Category: News

April 10, 2018

Following hot on the heels of a successful Chess Congress held at the Customs House in July 2016 to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of South Shields Chess Club . We have decided that we might have another go . This time we can celebrate our 152nd Anniversary .  The format will either be a Quick Play One Day event  or a  Half Day Blitz Event .  Venue could possibly be at the Customs House again , or possibly Jarrow Hall . It could be on the Saturday 7th or Sunday 8th . If anyone has other ideas for a venue please let us me know .

Maybe if the membership agree we can choose a Charity to dedicate this event to .

More Specific Details will follow but in the meantime you can enjoy the logo that AARON created for us ,

April 5, 2018

 

Easter has now passed and we were still getting snowed on in the North East .

South Shields completed a tremendous season in the Durham League finishing second to Durham Abbotts .
Many thanks go to John Boyd , Paul Bielby , Chris Sayers , Asanga Gunasekera , Stan Johnson , Brian Towers , Kevin Rowden , Piotr Niedbal , Yaroslav Kolodiy ,Dave Patterson and Eddie Czestochowski who all played a part in the team at some point in the season . It all came down to a narrowly lost game against Durham Abbots. Roll on next season .

South Shields also missed out by a single 1/2 Match point in the Ron Evers Competition , to a very strong Durham City Team . There was lots of nearly moments in the last couple of games but that’s life .We will be back next season to try and bring back the trophy we held for 2 successive seasons .

February 20, 2018

Durham Association League Table February 2018

Division A P W D L GPts MPts South Shields 8 5 1 2 23 11 Durham City ‘Abbots’ 7 4 3 0 20½ 11 Durham University 8 4 0 4 18 7* Darlington ‘Quakers’ 7 2 1 4 17 5 Durham City ‘Bishops’ 7 2 1 4 17 5 Hetton Lyons ‘A’ 7 2 0 5 14½ 4

Despite getting resoundly beaten by Durham University in our last match . South Shields hang on to top place in the Durham League by 2.5 game points . That half point gained by Paul Bielby last night may yet prove to be a valuable half point at the end of the season . We now face two very tough games against DURHAM A and B .

 

February 6, 2018

This was a great little tournament organized by Tim Wall which attracted 30 players, 5 of them from South Shields, for an afternoon of blitz in the function room of the Chillingham pub in Newcastle. As a bonus it was FIDE rated, so all players who didn’t previously have FIDE Ids will now have them, all for 2 quid a head! More power to Tim’s elbow and here’s hoping he organizes more of these.

It was a pretty successful afternoon for the Shields players. Piotr Niedbal just missed out on the prizes. He was in 3rd place going into the last round and needed a draw to maintain 3rd but lost to Edward Dodds who overtook him for 3rd with Piotr finishing in 4th on 6/9.

Paul Bielby was top senior (over 65) on 4.5/9.

Eddie Czestochowski and Gary Hunter (FIDE ID = 466590) finished half a point behind Paul on 4/9 and Asanga Gunasekera (FIDE ID = 466581) was 3 points further back.

Full results on chess-results.

December 20, 2017

Our new chess digital chess clocks have  have now arrived  , so the challenge now is for members to become proficient in setting them up .

The first half of the chess season has just about come to a close , and it has proved to a tough one so far . Lets hope that we all focus and  turn the second half around .

 

 

November 29, 2017

The Ron Evers Competition began in earnest last night at Hartlepool with South Shields 1 winning its first and second round matches to sit joint top of the leader board .  A last minute change to  the travel arrangements due to unforeseen circumstances forcing one of our drivers to pull  out  led to a frantic afternoon of phone calls and new arrangements to be sorted . Fortunately Dave Parlour , fresh from winning a grading prize at the recent Northumberland  Rapid Play Tournament stepped in at the last minute to ensure we didn’t default any boards .  Alan Blackburn managed a tremendous win in the match against Hartlepool who on paper were the stronger side , but our 1.5 point handicap counted in the end as we won 3 to 2.5 .

 

South Shields have again fielded two teams , of relatively equal grading strength . South Shields 2  picked up 1 point out of 4  , but as this years Competition is on  an all play all basis there is still a lot to play for .  The club is attempting to retain the trophy for the 3rd Successive year so every individual game point  won is an important point .  Congratulations also go to Jay Steel a relative newcomer to Chess and Shields Chess  Club on winning both his games .

The next 2 rounds  are being played on January 30th 2018 .

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 20, 2017

This seasons Ron Evers Competition will be held on the follow dates .

 

Rounds 1 and 2   Tuesday 28th November at  Hartlepool Chess Club

Rounds  3 and 4  Tuesday 30th January       at  Hetton Chess Club

Rounds 5 and 6    Tuesday 27th March        at  Hartlepool Chess Club

South Shields have won this trophy for the last 2 seasons , it will be a tough ask to retain this for a third season in a row but as someone once  said “If you shoot for the moon and miss , you will still end up amongst the stars”.   Anyone interested in playing for the rapid play teams season please make yourself known as soon as possible  . This will help us decide how many teams to enter.

 

September 20, 2017

This season the league has returned to a 2 Division Format . South Shields are  placed in the 1^st Division  and will be facing Hetton Lyons A , Durham A and B , Darlington A and last years Champions Durham University . It is going to be a challenging season without a doubt.

Our first 2 games will both be away at Darlington on Monday 9^th October  and Hetton Lyons A on Thursday 26^th October .

I will post all the fixtures shortly and they will also be on the Durham Website in due course .

 

September 8, 2017

Our 2017 AGM was held on the 31st of August and it proved to be quite entertaining .  The Club had quite a successful season . We also had the opportunity to finally present the awards for the previous season Division 2 Championship team.

 

 

 

 

 

Last season with the help of all the club members South Shields won the Durham League Second Division , retained the Ron Evers Rapid Play Trophy for the second year in Succession ,won the Northern Counties Chess Union Seniors Trophy and are in the final of the Summer Knockout Plate .  Chris Sayers won the Durham Congress Minor Competition and Dave Patterson won the Tony Mezzo Trophy for best performance by a Durham League Player in the Major .  It is going to be a major challenge to better this in 2018 .

August 29, 2017

 

South Shields Chess Club have in recent years fielded a team in the Durham league as well as three teams in the Northumberland League. Captained by Eddie Czestochowski, the Durham team operates a rotational policy in an effort to give a wider opportunity to members throughout the club. The team was usually picked based on availability, on venue and on who our opponents were. This season we utilized 12 players who all contributed very well to our overall success in winning the Division B Championship. This year the 12 teams in the Durham League played an all play all basis through the first part of the season .  South Shields finished in 6th Place which qualified them in the play off for the B Division Trophy. This put us into a knockout situation where wins against Gateshead and Durham were required to secure the B Division Championship .

Congratulations to the team consisting of Paul Bielby , Brian Towers , Yaroslav Kolodiy , Dave Paterson , Colin Campbell ,Chris Sayers , Jim Riddle , Ben Wood ,Piotr Niedbal,Dominik Schwarz , Asanga Gunasekera, Eddie Czestochowski .  Thank you all for your efforts .