UK Parliament Chess vs Warwick Alumni Match

 

It was a great opportunity for Warwick Chess Alumni to visit Westminster Palace and Portcullis House - playing the UK Parliamentary Chess Club, on Monday 28th October.

This was originally planned by Jack Huffer (Alumni Competitive Chess Secretary), and Peter Hornsby (Parliamentary Captain) for the late spring of 2024, however the match was untimely derailed by Rishi Sunak's snap General Election!

Thanks to Peter's efforts, the matches was successful rearranged. The Warwick Alumni Team comprised of Taran Jina (Chair/acting Capt.), Ben Lee, James Munns, Oliver Lindrop, Chris Bromo, and Anish Ram. The Parliamentary Team comprised of Peter Hornsby (Captain), Griff Simon, The Lord Carter, Alfie Coulstock Cockeram, and Daniela Stuhlmann.

The full match report will be uploaded by Taran in due course, but the Alumni fared well, winning 7.5-2.5. The players had some friendly game afterwards, and enjoyed a tour of Westminster, which was a lovely experience all round!

Next Event: 

4th Warwick Alumni Christmas Dinner: Saturday 7th December, 2.30m. (Fitzroy Tavern, London). Sign-up Form: LINK

Taran (Captain) got to meet his favourite MP (for Leicester East), Shivani Raja.

Tech Mahindra Global Chess League: Warwick Alumni

 

The Warwick Alumni Assoc. at the TM Global Chess League. Pictured (L-R): Hok Yin Stephen Chiu, Simeon Bott, Jack Huffer, Dimiter Daskalov (Captain), FM Peter Batchelor, Eddie Ko, Mateusz Eggink, Vash Ravi.

It was an absolute pleasure for the Warwick Chess Alumni Association to compete in the TechMahindra Global Chess League's Open Team Tournament, on the 5th October.

The Warwick Alumni came up against leading national teams, including the joint 4NCL Sharks - Hammersmith team, UCL, Eton College, She Plays To Win, among many more. Alongside the GCL Open Team Tournament, the Super GMs, Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Anish Giri, Alireza Firouzja, were playing in the hall next to us, in the main championship event. We were very fortunate to be given tickets to spectate after our matches, and watch the live commentary from David Howell.

The Warwick Chess Alumni Association, were proud to come 5th overall in the Open Team Tournment. Equally, it was a delight to reunite the 2018 A Team, and its illustrous Captain, Dimiter Daskalov, who flew into London from Bulgaria for the reunion.

Many thanks to all, who came to play and spectate, and a big thank you to Peter Hornsby, the Tournment Director, for making the event possible. Look forward to seeing everyone at the next Alumni reunion!

Calendar:

UK Parliament Chess Club vs Warwick Alumni: Monday 21st October, 6.30pm. (Portcullis House, Parliament)

4th Warwick Alumni Christmas Dinner: Saturday 7th December, 2.30m. (Fitzroy Tavern, London)

Alumni Summer Party 2024

At our inaugural Warwick Chess Alumni Summer Party 2024 (August 17th), we were thrilled to reunited - welcoming old and new faces, especially our Class 2024 graduates!

Early Bird Drinks began at the Red Lion (Mayfair), before we moved into St James' Square for cocktails and a handicapped blitz tournament. We ventured to an old classic, Four Seasons Wardour, for some Cantonese roasts, before culminated with drinks at the EI-DSPC, the home of the Sports' Club Est. 1893, which has championed the best of British sports for over 130 years.

All in all, it was an excellent day of great food, great drinks, & great company. We look forward to upcoming reunions, including an outing to the Global Chess League (5th October 2024), and the Alumni Christmas Dinner (7th December 2024).

Season in Pictures

 

A delight to celebrate an excellent season (2023-24), with a mix of socials, reunions, and competitive chess events for members, and partners!

Socials and Reunions:

• Chess Fest & Blitz Tournament, Trafalgar Square (July, 2024)
• Post-Rapidplay Alumni-Society Networking Dinner, Varsity (March, 2024)
• 2nd Warwick Alumni Vs. Society Football Match, Cryfield: 4-4 [5-3 Penalties] (March, 2024)
• 3rd Warwick Alumni Christmas Meal, Clerkenwell (December, 2023)

Competitive Chess:

• World Chess League: 1 team (Group E winners; qualifying for the KO Competition - July 2024)
• Warwick Alumni vs. UK Parliament Chess (June 2024, rearranged due to the General Election.)
• Warwick Alumni vs. Eton College Chess: 91⁄2 - 61⁄2 (April, 2024)
• 6th Warwick University Rapidplay (March, 2024)
• WCL Meme of the Season Award: Holden Davis, and Vincenz Bill. (Sept 2023)
• World Chess League: 3 Alumni teams (22nd, 33rd, 48th Placed - July 2023)

Annual Report: here.

