Author: Lewis

October 1, 2025

Here are the upcoming fixtures for South Shields in the Northumberland League, covering all scheduled home and away matches. The list below brings together everything that’s currently arranged, so you can see the full run of games at a glance.

June 2, 2025

Fide Blitz on Sunday 6^th of July at The Word Library South Shields

We are aiming to start at around 11 am and finish around 3 pm. We open from 10 am.

Please note The Word is situated at the End of King Street South Shields. about 5-minute walk from the Shields Ferry Landing, the Bus Station, and the METRO Station

If you are planning to come by car, then the best and free all-day parking is available at the Mill Dam Car Park near Customs House (well sign posted) – choose bays that do not say 3-hour limit.

The WORD CARPARK is a few minutes closer, but it is limited to 3 hours free parking, if you are going to use this then remember to use the parking machine, get a ticket and be ready to pop out over the lunch break to move it.

The event will be held on the third floor of THE WORD library in THE ROUND, there is a lift, there is a canteen area in the Atrium (ground floor – teas and coffees, snacks, food are reasonably priced.

We do intend to have a 30-minute break, we are minutes from the town centre so there are lots of sandwich shops.

You do not need to have any Fide or ECF membership for FIDE BLITZ competitions, you will receive a FIDE BLITZ GRADE if you have not already got one, following the competition, if you meet the following criteria,

You need to have played a minimum of five games against players that have a recorded FIDE GRADE, and you need to have a minimum of one draw against one of these players. My advice is do not worry about the grades and just play the player.

Please note Entry fee is £10, most of the entry costs will go into the prize fund. A Sponsor may cover the cost of the venue. We need forty entrants to guarantee the prizes, if we get less then we may adjust accordingly. Any Fees can be paid on the day, but if you want to save some time.

(For you and the organizers then we can accept payments direct to the South Shields Chess Club Bank Account 53622142 sort code 20-83-69. Please reference your name.

1st Prize £150
2nd Prize £100
3rd Prize £50

2 x grading prize of £30 (cut-offs to be decided on the day according to entry) ,

Junior (U18) prize – £20 ,Senior (S65) prize – £20

Maximum of one prize per entrant.

Advertised start time: 11 am — we will there from 10am .
Time control: 5+2 (game in 5 minutes with a 2 second increment)

 My Phone number is 0772 5027873, if you have entered but face some last-minute delay or reason you cannot come then please text or email  before the competition starts it will help us to ensure we have a prompt start and with the administration on the morning.

Any questions please ask.

Send entries to Blitz@southshieldschessclub.co.uk Please include your name and Date of Birth.

Entries can be viewed herer South Shields Summer Blitz 2025.

June 1, 2023

We are putting our usual summer blitz on the Sunday 2nd July at the Word.

9 rounds, 5 minutes + 2 second increment, FIDE rated, £10 entry fee, generous prizes (first 3, plus grading prizes plus best junior and best senior), 11 am start, should finish about 3pm, byes available for up to the first 4 rounds to accommodate players who can’t play until after lunch

Enter by emailing blitz@southshieldschessclub.co.uk. We’ll send you the club’s bank details so you can pay online. Or if you prefer you can pay on the day. If you are not already registered with FIDE then we will also need your date of birth for registration.

Keep an eye on entries here.

October 16, 2022

Could all South Shields players who want to enter either (or both) of these club tournaments please email Brian Towers by the end of October.

The club championship games will be ECF rated so please also make sure you renew / take out ECF membership at Bronze level or above if you haven’t already done so.

