Pall Mall

The Pall Mall Chess Circle meets in the Club Room every Tuesday evening from 6.00pm. Members of any standard are welcome to join in. Players congregate in the Long Bar afterwards for drinks and a bite to eat from 8.00pm.

Woodcote Park

The Woodcote Park Chess Circle meets in the Oaks Room every Monday evening from 6.00pm. Members of any standard are welcome to come along and take part. Players go to the Fountain Brasserie for drinks and a bite to eat at around 8.00pm.

Please email chess-committee@royalautomobileclub.co.uk for more information.

A successful week’s Chess at the Club

Chess at the Club enjoyed a good week last week with a number of strategic notable successes on and off the board.

The calendar looked very challenging for Club in the Hamilton Russell league, as we had two away fixtures on successive days.

Firstly against MCC, who were rightly favourites having won the Hamilton Russell Chess League more often in the last five years than any rival.  And only the very next day, the Club Chess Circle were playing away at Hurlingham club in the same league.

Match captain Rob Matthews prepared a team that prevailed against MCC with some style where Stephen Meyler, Natasha Regan, Richard Farleigh and Lee Green all managed good wins. The final result was 5-3, whilst Nigel Povah drew on the  top board and Colm O’Shea also shared a point.

Buoyed by our success, a slightly weaker team went into battle a day later with the Hurlingham club and won 6-1. Lee Green once again victorious together with Henry McWatters, Rob Matthews, Richard Hughes and Paul Weston, whilst both Stephen Meyler and Wayne Clarke drew.

On Saturday the Varsity Match was hosted in the Pall Mall clubhouse. This was a tense affair in stark contrast to last year’s one sided match. In fact Cambridge looked as if they had control of the fixture, trailing 2.5/3.5 but their players appeared to be enjoying superior positions in the final two games. However neither Cambridge player was able to convert their advantage into a win, thus Oxford retained what had earlier seemed an improbable victory in the 140th Varsity match.

After the match, a celebratory dinner was hosted in the Committee Room where an elated Filip Mihov, captain of Oxford, received the Margaret Pugh Trophy from Mike Truran, the chief executive of the English Chess Federation.