Broadstairs Chess Club ended the 2025 / 26 chess season with the holding of its AGM at the Bradstow Mill on the 3^rd August 2026. The Club Secretary reported at the AGM that next year 2027 will be the Club’s 140^th year anniversary of its founding in 1887.

The Club 139^th year had been a particularly busy year in terms of events and happenings with the pleasure of welcoming new members (new members are always welcome). Sadly, the club had lost a number of past members. The loss and death of Robin McMillan in January of this year came as a shock. Manoj had left the club after many years with Broadstairs when he decided to relocate back to India. Outside of the Club, key chess enthusiasts that died included Harry Sharples, again in January and Bob Pooley a little earlier over Christmas.

No League trophies were won by the club this year but all enjoyed Samuel’s success as he continued to cross off his chess goals and ambitions including achieving the status and recognition from the English Chess Federation (ECF) of being a National Master whilst still a Junior.

The AGM concluded with the presentation of trophies and the congratulations to the winners of the various internal competitions as detailed below.

 

Goodall Cup. The Club Championship open to members only. Winner Samuel Marsden with a100% record with 12 wins from 12 games

Zielinski Shield. Presented to the best performing player in the bottom half of the competition. Winner Paul Verrall 8 points from 13 games.

John Cutting Trophy Rated Swiss played in the summer.  Open to non- club members A minimum of 5 rounds and maximum of 16 rounds. The winner on the basis of best rating performance, was Michael Jenkinson with +46.8.

Robert Page Rapid Play
Rated six round rapid play Swiss, 11 minutes for each player. Open to non- club members the winner again this year was Timofey Selyukov with a total of 6 out of 6 100% record who had come down from Scotland to play.

John Couzens Vase
This is an unrated handicap knockout competition based on the difference in rating between the two players and was won by Paul Carfrae

George Stiggers Trophy Presented to the player whose published rating increases most from August to August. The winner was Max Dinley rating increased by 172

Richard Pilcher Prize Presented to the player with the best score in League competitions which was won by Max Dinley with 4.5 points out of 5 games with a 90%-win record

Reg Pidduck 50 Blitz.  Winner of the Blitz was Samuel Marsden with 5.5 points from 6 games.

Broadstairs Chess Club (founded in 1887) meets on Mondays at 7.30pm upstairs at the Bradstow Mill, High St, Broadstairs. New members are always welcome (we have started coaching sessions  7.00pm – 7.30pm). For more information contact Andrew Flood 07880 724893, email andrewflood042@gmail.com

Doesn’t time fly, it seems like only yesterday that we were celebrating the Christmas buffet at the club and the Reg Pidduck 50 Blitz tournament. But here we are in April at Easter and well on the way to completing another chess season and series of league matches and internal tournaments.

We had the Robert Page Rapid Play Tournament in March which was again won by Tim who came down from Scotland won all 6 rounds joining current and past club members together with a number of invited Guests.

Since my last website post, we have seen the passing of Harry Sharples, who quietly contributed so much to local chess and helped so many youngsters through the various Junior Chess Clubs he ran. We also learnt of the passing away of Robin McMillan, who was a Broadstairs chess club member for a number of years, despite living in France. He maintaned his club membership and regularly visited Broadstairs to the extent and he took part in our  Club competitions as well as representing and playing for Broadstairs Chess Club in the league when in the country. We will surely miss both Robin and Harry.

We are always on the lookout for new members and are very pleased to recently have had two new members joining the club. As ever we do our very best to look after new members so they fully participate in the internal club competitions and, if they wish, play in our league teams and league competitions.  Each year we operate around half a dozen internal competitions and currently have 4 league teams.

It will be no time at all before our AGM in July is upon us, although before then we will be starting our Summer Swiss Tournament which is a flexible fun tournament where all have an outside chance of winning. So, if you enjoy playing chess and want to improve or just play for fun or test how good you are or can become, then why not come along to our club night on a Monday.

Happy Easter from Andrew Flood Secretary Broadstairs Chess Club

 

 

Broadstairs Chess Club (founded in 1887) meets on Mondays at 7.30pm upstairs at the Bradstow Mill, High St, Broadstairs. New members are always welcome (we have started coaching sessions  7.00pm – 7.30pm). For more information contact Andrew Flood 07880 724893, email andrewflood042@gmail.com

You could ask yourself where did the last year go or indeed in Reg’s case the last 51 years at Broadstairs Chess Club?

