Keith McLaughlin has been awarded the BCCA Master Title after accumulating the necessary 20 Master points.  These points have been awarded over a 5 year period for successes in the BCCA Postal Championship, British Veterans Championship & the BCCA William Mason Championship.  Congratulations to Keith! A BCCA Master Medal is already on its way to him.

Keith is the 13th BCCA Master & the 2nd player to be awarded the Title in 2017. For a full list of Title Holders, go to “BCCA Members” – “BCCA Titles – Within reach of every Player”.  You will also find there a full list of current Title points awarded for all players who haven’t yet been awarded a BCCA Title – over 100 players on the lists!

All games have now been finished in the Final & the final crosstable can be viewed here: https://www.iccf.com/event?id=61194. Congratulations to Stan Grayland on becoming BCCA Champion again & winning £200!
It was an extremely tight Final this year so well played to all the players. But tie-breaks must be used to identify prize-winners & qualifiers for next year’s Final.
Brian Thompson finishes in 2nd place & wins £100. In addition, he earns 8 BCCA Master points taking his total to over 20: therefore Brian is awarded the BCCA Master Title. Congratulations Brian!
Trevor Carr & John Brasier finish in joint 3rd place & win £25 each. Trevor also picks up 2 BCCA Master points.
The four above named players all qualify for next year’s Final. Everyone else will be back in the Candidates sections next season (although it is possible, if there are spare places in the Final, that one or two of the other players may find themselves back in the Final anyway).
I would like to thank all the players for taking part & making the BCCA Championship Final a very strong & special event.

BCCA member Raymond Cox is the latest recipient of the BCCA Candidate Master Title after accumulating the necessary 20 CM points.  Congratulations to Raymond! Raymond has been a staunch supporter of BCCA Trio’s since their outset and earned his first CM points by winning Trio No.6. Since then, he has earned CM points in seven (!) other Trio tournaments & also earned points in a Medal tournament. His award is the result of perseverance together with good play – well done to Raymond!

The 2016/17 Postal Championship had a dramatic finish as two players tied for the Championship. The crosstable for the Final can be seen here: https://www.iccf.com/event?id=61189 Les Ellis & Keith McLaughlin scored the same number of Points, and the same Number of Wins, and had identical S-B scores! Highly unusual. So the Title (and prize money) has been shared between the two of them.

Entries are now being taken for the 2017/8 Postal Championship (British residents only) so please consider entering – there is some good chess to be had in this Event.

Russell Sherwood won the 2016-17 E-mail tournament, and Bob Crawshaw won the 2016-17 Postal tournament.  For further details see “Tournaments” – “Endgame Tournaments” – “Results”.

The Endgame tournaments are ideal practice for Endgame play without putting any rating points at risk. Why not give it a go for the 2017-18 season!? Entries now being taken.

For the 2nd time in 3 seasons, BCCA President Stan Grayland has also become BCCA Champion – well played Stan! The current Final ( https://www.iccf.com/event?id=61194 ) looks like being one of the closest ever fought, with 3 games still ongoing. Stan is level on 6.5 points with two other players, and there are also two more players who could join them on 6.5! Incredible. But the first tie-break is “number of Wins” & Stan has 4 wins which no other player can match. So, despite losing a game, Stan’s positive play has been rewarded.

The 2nd Rapidplay has recently concluded with a three-way tie! See: https://www.iccf.com/event?id=66120 Congratulations to David Cook, Phill Beckett & Arthur Reed who are Joint Rapidplay Champions!

This Event will be the last of its kind. It didn’t prove too popular with members so we won’t be starting any more. But there are still plenty of other BCCA Tournaments to choose from!

Membership Renewal  & Tournament Entry now Open for 2017/18!

BCCA Membership year runs from 1 September to 31 August. From now until August 31, you can renew your Membership of BCCA until August 31, 2018 & enter the tournaments for the 2017/18 season. You can renew online at this website or you can wait for the paper Renewal form which will be issued with the Summer magazine – entirely your choice!

