Fight of his life!
Redcar B 1-3 Thornaby Veterans
Kian Simpson 1-0 Alan Bayne
Helen Marsay 0-1 Nick Tadd
Keith Barker-Chapman 0-1 Ian Swales
Sonny Brodrick 0-1 Andy Austen
Andy won quickly on board 4 to keep his 100% record for the season so far.
My Dad felt he played the opening badly and was -1 according to the engine early on, but his opponent missed a way to win a pawn. A knight blunder from his opponent allowed him and his queen came in for the win.
When my Dad left, Alan was a queen for a rook down and he wasn't able to get back from there.
Nick sealed the match victory said his game was the "fight of my life"! He started badly getting in a mess on the queen side going 2 pawns down and not being able to castle. He managed to stabilise and some good swaps put him 2R/N/5P against 2R/B/6P entering the end game. Then his knight and king were just more active in the endgame and Nick promoted first.
Nick said "Everybody had gone home by the time we finished our game! I didn't see much of the others. I was still battling with Helen at a quarter to nine and there was only us and David Baillie there. I put the lights out on my way out!"
The win leaves the Veterans 5 points clear at the top of the E division and it would take a minor miracle for them not to win it now!
Chris
Date:20/01/2026 Bombers crash in top of the table clash!
Board 1 Draw!
Thornaby Bombers ½-3½ Darlington C
Dominic Leigh ½-½ Jonathan Sams
Mike Creaney 0-1 Steve Halliday
Steve Rodgers 0-1 Richard Harris
Maurice Olum 0-1 Bob Donner
1st played 2nd in this one and Darlington C made it 6 wins from 7 in the B division this season. Only the mighty Chipmunks have defeated them!
Maurice lost to the dangerous Bob Donner on board 4. Former Darlington player, Dominic was probably slightly ahead if anything, but a draw always looked likely.
Mike said he missed an in-between move which netted a piece for his opponent on move 23, the only likely result occurred 10 moves later!
Steve had no complaints. He said his opponent did not put a foot wrong and in trying to force things in a dead even position, he over-extended and lost a pawn which was key to his position. After which a quick collapse ensued.
Darlington go 3 points clear at the top. The Bombers remain in 2nd, but with 3 other teams within 1 point, the promotion race is wide open!
Date:20/01/2026 Chipmunks Join Promotion Chase!
First finished!
Thornaby Chipmunks 3-1 Billingham Belasis
Tashil Lankapura 1-0 Darren Donnison
Rhys Orton 0-1 Paul Frank
Ajay Selvan 1-0 Gary Leighton
Josh Clements 1-0 Brian Whitaker
A good win for the Chipmunks that sees them overtake the Challengers into 4th place in the B division and only 2 points off the top. The day started with a bit of drama, with Joseph having to withdraw ill. Fortunately, Josh is a very able replacement!
Once the match actually started, the overall result never really looked in doubt from quite early. Unusually, Ajay was first finished. He got a piece for a pawn early on and then forced it to 2 rooks against 1. Gary had a passed pawn, but once Ajay forced a rook trade it was over.
Rhys went a piece down quite early and Paul was pretty ruthless from there. Rhys was 2 rooks down the last time I looked. I asked him afterwards why he didn’t resign and he said he thought he might as well play on while he was waiting for his lift home to arrive!
Josh went ahead as early as move 4. His unconventional b2, Bb3 opening proved effective. I was talking to Brian afterwards and he said I knew I just had to not move the dark squared bishop and then I did it anyway a move later! This allowed Josh to get the g7 pawn and the h8 rook for his bishop! Brian said he thought about resigning there, but he kept going and it did look like he might get back into it at one point. Josh forced his h and g pawn down to the end though and it was all over from there.
Tashil played a very good game. He was a pawn up, then a piece up and then 2 pieces up. I talked to Darren afterwards and he said Tashil played well throughout, saw everything and was a star of the future!
Chris
Date:20/01/2026 Revenge for Ruthless Dynasties!
End game win!
Thornaby Dynasties 4-0 Thornaby Juniors
Sam Stevenson 1-0 Faruk Serin
James Mann 1-0 Eva Harris
Geoff Mann 1-0 Isaac Machin
Richard Stevenson 1-0 Kabir Rao
The Juniors got a surprise victory over the Dynasties earlier in the season, but they were in no mood to give anything away in this game getting an emphatic revenge for the previous fixture!
