Blackpool & Fylde Chess League

Tomorrow evening (Thursday 11th December) is the last Cleveleys Junior Chess Club session before the Christmas break. It then reopens on Thursday 15th January 2026.

The League currently has a vacancy for the position of Press Officer. Duties include sending reports to the Blackpool Evening Gazette and other publications. Also, promoting the League's activities through social media. Please message me if you are interested.

Good luck to all the Blackpool & Fylde Chess League players at the Scarborough Congress this weekend.

The League AGM is coming up on Thursday 4th September with a critical vote on whether we move to a time control based on increments.

Lytham Chess Club has relaunched its website:

Home – Lytham Chess Club And no matter how seriously you take your chess, you're welcome here. Our players range from beginners to experts, and we're always happy to welcome new members, whether you want to play in competitions or just for fun.

The Silver Queen will take place at Jalgo's (Preston Chess Club) on the 25th September. The Silver Queen is a Lightening Tournament which is played out during the course of an evening. Each player has approx. 10 minutes on the clock.

A number of Blackpool and Fylde Chess League clubs were involved in yesterday's Lancashire Clubs Championship at the Crusaders club in Blackburn. Lytham finished 3rd in the open section. A report is provided here: https://lancashirechess.uk/news/lancashire-clubs-championship-2024/

An excellent Christmas Blitz tournament at Preston Chess Club last night organised by Malcolm Peacock and Carl Tillotson. Sam Walker and Tom Leah of Lytham were joint winners on 4.5 out of 5. Paul Evans was in second place with 4 points. Merry Christmas to all our readers.

The Handbook for the 2023-24 season is now ready to go to the printers. This is the annual pocket guide to Blackpool and Fylde Chess League including the Constitution, Matchplay Rules, Past Winners, League officials, Club officials and Players.

At the 2023 AGM on 7th September we welcomed Bare Village to the League. They will be competing in our Division B.

I am pleased to announce that Lancaster will be joining the League for the new season which starts in September. I think they are a strong club which will increase the competitiveness of Div A as well as other competitions. Welcome to Lancaster!

The fixtures for 2022-23 are now available through the ECF League Management System. The first draft of the Handbook is with the Committee for review. Congratulations are due to Ben Fearnhead on winning the Silver Queen tournament which was held at Preston Chess Club last month.