Friends Bowl Rules

For each game the players are given a material handicap according to the difference in their rating. The ratings used will be the ratings on the ECF website for the players at the time (ratings updated monthly). Where a player doesn’t have an over the board standard rating, for instance because they haven’t played enough rated games, then in the first instance a provisional rating will be used if one exists for the player. Failing that an OTB rapid rating will be used and finally online ratings will be used.
The handicaps are as follows for different rating differences:
0-99 – no handicap, first named player in the draw has white
100-199 – colour, lower rated player has white
200-299 – 2 moves, lower rated player has white and makes two moves instead of one to start the game
300-399 – f pawn and move, lower rated player has white, remove f7 pawn
400-499 – f pawn and 2 moves, remove f7 pawn, lower rated player has white and makes two moves instead of one to start the game
500-599 – knight, remove b1 knight, higher rated player has white
600-699 – rook, remove a1 rook, higher rated player has white
700-799 – queen, remove d1 queen, higher rated player has white
800-899 – queen and knight, remove b1 knight, remove d1 queen, higher rated player has white
900+ – queen and rook, remove a1 rook, remove d1 queen, higher rated player number has white

Time control: all moves in 60 minutes with a 10 second increment.
Games are not gradable. Recording is not required.
FIDE laws apply apart from handicap related (i.e. initial position and possible double first moves). In cases 600+ and 900+ white may castle queenside provided the king has not moved, none of c1, d1, e1 are under attack and a1 through d1 are vacant.
This is a knockout competition. Players not completing their matches before the deadline are eliminated. In the case of a draw a rematch with the same handicap is played with 30 minutes for the game with no increment. In the case of 0-99 handicap colour alternates.

October 5, 2022

In the end we had 10 players so ran it as an all-play-all. Congratulations to Dave Walker who won with 9/9. Well done to Mick Riding (8/9) and Anthony Sweeting (5.5/9) who finished 2nd and 3rd. Full details here.

Three players also got first time FIDE ratings from the tournament. Well done to Anthony Sweeting (1805), Steve Nesworthy (1505) and Dennis Hawes (1496) on their freshly minted FIDE blitz ratungs.

August 21, 2022

The ECF are holding another UK Blitz championship in December. The last one was in 2019. The North East qualifier tournament will be held at The Parks Leisure Centre, Howdon Road, North Shields NE29 6TL on 11th September with the first round due to start at 11 am. It will be a 15 round Swiss tournament with 3 minutes plus a 2 second increment per game. Entry fee is £24. Mick Riding is organising.

The top two finishers will qualify for the finals. Cash prizes are modest. The winner gets £50, then every top player in each group of 16 players also gets £50 as a sort of grading prize. So, if there are 50 entries then the highest finishers in positions 17 to 32, 33 to 48 and 49 to 50 will each receive £50.

More details on the ECF website – UK Blitz Championships 2022 – English Chess Federation. Entry form – UK Open Blitz 2022 (wufoo.com).

In 2019, the last time the ECF ran this tournament, I held a warm-up event on the Thursday before at South Shields chess club. I plan to do the same this year. As last time, the warm up event will be 9 rounds, no entry fee, no prizes and FIDE rated. More details once I’ve registered it with FIDE and the ECF

June 26, 2022

9 rounds, 5 minutes + 2 second increment, FIDE rated, £10 entry fee, generous prizes (first 3, plus grading prizes plus best junior and best senior), 11 am 3rd July at The Word

Enter by emailing blitz@southshieldschessclub.co.uk. We’ll send you the club’s bank details so you can pay online. Or if you prefer you can pay on the day.

Don’t miss it! Enter now if you haven’t already!

If you have been sheltering from Covid and are tempted but don’t want the added cost of ECF membership note that ECF membership is not required for blitz tournaments whether FIDE rated or not. Now, in the middle of summer, with the sun’s UV light killing off viruses like Covid is a great time to rejoin the chess playing world.

May 19, 2022

First of all, massive congratulations to Mick Riding for organising the biggest and best DCCA congress ever with almost 160 entries. A big “Thank you”, too, to Alex Macfarlane for managing such a large event all by himself. A tribute to both that everything went smoothly.

