16th October 2022 – 5th Weekend Crewe Congress
This weekend (14-16 October) has seen our club make up 22 of the 116 contingent at our 5th weekend congress. The new venue at the Mornflake Stadium has proved to be a resounding success, in the words of FIDE Arbiter Peter Purland, one of the best venues he has come accross in a very extensive Arbiting career !
Many thanks go to all the players that atteneded our congress over this weekend. Our own club made up almost 20% of the players involved, but it is the support of all the players travelling from various parts of the country that make us so proud to host the congress. A significant number from Shropshire’s area (17 players) and 15 from our own local North Staffs League helped swell our numbers in the face of stiff competition from the 4NCL’s Congress at Hull.
Thanks go to the Arbiting team of Peter and Glynis Purland, without whom the event could not go ahead. Our book supplier Howard who went the extra mile to collect the congress equipment from the hospitalised Gareth Ellis, and the army of volunteers thas kept us refreshed over the weekend under the guidance of Nigel and Lindsay Gardner.
Congratulations to the following:
Open – Winner Jonathan Blacburn; Runner-up Ali Jaunooby and 3rd place Simon Gilmore/Bruce Baer; Grading prize Jarek Czyz.
Major – Winner Andrew Raeburn/Karl Lockett; 3rd place Martin Burns/Richard Bryant/Mark Taylor/David Patrick; grading prize Chris Hankey
Inter – Winners Dylan Cooper/Julian Hawthorne; 3rd place Neville Layhe; grading prize Chris Rhodes
Minor – Winner Stephen Gaskell; Runner-up Leila Feiz/Nic Wright; grading prize Chris Willett
Crewe held its 3rd Rapidplay Congress at the Ibis Style Hotel 22nd May 2022
Another very successful congress 7 rounds 20 minutes plus 10 second increments a total of 115 players took part.
Open section had 23 Players full results
1st GM Nigel Davies with 6.5 points
2nd IM Gediminas Sarakauskas 5.5 points
3rd Bruce Baer 5 points
Grading prize Thomas Carroll 4.5 points
Major Section had 24 players full results
1st Kevin Winter 5.5 points
2nd Joint Martin Burns, Bartosz Fajfer and Christopher Lewis 5 points
Grading prize Michael J Coffey 4.5 points
Intermediate section had 31 players full results
1st Alex Royle 6 points
2nd Barry Edgar 5.5 points
3rd joint Sai Pavan Telukuntla and Joe Conway-Lees 5 points
Grading prize Andrew Mowat 4.5 points
Minor section had 37 player full results
1st joint Alexander Burke and Joshua Morris 6 points
3rd joint Jeff Wilson, Becky Kerton, David Fisher, Jeffrey Foy and George Bulbeck 5 points
Grading prize Nick Royle 5 points
4th Crewe Chess Congress at the IBIS Styles Hotel 27th – 29th September 2019
Many thanks to everyone that attended our congress
There were 142 competitors spread pretty evenly over the four sections (Open, U 165, U135, U105) including a star studded cast for the FIDE-rated Open which had One IM,4 FMs and 2 CMs .
It was great to receive so many positive comments. Thanks go to Matthew Carr for a fantastic job again.
We hope everyone enjoyed the congress and we hope too see you all next year.
Open winners
Joint 1st IM Brandon Clarke and CM Rajat Makkar 4.5 points
3rd Leysaa Bin-Suhayl 4 points
Grading Prize Damian Mccarthy 3 points
Open: Results
2nd Crewe Rapid Play at the IBIS Styles Hotel 19th May 2019
Today has seen the club’s 2nd Rapid-play congress take place at the local Ibis Styles Hotel with 91 players in attendance, a 10% increase on our first RP congress last year. This year had 4 sections and featured a longer competition over 7 rounds.
The Open Section with 16 players had a star-studded cast one GM, two IMs and one FM.
1st Place GM Nigel Davies with a clean sweep 7 points out of 7 games
2nd Place IM Nikolav Milchev with 5.5 point
3rd Place FM Jonathon Blackburm with 4.5 points
Grading Prize winner Peter Jowett with 4 points
Open : Results
The Major Section for grades U165 had 25 entries
1st place Sam Davies with 5.5 points
2nd place Oleg Cukovs and Richard Szwajkun Joint winners both scoring 5 points
Grading Prize winner Joe Hirst with 4.5 points
Major : Results
The Intermediate Section for grade U135 had 19
1st place Anthony Tatar with 6 points
2nd place Simon Layhe and Robert Owens Joint winners both scoring 5.5 Points
Grading Prize winner Leslie Fancourt scoring 4 points
Inter : Results
The Minor Section for grade U105 had the most entries with 32
1st place Nigel Gardner, Radu Tatar and Daniel-Love Hiditch all joint winners scoring 5.5 points
1st Grading Prize winner George Jellis with 4.5 points
2nd Grading Prize winner Sam Burchett with 4 points
Minor : Results
3rd Crewe Chess Congress at the IBIS Styles Hotel 12th – 15th October 2018
Many thanks to everyone that attended our congress and to all the players who travelled the length and breadth of the country to join us, from places a far as the Isle of Man, Scotland and London plus many other places across the country. It was great to receive so many positive comments. Thanks go to Matthew Carr for a fantastic job.
We attracted 141 players and we hope everyone enjoyed the weekend.
We hope you will all return for our rapid congress in may and our 4th Crewe Chess Congress October next year.
