Chairman's Review of 2023-24 Season
Leamington returned to full strength in the 23/24 season, adding a fourth team in the Leamington and District Chess League.
The A bounced straight back up into division 1, winning 9 matches, drawing 1 and losing 2. Ben was top scorer with 8.5 points from 12 games. The B team finished 2nd of 8 teams in division 3, with a record of 9 wins, 3 draws and 2 losses. Alex top scored with 11½ points from 14 games. The league granted our request to move the team up to division 2. The C team gave us a second title by winning division 4, finishing 1st of 10 with 11 wins, 0 draws and 2 losses. Gayatri was top scorer with 6 points from 7. They won their last seven games in a row to claim the title by two points. The newly-added D team finished 9th of 10 in division 4 with 3 wins, 1 draw and 9 losses. Charlie Corden was top scorer with 3½ points from 7. Eight different players were used during the season. Our U8750 cup team was our most successful, reaching the semifinals.
In our individual competitions, Tom beat Manish, Joshua, Mike and Ben to take the Club KO, while Manish won the Plate after wins over Nick, John and Thomas. CC picked up the George Boots Shield for greatest grading gap overcome to win, beating Jon in the KO to overcome a gap of 501 points. Lucas won the handicapped Christmas event with a score of 5 points from 6. The rapidplay event consisted of three cups divided by grading. Jon and Ola both scored 4 points from 6 to win Cup I, AK took Cup II with 3 from 3, and Anvikkashri Prabhakaran had 4½ from 5 to take Cup III. Jon Griffiths won the club championship after scoring 2½ from 4 in a rapidplay decider with Tom and Ola.
With three of our teams being promoted, we now have an ideal situation, with one team in each division. The next challenge will be keeping them there.