CASTLEHILL QUICK-PLAY GRAND PRIX: Round 3 News!
TAFCA WINTER LEAGUE 2020-21 (Online)
2020-21 Season`s report
Well that`s the TAFCA Winter league 2020-21 officially over and what a season it was! Held online due to the current pandemic, it was a season with a difference. Chess can count itself lucky in comparison to our sports due to the fact we could transfer and play online.
TEAM EVENTS
Division One
Congratulations to Dundee A on not only winning the TAFCA division One 2020-21 title, but doing so in style unbeaten on 18 points! Not only that, this title makes it an historic 8th title in a row, Wow! Fantastic achievement and well deserved! Castlehill B finished runners-up on 14 points, with Castlehill C & A in 3rd and 4th place respectively on 12 points each! Now that is some performance by our “C” team punching well above their weight in a division of heavy weights! A bit like a flyweight against a heavyweight but with the flyweights moving too fast and having the better jap! Mind you it would be hard to describe Michael Dugdale, Robert Jackson, Ray Noble, Miguel Alvarez and Andy Rowe as flyweights! Kirkcaldy A were relegated in last place and Perth A probably joining them in second bottom depending on teams entered in the 2021-22 campaign!
Division Two
Congratulations to captain Ed Walton’s warriors as Castlehill E are crowned division Two champions on 17 points, only dropping 1 point the whole campaign! Not only that they are promoted to division one. Well played Ed Walton (Capt), Euan Murray, Oggy Kolev and Subhayu Banerjee!
But wait…more good news for Castlehill as Castlehill F finished in runners-up spot on 14 points, finishing ahead of Dundee C and if all things go to plan in the next campaign are promoted to division one! Well played Trevor Harley (Capt), Cameron Wilson, Jim McCluskey, Gordon Thomas & Marten Kats!
This will mean in the 21-22 campaign, Castlehill potentially have six (6) teams in division one out of 10. Now that should make for a fixture nightmare! What a line up! I guess if we are playing OTB, travelling will not be an issue!
TAFCA Team battle
This was a new event for TAFCA a sort of online replacement of the OTB Time Handi-Cap Knockout tournament. Time-Control – 5 minutes + 3 seconds.
Congratulations to Dundee A taking the title on 68 points with Castlehill A close on their heals in 2nd place on 66 points! The same for the individual honours as Jacques Ophoff CM (Dundee) finished top of the players, with Richard Polaczek IM (Castlehill) in 2nd place. This was a fun, brutal battle, but very enjoyable indeed!
INDIVIDUAL EVENTS
J.R.Chalmers Grand Prix
This trophy is in memory of the late Jim Chalmers a long time TAFCA president and chess organiser who along with his wife, Jean Chalmers were responsible for getting chess off the ground in the TAFCA area.
Congratulations to Andre Babin & Jan Barron-Majerik, both Castlehill on jointly becoming this seasons J.R.Chalmers champions on 27 points! This event involved the TAFCA League and Allegro’s Championship Series. Well played the both of you!
TAFCA Allegro Championship Series
Congratulations once again to Andre Babin (Castlehill) on becoming the Overall TAFCA Allegro Championship Series Champion on 22 points! What a season and still a few mentions to go! Well done Andre! In runners-up spot was Richard Polaczek IM (Castlehill) on 15 points, not bad for a player who had just joined us online!
It`s also congratulations to the TAFCA Individual Allegro club winners for each of the 6 TAFCA Allegro events held:
1.Newport Knights Allegro Champion – Andre Babin (Castlehill)
2.Perth Allegro Champions – Ed Spencer (Dundee) & Sam Gregory (Castlehill)
3.Kirkcaldy Allegro Champion – Andre Babin (Castlehill)
4.Castlehill Allegro Champion – Sam Gregory (Castlehill)
5.Dundee Allegro Champion – Richard Polaczek IM (Castlehill)
6.St.Andrews Uni Champion – Richard Polaczek IM (Castlehill)
TAFCA Most Improved Junior 2020-21
To be honest this was no surprise, but none the less what an achievement as Rishi Vijayakumar J9 (Castlehill) was this season’s most improved junior in TAFCA. Not only that, but this is the second award in two years! What a talent! Everybody at Castlehill knows what a chess prospect we have and hopefully he will keep his interest and you just never know what the future hold for Master Vijayakumar! Well done Rishi!
Out of a possible 12 titles available in TAFCA 2020-21, Castehill Chess Club won nine (9) of them and tied with Dundee in one event, so 10 out of 12! Their nearest rivals, Dundee won two (2) including the top honour of division one champions, and tied in one event with Castlehill, making it 3 out of 10.
“I would say that was a very successful 2020-21 TAFCA Winter League season!”
Thank you to all our players who supported us during this campaign and I hope you all enjoyed the chess. Hopefully we will be back playing OTB chess for the next campaign, but if not at least we can carry on playing online until we can!
Once again congratulations to all the winners, especially Castlehill winners who did us proud as usual. I will be honest as an organiser the online league was hard work and I am looking forward to a rest! Then again I also can`t wait for the next season to start!
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