Snodland Chess Club has entered Snodland Church of England’s Christmas Tree Festival 2023. There are around 30 trees inside All Saints Church (near Snodland Station) and the festival is open Friday 15 December 4pm – 7.30pm, Saturday 10am – 5pm, and Sunday 2pm – 4.30pm.
White to play and draw. It looks impossible at first glance, but White has an interesting resource to save the game.
We managed to get our first win of the season with a nice 3-1 win against a Maidstone Intro team comprised of junior players (who fought really hard in their games).
Well done to Micheal Chering, who is on 1.5/2 in his first season of competitive chess.
A disappointing start to the season, as a really strong Rainham team well and truly beat Snodland’s Harvey Cup team. However, our two new players, Ian and Matthew fought really hard in their first ever competitive inter-club games.
It is with great sadness that we report the passing of George Hollands, one of our club members, at the young age of 39.
George was a true role model to everyone at our club; not only was he relentlessly enthusiastic about the game, but he also worked hard at improving his standard of play through reading, solving puzzles, and receiving coaching from FM Steve Giddins. His dedication to improvement saw his ECF grade increase from 115 to 167 in a period of just four years.
George was always generous with his time, not only driving long distances to our games from his home, but he often gave his time to help other players analyse their games.
George was Club Champion on no less than nine occasions (2012-2019, and 2022), and the Challenge Cup winner eight times (2011-2015, and 2017-2019). He played almost 100 games for the club in KCCA competitions, including as the Captain of the Harvey Cup winning team in 2015. George was also Club Chairman from 2017-2019.
George was an avid collector of chess books and periodicals, and used Chessbase to develop incredibly effective opening preparation.
George was not only a strong chess player but also a kind and caring man, and his love for his partner Chrissie and daughter Alice was obvious to everyone. We will miss him a great deal.
Congratulations to new member Matthew, who has taken an early lead in our club Rapidplay League with two wins.
Snodland Chess Club kicks off the 2023-24 season on Monday 20th November with a match in the KCCA Harvey Cup vs Rainham Chess Club. Good luck to everyone involved!
After the long break from “over the board” chess enforced by the pandemic, wood was finally being pushed around the boards again last week in the first round of this season’s Club Championship.
The Len Hammond memorial shield, contested annually by Snodland and Maidstone, saw Snodland lift the trophy last night (Weds 25 September 19) for the first time in its 11 year history.
The match was contested over 5 boards and was a non-graded “Friendly Match” – some players are members of both clubs, as Len was himself.
Snodland won the toss and had the white pieces on odd boards.
Snodland Chess Club 