HM
Once more unto the breach. Three teams from Luton enter to battle in the league
The 2024 Bedfordshire Chess League Annual General Meeting was held at the Open University last Thursday. Representatives from the four league chess clubs, Bedford, Leighton Buzzard, Milton Keynes and our own Luton were in attendance. The meeting was chaired by the league controller Adrian Elwin.
Important decisions were made that change how chess will be played in the forthcoming season.
First change is the move to a single time contol. All league matches will now be played at the following rate: All moves in 80 minutes plus 10 second increments each move.
This new time control will also be adopted for forthcoming 2024-25 Bedfordshire Individual Championship and 2024-25 Luton Club Championship.
The second change is the entry of two new teams into the 2nd division.
Six teams will play in the 1st division: Bedford A, Bedford B, Leighton Buzzard A, Leighton Buzzard B, Milton Keynes A and newly promoted home side, Luton A.
Eight teams will play in the 2nd division: Bedford C, Bedford D, Milton Keynes B, Milton Keynes C, Open University, Luton B along with new teams Bedford E and our own Luton C.
At the end of the season, one team from the 1st division will be relegated and two teams from the 2nd division will be promoted.
This means ten matches for Luton A and fourteen matches for Luton B & C in the 2024-25 season. Everyone from Luton chess club who wishes to play serious chess will now be able to do so.
Luton chess club team captains will be: Luton A - Humayun Mirza; Luton B - Dixon Jones; Luton C - Des Welton (Reserve - Daven Patel).
The third change allowed increasing the flexibility of players to play for other teams in the same club. The team captains will be made aware of the rules which can be found in the link appended at the end of this post.
Finally, at the AGM, league controller Adrian Elwin read the Bedfordshire Chess League Report for the 2023-24 Season in which Luton A team and players were given special commendation:
"Division 2 was dominated by Luton A who conceded just 1 loss all season and ended up on 18 points ahead of Milton Keynes A on 14, Bedford D on 11, Luton B and Open University on 6 and Milton Keynes C on 5. Luton A are promoted. Samir Vora had an exceptional season, scoring 7 out of 7.
Notable performances (4 or more games, over 70%): Samir Vora 7/7 100%; Thomas O'Brien 9/10 90%; Dixon Jones 5/7 71%."
Noteworthy in indeed! Best of skill and luck to Luton chess teams this coming season.