For the third week running I have managed to name the same team just changing Sam and James around on the top two boards.
First finished was myself in a very quick game. Isaac tried to skewer my rook and queen early but I fought away the attack and after forking his king and queen Isaac resigned.
Next was James in a close game. Both traded down to an equal amount of pawns and a rook each however Eva had two panes on the same file. James managed to get a pawn up and guide it up the board with his king. Just before promoting Eva resigned.
On board one was two of the top scorers on the league. After an extremely tight affair Faruk blundered a rook forgetting it wasn’t protected. After Sam took then Faruk resigned.
Last to finish was Richard who got a piece up early and managed to trade down to be left with a rook. Kabir never gave up and was close to getting a stalemate. Richard trapped the king on the b file and when promoted to a queen got the checkmate.
The Dynasties leap frog the Juniors to go third in table! I think the score was a little harsh on the Juniors and the top two boards especially could have went either way. Good luck for the rest of the season.
Geoff
Date:19/01/2026 Tough night for Challengers!
Best game?
Middlesbrough Knights 3-1 Thornaby Challengers
Paul Perrett 0-1 Chris Swales
Nikhil Bhandari 1-0 Stephen Ollis
Brian Myers 1-0 Phil Wales
Jake Pearson 1-0 Nate Broadbent
Their board 4 was higher rated than our board 1, so this one was always likely to be a tough ask.
Nate got into a good position and had Jake worried. In the end Jake found a nice tactic with pressure on Nate’s king from too many angles. Nate certainly didn’t look out of place on his B division debut though and Jake said he played well. He thought Nate should have exchanged down earlier into an endgame.
I finished soon after at just quarter past 8. I knew Paul played fast, but he was even faster than I expected. He used less than 20 minutes to me almost using an hour! We were done by 8:15, but it felt more like 10 o clock to me as I seemed to spend the whole time on my own move. It was like playing Tashil or Jayden! The actual game was probably one of the best I’ve played. I was always on top, pushed him back and swapped off at the right time for a won endgame. Chess.com agreed, rating my performance at 2450, so overall I was very happy with my own game!
Phil started OK, thought he had a good attack going, but got a pinned piece in the middle game and lost it to a pawn. He thought there was a chance of holding, but Brian had a passed h pawn that proved unstoppable.
The last time I looked Stephen was even on material, but I liked his pieces. They were all on great squares and active. He felt he got into a strong position, but rushed it a bit at the end and let it slip.
Middlesbrough jump over us in the table, but at the halfway stage we’re in a nice position to challenge for promotion still. 4th place and just 1 or 2 points off the promotion spots (depending on other result tomorrow).
Chris
Date:15/01/2026 Cadets win on the road!
Alert!
Redcar A 1.5-2.5 Thornaby Cadets
Eddie Curphey 1-0 Rhys Orton
Callum Hodgkiss 0.5-0.5 Josh Clements
Kian Simpson 0-1 Jayden Wang
Keith Barker-Chapman 0-1 Zhuoyi Lin
A good win for the Cadets last night in the C division. Redcar's top 2 boards are very strong for this level, so we needed Jayden and Zhuoyi to be alert against their 2 newer opponents! Eddie is up to 1683 rating and has won all 4 of his games this season (Joe McGinnis and Jim Rogers amongst the victims). Callum had 3 wins from 4 before this one. It would certainly be interesting to see how they'd do if Redcar had a team in a higher division.
The win lifts the Cadets up 2 place to 5th in the table. It is all very compact at the halfway stage and 5th is only 3 points off the top. Any team in the division can still make a run at promotion.
Also, thanks to Rhys for being the on the night captain!
Chris
Date:14/01/2026 Good point for Dynasties!
Board 3 win!
Darlington D 2-2 Thornaby Dynasties
Oscar Nicholson 1478 1-0 James Mann 1411
Mark Turner 1477 0.5-0.5 Sam Stevenson 1442
Harsimran Singh 1475 0-1 Geoff Mann 1420
Charlie Miller 1405 0.5-0.5 Richard Stevenson 1176
I changed the order around this week to give James and Sam a chance on higher boards where they should be on form.
