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Responding to suggestion from the County Champioinship Admin team OK so do we want to form a larger Northern England Club comprising: Cumbria Durham Tyne and Wear and Northumberland. There is currently a Team Northumberland - 11 members - they don't appear to have played any matches yet A Durham Club with 13 members - they participated in 2011 county championship but haven't since A Durham University Chess Club with 17 members - they don't appear to be active. Nothing for Tyne & Wear Does the Cumbria team want to lose it's identity in this way? I think we would have to lead on this if it were to happen. Judging by current state of play of the other teams above. Will this lead to a bigger team and more participation? What other ideas do you have? Thanks Taylor

Just found this great post elsewhere about Android Apps - but it is euqally relevant to other platforms. Any one got any favourite Apps they want to share. I'm just trying out CT-Art 4.0 for the first time which seems pretty decent. https://www.chess.com/blog/SamCopeland/the-best-android-apps-for-chess

I'd be interested to hear what your opening preferences are and to instigate some games between players of the team once our Championship match season ends. One of my first inclinations for joining chess.com was the opportunity to try out different chess openings. I deliberately joined various groups and tournaments that were themed around different openings. Even the obscure opening starting with g4 known as Grob's attack. That was fun, I did quite well too. I also followed quite a few vote chess games again to see how other players approached the opening. It seemed clear that many players only play one main opening line. and do not like being taken out of their comfort zone. Whereas others are more flexible and actively look to test out more unusual lines. My most recent line with the d4 opening is the excellently named 'Nimzo-Indian Defense: Three Knights, Duchamp Variation'. With my artistic background I am thrilled to find a Duchamp named opening :-) I do tend towards d4 in the main. This hasn't been a conscious decision though and my opening choice usually depends upon who I'm playing. And sometimes I just throw in something new for fun. So what openings are our Cumbria Teams favourite opening lines? Would you be interested for some opening themed team games. We can set these up as not counting to your ranking so players of different levels can play each other more easily. I'd like to get to know the team members a little more and we can analyse each other's games if we wish. Cheers Taylor

Just sharing this here. https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/endgames-from-pump-up-your-rating Feel free to comment or post other helpful resources.

Just a few thoughts from me on this. Feel free to chime in with any other comments. What is a team tournament - A team tournament is typically a series of matches played as rounds. There are several teams. Each round we will play a different team. The two teams agree to a challenge, typically 4 or more players from each team play two games each simultaneously. One game as white and the second game as black. Each teams players are ranked with the highest ranking player from each team playing each other and then second highest and so on. Once a game has started there is no time limit to complete the games other than the 3 days per move rule. (A time limit may come into force towards the end of the year as we need to get match outcomes finalised). You are free to chat to your opponent. But not to discuss moves. You must not cheat - see elsewhere for cheating rules. Winning games score 1 point, a draw 1/2 point. The team with the highest points wins that match. Scores for each round are added up at the end of the tournament. An overall winner is then declared. Playing higher or lower ranked players - It is not uncommon to find yourself paying a much higher ranked player than you may be used to. You should treat this as an opportunity. If you do lose the game you will not be penalized heavily. You should also take every opportunity to take the lead. But be cautious as your lead may not be as easy to maintain as you think. Similarly you may find yourself playing a much lower ranked player. Do not assume that they will not play strong moves, they may be much keener to prove themselves. The key rule here is as is often stated 'play the game not the player'. Some ways to get ahead - Every player on chess.com has stats recorded about their previous games. It is worth looking at your opponents games before you commit to your opening moves. You can do this by going to their profile and selecting game explorer. This may help you to decide which line to open with. If for example you feel comfortable with c4 and have noted that your opponent has not won many games as black against a c4 opening. Similarly you can judge what opening moves they are likely to run with as white given their previous form. Do not be afraid to look up advice on opening moves from other sources. It is likely that your opponent will be using help from online tools like ChessBase. This is not cheating as it is still up to you to decide which line you want to follow and a good player can always trip you up from the most well trodden opening lines. But it should save you form making a big blunder within the first few moves. Review the whole game at each move. It is very easy to forget where you are with a game when you come back to a move after a few days. So often I have played a bad move in haste, which two days earlier I had already seen as a mistake. It's good to remind yourself what the opening sequences were and revisit what you were trying to do in the last 2-3 moves. Always look for another move option even when you think you've got the best move planned. You've got 3 days to do this. Often in the middle game 2 moves are pretty equal to each other in these scenarios look at the position after a couple more potential moves and judge which one looks more favourable for an end game scenario. For example pawn positions, knights versus bishops etc. Use the notes to list move ideas - these are private plus you can delete stuff as you go so that you've not got too many complex things to look at. Use a real board. Often I find that just setting up the pieces on a board for 5 minutes helps me see opportunities and threats that weren't so obvious to me on the screen. Don't play moves last thing at night or first thing in the morning....... Ok this might just be me, but this is where I always seem to get into trouble! Your always learning - Try to treat every game as a learning opportunity. Look up those obscure lines. Use the analysis tool to play forwards at least 5 or more moves. Push your thinking. Avoid time issues - It happens to us all. Work, family pressures, taking time out. But losing match points for timing out is poor form. I use the mobile app a lot, so I can sneak 5 minutes here and there to look at a game (not play the move), building up my ideas for what I want to do next with a particular game. over time. Try not to play all your moves together. Spread your move schedule out as much as you are able so you don't get lots of moves demanding your attention all at once. Most other players have a fairly predictable move pattern. Although this can suddenly speed up when the game gets more finely tuned towards the end. Use the vacation function sensibly. If you are a member your games will automatically pause - so you will not lose the game on time in these tournament matches. Running a business means my work week is 7 days long and I often have to use the vacation time to manage busy periods where I can't afford the time to look at my next moves.

