David Coyne’s funeral will be held on Wed 15 Aug – 2pm, Ruislip Crematorium East Chapel. I know one or two members have expressed interest in attending.

It is my sad news to report the death of BCCA member David Coyne at the age of 73. David had been diagnosed with COPD in 2005 which recently turned to pneumonia. Our sympathies & condolences to his family & friends. RIP.

Eric P Nettles has won the BCCA 2017 Postal Gold tournament with a score of 6/8 – congratulations to Eric! The tournament was a very close-fought affair with no player going undefeated. The final crosstable can be seen here

EP Nettles wins a Gold Medal & is also awarded 4 BCCA Master points. Paul Terry came 2nd and is awarded 2 BCCA Master points.

BCCA member Eoin Campbell has become BCCA’s latest Candidate Master by accumulating the necessary 20 BCM points. Congratulations to Eoin!

The full list of BCCA Title holders can be seen here

The full list of BCCA members who have earned BCCA Title points but not yet sufficient to be awarded a Title can be seen here

The 2017 BCCA Webserver Gold Medal tournament has now finished & the final crosstable can be viewed here. A very close-fought event was won by Russell Sherwood (well played Russell!) narrowly on S-B tie-break from Olli Ylönen. Russell wins an engraved BCCA Gold Medal and is awarded 8 BCCA Master points (taking his total to 13).
Olli is awarded 4 BCCA Master points for finishing 2nd (taking his total Master points to 8).
Three players tied for 3rd place – BCCA Masters Brian Thompson & Mark Eldridge; also David Evans who is awarded 2 BCCA Master points (taking his total to 6).

The 2017 Webserver Silver Medal tournament No.1 has now finished & the final crosstable can be viewed here. Congratulations to Alex Relyea for winning the event & the only player scoring three wins. Well played Alex! He will receive an engraved Silver Medal.
Angus James finished 2nd & is awarded 6 BCCA Candidate Master points (taking his total to 10).
Eugenio Spagnoli finished 3rd & is awarded 4 BCCA Candidate Master points (taking his total to 14).

Only four players braved the Gambit tournament last year, with two playing in both tournaments.  Two games remain in progress, and it is a nailbiter:

Counter Gambit Tournament 2017-18  

1   Sherwood,Russell      2.0/2     2   Akrill,Richard     0.0/2

Gambit Tournament 2017-18

D Gallimore & R Sherwood 4/4 with 2 games remaining (against each other), D Witt & R Akrill 1/6.

For the 2018-19 season the BCCA are offering these events as webserver events for the first time!  These tournaments are unrated (as are all Thematic tournaments) and we are hoping that the switch to webserver will increase the number of players willing to give this event a try.

The themes for 2018-19 can be seen here  (scroll down). Controller Alex Relyea has provided an interesting mix of opportunities for gambit play. Please support this event by entering!

Renewal for the 2018-19 season with the chance the enter next season’s events will open on this website at the beginning of June.

The 5th British Webserver Team Tournament will start in July and I am raising BCCA teams to enter – open to all BCCA members so do you want to play? As usual, BCCA will be covering all entry fees, so it is free to members! Players must maintain their BCCA membership throughout the tournament.

The full tournament announcement can be seen here: https://www.welshccf.org.uk/

Each team consists of 4 players, and each player will probably play 6 games each. So it is more of a commitment than your usual friendly match. Last season, BCCA entered 8 teams (32 players) with mixed fortunes. Each season lasts about 18 months. You can see last season’s crosstables here:-

Division 1: https://www.iccf.com/event?id=63895
Division 2: https://www.iccf.com/event?id=63837
Division 3: https://www.iccf.com/event?id=63838
Division 4: https://www.iccf.com/event?id=63839

If you played for a team last season, I will be happy to include you in the same team (if you wish to be) provided you scored at least 50%. If you scored less than that, I reserve the right to move you to a different team. Spare places will be accorded on a rating basis.

For this coming season, the BCCA Knights & the BCCA Sovereigns will be in Division 1. The BCCA Kings will be in Division 2. The BCCA Griffins, BCCA Endgamers, BCCA Strategists will be in Division 3. The BCCA Tacticians & the BCCA Cavaliers will be in Division 4. If I have enough players for a new team (or teams), they may have to start in the lowest Division although the organisers will allocate spare places in a higher division to the top rated teams in a place becomes available.

If you wish to play, I ask you to be as flexible as possible (regarding the team you wish to play in, or the division you wish to play in) so that I can match up the teams strength-wise as much as possible, and to give everyone good enjoyable chess.

Please bear in mind that there may be one or two players who miss out if I don’t get exactly the right number of players as a multiple of 4.

One last thing: the tournament will use the new Triple Block Time control: full details can be found here: https://www.iccf.com/message?message=447

So, do you want to play? If yes, please let Neil Limbert know by June 3rd at the latest.

534 pages, Softcover £10.14 through Amazon

Highly recommended! Chess books specifically concerning correspondence chess are quite rare. Even rarer are game collections by specialist CC players, so this book is a very welcome addition to this list.

Mike Read was born in 1960 & was a strong junior chess player OTB in the 1970’s. It was in the late 70’s and early 80’s that Mike began to specialise in correspondence chess and this game collection covers games from 1978 to 2000, at which time Mike was forced to abandon competitive chess due to health issues.

Mike was a very strong player! He earned the ICCF Senior International Master Title & had an ICCF rating of 2571 at its best. All this without ever owning a computer or using one during his games. So this collection is very special as all the annotations come from Mike’s own brain, and his thoughts at the time.

This is a thick book! Over 500 pages for only a little over £10 is an excellent bargain at a time when most new chess books are £20 or thereabouts. The introduction lasts only four pages & there then follows a one page summary of his results in his competitive CC career. The rest of the book is jam-packed with games & annotations.

The quality and strength of his opponents grew as his career progressed and the book is laid out chronologically, so you will find the strongest opponents in the latter half of the book. Having said that, I really enjoyed playing some his early games where tactics abound! Some of these early opponents are still playing BCCA chess today such as Peter Tibbert, Iain Gould & Peter Coast. His later opponents include GM Tonu Tiits of Estonia, GM Matthias Rufenacht of Switzerland (still active & playing today) and GM (and World Champion) Joop van Oosterom of the Netherlands.

This book is strongly recommended for all players of all strengths, whether correspondence chess players or not. You cannot fail to learn from the quality of Mike’s annotations.

Robert Bruce has been awarded the BCCA Candidate Master Title after reaching the magical 20 CM points. Congratulations to Bob! These points were achieved over a 5 year period winning four Class 1 Trio’s, one Class 2 Trio, a Bronze Medal tournament &, just now, a Reserves section of the BCCA Championship.

The full list of BCCA Title holders can be seen here

The current Points totals of all BCCA members who have not yet been awarded a BCCA Title can be seen here