I was first finished getting a point on the board against a really tough opponent. After sacrificing my knight for three pawns and keeping my rooks I managed to take all his pawns leaving him with a knight and two rooks against my rooks and 7 pawns. I managed to push two pawns protected to threaten a queen. My opponent then resigned.
James struggled in his game and was down throughout. His opponent just seemed to be outsmart him. Sometimes we have those nights.
Sam's game was tough and he managed to get up a pawn early on. After trading down to a bishop each, his opponent managed to stop all attacks with his light squared bishop stopping any chance of queening. A good draw for Sam.
Richard played extremely well and managed to be up a rook and a bishop, however his opponent cleverly played successive checks with his queen. Whilst they may have been a way out Richard thought he may blunder his queen so accepted a draw.
Overall a good result against a team higher rated than ourselves, especially on board 4. On another day we may have got the win but still a good result.
Geoff
Date:14/01/2026 Cavaliers Point on Travels!
Well done!
Billingham Synthonia Chemics 2-2 Thornaby Cavaliers
Steve Clark 0-1 Tashil Lankapura
Andrew Herrity 0-1 Joe McGinnis
Graham Glass 1-0 Toefl Lankapura
Martin Curry 1-0 Tim Hind
I had a decent position against Andrew Herrity on Board 2 after 20-odd moves, which was the first time I checked the other games. Tashil was a pawn down against Steve Clark on 1, Toefl and Tim seemed OK on 3 & 4.
Toefl finished first, having found a way to trap his opponent's queen; sadly he had missed the only possible escape, which led to instant checkmate! 0-1.
Tim was next. In his own words: "Hard fought, good game. Just couldn't find a way through. It came out as a 1500 level game for both of us on chess.com - I'm very happy with that, being rated at 1260!" 0-2
I was now a piece up and confident of victory barring some horrible blunder - not impossible on current form, so I was being careful. Tashil was now 2 pawns down. I won at move 49, when I had two or three different mate threats which could only be delayed by sacrificing pieces to give pointless checks. 1-2
Tashil had a rook and three pawns against a rook and five pawns, which you'd have thought was pretty hopeless. But a closer look at the position showed that he had a passed pawn on the 6th rank, with another pawn and his king in support. Maybe there was a chance of swindling a draw?
What followed was an endgame masterclass. One pawn and the rook were sacrificed to promote the other pawn - queen and pawn against rook and four pawns. Tashil kept the pressure on with checks and careful captures when he was sure there were no dangerous checks coming the other way. Four pawns became three, then two, then one, then none! There were three or four times when I thought he'd gone wrong - just as well he was playing and not me. After something like 60 moves, Steve resigned when his only option was to capture the queen, but lose his rook in the process leaving a position when the remaining pawn was unstoppable. No doubt there were mistakes along the way on both sides, but when it came to the crunch in the endgame Tashil kept his head, played accurately despite the pressure, and delivered the win. WELL DONE YOUNG MAN! 2-2
Joe
Date:13/01/2026 Veterans Extend lead!
Leading scorer!
Thornaby Destroyers 1-3 Thornaby Veterans
Vikram Rao 0-1 Alan Bayne
Jake Taylor 0-1 Nick Tadd
Joe Vera-Sanso 1-0 Janos Mehes
Daniel Ayre 0-1 Andy Austen
The Destroyers handed out season debuts and put up a god fight against the E division leading Veterans team.
First finished was Andy. He was impressed with Daniel's improvement over the last few months, but a rook blunder eventually let him in for a 5th win in 5 in the E division this season. He continues to be the leading scorer in the division!
Nick was also impressed with his opponent Jake. He said he was under the cosh for 90% of the game, but found a rook sacrifice to open Jake's king and force a win.
Janos had a slight lead, but Joe had a solid looking position. A miscalculation from Janos allowed Joe to get a piece up and he played it pretty ruthlessly from there. A good win for him.
