Simon Ansell, Bob Eames and Alexander Cherniaev are all playing in the 1st Big Slick International starting this weekend in Purley, near Croydon.

Another arduous journey to the depths of Leicester ended in glory as Mark Rivlin's Under 125 team swept past Ashfield to secure a place in the National Club Minor to be held on 12 July.

It's been another good year for Hackney Chess Club and the AGM captured the mood of success with an important decision to create a third team in the London Chess League. The new team, made up mainly of players graded 110 or below, will play in Division Four and will be captained by Mark Rivlin who hands the Division 3 captaincy baton to Shaun Tracey. Bob Eames will continue to run the Division 1 team.

Hackney's annual general meeting has been arranged for the Saturday the 6th of June in the Rochester Castle

Together with Joe Farrell of Metropolitan, I have set up a new City Summer Rapidplay League, which will be a 4-board event with 12 teams. All matches for all clubs will be played on Wednesday evenings at Golden Lane. The format involves each player playing 2 half-hour games against the same opponent (one with white, one with black). Grading bands: Top board - open, Bottom board - U125, Middle boards - U160.

The first match night is 3rd June, and the league will run for 11 weeks.

If anyone is interested in captaining the Hackney side, please let me know, otherwise I will do it.

Hackney 1 suffered an heavy home defeat to title contender Ealing 1 in the last match of the Middlesex League Division 1

Hackey 1 (1) - (7) Ealing 1
1 - R Eames 0 - 1 J Poulton
2 - J Tennyson 0 - 1 A Perkins
3 - M Tasker 1/2 - 1/2 M Smith
4 - M Lee 0 - 1 J Quinn
5 - J Bennyunes 0 - 1 S Nandall
6 - P Vives 1/2 - 1/2 A Ociepka
7 - M Afonso 0 - 1 V Stanisic
8 - I Valigurskyy 0 - 1 J Tserendur

Hackney 1 (5.5) - (2.5) Willesden

1 - John Cox 1 - 0 D Foord
2 - Bob Eames 1 - 0 A Fulton
3 - John Reid 0 - 1 A Solomon
4 - Adrian Casillas 1 - 0 DEFAULT
5 - Kanwal Bathia 0 - 1 D Fanniny
6 - Martin Lee 1/2 - 1/2 K Jones
7 - Pepe Vives 1 - 0 A Rawlwys
8 - Miguel Afonso 1 - 0 C Silverman

It's proving to be another excellent year for Hackney in the National Club championships. The Under 125 team are in the semi-finals while the Under 100 team, ably led by Shaun Tracey, secured their place in July's final with an excellent 3-1 win at Snodland.
The victory was a triumph for the Traceys with Shaun and wife Maria securing excellent wins on Boards 3 and 4 while top two boards Peter Burgoyne and Mark Rivlin played accurately and carefully for draws.

The match against Hackney 1 - West London 1 for the Middlesex League 1 has been cancelled as both teams were having trouble getting a full side after the easter break.

The away match on the 6th of April will be played for double points.

A depleted Hackney 2 put up a spirited display against high-flying Hammersmith in London League Div 3 despite being outgraded on all boards except 1. Peter Burgoyne set the standard with a quick win but only Mark Rivlin managed to add to the score with a draw. Andy Mata, Dashiell Shaw, Elyes Rigby-Zeghlache and Dylan Perryman all lost but well done to David Ladds and Maria Gonzales-Tracey, who with the redoubtable Nigel Rose and Shaun Tracey will try to get points from adjournments.
Well done folks, the Hackney spirit lives on.

N Rose Adj B Kelmedi
A Mata 0-1 V Sara