HCC Activity Calendar 2022-2023

Current event: Five-round 60+30 event played over five consecutive Thursdays beginning September 15th. Message @datasmith to register and then show up a few minutes before 7pm EDT (23h UTC) on September 15th at the 'HCC Club Room' study page

Événement courant: Tournoi suisse 60+30 de cinq rondes joué sur cinq jeudis consécutifs à partir du 15 septembre à 19h HAE (23h UTC). Pour vous inscrire envoyez un message à @datasmith et présentez-vous sur la page du club quelques minutes avant 19h HAE (23h UTC) le 15 septembre.

Classical Thursday Series
Our Classical Thursday tournament series has been consistently popular and continues this fall with two five-round swiss events. We play one round a week on Thursday evenings at 7pm Eastern time. The first will run from September 15th through October 13th. The second will begin November 3rd and end December 1st. Each round in these events is paired in the minutes just before the round to ensure that everyone who wants to play on a given Thursday gets an opponent. The formula also allows you to miss rounds to meet other obligations in your life without ruining the experience for others. You can find more detail on how these tournaments work here: https://lichess.org/@/datasmith/blog/how-to-participate-in-an-hcc-event/zSJ4FXnv In addition to being fun, this fall's tournaments will be qualifying events for an invitational tournament to be held in January 2023.

Invitational Round-robin
Sometime in early January (exact dates TBD with the participants) we are planning an eight player, all-play-all tournament. The HCC Invitational 2023 will include the top four finishers from each of the two fall Classical Thursday tournaments. We expect this to be a challenge for the players, as well as fun to watch. It will also raise the stakes in the fall tournaments as people aim for qualifying spots. For those who don't manage to qualify, a seven-round open event will be held in parallel so that everyone has the opportunity to play.

Ladder Matches
The Ladder Competition we set up for last summer will remain open. The informality and flexibility it offers is good for players who, for whatever reasons, can not commit to regular play on Thursday evenings or even for players that would like to meet a specific opponent with something at stake. All explained here: https://lichess.org/@/datasmith/blog/hcc-laddermatch-competition/xKfhUQu0

Team Match
During the two week break between the September and November tournaments we are going to try to organize a match against another club. Planning is still in the preliminary stages so there are still many unknowns. We are aiming to find a team or club with a similar range of players to our own to keep things fun and competitive. If you would be interested in playing, or know a club that might make an interesting match please let us know.

Participation in all of these events is open to anyone. Message @datasmith if you have questions or ideas/suggestions for other activities.

If you want to be sure to get news and reminders about these and other events please join the Hemmingford Chess Club Team

Looking forward to seeing you on Thursdays !

David (@datasmith)