Altrincham & Hale Chess Club
Minutes of the 2020 AGM held at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday 18th November 2020
1. Attendance
In view of Covid restrictions, the meeting was held online, via Zoom.
Attendees – Mark Hann, Tony Lane, Nick Lowe, Tom Tomkins (Chair), Steve Ward, Reg Clucas, Thomas Hague, Mike Pye
Apologies for absence – none
2. Minutes of the 2019 AGM were agreed as correct and accepted.
3. Matters arising
We did not proceed with the idea of having a fixed daily fee for infrequent visitors to the club.
4. Officers' reports
The various officers' reports had been circulated to the attendees prior to the meeting, and are included on the following pages.
Secretary's Report 2020
Not a lot to report this year. With regard to the points I made in last year's report, our new area for playing matches was OK, though at times subject to a bit of noise from the snooker room next door, and also rather cramped for 7 board matches, but it was just about adequate. The issue of how to accommodate our Summer League matches did not affect us this year, as Covid brought an end to all OTB chess activity long before the Summer competitions got underway.
Of course it is currently unknown when our club meetings will be able to resume. The recent announcements about Covid vaccines give cause for hope, but it is still likely to be some time before things get back to any kind of normality. And we don't know how the pandemic has affected the Woodheys Club – it may be that we find ourselves seeking a new venue. Hopefully not, but we are unlikely to be the only club which might face this kind of issue.
There has been a big movement to online chess during the pandemic, but not enough interest within our club to support a team in the 4NCL or MCF online leagues. We did manage to hold our club championship online, though with much reduced numbers. Mark will report on that competition. The Stockport League has recently announced it will hold an online competition, and a tentative survey of the membership showed a few more people willing to take part, so I have registered our interest with the league for this. More information will be available soon.
Let’s hope that 2021 is a lot better, for chess and everything else!
Reg Clucas 12th November 2020
2020 Manchester League Captain's report
Last year, after we finished 8th out 9, I reported our escape from relegation following the decision of MCF to expand Division A to 10 teams by promoting the Division B champions and scrapping Division A relegation. We approached our third season in the top flight in my 27th year of captaincy with a little less trepidation than last year, having notched up our first win and draw in that division last season. Moreover, 7 players had also managed to win a game to match the achievement of our only previous winner, Kurt Linke.
Our hopes for the new season were also boosted by Danilo’s return. However, that proved to be short lived, as he was only available for the first 2 matches. Moreover, our ever-present top board from last season, Mark Hann, was only available for our opening game. We were already without Mark Whalley who was no longer available to play on Tuesdays together with Kieran and Jeff who had all played last season. Vijay was added to the long list of unavailables when work took him out of the area after just 2 matches.
The season opened at Chorlton with Danilo winning well on top board, but the rest of the team managing just 2 draws between them to go down 5-2. Danilo lost in the next match at 3Cs, but a splendid win by Bill on bottom board, overturning a 48 point grading inferiority, and a draw from Vijay gave us 1½ points. We then exited the cup with a 6-1 defeat at Stockport where our mean grading was over 40 points lower than our opponents. The next two matches were 5½-1½ losses to 3Cs 2 and Great Lever despite board 1 wins for Reg in both matches. Our return to Stockport, who now outgraded us by over 60 points, saw me prevent a whitewash with a draw, which alongside my draw at Stockport in the cup, proved to be my sole point of the season. Our final match also ended with a 6½-½ defeat against Blue thanks to Dave Newell’s board 1 draw.
Covid19 then brought the season to an early close, denying us the opportunity of getting some points on the board by replicating last season’s win against Bolton 2 , but probably sparing us from further misery against their first team and Heywood.
Despite the many absentees this season we only defaulted on one board and the 15 players who represented us was only one short of the record number of players who turned out in 2003/04, a significant achievement given the truncated nature of the season. I was the sole person to suffer all 7 games, with Sheraz and Bill matching my single point from their 6 games. Reg played 5 matches and top scored for the team with 2½ points. In fact, his only defeats were to 209 rated Allan Beardsworth at Stockport. Steve went unrewarded from his 4 appearances, as did Nick and Mike Davies from 3 matches, Tom and Peter from 2, and Mark and Mike Reeves from 1. More successful from their 2 matches were Danilo and Vijay with a point each, and the Daves with half a point each.
All that remains is for me to thank all the team members once again for their support. Although they had little success last season, I’m sure the enforced break from OTB chess will have brought home to them just how much they miss the game. I do hope we will all be back in action again in the near future.
Tony Lane 14th October 2020
2020 Stockport League A team Captain's report
After our unexpected promotion to Division 1, we expected a hard season, and so it proved. When the season was suspended in March we had just one point from seven matches, and are practically certain to return to Division 2 when the competition eventually resumes.
Unfortunately our two top players, Mark and Danilo, were unavailable for the majority of our matches, which made it even more of a struggle. However from my personal point of view, this gave me the opportunity to play on top board several times, where I faced two FMs (Robert Shaw and Paul Macklin) and also Allan Beardsworth, who is one of the best players in the country without a FIDE title. My score from these three games was, predictably, zero!
There were high points to the season, however. Our Charnley Cup victory over Wilmslow was achieved after it had at one point looked like we would have to default on two boards, but Stuart and David stepped forward at short notice to help us to a narrow victory. And we came very close to upsetting League champions Chorlton in the following round. We did however hold them to a draw in the league, giving us our only league point.
