Welcome!
Pimlico Chess Club is a friendly and active chess club in Pimlico, London SW1. We are very close to Pimlico tube station. We meet most Thursday evenings in the Pimlico Room or the Church Hall, both of which are attached to St Saviour's Church. See map.
We run teams in the Civil Service League, the London Commercial League, the London League Minor Division, and the newly-formed Central London League. When we're not playing matches, we have club nights and occasional socials. Our members range in playing strength from novice to strong club player.
The subscription is £20 a year (£10 in the first year). For that you get lots of chess, and good company! To find out more, browse this website or contact the Secretary, James Toon.
Pimlico Minor Championship 2012
This event is restricted to players who are graded under 100 or who are ungraded. The format is a double all-play-all with 30 minutes per player per game.
Round 1: 26 January 2012
N Shimoga 2–0 M Hall
C Lawson 1–1 D Dunford.
Round 2: 23 February 2012
C Lawson 2–0 N Shimoga
D Dunford 2–0 M Hall
Round 3: 22 March 2012
C Lawson 1.5–0.5 M Hall
Round 4: 19 April 2012
D Dunford 2–0 N Shimoga (by default)
Scores after round 4: D Dunford 5/6; C Lawson 4.5/6; N Shimoga 2/6; M Hall 0.5/6.
→ David Dunford is the Pimlico Chess Club Minor Champion for 2012.
Pimlico Major Championship 2012
This event is restricted to players who are graded under 150. The format is a double all-play-all with 30 minutes per player per game.
Round 1: 29 March 2012
K Dunmore 1–0 P Haughton
S Farnad 1–0 K Dunmore
P Haughton 0–1 S Farnad
S Farnad 1–0 P Haughton
Scores after round 1: S Farnad 3/3, K Dunmore 1/2, P Haughton 0/3.
Round 2:19 April 2012
S Farnad 1–1 P Biggs
P Haughton 0–1 K Dunmore
K Dunmore 0–1 S Farnad
P Biggs 2–0 P Haughton
P Biggs 1–1 K Dunmore
Scores after round 2: S Farnad 5/6; P Biggs 4/6; K Dunmore 3/6; P Haughton 0/6.
→ Safi Farnad is the Pimlico Chess Club Major Champion for 2012.
Grand Prix
See Grand Prix.
→ Keith Dunmore wins the Grand Prix for 2012.
Final positions:
• 1st: Keith Dunmore, 96
• 2nd: Mark Fulleylove, 96
• 3rd: David Dunford, 91
• Most games played: Peter Biggs, 27
• Most wins: Keith Dunmore, 11
• Highest points score: Keith Dunmore, 16.5
• Highest percentage score: Ti Chen, Brendan O'Gorman, 100
Recent winners of the Grand Prix:
• 2011: Paul Haughton
• 2010: Matthew Baker
• 2009: Tony Ashby
• 2008: Peter Biggs
• 2007: James Toon
• 2006: James Toon
Forthcoming events – Summer 2012
To be advertised…
News
26 April 2012
In the last matches of the season:
• The Commercial League 1st team beat HMC 2nd team 6.5–1.5 (with the aid of 3 defaults).
• The London League Minor Division team are 1–2 down against Hackney with one game adjourned.
23 April 2012
Pimlico Guardians beat Met Police 3–2 in the Central London League and finished as runners-up behind Pimlico Wanderers.
13 April 2012
For an alternative view, try the Rodney Barking chess blog.
13 April 2012
A good day for the Commercial League team, who beat HMC 1st team 4.5–3.5. Also for the London League Minor Division team, who beat Kings Head 3–1.
23 March 2012
League champions… the Civil Service League 1st team lost 3.5–4.5 to Revenue & Customs, but still finished top of the league owing to a superior goal difference (i.e. board count or game points). It was a tense occasion. Well done to Alistair and Matthew for winning their games. Also draws for James, Tony and Chris.
19 March 2012
The adjudication in the Civil Service League 1st team match v GLCC came back a draw, so we lost the match 3.5–4.5. Now it all turns on Thursday's match against Revenue & Customs.
16 March 2012
• The Civil Service League 2nd team ensured their survival in Division 2 with a narrow win over SPARTA last night. It helped that SPARTA defaulted two boards.
• The London League Minor Division team lost to Hackney. The score is 0.5–2.5 with one game adjourned.
13 March 2012
• The Commercial League team is 2.5–3.5 down against BBC with two games outstanding (later: both games conceded). Only one default this time. Congratulations to Tim for a fine win on board 2.
8 March 2012
• Pimlico Guardians beat Railsport 3.5–1.5 in the Central London League and are now more or less certain to finish as runners-up.
• The Civil Service League 2nd team lost 1.5–4.5 to the Division 2 leaders Business & Innovation. Two defaults did not help matters.
6 March 2012
• The Civil Service League 1st team are 3–4 down against GLCC with one game outstanding, on which we are looking for a win. The team did well as we were outgraded by about 20 points a board on average.