Chess Fest & Blitz Tournament 2024

A delight for the Alumni to come together for our first Blitz, followed by our annual trek to ChessFest, on Traflagar Square.

Briefly avoiding the rain, we held our own Blitz Handicap Tournament by St James' Square, followed with dinner in Chinatown - with Warwick Uni Alumni stretching a decade come together. Well done to Vincenz Bill for winning the Blitz!

Next Alumni event: Summer Party, Sat 17th October, details here.

General Election Called - Parliament Match delayed.

Due to the calling of the General Election on the 30th May and the dissolution of Parliament, the 10th June match between Warwick Alumni against the UK Parliamentary Chess Club will be suspended until further notice.

A new date will be announced after the General Election.

Warwick Alumni vs. Eton College Chess Club 2024

On April 21st, Warwick Chess Alumni fielded a team against Eton College.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable day, with a closely fought set of matches - followed with lunch, tour of Eton, and a stroll through Windsor. Thank you to Tom Richardson for organising this expedition.

The WCAA Team: Mateusz Eggink, Arjun Pyda, Tom Richardson (Capt.), and Sid Panicker.

Well done to the players on both sides!

Congratulations to our President, Peter Batchelor, and Emma Bewley!

 

Many congratulations to our Honorary President, Peter Batchelor, and Emma Bewley, two awesome people in the Alumni, for getting married on the 23rd March. All the very best for the future!

The 6th Warwick Rapidplay and 2nd Alumni-Society Football Match

 

A delight for Warwick Chess Alumni to return for the 6th Warwick Rapidplay on the 2nd March, and play in the annual Alumni-Society Football Match. Great to bring together chess players spanning 20 generations of the University, in particular the Alumni and Society Networking Dinner.

Many thanks goes to Emilija Tamosiunaite, the Society's Publicty and Marketing Officer for organising and coordinating both the Society and Alumni.

Score: 4-4, but the Alumni won on penalties!

[Last year, we lost 7-2!]

3rd Alumni Christmas Meal

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Great to see everyone at the 2023 Christmas Dinner & Drinks! Taran is compiling the full report & photos for the Alumni Facebook Group, as we speak.

Thank you to our Treasurer, James Munns for organising, as ever. Welcome drinks at the Fellow (Kings Cross) was well-received, following by a brisk walk to the Union Tavern in Clarkenwell for Christmas Dinner. Afterwards, we all enjoyed some live music and great dancing from Jack and Sophie, at Piano Works.

Members present unanimously elected Jaspar Goodall (former Secretary and Operations Officer, Warwick Chess) an Honorary Vice President, in recognition to his services to the Warwick Chess and Alumni community. All existing Secretaries and Captains on the Committee, were reelected for the coming year.

Next Alumni event: 6th Warwick Rapidplay Weekend (Chess, Circle & Football).

Sat 2nd March:

• Rapidplay: 10.30-6pm (Science Concourse)
• Alumni-Society Networking Dinner: 6.30pm (Varsity)
• Circle / Drinks: 8pm (Engineering)

Sun 3rd: 

• Brunch :10.30 am (Leamington)
• Alumni vs Society Football Match: 1pm (Cryfield)

World Chess League: Big wins for Warwick Alumni

 

Worthy nominations for the World Chess League's Meme of the Season Award!

Overall, our three Alumni teams last season performed very well in the World Chess League, coming 22nd, 33rd, and 48th - narrowly behind the Society on 13th. A big well done to all the players, in particularly, the three Captains, Holden Davis, Vincenz Bill, and Jack Huffer. The Society did fare better still, winning the World Chess League 20-20 Rapidplay 2023 title.🏆

However, the Alumni did manage to pick up some silverware, with Holden's and Vincenz's submissions sharing the WCL Meme of the Season Award 2023 - many congratulations!🙌

For the coming 2023-24 Season, we are only entering the 2200+ Team into the WCL. The team have elected Dimiter Daskalov to be the new Captain, succeeding Holden. We are looking to enter the other teams in the near-future to OTB team tournaments, so keep your eyes peeled! In the meantime, do follow the team, and our future Twitch streams.🖥️

New Alumni 2200+ Team Captain 2023-24

We would like to thank Holden Davis for his exceptional Captaincy of the 2200+ Alumni Team. Best of luck to the newly elected Captain, Dimiter Daskalov, who will be leading the team for the coming World Chess League 2023-24 Season.

