As planning continues ahead of the new season, Battersea Chess Club is pleased to announce the details we have confirmed so far of our upcoming 2021-22 league season.
The club is fielding nine teams and potentially a tenth in two league structures with the first match taking place on September 14.
That night Battersea 1 will take on Battersea 2 in a “home” match for both sides in the Central London League. The full fixture list for the CLL only has been added to the club calendar here.
Fixtures for the London Chess League are yet to be released – more on that later. However, here is the rundown of what’s we have confirmed so far for both leagues.
London Chess League
The people behind the LCL are working extremely hard to get it back up and running but there is still a lot to be decided. We have two members who are part of the decision-making process, Alan Palmer who doubles as club chairman and the league president while Vic Rumsey is the league’s long-time fixtures secretary.
There is likely to be an announcement on a new venue or pair of venues soon. Rating boundaries for the Major and Minor divisions still need to be ironed out and we haven’t heard yet whether we’ll be allowed to enter a new Battersea team, provisionally called the “Battersea Volts”, in the Minor division.
Some of our home matches, where we have agreed with the opposition team, can be played at Battersea. The rest of our home and away will be played at the yet-to-be-confirmed league venue or venues. However, here are the teams and captains we have confirmed:
Battersea 1 (Division 1) Midhun Unnikrishnan
Battersea 2 (Division 2) Paul Stokes
Battersea 3 (Division 4) Bill Drennan + Malcolm Dancy
Battersea Dogs (Major Division) Tim Valentine + Leon Watson
Battersea Cats (Major Division) Raja Krovvidi
Battersea Power (Minor Division) David Blackwell
Battersea Volts (Minor Division) Marco Flaccavento
Central London League
While the LCL has grappled with several big issues, the CLL has been quick off the mark to get itself organised after lockdown. The CLL is, however, a lot smaller in scale and run entirely – and very efficiently – by Pimlico Chess Club.
The unfinished 2019/20 season has been ditched and the league has a new venue in the Churchill Gardens Resident Association building, which is in Glasgow Terrace near Pimlico tube station. We are told the new home of the league is “bright and with good natural ventilation”. Please note the time control for this league is G/75 with a 15″ increment from move 1.
The CLL has also released all its fixtures which will be added to our club calendar shortly. We are still looking for a captain for our first team so if anyone is interested, get in contact.
Our first match is an all-Battersea derby between Battersea 1 and Battersea 2 on September 14. As well as a captain, we need to iron out distinct squads for the two teams in Division 1 because they can’t mix. We also need to find a captain for the third team which is currently leaderless and plays its first match on September 16.
Battersea 1 (Division 1) Ali Hill
Battersea 2 (Division 1) Emil Todorow
Battersea 3 (Division 2) Tim Valentine.
