More online tournaments and expanding local online chess communities
Tonight there will be another open East Anglian Chess ‘Arena’ tournament, which will switch to a speedier 5 minute format. Last week this event attracted more than over 200 entrants.
The arena format means that you can play as many or little games as you like within the allocated time. More information can be found on the help pages of the lichess.org website:
https://lichess.org/tournament/help?system=arena
Also, last Friday online chess organiser, Phil Hopkins, set up another 5 minute arena tournament, which featured over 150 participants. Phil is planning to keep both of these events running for the foreseeable future.
If you’re interested in taking part in these events, you can reach Phil via WhatsApp on 07912434358. Alternatively, you can join Team East Anglia and you will receive notifications about future events.
Team East Anglia
The East Anglian lichess online community is gaining more and more members. Once there are enough members there might be an opportunity to host some closed events, in addition to the existing open events. If you would like to become a member of the local online chess community, click on the link below to join:
https://lichess.org/team/east-anglian-chess
Suffolk Online Chess Clubs
The following Suffolk clubs have online chess communities:
- Bury St Edmunds Chess Club
- Clacton Chess Club
- Ipswich Chess Club
- Lowestoft Chess Club
- Saxmundam Chess Club
- Stowmarket Chess Club
- Woodbridge Chess Club
Is your club not listed? If so, please use the contact form to let us know.
Suffolk Junior Chess
Suffolk Junior Chess is doing a sterling job at running Friday night tournaments for Suffolk’s up-and-coming chess stars via the ChessKid.com platform. Tim Kent is regularly reporting about each week’s results on this website’s sister site:
http://www.suffolkjuniorchess.org/news
English Online Blitz
This event, to be held on chess.com will have a group stage on Saturday 9 May, with finals to be played Saturday 16 May. You must be a member of the ECF to take part and join the chess.com ECF members “club”, which you can find here. The time control will be 3|2. For more details and to register visit:
https://englishchessonline.org.uk/english-online-blitz-championships-2020/
European Online Chess Championship
The European Chess Union is holding the first European Online Chess Championship from May 16. This will be played on chess.com and is open to any member of a European national chess federation with a valid FIDE ID. There will be five separate rated sections, and all games will have a time control of 10|2. Entry costs 5 euros. For more details and to enter the event visit:
https://www.europechess.org/european-online-chess-championship-2020-regulations/
Magnus Carlsen Invitational
This event is now approaching the final stages, with just five more days to go including today. Tomorrow conclude the all-play-all portion of the event, with four going forwards to the semi-finals which, along with the final, take place over the following three days. Many were bemused, but also somewhat encouraged to see what happened between Carlsen and Nepomniachtchi in their first game yesterday, where Carlsen apparently had a complete mental blank and threw away a piece on move seven, with nothing to show for it. What’s the earliest you’ve blundered a piece? Each day the action begins at 3pm, with live commentary available at www.chess24.com from GM Peter Svidler and others.