Fred Clough has decided to retire from this role after many years of excellent service to the BCCA – thank you Fred! Fortunately, we have been able to find an excellent volunteer to take over so we would like to welcome Alex Relyea as a new BCCA Tournament Organiser.

The Gambit/Counter-Gambit Tournaments are unique! As far as I know, no other CC club or Federation offers such tournaments. They are played by e-mail only & are not ICCF rated. Each Tourney usually consists of five players in All-Play-All format, so eight games in all, one with White and one with Black against each of the others.    (Occasionally the Gambit and Counter Gambit Tourneys may be combined if there are insufficient entries).

In the Gambit Tournament White selects the opening from a set list of Gambits. In other words in each pairing of two games each player chooses the opening in the one game where he has White. You can choose any combination of Gambits, from the same Gambit in all games to four different Gambits.

In the Counter-Gambit tournament Black selects the Opening to be played from the  list. Thus, in each pairing of two games, each player chooses the Opening in the game where he is Black. Once again you can choose any combination of Counter-Gambits, from the same in all games to four different Counter-Gambits.

You will see below the lists that Alex has provided for the Tournaments that will start in September with the new season. You will be able to enter these Events online from June 1st, or with your paper Renewal form when this is received with the Summer magazine. Why not give it a try!

Gambit List

(1) Double Muzio Gambit 1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Nf3 g5 4. Bc4 g4 5. O-O gxf3 6. Qxf3 Qf6 7. e5 Qxe5 8. Bxf7+
This variation of the King’s Gambit leads to wild tactical play. White sacrifices two pieces in the opening! Is it playable in CC? I don’t know, but an unrated tournament is the place to find out.
(2) Lisitsyn Gambit 1. Nf3 f5 2. e4
An anti-Dutch gambit. An “improved” version is 1. Nf3 f5 2. d3 Nf6 3. e4, but I prefer to offer the original this year.
(3) Bishop’s opening, MacDonnell double gambit 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Bc5 3. b4 Bxb4 4. f4
A player suggestion. Any interest in proving if this is completely obsolete?
(4) French Defense, Papa Gambit 1. e4 e6 2. b3 d5 3. Bb2 dxe4 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. g4
Mike Papa is a national master from New Orleans. This variation of the Reti Gambit is his pet line against the French.
(5) French Defense Alekhine-Chatard Attack: Albin-Chatard Gambit 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. e5 Nfd7 6. h4 Bxg5 7. hxg5
White sacrifices a pawn against the French Classical for an open h-file and an attack.
(6) Queen’s Gambit Accepted 1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. Nf3
An extremely topical opening. For those who would wish to try 3. e4, ICCF is offering a postal thematic in that line in December.

Counter-Gambit List

(1) Benko Gambit 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 b5
Being an American, I can call this the Benko, though you might better know it as the Volga. Unusually, this is a positional gambit, and Black can retain his positional edge into the endgame without needing to win the pawn back. If this proves a popular choice, perhaps I’ll pick a variation of this opening for next year.
(2) Elephant Gambit 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d5
Chessbase lists 32(!) moves that have been tried as Black’s second. 2.. d5 is an unusual idea that may be worth a try.
(3) Petroff’s Defense: Damiano Variation 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 Nxe4 4. Qe2
When we were learning chess, it was driven home to us that 3.. Nxe4 led to an automatic loss. Now that we know more, we find it surprisingly playable! I leave to you the choice between .. Qe7 or .. d6.
(4) Bird’s Opening: Schlecter Gambit 1. f4 e5 2. fxe5 Nc6
Last year we tried the From Gambit. This year we experiment with its less common cousin. Note that Black has scored noticeably better with the Schlecter.
(5) Albin Counter Gambit 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e5 3. dxe5 d4
We recently offered this counter gambit, but offer it again with one more move played.
(6) Bellon Counter Gambit. 1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Nf3 e4 4. Ng5 b5
This opening is also back from last year. Perhaps I’m not the only one looking for a response to the English?

Helen Sherwood is the latest recipient of the BCCA Candidate Master Title, after passing the 20 point barrier with a tournament win in a Class 2 Trio; well played Helen!