Grand Prix
Full table here. Matthew Baker wins the Grand Prix, followed by Peter Biggs in second and James Toon in third.
Recent winners of the Grand Prix:
• 2009: Tony Ashby
• 2008: Peter Biggs
• 2007: James Toon
• 2006: James Toon
Sale of chess books
We are offering a number of chess books for sale to the general public at £5.00 each. More details here.
News
5 July 2010
Blitz Event 2 took place tonight. James Toon and Alistair Compton tied for first place with 10/12. Matthew Baker was 3rd with 6.5/12. Details here. The next round is on Monday 2 August – please contact Peter Biggs if you would like to play.
25 June 2010
The club championship has been revived after an absence of about 16 years. The 2010–11 Championship is a 9-round all-play-all in rapidplay format (30 minutes per game) with two games against the same opponent in each round. Details of the competition are here.
25 June 2010
The club played an 8-board blitz match against GLCC on 22 June. It was organised according to the Scheveningen system
whereby each member of the team plays every member of the opposing team. GLCC won the match 38–26. Admittedly Home Office & Justice were missing most of their 1st team players, so GLCC were stronger on paper, but you still have to put them away, as England failed to do against Algeria last week. It was an enjoyable event and looks set to become an annual fixture.
11 June 2010
The club's Annual Dinner took place at the Jugged Hare on Vauxhall Bridge Road on 10 June. Seven members turned up for what was a very pleasant evening. The Annual Quiz was even more difficult than usual and nobody managed to reach 50%. Tony Ashby came from behind to win with 49%, followed by Tim Pelling and Richard Fries on 38%. Tony did particularly well on the picture quiz, where he correctly identified the top 10 chess players in the world. It must be all those foreign tournaments he plays in…
7 June 2010
In the 1st round of the new Blitz Championship, James Toon won the event followed by Alistair Compton and Richard Fries. More details here.
27 May 2010
Tony Ashby is the club blitz champion for 2010. Tony defeated James Toon in the play off after both had finished on 6.5/7 in the blitz tournament. Harry Carter was 3rd on 5/7. Full table below.
| Tony Ashby | 6.5 |
| James Toon | 6.5 |
| Harry Carter | 5 |
| Richard Fries | 4 |
| Peter Biggs | 2.5 |
| David Lacey | 1.5 |
| Oliver Dark | 1 |
| Michael Keane | 1 |
14 May 2010
The Civil Service League AGM was held on 13 May. James Toon picked up the Bonar Law Trophy (for the cup competition) and the Barford Trophy (for the Team Blitz). Peter Biggs picked up the Division 3 Trophy (for winning Division 3). And Matthew Baker picked up a Divisional Award for the best individual performance in Division 1 over the season.
14 May 2010
We are launching a new monthly blitz competition. This will take place on the first Monday of every month (except where rearranged for Bank Holidays, fixtures etc). The person scoring the most game points in the year leading up to the AGM will be named the Annual Blitz Champion. Tie-breakers: 1. Most events won. 2. Most events attended. Entries to James Toon and Peter Biggs by the Thursday before each event.
12 May 2010
The final results are in from the Commercial League. The Home Office & Justice team finished 2nd in Division 1, behind Railways. A very good result considering our indifferent form at the start of the season.
8 May 2010
The Civil Service League 1st team won the annual Team Blitz event on 6 May. They finished on 8/9, just ahead of Met Police 1st team and DHSS who finished equal second on 7½/9. So congratulations to Chris Briscoe, Tony Ashby, Alistair Compton and James Toon. Well done also to the 2nd team (Harry Carter, Peter Biggs, Michael Keane and Oliver Dark) who finished 6th out of 10 on a score of 4/9. They finished ahead of the other 2nd teams in the event, and also ahead of Revenue & Customs and Treasury 1st teams.