List of winners below click on the link for full results
Open Section
Joint winners with 4 points Dietmar Kolbus, Stuart Clarke and Jacob Boswell
Grading prize 3 points Athar Ansari
Major Section
Winner with a clean sweep 5 points Karl Lockett
Joint second with 3.5 Points David Patrick, Steven Potter, Sam Davies, Reg Clucas, John Ryan, Micheal Connor, David Boulden, Neville Layhe.
Grading Prizes with 3 points Stephen Lloyd and Sam Parry on 2.5 points
Intermediate Section
Winner with 4.5 points Jozef Nemcek
Joint second with 4 points Gary White and Steve Edwards
Grading prize winners both with 3.5 points Alan Kelly and John Waller
Minor Section
Winner with a clean sweep 5 points Harry Gardiner
Second with 4.5 Lewis Chatten
Third with 4 points Martin Cockerill
Grading prize with 3.5 points Lukasz Michalek and Martin Ayres with 3 points
Crewe Congress full Results
Also thank you to all the players for any donations .
Crewe Chess Club held it’s first Rapid play congress at the IBIS Styles Hotel Sunday 20th May 2018
The event had 4 sections and a total of 82 players took part
Open Section
Winner Mike J Surtees 5.5 out of 6
Second place was IM Lawrence Cooper 5 out of 6
Third was Jonathan LB Blackburn 4.5 out of 6.
The grading prize was won by Colm Buckley
Major Section
Winner Oleg Cukovs 5.5/6
Second John Hall 5/6
Third Richard Szwajkun 4/6.
The grading prize was won by Micheal Owen 3.5/6.
Intermediate Section
Joint Winners David Pickup and Karl Lockett both 5/6.
Joint third place was Michael J Fisher and Andrew Townsend both 4.5/6.
The grading prize was won by Philip Shaugnessy 3/6.
Minor Section
Joint Winners Nick D Holmes and Simon Layhe with 5/6.
Joint Third Andrew Beswick and Terry Sulivan 4.5/6.
The grading prize was shared between Richard Bohm and Stuart Hamilton
Crewe Rapid Play Full results of all sections Results
Crewe 2nd Congress 13th-15th October 2017
We attracted 110 players and I hope everyone enjoyed the weekend
and we hope you will all return next year.
List of winners below click on the link for full results
Open
First Place shared between Jonathon Blackburn and Stuart Clarke
Third Place shared between Francis Rayner and Jonah Willow
Grading Prize Tim Hilton
Major
First Place Robert Clegg
Second Place shared between Ifan Rathbone-Jones and Martyn Harris
Grading Prize Steve Lloyd
Intermediate
First Place shared between Chris Rhodes, Khalid Khokhar, Lukasz Holcman and David Buckell
Grading Prize shared between Samuel Parry and Brian Crompton
Minor
First Sajjad Afifi-Dehghan
Second Place Colin Gardiner
Third Place shared between Alan Kelly and Dennis Bonner
Grading Prize Nigel Gardner
HOLCMAN AND RHODES SHARE 1ST PRIZE AT HOME CONGRESS
The club’s star performers were Lukasz Holcman(playing his first ever congress) and Chris Rhodes who were involved in a 4-way tie for 1st prize in the Intermediate section (U135) despite being ranked 8th and 21st respectively at the outset. Both players finished with scores of 4/5 with Lukasz performance rating at 140 (compare to current grade 123) and Chris at 156 (compare to 111).
The other prize winner was Nigel Gardner also making his congress debut, ignoring childhood events from some time ago. He collected the grading prize in the Minor Section scoring 3/5 with a rating performance of 99 compared to current grade of 70.
Other players with notable scores include Congress Administrator Neville Layhe with a creditable 50% and a performance of 156 vs current grade of 137 in the Major Section (U165). Doug Barnett scored 3/5 in the Intermediate section, with Richard Renegade and Dave Price scoring 2.5 in the same section. Junior Harry Gardiner was the lowest graded player in the whole congress, but should be proud of his score of 2/5 in his first ever senior congress with a performance rating 20 pts above his current grade and finishing in joint 18th position out of 28.
Many thanks should go to the Congress Team of Neville Layhe, Les Hall and Dave Price together with Matthew Carr (I.A) as the Arbiter. We have received many delightful messages from players including one from Alan Riddle playing in the Minor section which is shown below:
Hi Neville,
I’ve attended quite a number of congresses over the last few years but this is the first time I’ve felt motivated to contact the Organisers afterwards to congratulate them on a successful event and thank them for providing it.
The congress was friendly and well-run (good teamwork?) and the venue was excellent – even the special snack menu was reasonably-priced. Overall it is difficult to find anything to fault.
Something I specially liked was that the upper limit for the Minor was only 104. This must have boosted entries from lower-grade players like me. It was a welcome change from events where the Minor goes up to 120, 130 or even 135. At those events players graded under, say, 90, know that they are going to be hopelessly outgraded in least the first 2 rounds and the most they can ever look forward to is a grading prize. Please don’t ever think of raising that limit above 104!
Thanks again – I hope to be back next year.
Best wishes,
Alan Riddle
Below some photos taken during the Congress
Playing room 1 Playing room 2
Playing room 3 Mike Surtees and Mark Whitehead
Jon Blackburn Dick Martin
Brian Crompton Rich Wiltshir
Tim Soar and Paul Bamford