Keep your eyes peeled for the upcoming Alumni matches versus Parliament, and Eton College!

Season in a Wrap: Summary Report!

Bringing the 2022-23 Season to a close, we want to thank every member of the Alumni, and the Committee for organising so many events and trips, and to the Captains for organising the online side.

Our Summary Report for 2022-23, is now published on Issuu: here

If you are an Alumni of the University of Warwick, we would be delighted to see you at the next event. As ever, plus-ones are super welcome too!

Past issues of our quarterly newsletter, may be read online: here

Sign-up to the Newsletter, on this link: https://tinyurl.com/uwcaa

If you would like to be added to our Messenger Group Chat, email us, or message us on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. Links: here

Many thanks again, hope you enjoy the Summary Report, and look forward to seeing many old and many more new faces, at our future events!

End of a Season (2022-23)

As the 2022-3 Season draws to a close, we would like to thank, all the players for playing, and our Captains, Jack Huffer, Holden Davis, and Vincenz Bill, for running the teams for the past ten months, in the World Chess League.

The Alumni did quite well overall, ranking 22nd (2200+ Team), 33rd (OG Team), and 48th (Young Oldies Team).

2200+ Club: Sultan Otegenov, Holden Davis (Capt.), Dimiter Daskalov, Taran Jina, Peter Batchelor, Peter Williams, Louise Head, Guy Moss.

OG Team: Elliot Long, Tom Richardson, Sam Hall, Jaspar Goodall, James Munns, Jack Huffer (Capt.), Hok Yin Stephen Chiu, James March, Sam Jackson

Young Oldies: Arjun Pyda, Daniel Koltai, Deema Khunda, Jonathan Fowler, Simeon Bott, Vash Ravi, Vikas Sajanani, Vincenz Bill (Capt.). 

Special shout out goes to Vincenz, who captained his team distinguished, whilst working from Germany.

For the upcoming year, the 2200+ Team have elected Dimiter Dashalov, as their Captain for the Season 2023-4. The other two teams, are currently still working out interest and the best way to maintain chess through next year, with a particular focus on OTB competitions where possible.

Alumni returns for Chairmans' Dinner 2023

Alumni Returns to celebrate another successful year of Chess, with the Society.

Following from a very successful Graduation Celebration of 2022, which brought together the three cohorts affected by the pandemic, 2020, 21, and 22, the Society took over the running of that event, with its inaugural Chairmans' Dinner - an end of year formal for the Society and Alumni.

Set off the banks of Leam River, Society Chairman Tom Campbell choose the newly-opened venue of The Terrace. An excellent choice.

It was a delight to toast to the success of the Society's 2022-23 Season, in particular the hard-earnt efforts of Co-Presidents, James Parkinson and Meghana Mohan, with 200+ members, a record-breaking Rapidplay, and two serious sponsors - Optiver, and Chessable.

On the Alumni front, this year was a success with online streams, three new teams in the World Chess League, two new FIDE Arbiters, and of course, the happy engagement of Alumni President, Peter Batchelor, and Emma Bewley. 

Full report on the private Alumni Facebook Group, shortly.

The next Alumni Trip will be Chess Fest, in Traflagar Sqaure, on Sunday 16th July.

5th Chessable University of Warwick Rapidplay 2023

"Wow - looks like a cult." - Friend of Warwick Chess.

As ever, the Alumni arrived in droves for the 5th Warwick Rapidplay 2023. As ever, it is a pleasure to see the Society thriving, going from strength to strength. 

A big well done to the Tournament Director, Sidharth Panicker for a seamless tournament, including hitting a record-breaking 130 players. As ever, this was followed by a Society x Alumni bar crawl with Keith Arkell, in order to celebrate a great weekend and Society President, Meghana's birthday - a merry opportunity for bad decision-making for all! 

