Norfolk Chess
This is the web site of the Norfolk County Chess Association it is intended to provide useful information to members of the NCCA and to people who are interested in playing chess in the County of Norfolk. It is linked to the county magazine En Passant web-site though to get the real value of this super magazine you may be better to subscribe.
The Object of the NCCA is to organise, encourage and promote adult and junior chess throughout Norfolk, including appropriate surrounding areas, and to represent players and clubs from that area by affiliating to the English Chess Federation (ECF) and the East Anglian Chess Union (EACU). The Associations consitution is available here.
Latest news
Great Yarmouth Congress 26th and 27th April 2025
The 2025 Congress will be held at Great Yarmouth Racecourse, the same venue as last year. The entry form can be found in Calendar. Please note that there is an online entry form that I would prefer you to use as it populates a spreadsheet and also updates a list of the entrants on the NCCA website.
A copy of the entry form is with the Calendar entry.Norfolk Championship
All Games from this years Norfolk Championship and a selection from the Challengers with some annotations by Dave LeMoir and Mike Read are now available on the Analysis page.
New Trophy Honours Norfolk’s ‘Mr Chess’
At the Norfolk County Chess Association (NCCA) AGM on Wednesday June 5th, John Wickham – much to
his own surprise – was honoured by the announcement of a new trophy bearing his name.
It is for the winners of the most prestigious of all Norfolk chess competitions – the Norfolk League first division – and was
organised behind John’s back by a group of conspirators on the NCCA Committee.
In his speech (on behalf of the conspirators) to the meeting, Jeff Dawson explained that there has for some time been a feeling within
the committee and the county in general that John Wickham deserves some sort of formal recognition for the tremendous amount of work
that he does for and on behalf of Norfolk chess.
He then embarked on the job of listing many of the roles that John performs for us:
Organising and running the Norfolk Rapidplay, Blitz and Closed Individual Championships, and the Great Yarmouth Congress.
Chairing the NCCA and the EACU, performing as Norfolk delegate to the EACU and EACU’s delegate to the ECF.
At the ECF (formerly BCF) he has undertaken many official duties too.
He is now a qualified FIDE Arbiter, and has officiated at many events outside Norfolk, including the British Chess Championships,
the EACU Closed Congress and the EACU FIDE Congress.
As Jeff pointed out, John is Mr Norfolk Chess, and has been active on our Committee for at least forty years. He was Treasurer when your editor was on the Committee, and
held that post for many years.
To mark the first presentation of this prestigious trophy, the conspirators invited Norfolk’s most prestigious
player, Owen Hindle. Jeff then launched into a list of Owen’s achievements:
seventeen times Norfolk Champion, winning the title in six decades from the 50s to the noughties.
British Lightning Champion in 1965 and representing England in the Olympiads with distinction at Tel Aviv and Havana.
This article first appeared in the July 2024 issue of En Passant, the magazine for Norfolk’s chessplayers.
The magazine is published monthly, consisting of 28 pages of news, games and readers’ articles, and comes in two versions:
(1) a professionally printed version at £3 per copy or £36 for a full year; (2) a PDF version,
emailed out to subscribers, at 50p per copy or £5 for a full year.
For more details or to book a subscription, please email editor David LeMoir at sueanddavid@hutchlem.plus.com
The Norfolk Championships 5th and 5th October 2024
The 2024 Congress will be held at the Horstead Tithe Barn, the same venue as last year. The entry form can be found in Calendar. Please note that there is an online entry form that I would prefer you to use as it populates a spreadsheet and also updates a list of the entrants on the NCCA website.
A copy of the entry form is with the Calendar entry.The Norfolk County Chess Association AGM
The Minutes of the 2024 AGM are now available from the AGM menu on the website.
Norfolk Rapidplay in the Press
The North Norfolk News published a report on the Norfolk Rapidplay 2024 which can be viewed on this Link:
North Norfolk News
The results are in the Roll of Honour.
Great Yarmouth Congress 6th and 7th April 2024
The 2024 Congress will be held at Great Yarmouth Racecourse, the same venue as last year. The entry form can be found in Calendar. Please note that there is an online entry form that I would prefer you to use as it populates a spreadsheet and also updates a list of the entrants on the NCCA website.
A copy of the entry form is with the Calendar entry.Norfolk Rapidplay Congress 28th January 2024
The 2024 Rapidplay will be held at Hevingham Village Hall, the same venue as last year. The entry form and an information sheet on the venue can be found in Calendar. Please note that there is an online entry form that I would prefer you to use as it populates a spreadsheet and also updates a list of the entrants on the NCCA website.
A copy of the entry form is with the Calendar entry.Norfolk reach the ECF Minor Counties Final again
Norfolk's first team beat Lincolnshire by a magnificent 10-6 score, on the 10th June to reach the ECF Minor Counties final, this is the second year running they have reached the final and hope to this time take home the trophy. Their opponents are local rivals Cambridgeshire who won against Devon (last years champions) on tie break. The final will be on Saturday 1st July 2023. The venue is yet to be decided but will be local to both teams and not involve the tortuous travel round the M25 of last year.
You can follow the match on the ECF LMS site: Minor Counties | ECF League Management System (ecflms.org.uk).
Greg Tebble
I'm sorry to have to report that a long-standing member of the Norwich DONS Chess Club, Greg Tebble sadly passed away on Thu 12 August. Greg contributed greatly to chess life in Norfolk over many years and played in many congresses across the UK. A post has been placed on the ECForum.org.uk pages by the current Norfolk Chairman John Wickham, and the club have prepared the following obituary. Greg will be sadly missed by everyone involved in Norfolk chess.