It was a successful tournament for South Shields. Our representation in the Open was limited to part-time Durham League players, Tim Wall and Dave Walker, but they both finished equal second on 4/5 behind sole winner IM Brandon Clarke on 4.5/5

In the Major Anthony Sweeting also finished equal second on 4/5 behind Durham University’s Luke Elliot on 5/5. Brian Towers finished fourth equal on 3.5/5 (after losing a winning position against tournament winner, Luke Elliot) and Eddie Czestochowski was unlucky to finish on 0.5/5 having managed to gift his much higher rated opponent a draw in round one when Eddie was also completely winning.

It was a similar story in the Minor where Michael Allen finished equal third on 4/5 having managed to lose a winning position against the tournament winner, Maksym Kryshtafor. Dave Patterson finished 11th equal on 3/5 and Stan Johnson scored 1.5/5.

Here is one of Anthony’s games with annotations by him.

[pgn height=500 initialHalfmove=1 autoplayMode=none][pgn height=500 initialHalfmove=1 autoplayMode=none]

[Event “Durham Chess Congress (2022)”]
[Site “Darlington”]
[Date “2022.05.08”]
[Round “5”]
[White “Robert Clegg”]
[Black “Anthony Sweeting”]
[Result “0-1”]
[BlackElo “1688”]
[WhiteElo “1813”]
[TimeControl “110+10”]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 {This was the final round of the competition and I
needed a win (and some other results to go my way) to reach second place. I
thought for a little while on my next move, debating whether to go for a King’s
Indian or a Grünfeld. I decided to try my luck in a Grünfeld.} 3… d5 4. cxd5
Nxd5 5. e4 Nxc3 6. bxc3 Bg7 7. Rb1 {The first deviation from theory, more common is developing the kingside.} 7… c5 {I continued in normal Grünfeld style} 8. Nf3 Bg4 {and decided to sacrifice my b7 pawn for more pressure against the center. Castling first would have been more accurate as 9.Bb5+ or 9.Qa5+ both force me to block the d-file to defend against the check.} 9. Rxb7 {Even though this seems to be the point of 7.Rb1, black has now equalised due to his superior development and the misplaced rook on b7.} 9… O-O 10. Be3 Bxf3 11. Qxf3 (11. gxf3 {is better so the queen can still guard d4.}) 11… cxd4 12. cxd4 Qa5+ (12… Bxd4 13. Bxd4 Qxd4 {may have been a better way to win my pawn back, but I wanted to keep my dark-squared bishop.}) 13. Bd2 Qxa2 14. Bc3 {White is seriously neglecting development to hold on to the pawn.} 14… Nc6 15. e5 Rac8 {On the surface, this move simply defends the unprotected knight on c6, but also sets up some nasty ideas.} 16. Be2 Nxd4 {A deflection sacrifice. This move pulls the bishop to d4, thus clearing the c-file for my rook, opening the d-file for the f8 rook and opening the e1-a5 diagonal for my queen. White is punished for his lack of development as his King will now never leave the middle of the board.} 17. Bxd4 Rc1+ 18. Bd1 Qa5+ 19. Ke2 (19. Kf1 Rxd1+ 20. Qxd1 Qa6+ 21. Kg1 Qxb7) 19… Rd8 20. Qe4 {Highlighting how difficult it is to defend the bishop and the misplaced rook on b7. The white queen has to remain on a square that defends against …Qa6+ picking up the rook.} ({If} 20. Be3 {then} 20… Qa2+ Ke1 Rcxd1+ 22. Qxd1 Rxd1+ 23. Kxd1 Qd5+) (20. Qd3 Bxe5) (20. Rxa7 {This was missed by both players, perhaps because it looks like pawn grabbing, which intuitively doesn’t make sense in the current position. More importantly though, the rook takes control of the a-file and gains a tempo on my queen, which doesn’t really have a useful place to go. This is the only move for white to
stay in the game with equality.}) 20… Rc4 {Now there’s no saving the bishop
and white’s position falls apart,} 21. Bb3 (21. Rxa7 {no longer works due to}
21… Qxa7 22. Bxa7 Rxe4+ {as black is up an exchange and a pawn.}) (21. Ke3
Rcxd4 22. Qxd4 Rxd4 23. Kxd4 Qxe5+) 21… Rcxd4 22. Bxf7+ {One last attempt}
22… Kxf7 23. Qf3+ Kg8 {but the checks quickly run out and black has several
mating ideas, so my opponent resigned here. Results on the other boards happened to go my way, so I finished the competition in second place with 4/5.} 0-1[/pgn]