5 March 2012
• The London League Minor Division team lost 1–3 to Kings Head. Our records of this match have not survived intact, and that explains the presence of the three AN Others in the Kings Head team.
23 February 2012
• The Civil Service League 1st team convincingly beat DHSS 6–2 and are closing in on the league title.
• In the Club Minor Championship, David Dunford and Cameron Lawson share the lead on 3/4.
17 February 2012
• The Civil Service League 2nd team eased their relegation worries with an excellent 4.5–1.5 win over a strong Revenue & Customs 2nd team.
• Pimlico Guardians beat Battersea 3–2 in the Central London League. However, it wasn't enough to stop Pimlico Wanderers taking the league title in the first year of the league.
10 February 2012
• The Civil Service League 1st team drew 4–4 against Met Police but were eliminated from the cup on board count.
• The London League Minor Division team lost 1.5–2.5 to Metropolitan.
3 February 2012
Mixed fortunes for the Pimlico teams this week.
• The London League Minor Division team recorded their first win of the season with a 4–0 victory over Battersea (who defaulted two boards).
• In the Central London League, the Pimlico Wanderers beat Met Police 4–1 in their last match of the season and seem likely to finish champions.
• The Pimlico Guardians dropped some crucial points, losing 3–2 against Imperial College.
• Finally the Civil Service League 2nd team went down 5.5–0.5 against a strong Treasury side. Relegation looms for the 2nd team…
28 January 2012
The ECF has published its latest grading list (January 2012). Grades relate to the period June to December 2011. Pimlico grades are on the Members page.
27 January 2012
It was a good day at the office for the Civil Service League 1st team, who beat Met Police 5–2 with one game unfinished. Results elsewhere went our way too and the team is now two points clear at the top of Division 1 with only three matches to play.
20 January 2012
The Civil Service League 2nd team lost 4–2 to UNATS 2nd team. Results elsewhere mean that the 2nd team is now bottom of Division 2, but it's still quite close. Meanwhile, the London League Minor Division team picked up their first points of the season when they drew 2–2 with Metropolitan.
13 January 2012
Last night the Civil Service League 1st team beat a weakened UNATS team 6–1 with one unfinished game. Unfortunately the London League Minor Division team could not break their losing habit in their match against Dulwich.
12 January 2012
The Commercial League team are out of the cup following a quarter-final defeat by a stronger NALGO team.
6 January 2012
It was a busy night for the Pimlico teams. The Commercial League team are currently at 3–3 against Met Police with two games unfinished. The Pimlico Wanderers team in the Central London League beat Battersea 3.5–1.5. The London League Minor Division team lost to Hammersmith 3–1.
16 December 2011
It was a busy night at the club with three Pimlico teams in action. Wins for Pimlico Wanderers and the Civil Service League 2nd team, but unfortunately the London League Minor Division team lost again to Beckenham and Charlton.
9 December 2011
The Civil Service League 1st team drew 4–4 with Revenue & Customs, ensuring that we go into the mid-season break as league leaders.
1 December 2011
The Civil Service League 1st team lead GLCC 4–3 with one unfinished game which is winning so the final result should be 5–3. [Later confirmed as 5–3.]
The London League Minor Division team lost 1–3 to Beckenham & Charlton. Macer Hall and Cameron Lawson made their debuts for the club.
The Commercial League team lost 6–2 to Railways but they were heavily out-graded and at least they turned out a full team.
25 November 2011
The Civil Service League 2nd team crashed out of the Post Annual Cup last night, drawing 3–3 against Revenue & Customs 2nd team but losing on the tie-break. At least it will ease the fixture congestion.
The 1st team went straight into the semi-final of the Bonar Law Trophy when their opponents, Treasury, were unable to raise a team. The semi-final will be away against either Met Police or DHSS.
21 November 2011
Pimlico Wanderers won 4–1 against Railsport in the Central London League. Meanwhile, in the Civil Service League Division 2, our 2nd team lost 4–2 to Business & Innovation, who are on course for promotion.
11 November 2011
Another disaster for the Commercial League team, who lost heavily against HMC 2nd team. We defaulted four of the eight boards. That's only happened once before in the club's 25+ years of playing chess.
10 November 2011
In last night's match the Civil Service League 1st team lead DHSS 4–3 with one game unfinished, probably drawn, which would give us the match. Harry won (again) and everyone else drew. [Later: we won the match 4.5–3.5.]
4 November 2011
It was trebles all round as the Civil Service League 2nd team finally made it on to the scorebook. Despite defaulting one board they drew their match against Revenue & Customs 2.
Elsewhere, Pimlico Guardians went top of the table in the Central London League with a resounding 3.5–1.5 win against a higher-graded HMC team.
2 November 2011
We had to concede tomorrow's London League Minor Division match against Hammersmith as we were unable to raise a team. The number of defaults we are conceding has become a serious issue for the team.