Greg was born in 1947 and as far as we're aware has always lived in Norfolk and went to school in the area. He was interested in chess from an early age and there is a picture somewhere of an 18 year old Greg taking part in a Simultaneous Display against Owen Hindle.
Greg worked at companies such as Laurence Scott and Boulton & Paul in his early career, where he met his wife Carole. His chess activity was in two stages, the first in the 60s and 70s where we believe he mainly played chess at a club in Wroxham. The second stage was from the late 80s when he joined the Norwich DONS when they were playing at the Griffin on Yarmouth Road. In between Greg was an active runner taking part in half-marathons and raced competitively. Greg had a problem with his leg, which later on required a hip replacement, and this was a reason for his decision to give up running and go back to his interest in chess.
At the DONS, Greg held all the important roles of office, Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer and many captaincy roles. He was always the friendly face of the DONS and would always welcome and encourage new members. In any decision-making process Greg would always put the interests of members first. As a result of his enthusiasm he subsequently moved into roles at the top of Norfolk chess, where he was the President for a number of years and also in later years took on the role of Treasurer. His contribution to the success of the DONS and Norfolk chess in general was invaluable.
Playing-wise Greg was always a tough opponent. He moved up the leagues to make the top section of the Club Championship and he also made the Final of the DONS Knockout. Probably his best individual result occurred when he beat many times Norfolk Champion, Mike Gough in the N&N July Summer Swiss event. He also had many good results at congresses, the best of which was probably his victory in a weekend event at Hastings where he beat Adam Harvey from Suffolk in the last round to secure first place.
His later working life, was focussed on the arts. He worked for the Norwich Arts Centre, Cinema City and Creative Arts East and he also acted as a freelance Accountant working for small companies in the Arts world.
Outside of chess, Greg's main interests were travelling and photography. During his life Greg travelled all over the world to places such as China, USA, Peru and Iran. He also went to Reykjavik in Iceland and whilst there visited the place where Bobby Fischer played in the historic World Championship battle. Photography was also another major interest, and on his travels he had the opportunity to take many pictures. At the British Chess Championship in Sheffield some years back they held a photography competition, where Greg scooped first prize.
Through his illness Greg was typically stoical and when visited talked in animated fashion about the future of the DONS. He was very concerned about the difficulty in securing a permanent home for the club. He was also concerned about the chances of Norwich City staying in the Premier League and the performances of the England cricket team. Greg was a true gentleman and had a great love for chess, he will be sadly missed by the DONS and Norfolk chess and everyone who knew him.
Photograph by Brendan O'Gorman
COVID 19
There are now reported cases in Norfolk, I have been advised that at least two chess players who are over 70 and are recovering from Cancer have been advised to self isolate (among the measures are that they should keep 2 metres away from others - something that is impossible when playing chess), some others over 70 have decided to avoid chess until the Autumn, the Bury League and Suffolk CCA have suspended their competitions till the Autumn. Also the Government are likely to introduce self isolation measures for the elderly and vulnerable (which could be in force for up to 4 months) and to ban mass gatherings.
After consultation with some clubs and some committee members over the weekend we have decided that we shall suspend the NCCA Competitions (League and Cups) from March 23rd until the Autumn. I have left this for a week as some clubs have arranged and agreed to hold matches this week and this is to allow them to complete those, should they still wish to do so. I must stress that there is no obligation for them to do so and if they are no longer able to complete those matches then they can postpone them without penalty.
If possible we will complete the remaining fixtures in the Autumn and delay the start of the 2020/2021 season. If there is a possibility of commencing earlier we will do so but at this stage that looks a remote possibility.
Some clubs have suggested playing fixtures on-line but I must indicate that under our rules that is not possible.
The AGM on 3rd June will not now take place and will be deferred. Also the Committee meeting scheduled for May will also be deferred.
For Clubs own internal competitions it is for them to decide if they wish to continue. Should you do so then I would ask you to heed all the advice on the Coronavirus and take suitable precautions to protect any elderly or vulnerable members. Your rules may allow you to play such games on-line but I must stress that such games cannot be submitted for grading.
I know that some of you wish to continue playing but I hope that you understand why we have had to take these measures. It is not just for the protection of the elderly and vulnerable but also for the protection of all of us. Please, all of you keep safe and look out for those at risk in your family, of your friends and in your clubs.
John Wickham NCCA Chairman
PLEASE NOTE
The Dons open evening at their new venue on 6th April, and the June Swiss are now CANCELLED.
The Great Yarmouth Chess Congress 25th & 26th April 2020 has been CANCELLED.
New Main Sponsor for the Great Yarmouth Chess Congress
We are pleased to announce that Attleborough based Bodo Bio-Security have agreed to be the main sponsor of the Great Yarmouth Chess Congress which will be held on the 25th and 26th April 2020 at the Great Yarmouth Racecourse.
This will help considerably with the financial stability of the event and may lead to an increase in this year advertised prizes. We are extremely grateful to Bodo Bio Security for their sponsorship of our event.
Details of Bodo Bio-Security are on their website www.bodo.co.uk
ECF Club of the year
Congratulations to Broadland on being named club of the year 2018.
Committee Meetings
POSTPONED - The next committee meeting (Pre-AGM) will be held on Wednesday 6th May 2020 19.30pm at The Aylsham club venue, Aylsham.
POSTPONED - The AGM committee meeting will be held on Wednesday 3rd June 2020 19.30pm at The Aylsham club venue, Aylsham.
County News
Our County sides have done well in recent years. The Captains welcome new faces and you can play for the County at several different levels. For details of the county matches please visit the East Anglian Chess Union website
Analysis
New ! Analysis of the the games from the recent Great Yarmouth (Norfolk Open) 2019, see the analysis page for online views of the games annotated by David LeMoir.
Analysis of the the games from other Norfolk events going back to 2015.