Well, we finished 2025 in our now traditional way with the Christmas Buffet feast fit for a King and of course the now established Reg Pidduck 50 Blitz Tournament 2025 which went pretty much to the form book, with the club’s top 5 players / former players registering the highest number of wins and points from a maximum of 6.

(1) Samuel Marsden 5.5 ,  (2) David Hamblin 5,  (3) Jasper Jeffs 4.5 (4)  Paul Carfrae 4,

(4) Dominic Blundell 4

We welcomed back Jasper to the club who was on his break from Exeter University who magicked a draw against Samuel to deny Samuel a perfect score, but Samuel’s near perfect 5.5 points was sufficient to retain the trophy. Dominic returned to the club for the celebrations, as did Reg whose celebration of being a Broadstairs Chess Club member for 50 years begot the trophy. In a field of 15 players one of the best performance of the evening must have been that of Fredy Reber who scored a respectful 3 points. We missed Manoj who is now living in India, so a little too far to commute for him.

Hopefully 2026 will see a thriving Thanet and East Kent Chess League, particularly given the recent appointment and filling of various vacant posts.

Thanks to Chess and Bridge who continue to sponsor Broadstairs Chess Club which now enters its 139thYear. The answer to the riddle is of course Broadstairs Chess Club at Christmas.

Happy new year (also happy not to impose copyright requirements on the Christmas cracker type riddle).

 

 

Broadstairs Chess Club (founded in 1887) meets on Mondays at 7.30pm upstairs at the Bradstow Mill, High St, Broadstairs. New members are always welcome (we have started coaching sessions  7.00pm – 7.30pm). For more information contact Andrew Flood 07880 724893, email andrewflood042@gmail.com

The start of the new chess season began earlier this month with both internal competitions (Club Championship) and the Thanet and East Kent Chess league matches taking place.

The Broadstairs Chess Club AGM in August concluded the 2024/ 25 season, a season in which Samuel Marsden won a number of competitions including the Club Championship (winning all 14 of his games), George Stiggers Trophy, Richard Pilcher Prize and the Reg Pidduck 50 Blitz.

Other competition winners were Paul Verrall  (Zielinski Shield), David Marsden  (John Cutting Trophy), Timofey Selyukov (Robert Page Rapid Play) and Manoj Natarajan ( John Cousens Vase)

Broadstairs Chess Club were the 2024/25 winners of two Thanet and East Kent Chess League competitions, winning the Hargreaves Shield and Jamboree Shield.

Last Tuesday (16.9.25) saw the club secure a 2 – 2 draw at Sandwich with an outstanding performance from Fredy Reber in achieving a drawn game on Board 4 against a much higher rated opponent.

 

Broadstairs Chess Club. The Chess Club meets on Mondays at 7.30pm, upstairs at the Bradstow Mill, High Street, Broadstairs. New members are always welcome. For more information contact Andrew Flood 07880 724893, email: andrewflood042@gmail.com

What turned out to be great week for Broadstairs chess club started with the Robert Page Rapid play Tournament 2025, and Bob’s return to Broadstairs where he was club Secretary for in excess of 25 years between 1993 and 2021. A smart new trophy was the prize up for grabs with an exceptionally strong field of 22 players. Plenty of Broadstairs old boys took part, for David Faldon a first return to playing chess since the Covid lockdown. The hot favourites to win were Tim Krassel and club Champion Samuel Marsden. Tim Krassel came out on top with a perfect 6 wins from 6 games beating Samuel in a close game in their head to head encounter winning the end game in a close match. Samuel came second with 5 points from 6 games, with Bob Page coming in joint third along with four other players which featured three Broadstairs old boys and former club members.

Krassel, Tim              6  pts
Marsden, Samuel     5  pts
Blundell, Dominic   4  pts
Page, Robert G        4  pts
Natarajan, Manoj   4  pts
Faldon, David         4  pts
Couzens, John        4  pts

So, what made the week fantastic I hear you ask? Well, our club Champion Samuel who is a junior was making his debut for England at the International ChessMates Tournament which was held in York at the weekend and he managed to finish the Tournament undefeated with 3 wins and 2 draws scoring a fantastic 4 points from 5 games.