October 15, 2021

First, a reminder of what the Friends Bowl competition is. The Friends Bowl is a large silver cup which has been in the club since 1947 when it was donated to the club by the then president of the club, Arnold Friends. The annual competition for the cup is a knock out handicap based on grading. This year the rules are being tweaked slightly to accommodate the changes in the ECF rating system.

For each game the players are given a material handicap according to the difference in their rating. The ratings used will be the ratings on the ECF website for the players at the time (ratings updated monthly). Where a player doesn’t have an over the board standard rating, for instance because they haven’t played enough rated games, then in the first instance a provisional rating will be used if one exists for the player. Failing that an OTB rapid rating will be used and finally online ratings will be used.

The handicaps are as follows for different rating differences:

0-99 – no handicap, first named player in the draw has white
100-199 – colour, lower rated player has white
200-299 – 2 moves, lower rated player has white and makes two moves instead of one to start the game
300-399 – f pawn and move, lower rated player has white, remove f7 pawn
400-499 – f pawn and 2 moves, remove f7 pawn, lower has white and makes two moves instead of one to start the game
500-599 – knight, remove b1 knight, higher rated player has white
600-699 – rook, remove a1 rook, higher rated player has white
700-799 – queen, remove d1 queen, higher rated player has white
800-899 – queen and knight, remove b1 knight, remove d1 queen, higher rated player has white
>=900 – queen and rook, remove a1 rook, remove d1 queen, higher rated player has white

Time control: all moves in 60 minutes with a 10 second increment.

Games are not gradeable. Recording is not required.

FIDE laws apply apart from handicap related (i.e. initial position and possible double first moves). In cases 600+ and 900+ white may castle queenside provided the king has not moved, none of c1, d1, e1 are under attack and a1 through d1 are vacant.

This is a knockout competition. Players not completing their matches before the deadline are eliminated. In the case of a draw a rematch with the same handicap is played with 30 minutes for the game with no increment. In the case of 0-99 handicap colour alternates.

Entries to Brian Towers by 28th October, please.

October 14, 2021

Congratulations to the B team players, Dave Patterson, Lewis Self, Stan Johnson, Jay Steel and Michael Allen for winning the summer knock out. The competition is a handicap knock out where weaker teams receive a point start which depends on the the difference in strength between them and the stronger team. Hence with a large strength difference the weaker team can win the match by scoring just one draw.

Here are the results the B team achieved on their way to overall victory with handicap points in brackets.

South Shields B 3.5 (2.5) – 3 (0) Forest Hall A
Dave Patterson (1705) 0 – 1 Tim P Wall (2260)
Lewis Self (1660) 1 – 0 Stuart Skelsey (1893)
Jay Steel (1495) 0 – 1 John (jnr) Wall (1780)
Stanley Johnson (1458) 0 – 1 Rose Wabuti (1705)

Tynemouth 3 (0) – 4.5 (3.5) South Shields B
David Henderson (2118) 1 – 0 Dave Patterson (1705)
Paul AG Dargan (2110) 1 – 0 Jay Steel (1495)
John S Clarke (1780) 0.5 – 0.5 Stanley Johnson (1458)
Simon Matthews (1758) 0.5 – 0.5 Michael EI Allen (1405)

