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.

Wishing All a Merry Christmas and Happy 2025 from 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

The Club’s Christmas Celebration (16/12/24) this year incorporated a new annual Blitz Tournament, The Reg Pidduck 50 Tournament, which celebrates Reg’s 50 years as a member of Broadstairs Chess Club.

It was both an individual and team competition with The Reggie’s taken on The Ronnie’s. As anticipated it was a highly successful night for the Reggie’s Team who proved too strong winning 15.5 v 9.5. Reg captained a formidable team with the best performances of the evening coming from Club Champion Samuel Marsden (5/5) and Paul Carfrae (4/5).

Bob Cronin put in the best performance of the evening in the “Now and when Reg joined Broadstairs Chess Club,” Quiz scoring 14 from 17.

When Reg joined the Club the world’s population at approximately 4 billion was half of its current size and you could pick up a house in London for £12,000, there were no mobile phones and Broadstairs Chess Club was only 88 years old (founded in 1887).

Broadstairs Chess Club finished the 2024 programme of league matches the following day (17/12/24) with a good 3 – 1 win by the Steele Cup team away to Sandwich.

Broadstairs 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

Broadstairs chess team visited Bridge for a Miller Cup match missing a few of their highest rated players, but nonetheless managed to come close to gaining a result, certainly closer than the final score would suggest.

Bridge fielded an exceptionally strong team, outrating Broadstairs on all seven boards.

First to finish was Board 7, then Board 6 and then Board 4, resulting in Bridge taking an early 3 – 0 lead, before things started to take an unexpected turn. Samuel on Board 1 achieved the first Broadstairs score with a very solid draw against his highly rated opponent.

Bob Cronin on Board 5 got an unexpected win against his opponent who had 508 more rating points. In what was overall an excellent game of good solid chess by Bob, he held his own in the opening and middle game before going into an end game which started off as a likely looking draw but soon deteriorated into a likely lost end game. He managed however to shock and checkmate his opponent to claim a win.

At 3.5 v 1.5 all eyes were on the remaining 2 games where Broadstairs Chris Stampe and Paul Carfrae both had the edge and the better positions against their opponents. With too many good moves to choose from Paul managed to find the one wrong move which effectively gave his opponent the win against the run of play.

Last game to finish was on Board 2 which saw Chris Stampe lose the end game of a match that had been played to a high standard and had presented opportunities for Chris to get a positive result.

The  final score of 5.5 v 1.5 and a Bridge win did not reflect the closeness of the encounter.