This is to let you know that the club is now closed for the summer season and will return in the autumn. We'll announce on the website when the club is due to reopen but this will normally be around September so check back then for further details on dates and venues.
Note that we've set the date for the 3rd Jurassic Rapidplay for Sat 18th October 2025 so please keep that day free for another great day of fast chess!
Thank you all for your support of the club for another year and we wish you every success in your chess endeavours over the summer!
It gives me great pleasure to report on some great performances from Seaton players in recent competitions. The first to report is Jon Underwood's great result of 2nd equal in the 5th Bournemouth Grand Open Congress, sharing the honours with a Fide Master and only being narrowly pipped for 1st by a Grand Master Daniel Gormally. Jon actually drew with Daniel in the last round and had a remarkable win against Billy Fellowes (weighing in with a rating of 2268), which Jon said "was the best he'd ever played!
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The game also caught the sight of GM Daniel Gornally who took the time to review the game on his YouTube blog so I would encourage you to watch Daniel go through this amazing game (without giving too much away, there's a queen sacrifice involved!)
The game is also on the website under the Games menu or follow the link here: Fellowes v Underwood 30 March 2025. Full results from the Bournemouth event can be found here.
I am also happy to report great results for Seaton players in the 2nd Bovey Tracey Rapidplay on the 5th April with Paul Hampton joint 1st in the Maestro section (results here) and Trevor Hurt joint first in the Improvers (results here). Click the links to see the full results.
NEXT MEETING Wed 9th April 2025
As before there are ongoing issues with the Gateway, so we will be meeting in a new venue for the time being: the Seaton Cricket Club Pavilion.
The address is: Court Lane, Seaton EX12 2AT, less than 10 mins walk from the previous venue.
To access the Pavilion, go through the picket gate by the side of Court Lane as shown in the image. There is some limited parking on Court Lane itself or otherwise you can park on the main Colyford Road/Fore Street.
Hopefully see you all there for a prompt start at 6.30pm!
Seaton Chess Club had great pleasure in hosting the first of the season's Devon teams' competitions.
This was a five round rapidplay event for the Newman Trophy with a time limit of 25 mins plus 10 seconds increment.
Six teams entered: along with Seaton there were two teams all the way from Barnstaple, Sidmouth, Exeter and Newton Abbot and so an all-play-all format was possible with the winner being the one with the most matchpoints.
The Barnstaple first team won the event with 10 points and were already confirmed winners when playing the last round.
There was more to play for to secure the second place with Seaton and Exeter vying for the honours. It all went down to the last match with Tim Paulden securing a win to edge Exeter ahead of Seaton by 1/2 game point.
Well done to Barnstaple and Exeter and we look forward to the next team event in the new year!
Thanks also to Jack Rudd for acting as arbiter, Tim Paulden for running the event and Steve Dean and Jon Underwood for organising the refreshments, venue and equipment.
Due to unforseen circumstances with our venue, the club is now closed for the season and will return some time in January 2025.
If you would like to continue playing over the board chess then Sidmouth Chess Club meets on Tuesday nights at the Blue Ball Inn in Sidford. Some of our members are playing there now also.
Please get in touch if you are interested and need help with travel.
Have a good Christmas break and keep playing!