Chess Harbord Diggers

HARBORD DIGGERS CHESS

Owing to the Coronavirus and Covid-19 situation the chess playing activities of the Harbord Diggers Chess Club have been curtailed considerably.

CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP 2020

In March 2020 when chess playing activities were suspended because of the Coronavirus, the 2020 Club Championship Tournament was in progress. Chess activities were resumed in late October 2020 and we were able to complete the 2020 Club Championship event by Christmas 2020. The Club Champion for 2020 was Shane Dibley and coming second and third respectively were Michael Courtney and James Burt.

CLUB BLITZ TOURNAMENT 2021

The first tournament for 2021 was the Blitz Championship, comprising games of five minutes per player and in equal first place were Shane Dibley and Thomas Ban. Shane Dibley won the play-off game. In third place was Sean McDonald.

SIMULTANEOUS EXHIBITION

On 15 February 2021, Shane Dibley, our 2020 Club Champion conducted a Simultaneous Exhibition against 14 Club Members. Shane and the Club Members won six and eight games respectively.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Our Annual General Meeting was held on 22 February 2021 and Pam Hansen from the Harbord Advisory Council/ Mounties chaired the Meeting. The existing Office-Bearers were re-elected and Pam Hansen and Club President Chris Dimock presented the prizes and awards.

CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS 2021

In equal first position were Michael Courtney and Lucas Ni, a nine year old junior. The play-off resulted in a draw, so there were joint Club Champions for 2021. In equal third position were Chris Dimock, Hans Schwandl, David Cook, Jozsef Gonda and Bob Quek.

WINTER RAPID TOURNAMENT

This tournament (25 minutes per player plus increments of 10 seconds per move) commenced on 17 May 2021and was scheduled for 18 weeks of play, but play ceased when the State Government introduced lockdown restrictions which are still in force at the time of writing this report. Leading scores when the tournament stopped were Michael Courtney 8, David Cook 7 ½, Chris Dimock 7.

CENTENARY SHIELD MATCH – HD CHESS CLUB V NORTHS CHESS CLUB

The Little Board Match against norths chess club for the Centenary Shield has been a competition played every year since 2005 and in 2019 Harbord Diggers Chess Club won the competition, it being our second win in the history of the event.

MEMBERSHIP

This year has seen our membership increase by twelve, three of whom are juniors.

WEBSITE

Our Webmaster, Hugh Allen has been updating our website and it is well worth a visit at www.harborddiggerschessclub. org.au Enquiries are welcome. Call in at 7.30pm on Monday nights at the Community Room, Harbord Diggers/Mounties Club, 80 Evans Street, Freshwater or contact our President, Chris Dimock on 02 9905 3036 (H), 02 9221 8390 (W), 0412 052 399 (M) or email him at cjd@dimockslaw.com.au.

TOM ACCOLA Club Secretary