Theo Todman's Chess Page
(Text as at 27/06/2020 17:15:22)
Introduction
- For years I’d been thinking of returning to chess after a very long lay-off; effectively since my school days. Now, it seems, I’ve actually done so.
- For my background as a chess-player at school and early adulthood – when I showed some aptitude – see Theo Todman's Chess Background3.
- An incentive to return to the game has always been that my brother-in-law4 runs the Albany Club in the Middlesex and London Leagues and he’s keen for me to play, though doing so would involve rather a slog in travelling back and forth.
- Also, one of my former Bridge partners might be thinking of returning to Chess now that he’s retired, having been of a similar standard to me, though having played more recently5.
- However, I’ve now joined the Billericay Chess Club6, which I’ve found very welcoming, and also the ECF, so I can get graded7.
- I intend to play – as and when selected – for the Billericay A Team in the North Essex Chess League Division 2 and for the B Team in Division 3. Also for the Billericay I Team in Southend & District Chess League and in the Billericay Chess Club Championship (though this competition expired mid-season).
- Follow This Link8 for my most recent Status Report. I produce them Quarterly.
Useful Links
Chess YouTube
- Over time, I intend to add many series of videos in this section.
- For now, just see the links to “Hutch: Chess with GM Tal Baron” contained in:-
→ "Chess - Chess - YouTube Videos".
Summary of Progress to Date (since October 2018)
- I have now provided statistics similar to those for my Bridge9 activities. For these follow THIS LINK. There are – in some cases – onward links to the actual games.
- Similar statistical information – but not the games – also comes “free” with The ECF Grading Database. There are plans to update this monthly from the beginning of 2020 - see ECF Monthly Grading Proposal. However, currently it can be more than 6 months out of date. The advantage of the ECF data is that it provides information on the opponents.
- Enough for now to say that in 18Q4 I played 7 gradable games – 2 in the Southend League Division 1, 1 in the NECL Division 3, and 4 in the Billericay Club Championship, winning 4 and drawing 3 for an average rating of 151 which was confirmed by the ECF by the end of January 2019.
- Since then I’ve played a further 17 games, which is good, but my results have nose-dived somewhat, and my rating is trending towards 129.
- These results are viewable by following the links above.
- In the case of the ECF site, search on my name. Then click on the Ref and then - at the bottom of the page - on the pink-coloured bar10.
In-Page Footnotes:
Footnote 4: Footnote 5:
- Though not sufficiently recently to appear on the ECF database (unless he should be the Colin Scott who played for Thurrock between 1994 and 2002, rated 124 dropping to 106, which isn’t what he told me!).
Footnote 6:
- I have to admit that the chess scene in Billericay initially seemed somewhat unexciting. I visited Billericay Chess Club on 6th April 2011. There was a club match, so I couldn’t play any of the better players, but played a keen but not very competent young man who hadn’t make the cut. It was interesting to see how rusty I was, though I won all four games. I had a chat with one of the committee-members afterwards, and left my email address. For some reason, I didn’t hear back. However, I’ve subsequently (July 2018) made contact again and am now a fully signed-up and enthusiastic member.
- The Billericay Club has an excellent website: see Billericay Chess Club. It seems to go into a hiatus around November each year as its webmaster is very busy, but revives when the new season starts.
- The club meets on Wednesdays at 19:30, now at Anisha Grange. The room is very cheap, but rather too small, so can’t accommodate a club night if there’s a home league match on.
- The website describes the club as having 13 active members with teams in the North Essex and Southend & District Leagues.
- The club is not very strong: see the link on the NECL site (NECL: Billericay - 2018).
- At one time there was an IM (Richard Pert – BCF: Richard Pert, FIDE: Richard Pert; twin brother of GM Nick Pert (Wikipedia: Nick Pert); main club Wood Green) rather loosely connected to the club by the look of things – but he’s no longer listed. The NECL site for 2017/8 listed a couple of Junior Perts; a family connection – as is confirmed by the BCF link above. However, they’ve shifted allegiance to get more games.
Footnote 7:
- But I don’t intend to get obsessed with gradings, but just want to play well and enjoy the game.
Footnote 10:
- There appears to be a bug, as it currently (3rd June 2019) says 'No result details this year'. But if you then click on the previous year (for which there really are no results) and THEN on the current year, they will pop up.
- I've raised this with the ECF! They had hoped to fix this along with the next revision, sometime later in April 2019, but don’t seem to have done so.
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Text Colour Conventions
- Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2024