I'd be interested to hear what other clubs our team members belong to and how useful you find them I've recently joined Endgame Lovers specifically oriented towards helping members improve their endgame naturally enough. So far there have been several endgame learning tournaments and lots of useful stuff in the forums. I also play reasonably regularly for Team England & Great British Empire. After that I seem to find other clubs a bit hit & miss.

Done es anybody have some suggestions for a rewrite of our club / group profile? The current one is now dated.

Thinking of running a Ladder tournament for the group. Before I set it up I just wanted to check how many players would wish to participate. If you would be prepared to play just leave your name below. Many thanks. Pam

I'm making the bold assumption that everyone wishes to continue with our County Championship participation in 2017! Pam are you still happy to be 2nd admin for ensuring that the matches are set up and started on time? Please all indicate your affirmation and well done us for winning 2/5 of our matches :-) Cheers Taylor

Hi all We have a handful of inactive members showing no online participation since 2014 and earlier. I propose that we lose them. Whilst our numbers will drop slightly I hope this will show to prospective new members that this is a busy group. Any thoughts? Cheers Taylor

Please join. Usual game set up. 2 concurrent games. Starts 30th Jan https://www.chess.com/groups/team_match?id=623490 May the best team win 😏

These fixtures have just been posted. We are in division 3. Our first match is scheduled to start on the last weekend of Jan. We play against Connacht. http://ukirelandcountychess.weebly.com/fixtures.html