A pleasure to see Alumni, Chun Chiu return to arbit, and the many who returned to play, include Elliot Long, Vash Ravi, Oliver Lindrop, James March, James Munns, Sam Foster, Jack Huffer, Ziad Fakhoury, Arjun Pyda, Jonathan Fowler, Holden Davis, Taran Jina, and As.Prof Joshua Pink. Click here for the full results: link.

See everyone next time, at Chairman's Lunch (June 17th) for the annual Warwick Chess & Alumni Formal 2023. (Details here: link)

2nd Warwick Chess Alumni Christmas Dinner 2022

 

The Alumni came together again on the 10th December 2022, for their second annual Christmas Dinner. It was excellently organised by James Munns, with the three locations in a straight line along the Northern Line!

The early-birds began early at the Camden Brewdog, where we celebrated Peter Batchelor's birthday. This was followed by an excellent three course Christmas Lunch at the Lion and Unicorn, in Kentish Town. The evening was topped off with drinks in the Boston Arms, where half the Alumni went to watch the England-France World Cup Game, whilst the other half watched went to watch the Chess-boxing at The Dome in Tufnell Park. Some late ravers ended up in The Rocket at Kings Cross, til the early hours..

The full report by James can be found on the Alumni Facebook Group [link].

Hope to see many old faces at the upcoming Chessable 5th Warwick University Rapidplay! Link here: https://www.warwicksu.com/venues-events/events/4117/23564/

Warwick Chess Alumni Versus Society [Football] Match!

On the 15th October, Warwick Chess Alumni returned to the University with a full 11-a-side football team, facing off against the Society. It was great to see the range of players who returned! The oldest among us, Steve Turvey, former Society Secretary, and Chairman of the Coventry & District Chess League, had played for the University before many current Society members or even Alumni were even born.. Most impressively, Steve was probably one of the fittest players on the pitch, being a habitual long distance runner! Hok simultaneously played, whilst attending the ECF AGM, which was perhaps too many commitments for even Hok to handle.

It was an excellent outing, we lost 7-2 to the Society, with some excellent goals from strikers, Venga (Ravikumar Vengadesh), and James (Munns). This was followed by a poker afternoon, a team meal, ending with Circling for Skool Days with the Society - a rather lively affair..

A full report from Taran, can be found [here] on our private Alumni Facebook Group.

Hope to see many new and old faces at the next Alumni reunion, the Christmas Meal, on the 10th December, 2022, in London. Further details coming soon!

Upcoming Joint Warwick Chess & Alumni Stream - Twitch

The next Alumni Online Stream over Twitch (https://twitch.tv/warwickchess) will be a joint one with the Society. It will be hosted by Society President Meghana Mohan, and Alumni Chair Taran Jina. It will feature guests, Andrew Gissop (Society Vice President), and Eva Pacararu (Society Div. 3 Captain).

The commentary will begin at 6pm BST, 11th September, 2022, and conclude at 8pm.

In the first hour, we will be covering the Alumni 2200+ (A) Team, who will be playing the XANDREZ ENTRE AMIGOS (Brazil), and the second hour, the OG Team, and Young Oldies will be up against CIESZYŃSKIE LEGENDY (Poland) and ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY (Scotland), respectively.

The Teams, as follows:

Alumni 2200+. Dimiter Daskalov, Sultan Otegenov, CM Peter Williams, Simeon Bott.

Alumni OG. Sam Hall, James Munns, Tom Richardson, Elliot Long.

Alumni Young Oldies. Daniel Koltai, Jonathan Fowler, Arjun Pyda, Deema Khunda, Vash Ravi.

Watch our live commentary, in support of our teams!

Three Warwick Alumni Teams to enter the 2020 World League

The Alumni have enter field three teams, into the upcoming 2022-23 Season for the 2020 World Chess Championships. Special thanks to our Competitive Chess Captain, Jack Huffer for co-ordinating.

Our first team is aimed for players around and above 2200+, whilst we have two further regular teams, are based on the alumni cohorts.

Games are once a month, with a time control of a ten minute plus five second increment time.

Captain of the Alumni 2200+ 'A' Team: Holden Davis
Captain of the Alumni Pre-2018-21 OG Team: Jack Huffer

Captain of the Alumni 2021-23 Young Oldies Team: Vincenz Bill

Best of luck to all the teams, and do contact the Captains, if you wish to play!

Holden Davis, 2200+ Chess Captain.

Jack Huffer, OG Team Captain.

Vincenz Bill, Young Oldies Captain.