Board 1 was last finished of all the 8 matches tonight. Vikram said he enjoyed his game, maybe we can persuade him to play a bit more at the club! It was a really good game to watch. Alan eventually got a pawn up, but Vikram had threats on f2 and in an open position with both players having a queen, rook and bishop in the middle of the board, anything could have happened. The game was decided when Alan found a check that forced Vikram's king forward and then he was able to skewer it against the queen. Vikram played on for a bit, but it was effectively over from there.
Good to get 3 season debuts in for the Destroyers. The Veterans remain top of the E division and are looking good to seal the title!
Chris
Date:13/01/2026 Points shared in promotion battle!
2nd and 3rd in the E division table played out a good competitive match. The Falcons were missing several players and I had to get 2 "Fledglings" to play on the bottom 2 boards, while Bertie was playing his first game of the season. The Queens were also short of players for this one and Paulina came in for her league debut.
Paulina was first to finish. She managed to get a rook up and with Oakley's king chased into the middle of the board, it was over fairly quickly from there. Paulina has been a solid library player for quite a while now and it was a good league debut for her!
Shanaya made it 2-0 to the Queens. It looked fairly even the first time I looked, but Shanaya had smashed through Bertie's king side the next time and was well ahead.
The Falcons fought back though. I saw the key moment on board 3. Clair took something with a pawn, but unfortunately it was pinned to her queen by a rook and Oscar capitalised. There was still work to do, but that was always likely to be decisive for Oscar. Oscar's starting to get used to longer games now, a good win for him.
Kabir is very much an up and coming new player for the club and it was another good win for him, this time against Omi. He gradually increased his lead with some accurate play and ensured a point for the Falcons. Games in the higher divisions are likely to follow shortly.
A good point for both teams which keeps them in the hunt for promotion.
Chris
Date:12/01/2026 Young Juniors Win!
Board 3 win!
Middlesbrough Bishops 1-3 Thornaby Juniors
Chris Rumsey 0-1 Josh Clements
Andrew Salter 1-0 Isaac Machin
Andy Thomson 0-1 Shanaya Chauhan
Paul Bruce 0-1 Henry Bishop
A good result from last nights Juniors match. Several players were missing, but we still had 3 current and 1 former Teesside age group champion playing! Undoubtedly they are 4 of our most promising players for their ages, but it was still a good win for our young (even by Juniors standards!) team against 4 adult players. Opposition captain Ray's verdict, "They wiped the floor with us, especially on board 3 and 4!"
At the halfway point in the season, we're 1 point behind Billingham at the top end of the D division table with all to play for going into the second half of the season!
Chris
Date:08/01/2026 First Point for Fledglings!
Board 1 win!
Redcar B 2-2 Thornaby Fledglings
Keith Barker-Chapman 0-1 Henry Bishop
Helen Marsay 1-0 Joseph Hartill
Sonny Brodrick 0-1 Noah Molloy
Jack Jiang 1-0 Matthew Harthill
A good first point of the season for the Fledglings! It was all done and dusted pretty quickly, I think 19:42 is about the earliest a league match has ever finished!
Henry won first, a very quick attacking win which was over in about five minutes!
Matthew lost to Redcar newcomer Jack a short while after, they'd only played about 10 minutes each at this point.
Next finished was Noah who ensured at least a point with a checkmate against Sonny.
Joseph and Helen took the longest, Joseph resigned when he only had a knight left.
Clair
Date:07/01/2026 Dragoons Dominated!
Calm and Methodical!
Thornaby Dragoons 1-3 Billingham Dominators
Neil Sotheby 0-1 Sean Ridgeway
Malcolm Goldspink 1-0 Michael Joynes
George Butterworth 0-1 Bernie Callaghan
Nick Tadd 0-1 Graham Bartram
On Wednesday night we faced the Billingham Dominators, and unfortunately the name turned out to be less of a branding exercise and more of a statement of intent. The final score was 3–1 to Billingham, and while we didn't disgrace ourselves, we were fairly comprehensively reminded that confidence and competence are not the same thing.
I played my usual London-esque setup and, for a while, it worked beautifully. So beautifully, in fact, that I got carried away. I launched my rook, then most of my queenside, and generally went full “attack mode” without noticing one small detail: I had completely paralysed my entire kingside. At some point I realised none of my right-hand pieces had moved, couldn't move, and were essentially spectators to my own demise. They remained there, frozen in horror, until I was mated. Lesson learned: I love being aggressive — perhaps a little too much. Will I stop? Possibly. Will George slow down? Almost certainly not...
