Bristol League season 2025/26 (please use the links to check the teams’ schedule)
Division 1 fixtures; Clifton A (Mondays), Clifton B
Division 2 fixtures; Clifton C
Division 3 fixtures; Clifton D (Mondays), Clifton J1 (retired)
Division 4 fixtures; Clifton E, Clifton J2 (Thursdays)
Division 5 fixtures; Clifton F
Division 6 fixtures; Clifton G
It is never late to join the club and play chess either casually or for a team!
Division 1 – Clifton B Champions; Clifton A 3rd place.
Division 2 – no Clifton team.
Division 3 – Clifton C 1st place.
Division 4 – Clifton E (Juniors 1) 1st place; Clifton K 2nd place; Clifton D 4th place.
Division 5 – Clifton F 6th place.
Division 6 — Clifton H (Juniors 2) 1st place; Clifton G 5th place.
Will Cook won the U18 shield.
Division 1 – Clifton A 2nd place.
Division 2 – Clifton B 1st place.
Division 3 – no Clifton team.
Division 4 – Clifton Juniors 1st place.
Division 5 – Clifton C and D won 1st and 2nd place respectively.
Clifton are winners of the League Minor Cup.
Elliot Bleeg won the U18 shield.
Several club members succesfully competed at the tournament.
IM Chris Beaumont won the Bristol Championship (23/24) for the second year running.
Advay Misra won the U1600 section with a perfect score of 5 points out of 5 games. Second place was shared between Rayyan Mussa and Milan Milicevic both Clifton club members.
Please read the detailed report here.
The 2023 Graeme Thomson Memorial was held on Sunday 30th July. The event raised a total of £156 for Macmillan Cancer Support. Thanks to all those who donated.
The Open was won by Oliver Stubbs with impressive 5.5 points ahead of top seed IM James Cobb, veteran USA international Jim Sherwin and Colin Davis.
Full results are on the Chess-Results server (link below).
On 13 June Chris played against 14 players (6 juniors).
Several Clifton club members played at the tournament.
IM Chris Beaumont is the Bristol Champion 22/23 with an impressive score of 4.5 out of 5 games.
Tom Weale won the U1600 section with 4.5 points out of 5 games.
Please read the detailed report here.
We regret to report the death of Professor Michael Furmston who was a member of the club for several years early in the millennium while he was at Bristol University. He played correspondence chess and continued to work into his late 80s.
Here is a link to an article regarding his long and distinguished academic career: https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/news/2020-07-09-michael-furmson-1933-2020
And a link to the Varsity match a mere 64 years ago: https://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/pgn/195603vars-viewer.html
Due to the pandemic the Bristol and District Chess League was suspended in March. The League has decided that it would be impractical to restart the League and all divisions would be decided on the basis of the average match points gained over the matches completed (teams having completed a different number of matches depending on when their fixtures fell).
The result is that Clifton A are Champions by the smallest of margins from Clifton B (1.56 per match as against 1.54). The B team had actually dropped less points but had played fewer matches.
The League has no plans to start the new season as it is difficult to reconcile over the board chess with social distancing. We will have to see how the pandemic resolves itself.
The 2019 Graeme Thomson Memorial was held on Sunday 2nd June. The event raised a total of £138 for Macmillan Cancer Support. Thanks to all those who donated.
The Open was won by veteran USA international Jim Sherwin, ahead of top seed Greg Tooczek, currently from Cardiff, and Leon Burnett from Manningtree.
Joint winners of the Major were Tim Jones of Cabot and Andrew Munn of Downend. Full results are on the Chess-Results server (links below)