BREAKING NEWS: Strand Chess Club wins Silver King league Champions 2020

BREAKING NEWS: Strand Chess Club wins Silver King, the coveted Division 1 trophy awarded to Champions of the Belfast & District Chess League. It is the second year in a row that the mighty East Belfast team has dominated the local chess scene with it’s  blend of youth development and top local chess champions.

This season saw the introduction of Robbie Wright (1930) from Essex who scored an impressive 5/6 on Board 2 in his debut season in Northern Ireland. He has won the Board 2 prize with an outstanding success rate of 83%.

Adopting a team strategy to constantly confound the opposing team captains, Strand 1 rotated their Board 1s, each delivering excellent results, from Daniil Zelenchuk to Calum Leitch and Gabor Horvath.

Board 3 rotated between Ross Harris and Brendan Jamison, the club directors of Strand. Meanwhile, Modestas Razbadauskas and David Hill played Boards 4 and 5 respectively. David delivered some outstanding performances with an 83% win ratio to secure the Board 5 trophy.

John Bradley and Conor Spackman also offered great support as reserves for the first team, both delivering key wins to secure match victories.

The final Division 1 table:

Strand 1 = 50.0 / 10

Fruithill Hawks = 44.5 / 10

Northern Lights = 33.0 / 10

Ballynafeigh 1 = 33.0/ 10

Belfast South 1 = 26.5 / 10

Lisburn = 21.0 / 10

Division 1 Board Prizes:

Board 1 Nick Pilkiewicz 6/9 = 67%

Board 2 Robbie Wright 5/6 = 83%

Board 3 Robert Lavery 6.5/8 = 81%

Board 4 Paul McNaughton 5.5/8 = 69%

Board 5 David Hill 5/6 = 83%

The Division 1 Rapid league will begin at the end of February. This will feature two games per night, each lasting one hour, with players having 30 minutes each to complete all their moves. All the same rules as the classic league will apply except that players do not need to record their moves. Classic ratings will be used for any players without a UCU rapid rating. Shields, individual trophies and board prizes will be awarded in both divisions of rapid league. The full timetable can be viewed online here:

http://www.chessni.co.uk/league2019to2020.html

Photo caption: pictured left to right: Strand 1 Captain Brendan Jamison, Dexter Harris, David Hill, Club Director Ross Harris, Blake Harris, Robbie Wright, Calum Leitch and Modestas Razbadauskas.