These are copied from the official Championship Forum and are still under discussion. Please read for reference. In particular there may be 3 divisions and not 2. Probably minimum numbers will be 4 participating players. I will be asking you for confirmation & commitment to this shortly 😀Thanks Taylor. 2016 UK and Ireland County Championships Rules 1. It will assumed that all the teams participating in the 2015 season will continue to take part in 2016, unless they inform the council. 2. Teams must represent a county or area of the UK or Ireland. The members of the team should have a connection with that county or area listed below. The admin of each group are responsible to make sure their members fit the criteria below. A) They were born in that county/area. B) They live or they did live in that county/area. C) They work or have worked in that area. D) They play in that county’s chess league. 3. Players can be members of two county groups but a player cannot play for more than one team in the county championship in a single season, even if they are in different divisions. It is the responsibility of the team admins to make sure that their members are aware of this rule. Once a player has played for one team that is his/her team for the rest of the season and any results gained for any other team will be forfeited. If it is unclear who the first team the player played for eg they play for two teams in the same month, then all their results will be forfeited. 4. The league will be divided into 2 divisions, division 1 and 2. At present the top 4 teams of each of group A and group B will make up division 1 and the remainder will form division 2. This will change if any new teams enter the competition. Divisions 1 and 2 will have an equal number of teams in, as far as possible, to help with organising fixtures. If the number of teams in the championship remains below 17 then one team will be promoted from division 2 and one team relegated from division 1. 5. The controller will be responsible for organising the fixtures and compiling the results. In the first instance, any issues or disagreements should be discussed on the county council forum for all to see in an open manner, rather than contacting the controller directly. The controller’s decision after discussion is final. If an issue affects the controller’s team then the matter will be need to be decided by impartial members of the council. Ideally, each division will have its own controller who doesn’t have a team in that division. 6. The deadline for new teams entering the competition will be the 1st of December 2015. Any new teams entering the competition will compete in division 2. 7. The minimum number of players for division 1 matches will set to 8. The minimum number of players for division 2 matches will be 4. But please note point 12 below. Teams can elect to play in division 2 if they don’t think they can field 8 players consistently. 8. There will be one match per month, the fixtures will be published in December 2015, challenges should be sent as close the 1st of the month as possible, and the matches should be locked by the final Saturday of the month. Either team can send the challenge. All matches should have a start time (the final Saturday of the month) included, so the match will start automatically on that date. 9. Matches should be set to 2 concurrent games at, ie play your opponent with white and black at the same time, this speeds up the completion of matches and bring it into line with the international group competition. The aim will be that all matches will be completed by December 2016, in order to start a new competition in 2017. 10. If matches are still in progress on November 30th, then the controller will review the remaining matches and predict the likely result based on the position. If the matches involve the controller’s team or will affect the league position of the controller’s team then another member of the council will be asked to judge. 11. The time limit will remain 3 days per move. 12. When filling out the challenge form the minimum number of players should be set to 1 and no maximum. However, 2 points will be defaulted for every board under the minimum required for their division. This way matches still can go ahead if teams fail to field a complete team. 13. Once the challenge has been accepted a link should be posted ideally in the fixture forum or posted on the newsfeed. It is important these links are posted so the controller can monitor and find the result of each match. If no link is sent by November 1st, both teams will score 0 points for that match. 14. If a team consistently turns down a challenge then this will result in a defeat. 15. 2 points will be scored for a win, 1 for a draw. 16. If teams have an equal number of points at the end of the season, then the following in order will be taken into account to determine finishing places: a) The match result(s) between tied teams, if a team has beaten all those teams they have tied with, they will finish above them in the league. b) The number of time outs achieved, the team with the lowest time out score will finish top. (Note, this was not a rule in 2015) c) The total number of games won minus the total number of games lost in the season, by each team. The team with the highest score will take the top position. 17. If a player is found to be cheating by chess.com, then they will forfeit all their games for the season and results will be reversed where necessary. This rule will only apply to the 2016 season onwards, not the 2015 season. All reports of cheating or suspected cheating should be sent to chess.com. 18. Results will be declared once a team has unassailable lead, but these results can be overturned if a player is found to be cheating. However, once the last result of the season in each division is declared no other results in that division can be overturned, even if a player is found to be cheating after this date. 19. All players and teams should play in a sporting manner and make the championship should promote friendship and encourage others to join.

HI All As you know I am keen to rejuvenate the Cumbria Group with a view to both making some new chess friends, playing for fun and hopefully improve my game, but also to participate in next years UK County championships. There are currently a total of 12 registered members. Of whom around 7 appear to be active on chess.com and aout 5 of you that have participated within the Cumbria Group recently. To play regular matches (and win) we probably need to recruit some more players. I am open to ideas on this one. I have posted an invite on Team England's page already, are any of you members of other teams/groups that are likely to have Cumbrian players? if so perhaps you could post a friendly invite there too. Otherwise perhaps you know some non chess.com players that might join up? Thanks for your help. Taylor

This from Wikipedia: Chess 1.(noun. chess) A game enjoyed by Cumbrians from around early walking years through to mid-to-late teens. Forget your Kasparovs and your Deep Blues, the Cumbrian version of Chess is an outdoor sport (usually), involving being chased from either a park by the 'Parky' (Park keeper) or from a building site by the 'Watchy' (Watchman). Chess was often the culmination of a game of Hikey Dykey, or Knock-n-Nash.

We've been challenged by the Devon Chess Team to a friendly match. They are a stronger team, but it's all good fun 😄 link here http://www.chess.com/groups/team_match?id=588824

I am about to contact the organisers for the County Championships to say that we want to put our team forwards for 2016. Does anyone have any reservations about this, and more importantly are you up for taking part? We will need a minimum of around 5 committed players I think? Please respond this week😀

Just thinking our group description and image could do with a revamp. Open to ideas.... One of our guests recently asked me what the symbol for Cumbria was, like the Lancashire Rose - I had to admit to not knowing whether one existed or not. I found these as Cumbrian Symbols / Logos Civic Heraldry Standard Official Logo possibly a dated one now. An older version

Hi All I joined this group very recently hoping to participate in some Cumbrian group / team matches. We appear to have an absent group admin. Having contacted chess.com it appears that if we wish to install a new admin we need to vote on it. I am very happy to stand for this and would welcome a 2nd admin in a shared role. Some aims: Grow the membership. Initiate some team matches / vote team matches Develop more inter group activity. Foster inter group mentoring / learning. Arrange some physical meet ups if interested. Thanks for your support Taylor