George, predictably, finished first. So fast, in fact, that even his opponent commented that he was playing too quickly. George took this as encouragement. A sharp game, lots of speed, lots of confidence — and another reminder that if George ever slows down, it'll be because someone has physically restrained him.
Nick played a really strong game and had Graham under serious pressure, building up what looked like a winning attack and sniffing out mate. Unfortunately, he forgot one crucial detail: Graham still had a bishop, quietly sniping down a long diagonal. That bishop not only neutralised Nick's attack, but then calmly joined in for the kill. Three mates on, Billingham already had the victory.
With us staring down the barrel of a whitewash, Malcolm did what Malcolm always does: stayed calm, stayed precise, and quietly went about his business. He picked up a small advantage, traded pieces methodically, and converted into a winning endgame with passed pawns on both sides of the board. No drama, no panic — just proper chess. A huge well done to Malcolm for saving us from a 4–0 and reminding us what composure looks like.
The only real excitement off the board was Alan Stockley arriving at 7:30pm, having only just seen my email and rushing down in case he was needed. Sadly, he was too late. I very much wish he'd been earlier — he'd have done a better job than me on Board 1. Even Graham from Billingham laughed and asked, “What are you doing on board one?” A fair question.
Final Thoughts A fairly uneventful match by our usual standards — no dodgy venues, no bar-related incidents, no door confusion. I blame the tame, organised layout. We clearly thrive on chaos, noise, and mild danger. Billingham deserved the win. Malcolm and Alan (in spirit) were the heroes of the night. The rest of us will hopefully learn from our mistakes — though history suggests that's far from guaranteed!
Neil
Date:06/01/2026 Bombers Fly to the top!
Board 1 win!
Thornaby Bombers 3½-½ Middlesbrough Knights
Sam Greig 1-0 Nikhil Bhandari
Dominic Leigh ½-½ Jake Pearson
Steve Rodgers 1-0 Brian Myers
Joe McGinnis 1-0 Ray Pallister
Excellent win for the Bombers in what was by no means an easy match, even though we had a slight advantage in overall ratings.
I was finished first, and for a change it wasn't because I'd blundered the game away. I did make one blunder, but it didn't cost me material - just allowed him to develop his bishop, free up his rook, retain a solid pawn structure and open up the f file for his queen and other rook. Fortunately he blundered back a couple of moves later, leaving a pawn en prise. I spent a fair bit of time looking for the trap, before deciding I might as well take it anyway. It turned out there wasn't one. Things got pretty complicated for a while, and I wasn't entirely happy even when I grabbed a second pawn as I still had a very weak isolated pawn on d3. I managed to keep it defended, won his bishop along the way, and eventually forced the queens off. It was still tricky after that as he had an awkward pin on my bishop, but I got my rooks working together and was able to deliver checkmate on move 40. He could have avoided it, but this would have resulted in all 4 rooks being exchanged leaving bishop and 3 pawns v a single pawn.
At this point the other games seemed roughly even. Steve was a pawn up, Dominic was level and Sam a pawn down. Ten minutes later and things had shifted decisively. Steve had won the exchange as well, Dominic and Jake had drawn and Sam, still a pawn down, had 47 minutes left against Nikhil's 12. Dominic said he had an advantage, but offered the draw knowing it should be enough to clinch the match.
Sam won his pawn back, seemed (to me anyway!) to turn down a chance to win one and/or force an exchange of bishops, then looked like he was going to lose a piece, except I hadn't noticed he'd captured a bishop on the previous move. Nikhil got a pawn to the 7th rank, but couldn't convert it and resigned with about 3 minutes left. Afterwards Sam said he'd had a horrible position and was lucky to win - but time management is an important chess skill as well!
Brian Myers was putting up a fight against Steve, whose clock was also ticking towards single figures, but he eventually managed to get the rooks exchanged; Brian resigned shortly afterwards.
The upshot of all this is that the Bombers are now top of B Division by 1 point from the Challengers, although Darlington C have 2 games in hand against the bottom 2.
Joe
Date:05/01/2026 Challengers held at Hartlepool!