An analysis of the results suggests that both teams performed pretty much as expected. The 1st team were favourites to win as they were the highest-graded team with an average grade of 187. Met Police 1st team were also very strong at 177 and DHSS were on 164. Similarly our 2nd team's average grade of 143 was around the middle of the field. Tony Ashby did best for the 1st team with a personal score of 8/9 and a grading performance of +13. For the 2nd team, Oliver Dark was the star on board 4 with a personal score of 6/9 and a grading performance of +17. Well done also to Harry Carter who made a plus score despite facing some very tough opposition on top board.
One other interesting fact – the two teams combined scored 21½/36 with the white pieces and 25/36 with the black pieces. One might expect the blitz format to increase the advantage of playing white, but that's obviously not the case.
2 May 2010
This year's AGM took place on Thursday 29 April. A total of six people attended. The minutes are here.
18 April 2010
The dream is over. We lost 3–2 to Metropolitan in the quarter-final of the National Club Major Plate. It was an exciting match and the result could have gone either way.
7 April 2010
Railways insisted on playing our Commercial League match even though it was Maundy Thursday and neither side would be at full strength. A strong performance from our lads produced a 4½–3½ win. Well done team.
1 April 2010
There will be a club social on Thursday 15 April to celebrate the 1st team winning the cup and the 2nd team winning Division 3. Champagne reception in the club room followed by a private screening of "Chess in the Cinema", a DVD compilation of chess scenes from films down the ages, followed by a meal out at the Millbank Spice on Vauxhall Bridge Road.
26 March 2010
It was trebles all round at Cleland House with a double celebration for the club. First the Civil Service League 2nd team learned that they had won Division 3, when their closest rivals lost their last match. Then the Civil Service League 1st team won the Bonar Law Trophy, defeating League champions UNATS in the final. Congratulations to all involved.
19 March 2010
The Civil Service League 2nd team finished their campaign on a high with a 5–0 win over Treasury 3. Now the team must wait for their deadly rivals DHSS 3 to play their last match before knowing which of them is promoted to Division 2. Well done Peter Biggs for his captaincy of the team this season.
Here are the season's stats for the 2nd team:
| Total: | P10 – W7 D1 L2 |
| League: | P8 – W6 D1 L1. Finished 1st or 2nd |
| Cup: | P2 – W1 L1. Went out in quarter-finals |
| Games: | 52 |
| Points: | 30.5 |
| % success: | 59 |
| Defaults won: | 1 |
| Defaults lost: | 0 |
| Players used: | 11 |
23 February 2010
Our opponents in the cup final will be UNATS, who defeated Treasury 4½–3½ in the other semi-final. It's not been a year for giant-killers, or the glory of the cup: the four semi-finalists were the top four teams in Division 1.
19 February 2010
There was a comical result in our cup semi-final against Revenue & Customs. Each side defaulted one board. The remaining six games were drawn. HOJCC go through to the final because our default was on a lower board than theirs. The difference was that we knew about our default in advance, and they didn't.
1 February 2010
Our first match in the National Club ended in defeat at the hands of a strong Wanstead & Woodford side. Steve Crowdy scored the only win for the home side. We now try our fortunes in the Plate competition.
10 January 2010
The snow is beautiful, but also disruptive. Three matches postponed so far this month, and another one likely. There will be fixture congestion later in the season.
8 December 2009
The National Club 1st round match against Wanstead & Woodford will take place on Friday 8 January.
27 November 2009
There's a first time for everything…including playing in the National Club Championships. This season the club has entered a team into the Major section of this event. It's a 5-board knockout competition and the average grade of the players must be under 175. A total of 17 teams have entered and we are the only team from the Civil Service League. About half the teams are from the London area. Our 1st round match is at home against Wanstead & Woodford (who are the defending champions) and the match must be played before 7 February.
1 November 2009
Mark Fulleylove has kindly donated over 20 books to the club book sale. This brings the total number of books in the sale to nearly 100.
The sale list is here and the recent additions are in bold type.