Please note that your Ivanhoe Club Membership is now due for renewal. Membership fees for 2025 are £45 for full membership, £30 for over 65's and £25 for young adults (18-23), payable by the end of January.
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
- About Us
- Club History
- Find Us
- Club Officials
- LRCA
- ECF Rating List
- ECO Codes
- Chess Tricks & Traps
- Chess Puzzle Of The Day
- Chess Microbase
- 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
- Tom's Tips
Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Sunday, 19 January 2025
County Match
Steve and Les both turned out for Staffordshire against Lincolnshire on Saturday afternoon in the MCCU U1650 County Championship. Steve, unfortunately, lost his game on board 3, while Les salvaged a draw fron his game, in which he was a pawn down for most of it. The match itself ended in a 6-6 draw.
Week Ends With A Loss For Ashby
Our final match of the week ended in a 3.5 - 1.5 defeat for Ashby 5 at Market Harborough 4 on Thursday evening. Despite a draw for Ric on board 2 and a great win for Neil on board 3, against an opponent rated 245 points higher, we were unable to bridge the rating gap on the bottom boards.
In the opening match of the 2025 U1450 Club Championship, Ollie Fordham beat Graham Bird.
Thursday, 16 January 2025
Mixed Fortunes
Chris also lost on time against an
1826.......just as he was mounting a promising attack.
Les accepted a draw offer from a
1768, when he was a pawn up, as we had lost the match and there were
opposite coloured bishops.
Andrew ground down a 2035 on board 1
and had to accept a draw.
James, in his first Div 2 match ,
did well and had a plus against a 1779....but lost by blundering
away a piece to a fork......missing a zwischenzug check.
Oh well, we'll just have to beat Ashby 1 on 6th Feb !!"
Friday, 10 January 2025
Ashby 1 Continue Promotion Push
Ashby 1 started 2025 the way they finished 2024 - with a 4-1 win against one of their closest challengers, Anstey 2. Tom Dove has kindly submitted the following match report:
"Ashby 1 continued their relentless push for promotion with a convincing win over fellow promotion hopefuls Anstey 2.
Tom was the first to finish, heroically fighting of IM Robert Taylor, and agreeing a draw in a dead position, after an an exhilirating display of dazzling chess from both players.
Next to finish was Andrew, trapping John Robinson's Queen and graciously accepting his opponent's immediate resignation.
Richard managed to salvage a draw from a difficult position, after a series of accurate moves left Rob Mitchell unable to see any way to progress.
Controversy reigned on board 4. Patrick, facing 7 year old Ted Ronald, found himself the exchange and 3 pawns down by move 15 and staring down the barrel of a forced mate in 4. Intending to pick up his Queen and start the final sequence, Ted violently sneezed, causing his hand to lightly brush his King. Patrick ruthlessly enforced the touch-move rule, which left Ted's King only one legal square, walking stright into a Royal fork. Visibly shaken and a Queen down, Ted's resistance was short lived and his mother quickly took the distraught and sobbing child home.
Gheorghe punished his opponent's slow opening play, leaving Matt Connor too many problems to solve with precious little time on the clock. A lovely Knight manouevre saw a glue factory nag transform into a rampant stallion, dominating the board. An unstoppable mate threat ended the game."
A couple of the above descriptions are tongue in cheek. I'll leave you to guess which ones !!
On a serious note, it would be nice if the Captains of all of our teams could produce a match report for publication on the website.
Ashby 4 Kick Off 2025 With A Loss
Ashby 4 weere beaten 2.5 - 1.5 by Wigston 5 in their opening match of 2025. Team Captain, Ric Dawson, set an example that the others were unable to follow, with a win on board 4. James Foster, playing off his new rating of 1568, was thrown in at the deep end on board 1 but managed a draw against an opponent rated 158 points higher.
Thursday, 9 January 2025
2025 U1450 Championship
The draw for the 1st Round of the 2025 U1450 Club Championship has now been made and can be viewed here, or from the link at the side of this page. All games are to be completed by the 27th February. Anybody who is unable to play their game wll be scored as a default for this round.
Sunday, 5 January 2025
Shropshire Congress
Les Fancourt finished joint 10th out of 52 entries in the Intermediate Section of this weekend's Shropshire Congress, with a score of 3/5. After scoring 2.5/3 from his opening games, Sunday proved to be slightly disappointing, with just a draw from his two games. Nonrtheless, he scored over 50% and his performance rating for the tournament was over 1600, so well done to him.