Forced Mate!
Hartlepool B 2-2 Thornaby Challengers
Dave Kelly 0-1 Paul Douglass
Graham Matthews 0-1 Chris Swales
Alex Kalyviotis 1-0 Phil Wales
Ellis Roebuck 1-0 Iain Mellis
I was finished first, keeping a 100% record in the new lucky T-Shirt! A very short game (less than 30 minutes) where Graham lost a pawn and then missed that my knight was attacking his queen after taking the pawn! He resigned after moving something else and before I had even played my move. When we were chatting afterwards, I did ask Graham if he was worried about the snow and wanted to get home early, but he said he only lived round the corner!
Phil looked to have a reasonable position to me despite being a pawn down, with a nice open h file as compensation. Unfortunately, he managed to get his queen trapped. 1-1
Iain was a bishop and a rook against a queen, but Ellis had a strong pawn on the 6th ranks that ended up being decisive.
Paul was always on the attack against Dave, but was 2 pawns down at one point. Dave defended well for a long time before Paul eventually found a combination that forced mate. That ensured the overall draw for the Challengers.
The Challengers stay top of the B division, but a chance for others to overtake them later in the week.
Date:05/01/2026 Eva saves Chipmunks!
Battler!
Hartlepool C 2-2 Thornaby Chipmunks
Michael Smalley 0-1 Josh Clements
Peter Harker 1-0 Jayden Wang
Kev Waterman 1-0 Sam Stevenson
Mark Priest 0-1 Eva Harris
Our teams were back in action yesterday with a trip to Hartlepool and I was a good result for our youngsters in the B division. The Hartlepool B and C teams are roughly equal strength and our opponents certainly looked like the favourites on paper. The Chipmunks were missing their entire normal squad (mostly due to mock exams). So this was mostly a Thornaby Cadets C division type team with in-form Sam also coming in from the Dynasties team.
Josh put the Chipmunks 1 up. An excellent win on board 1 over Michael who was runner up in the Cleveland Individual last year and very much a player on the up. Josh was a piece down for 2 pawns when I first looked, but the pawns were forming a formidable looking centre and Michael's knight couldn't get back to safety. Josh was winning anyway towards the end with his 2 pawn advantage, but a skewer on king and rook finished it for sure. This was Josh's 10th win of the season already. At the current rate, he could well be making an Aces debut before the season is out.
Peter equalised for Hartlepool C. Jayden got a bishop trapped quite early and although he created some counter play, he never looked like getting back into it. Peter had 2 very strong looking knights for a lot of the middle game.
Sam was making his B division debut and played a solid game against Kev, but eventually went the exchange down. With the queens off, it looked like an uphill struggle. Sam battled on, but Kev eventually got a pawn too close to the end to stop.
That left Eva needing a win to draw the overall match. It looked bad to me (despite being level on material) with her king uncastled and her rooks doing nothing still in the corners while Mark had all his pieces nicely in play. Eva is always a battler though and she created some threats on the b-file. Mark made the crucial mistake trying to continue his attack and ended up losing a piece for a pawn after exchanging the queens. There was still a bit to do, but a relatively easy endgame conversion for Eva from there.
Date:03/01/2026 Venue Change!
Bar Loco!
Happy New Year! Just a reminder that our normal venue is closed for cleaning and staff holidays for the first 2 weeks of the year. We have 4 alternative nights at Bar Loco in Stockton on these dates:
Monday January 5th, Tuesday January 6th, Monday January 12th and Tuesday January 13th.
The Mondays will be more like the bar area on a club night. The Tuesdays will be more like the back room as we have league fixtures on these dates:
Tuesday 6th: Bombers V Middlesbrough Knights (B Division)
Tuesday 13th: Destroyers V Veterans and Queens V Falcons (E Division)
For those who haven't been before, the address is:
Cafe Bar Loco
12 Prince Regent Street
Stockton-on-Tees
TS18 1DB
The timings of the nights are the same as normal, 7pm-11pm. We're back in our normal venue on Tuesday 20th.
Thornaby was already back on Saturday and both of our Library sessions will be on this week as normal. Friday (4pm-6pm) at Ingleby Barwick library and Saturday (10am-12pm) at Thornaby Central Library.