As might be expected, our individual results do not make for impressive reading, playing against such high quality opposition, though several players scored 50% or better. In grade order, our results were: Danilo Soares 2 out of 3, Mark Hann 1/2, Reg Clucas 2½/9, Dave Newell 1½/3, Tony Lane 2/8, Sheraz Khalil 2/5, Tom Tomkins 0/1, Vijay Kakarparthi 0/1, Nick Lowe 1/2, Mike Davies 2/5, Stuart Sumner ½/2, Thomas Hague 0/1, Peter Hawes 1/3, Bill McCartney ½/5, David Ashby ½/3, Steve Ward 1/1. A total of 16 players, more than in the last few seasons despite the curtailment of the season. Thanks to everyone who turned out, at times it must have felt like being lambs to the slaughter!
It is not yet known how, or indeed whether, the unfinished 2019-20 Stockport League season will be resolved. It may be that OTB chess may resume in time for it to be completed in 2021, but obviously this will depend on many things, including vaccines, venues, clubs continuing to be viable, and players’ willingness to actually return to OTB chess.
Reg Clucas 12th November 2020
2020 Stockport League B team Captain's report
Firstly my thanks to the people who turned out to play for the team in this truncated season.
There were 6 teams in the league so we should have played 10 matches but our last game was the sixth against Northenden on 24th Feb which we won, which was fortunate as we had lost 4 and drawn one up to then. We finished bottom of the league.
The teams consisted of 5 players for each match and we did not default in any games until the last against Northenden. This had been postponed by Northenden but due to a fixture clash we could only field 3 players when the rearranged date was agreed. Reg had previously suggested that as the game was rearranged because of Northenden's inability to play the original date we agree the revised date on the understanding that the match be limited to the number of players we could field with both teams forfeiting other boards. Northenden sportingly agreed and we got our only win of the season.
We lost our first match to Marple away 3 - 2 and then lost 0 - 5 at home to Macclesfield in our next match. This was followed by a second loss again to Marple and again 2 – 3.
East Cheshire visited us to win ½ - 4 ½ but things picked up when we drew away at Urmston 2 ½ each.
Next and for the third time I mention our victory away at Northenden 2 - 0 to close our season. Where would we have reached if things had continued as our opening 4 losses were followed by a draw and then a win, were we finding our feet?
Ten players competed for the team. Tony Lane played 5 matches as did I. Tony played on board 1 each time whereas I played bottom board apart from one elevation for a draw on board 4. Tony won 1 and drew 2 and I won 2 and drew 2
Bill McCartney and newcomer David Ashby played 4 times. Bill on boards 2 and 3 with 2 draws. David on board 4 with 1 draw.
Mike Davies played 3 matches.
Peter Hawes and Nick Lowe played twice each with a win for Peter and a draw for Nick.
Tom Hague, Tom Tomkins and young Medha Alapati played once each with Tom Tomkins drawing his match.
Again my thanks to all who played.
Steve Ward 9th November 2020
2020 Competitions Organiser's report
This year’s Club Championship was held online. The time limit, as voted for by the participants, was 30 minutes per player for all moves. Six players took part in a double round-robin.
28 of the 30 games ended decisively, with only the two games between Dave and Mark ending with the point shared. Ultimately, these two players shared first place with 9/10, ahead of Reg and Tom who finished equal-third.
Mark Hann 12th November 2020
Addendum - The meeting discussed the possibility of holding the annual Blitz tournament online, although only four people have expressed an interest.
5. League Entries for 2020-21
In the current Covid restrictions, there is no prospect of any of the leagues resuming over the board play in the near future.
The Manchester League ran an online league during the Autumn, which is now complete, and is planning to run this again starting in January. As mentioned in the Secretary's report, there was not enough interest within our club to enter a team in the Autumn event, but a few people have now expressed an interest in the January event, so we will enter a team in that. Teams will be of four players, chosen from a maximum squad size of eight.
No details have yet been received of the proposed Stockport League online league.
6. Membership fees
As the club is not currently meeting, we have no outgoings at the moment, so we will not yet be charging any membership subscriptions for 2020-21. If our club meetings resume before the end of the subscription year (August 31st 2021) then we may need to charge a pro rata subscription to cover the venue rental. This may depend on the remaining subscriptions for 2019-20 being collected. Nick will contact members whose subscription for that year is outstanding.
7. Election of Officers
All officers indicated their willingness to continue and were elected nem con.
Secretary - Reg Clucas to continue
Treasurer - Nick Lowe to continue
Competition Organiser – Mark Hann to continue
New member representative - Steve Ward to continue
Manchester League Captain - Tony Lane to continue
Stockport League A team - Reg Clucas to continue
Stockport League B team- Steve Ward to continue
Summer League team - Tony Lane to continue
Summer Rapidplay League team - Mark Hann to continue
President - Tony Lane to continue
AGM Chair – Tom Tomkins to continue
In view of Covid, the various team captains' roles may not be required until after the next AGM!
8. Any other business
Approximately half of our ECF registered members have renewed their ECF memberships. This reflects the national trend, meaning that the ECF has a serious shortfall of funds. With no over the board chess happening, hence no need of the ECF's grading service, this is maybe understandable.
However it is worth pointing out that the ECF has introduced a 'Supporter' membership category, at £10, for those who do not want to renew at their previous higher category, but would like help out. This category also carries the benefit of allowing players to have their online games (in online leagues) rated.