Another great turnout at junior club this week, and great to so many kids participating and having fun with this great game. Also a good turnout at senior club, including three new faces. We played the first night of our annual Freebird event, played with a 10m + 5 s time format. After three rounds David P leads on 3, followed by Ross, Guy and David S on 2. Full results from the night can be found here. 

For those who might not know, our website  https://kapitichess.club/  holds heaps of interesting stuff about the Club, including latest news, events and results, games, and a large club photo collection, from now going back to the Club’s beginnings in the late 1980’s. You can check this out here: https://kapitichess.club/photos/

For the aspiring juniors in the club, it was interesting to see this week two 8 year-olds beat the the world record (one a few days after the other) for the youngest person to ever beat a Chess Grandmaster. You can read about it here:   https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/feb/20/eight-year-old-beats-chess-grandmaster-youngest. Showing Chess is one of the few games where young and old can often compete on even terms.  

Opening night for junior chess was buzzing with 28 members playing some fun casual games. We also extended a warm welcome to 8 new members who seemed to really enjoy themselves. Next week will be another casual night before we get down to business with the first tournament of the year! More on this to follow.

In the senior  club, we held our opening night AGM followed by some casual chess. The Club reported a successful year for 2023 with highlights including a booming junior club, record turnouts for it’s two open tournaments, a strong online presence, and a healthy financial position. The committee, fees and calendar of events for 2024 were set, along with some great discussion and ideas on a range of other business. However, the highlight of the night was the awarding of a Life Membership to long-time Club stalwart Guy Burns. More on that in an upcoming post. A record of the AGM will be posted here soon. Next week we’re back into business with our annual Freebird tournament.