On a more positive note, the Pimlico Wanderers team in the Central London League notched up a fine win over Imperial College and (briefly) go top of the table.
27 October 2011
It was a bad day in the office for Pimlico as both the Commercial League team and the Minor Division team lost heavily. To make things worse, the Commercial League team defaulted three boards, and there was a dispute on board 1 about whether our player (Harry) had lost on time. Eventually we conceded the match but we were not happy.
Afterwards, an ashen-faced Sir Alex Biggs faced the press. "This is the worst day in my history of managing chess teams. We were naive. We should have settled for a 5–3 loss instead of counter-attacking and ending up on the wrong end of 6.5–1.5." Sports correspondent James Tunbridge-Wells commented that this was Pimlico's worst loss at home since 1936 when they went down 25–14 to Accrington Stanley.
24 October 2011
The Civil Service League 1st team beat Met Police 5–3 tonight. Both sides defaulted a board.
21 October 2011
At last a win, as Pimlico Guardians beat Pimlico Wanders 3–2 in the Central London League local derby. The match would probably have been drawn except for a blunder in the last game to finish which dropped a piece.
…But it was business as usual for the Civil Service League 2nd team, who went down to a higher-graded Treasury side. Defaulting two boards obviously didn't help.
7 October 2011
Four matches played. No wins, two draws (probably), two losses. If this was football, the tabloid press would be screaming for a change of manager.
23 August 2011
All fixtures are now available on the website.
We will be entering two teams in the Central London League – Pimlico Guardians and Pimlico Wanderers.
24 July 2011
The ECF grades for 2011 have now been published. I have updated the grading details on the Members page.
13 May 2011
The Civil Service League 1st team picked up their fourth trophy of the season last night, holding off a strong challenge from Metropolitan Police to win the Team Blitz Grand Prix and take home the Barford Trophy for the third year in succession.
Chris Briscoe and Alistair Compton did very well, both scoring 9.5/12. My results suffered from trying to organise the event as well as play in it – I don't think I'll do that again. Peter Biggs was one of the lowest-graded players in the event but did just enough to keep the team ahead.
Full results are on the Civil Service League website.
12 May 2011
The London League Minor Division team ended their campaign with a 2–2 draw against a strong Beckenham & Charlton team. Congratulations to Paul Haughton, who won his individual game and also the Grand Prix.
30 April 2011
The club AGM took place on Thursday 28 April at the new venue in Pimlico. 11 members were present. The meeting took a number of important decisions about the future. See the 2011 AGM minutes here.
21 April 2011
In their last match of the season, the Commercial League team beat HMC 4.5–3.5, despite defaulting a board. Wins for Harry and Matthew.
15 April 2011
We picked up our third trophy of the season when the Civil Service League 1st team beat Met Police 5–3 in the final of the Bonar Law Trophy.
14 April 2011
The Commercial League team produced their worst performance of the season in losing 8–0 to Railways in a league match
on 12 April. Peter Biggs found himself very short of players and had to default the bottom four boards.
8 April 2011
The Commercial League team won the cup final last night, beating Railways 4–1 (5–1 after adjudication probably). This was payback time for our cup final loss against Railways in 2008. Wins for James, Harry and Richard (so far). [Latest: Railways conceded Tim's game on board 4, making the final score 5–1 to us.]
7 April 2011
The London League Minor Division team lost 3–1 to Metropolitan last night. We had to default two boards. Peter scored our only point.
31 March 2011
The Commercial League team beat Met Police 5–3 last night. One more match against the Met to go.
25 March 2011
The Civil Service League 1st team beat DHSS 5–3 to finish the season on a winning note. Wins for Chris, James, Richard and Vincent.
24 March 2011
The London League Minor Division team drew 2–2 with Hackney last night despite defaulting a board.
23 March 2011
The Commercial League team drew 4–4 with BBC despite defaulting a board. Wins for Richard, Peter and Keith.
18 March 2011
The Civil Service League 2nd team lost 3.5–2.5 to SPARTA last night. Having to default board 6 didn't help. Peter Biggs led from the front with a win as captain.
16 March 2011
The Commercial League team lost 6–2 last night to a very strong HMC team. We were outgraded by 11 points a board. Tony Ashby scored our only win.
11 March 2011
The London League Minor Division team beat Cavendish 4–0 last night. Three of the Cavendish players failed to turn up, because of a mix-up over the venue.
10 March 2011
Congratulations to the Civil Service League 1st team, who became League Champions tonight after beating Revenue & Customs 6–1 with one unfinished game. The match was closer than the scoreline suggests.
[Latest: final score 7–1 to us.]
4 March 2011
In the cup semi-final, the Civil Service League 1st team is currently at 2.5–2.5 against Revenue & Customs with three games unfinished. We need a win and two draws to go through to the final. [Latest: we won 4.5–3.5.]