Policy
- Member Contact Details
- ECF 3 Digit/4 Digit Rating Conversion
- 2024 Harrod Cup Match Score Cards
- 2024 Harrod Cup Table
- David Reynolds Cup Winners
- David Reynolds Cup 2024/2025
- Club Calendar
- 2024/2025 Fixture List
- 2024/2025 Match Results & Scores
- Current Ashby Player Ratings
- Rating Analytics
- Tom's Tips
Saturday, 8 February 2025
ECF Appointment
Steve E. has just been appointed an Officer of the English Chess Federation as LMS Administrator. In this capacity he is responsible for the management of the ECF League Management System and providing support to all Users of the System. There are currently 125 Leagues, Counties and Congresses throughout the country using LMS. In addition to this, every Club in every League using LMS also has access to the system to allow them to organise their internal competitions and have them rated. At the moment there are over 1000 Clubs that are able to do this. Ashby have been using the system for their internal competitions since 2022.
Friday, 7 February 2025
Ashby 4 Beaten At Anstey
Ashby 4 came up against Division 4 leaders Anstey 4 last night and came away with the runners-up medal in a 3-1 defeat. There were draws for Nick Wyld on board 1 and Mick Brown on board 3. James Foster's winning streak came to an abrupt end on board 2, while on board 4 Ric Dawson, the Team Captain, was a piece up but with some inspired play managed to conjure up a loss.
Ashby 1 Scrape Past Ashby 2
Tom Dove's Match Report:
It was business as usual for Ashby 1 as they overcame a spirited display by their somewhat less glamorous opponents.
Disaster struck early on for the eventual victors as Tom suffered his first loss of the season.
He'd bought a brand new
Google 9 Pixel mobile earlier that day, and could've sworn he'd switched
the unfamiliar device off - but with Paul's defence in tatters having totally
misplayed the opening and with Tom's Queen hovering menacingly, the phone began
to ring.
Tom later said "It was bitterly disappointing to lose in such a miserable way, but rules are rules. It's the game we choose to play".
Steve's crippling misophonia is well known at the club, our
understanding members always going out of their way to create a quiet and
stress-free environment for him to play his chess.
It thus raised a few eyebrows when Patrick sat down at the board clutching three packets of cheese and onion crisps and sucking on a raspberry slushie.
He proceeded to munch, chomp, chew and slurp for what seemed like hours to the rest of us, but must have been an eternity to poor Steve, who nonetheless managed to whip up an unstoppable mating attack.
The unrythmical tip-tapping of fingernails on wooden table was the final straw for Steve who finally let out a scream of anguish, overturned the board, ripped up his membership card and staggered from the room, a broken shell of a man.
Patrick went to the bar to celebrate.
Quote from Steve:
Les had prepared for Andrew's London System by downing twice the medically advised amount of Red Bull, but by move 9 both players were sound asleep with Les' clock still running down and eventually flagging. Both were still softly snoring when everyone tiptoed out at the end of the night (can someone pop to the club to check if they're ok? Ed.)
Larry (whose idea of blitz is postal chess with first class stamps) got into a fantastic position, but sadly hadn't left enough time to deliver the killer blow and had to settle for a forced draw by repetition, much to the relief of an out-played Richard.
Last to finish were Chris and Gheorghe.
After a lifetime of moving the wrong pawn on move 1 (f4???) Chris finally got it right with 1 c4.
The result was scarily impressive.
Instead of meandering to inevitable defeat somewhere around
move 20, Chris had Gheorghe on the ropes until the very end.
Unfortunately, just like Larry, Chris had left himself too little time to find the winning sequence. Gheorghe gratefully accepted the draw.
Final result - 3-2 to Ashby 1, who maintained their 100% winning record.
Wednesday, 5 February 2025
Ashby 2 v Ashby 1 Preview
From Tom Dove:
"It's derby day as high flying Ashby 1 take on their fierce
rivals Ashby 2.
Ashby 2 have been struggling of late with only a single point to show for their campaign so far - a mixture of bad luck and appalling judgement leaving them languishing second from bottom.
In contrast, Ashby 1 are running away with the title, bolstered by the electric form of returning star player Tom Dove, the destructive power of chess machine Gheorghe Albu, the dogged performances of indefatigable Richard Vann, and the dull as ditchwater openings of Andrew Wilson.
Paddy Buckley also plays.
Will Paul Gibson survive the opening? Will Gheorghe be troubled by Chris Tipper's Birds Opening? Will Larry Hayden manage his time effectively? Will Paddy avoid embarrassing himself against Steve Emmerton and will Andrew's opening lead to a thrilling encounter with Les Fancourt?
Nottingham Rapidplay
Les Fancourt, the Leicestershire Minor Champion and joint Ashby Champion, powered his way to joint 29th out of 44 entries in the Intermediate Section of this weekend's Nottingham Rapidplay Congress. His score of 2.5/6 meant he attendance wasn't required at the prize giving.
Monday, 3 February 2025
U1450 Championship - 2nd Round Draw
Saturday, 1 February 2025
Ashby Player Ratings Update
The current rating of all Ashby players has been updated and can be viewed here, or from the tab at the top of this page. Your current rating is your rating as at 1st February, as opposed to your LRCA rating, which uses the January List.
The biggest change has seen Les jump up by a massive 55 points over the course of the month, rising from 1570 at the start of January, to 1625 at the start of February. Very well done to him.