Selkirk Chess Club

Tam Wylie has sent in this jokey interpretation of the upcoming Selkirk Allegro. Thanks, Tam! No, you don't have to have a beard and weird eyes to enter (though people with those attributes will be made very welcome too, of course!) but please enter early. Entries are restricted to 60 people, and available places are being taken up fast.

https://congress.org.uk/congress/806/home

We've now had 24 entries for the Selkirk Allegro on Sunday 20th September. Entries are limited to 60 players, so please enter soon if you want to play. Full details are on

www.congress.org.uk

The grades for 2026-27 have been recorded on the website, and other updates have been done too.

Borders Chess League The Borders Chess League covers all towns in the Scottish Borders

Three Borders players travelled to Hamlton to compete in the Scottish U-1800 FIDE tournament. The players were Keith Aitchison of Kelso, and Selkirk players Maurice Richards and Sam Cornwell. Sam and Maurice were seriously outgraded in a few of their matches, but played excellently to score 3½/9 (Sam) and 4/9 (Maurice). Those were very good outcomes in a tough section, relative to their gradings.

Sam recorded a shock win in the first round, overturning a 485 deficit to defeat Edinburgh's Vipin Zamvar, who has a FIDE rating of 1738 and was one of the favourites to win the tournament.

But it was Keith Aitchison who turned in the best performance of all. Keith scored 7/9 to come joint second behind Stirling's Lokesh Kumar Pulkanti, who won with 7½/9. Excellent result from Keith.

Final crosstable from chess-results.com...

https://chess-results.com/fed.aspx?lan=1&fed=SCO

Chess-Results Server Chess-results.com - FED-Selection SCO Chess-Results.com is a powerful and dedicated server only for chess-results. The tournament archive of chess-results.com contains more than 40.000 tournaments from around the world.

Tuesday 30th June saw a lightning tournament held in the County Hotel, with the top three being (1) Mark Gardiner (2) Nick Dunne (3) Sam Cornwell.

chessborders.co.uk has all the details, along with a brilliant report by Sam Cornwell on the event.

How chess 'boom' is building young minds Experts say the game is helping children solve problems, forge friendships and build confidence.

Here are the three photos of the Edinburgh Congress, sent in by John Moore.

Four Borders players entered the Edinburgh Congress last weekend: Kelso’s Keith Aitchison entered the Major, while three Selkirk players (John Moore, Maurice Richards and Sam Cornwell) entered the Bishops section. All four played well, with Keith in particular scoring above his grading.

The event was held in the Hibs Supporters Club, and we will also post three photos from the weekend (taken by John Moore).

Chess-Results Server Chess-results.com - Edinburgh Congress 2026 Bishops Chess-Results.com is a powerful and dedicated server only for chess-results. The tournament archive of chess-results.com contains more than 40.000 tournaments from around the world.

It's not quite the end of the season, but nonetheless we've been looking at the live grades. If things stay the same (and it could be a big IF) this is how we'll be lining up next season. Some good performances... and some disappointments. Here goes:

Three Selkirk players went to Perth last weekend, and came away with a creditable total of 12/21. Sam Cornwell has sent us a full and entertaining report. Read it in the chessborders.co.uk blog section.

Borders Chess League The Borders Chess League covers all the towns in the Scottish Borders