Semi-final
Gosforth B 2.5 (0) – 3 (1.5) South Shields B
Mark McKay (1750) 1 – 0 Dave Patterson (1705)
James McKay (1630) 0 – 1 Jay Steel (1495)
Ian B Chester (1660) 1 – 0 Stanley Johnson (1458)
Luke Fletcher (1458) 0.5 – 0.5 Michael EI Allen (1405)

Final
Gosforth A 3.5 (0) – 4 (3.5) South Shields B
David Armbruster (2132) 1 – 0 Dave Patterson (1705)
Michael J McBeth (1953) 1 – 0 Jay Steel (1495)
Mick D Riding (1960) 1 – 0 Stanley Johnson (1458)
John Liddle (1818) 0.5 – 0.5 Michael EI Allen (1405)

Top scorer for the team and scorer of the crucial draw which won them the final was Michael Allen. Here is his game from the final. It’s worth first noting that one of the chess ideas which may have come from the apocryphal “Soviet School of Chess” is that of “playing for two results”. It basically means making error free chess the priority so as to always keep the possibility of drawing or winning the game.

Michael refined this in this game to “playing for one result”. Perfectly understandable since drawing the game meant winning the match. What was rather more surprising was that his opponent copied him! Michael, feeling perhaps that the game spoke for itself, left it to the post author to add comments.

[pgn height=500 initialHalfmove=1 autoplayMode=none]
[Event “Summer Knockout”]
[Date “2021.09.20”]
[White “John Liddle”]
[Black “Michael Allen”]
[Result “1/2-1/2”]
[WhiteElo “1818”]
[BlackElo “1431”]

1.c4 c5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nc3 Nc6 4.g3 g6 5.Bg2 Bg7 6.O-O O-O {all very symmetrical} 7.Nd5 {d4 would be more normal but the move played better fits the “one result” policy} d6 8.Rb1 Nxd5 9.cxd5 Ne5 {Nb5 would be better and in line with a “two results” policy} 10.b3 Nxf3+ 11.Bxf3 Qa5 12.Qc2 Bd7 {Probably slightly better objectively than Bh3 since black’s bishop is better than white’s. With the queen on a5 black wants to play on the queenside} 13.d3 Bh3 {Remembering that the plan is a draw} 14.Bd2 Qc7 15.Bg2 {If the pawn wasn’t on d5 blocking the bishop then Rfc1 would have been a bit better} Bxg2 16.Kxg2 Rac8 {Which rook where? Rfe8 might have been better eyeing up the e file after a planned e6 to try and also open up the diagonal to the king} 17.Rbc1 e6 18.Qc4 {“One result” policy in action} exd5 19.Qxd5 Qc6 {No second invitation needed} 20.Qxc6 Rxc6
21.Rc2 Re8 22.e3 {Putting another pawn on a dark square doesn’t seem clever. Bf4 putting the bishop on a more aggressive square and protecting the pawn via the c2 rook probably made more sense} d5 23.Rfc1 Rec8 24.Kf1 Kf8 25.Ke2 f5 26.b4 {Rxc5 has to be a bit better with Bb4 and d4 to follow and a passed pawn is likely} cxb4 27.Bxb4+ Ke8 28.Rxc6 Rxc6 29.Rxc6 bxc6 {Just bishops and pawns left. The goal is clearly in sight} 30.d4 Bf6 31.Kd3 Kd7 32.Bc5 a6 33.Kc3 Kc7 34.Kb4 h5 35.Ka5 Kb7 36.Bd6 Bd8+ 37.Kb4 g5 38.f3 a5+ 39.Kc3 Ka6 40.a4 g4
41.fxg4 hxg4 42.Kd3 Bg5 43.Ke2 Kb7 44.Kf2 Bh6 45.Ba3 Bg5 46.Bc1 Kb6 47.Bd2 Bd8 48.Kg2 c5 49.Kf2 c4 50.Ke2 Be7 51.Bc3 Bb4 52.Kd2 Bxc3+ 53.Kxc3 Kc6 1/2-1/2 [/pgn]