Brian Thompson has won the webserver Gold Medal tournament for the 2nd season in succession. The final crosstable can be seen here: https://www.iccf.com/event?id=57632 Brian wins an engraved BCCA Gold Medal & earns 8 BCCA Master points. Eugenio Spagnoli played well above his rating to finish in 2nd place & earn 4 BCCA Master points.

Seven Trios have been decided this month  4 of which were Class 3’s which means that 9 of our Top Players now have the option of playing in a Trio Championship Qualifier.

Class 1 Trio No.153 – John Dunn has won this Trio with a perfect score of 4/4 against Patrick Walsh and Martin Hardwick. John is awarded 2 BCM Points bringing his total to 10 and promoted to Class 2.

Class 1 Trio No.154 – William Lindberg is the winner with a perfect score of 4/4 against Iris Pardoe and Patrick Walsh. William is awarded 2 BCM Points giving him a total of 10 and promoted to Class 2

Class 3 Trio No.41 – Robert Rozanski wins with an excellent score of 3.5/4 against Graham Patrick and Phil Beckitt – well played. Robert receives his first 3 BM Points towards the title

Class 3 Trio No.46 – BM John Brasier has won this close fought Trio with a score of 2.5/4 against Alex Sherwood and Phillip Tolhurst. If John wins his next Class 3 Trio he will qualify for the New Webserver Trios Championship.

Class 3 Trio No.37 – The result was a three way tie between Russell Sherwood, Alexander Relyea and Eoin Campbell and they share the 3 BM Points available. This kicks off the BM Campaigns for Alex and Eoin.

Class 1 Trio No.74 – John Horton and BCM Raymond Burridge are joint winners. John receives 2 BCM Points and both he and Raymond are promoted to Class 3. The third player was Raymond Cox

Class 3 Trio No.45 – LIM Dawn Williamson has won this Trio in a tight finish with LIM Helen Sherwood and David Cook. Dawn finished with a score of 2.5/4. and is awarded 3 BCCA Master Points bringing her total to 6. David came within half-a-point of making it a three way tie. Well played all.

Congratulations to BCCA member John Brasier who has been awarded the ICCF Title “Correspondence Chess Expert”! The Title Norms were obtained in a German Masters strong event: https://www.iccf.com/event?id=58315 and the North Atlantic Team Tournament playing for England: https://www.iccf.com/event?id=58361  Given John’s rating is now well over 2400 I hope that other higher ICCF Titles will soon be in his grasp. Well played John!

The 2nd Welsh Member Organisations Team Tournament, which began in December 2015, has a very exciting finish in store. With only 5 games remaining (out of 105 initially), there are still three teams in with a shout at victory: BCCA Cougars, SCCA “A” and BCCA Wildcats. The tournament crosstable can be seen here: https://www.iccf.com/event?id=56581 This tournament, provided free by the Welsh CC Federation, has provided some excellent chess and there is no reason why this event should not get stronger every year. There are six BCCA teams (24 players) in the 2016 event which started last month.

If your name is not down to represent BCCA in tournaments or matches, you are missing some excellent opportunities. Contact the Match Captain, Neil Limbert, to add your name to the list.

Leslie Eastoe’s latest victory in a Class 2 Trio has taken him over the 20 point barrier & he is now awarded the BCCA Candidate Master (CM) Title. Congratulations to Leslie! This follows on from his award of the BCCA Master Title in 2014 so Leslie now has the full set.