The Northumberland Chess Congress was held over the weekend of the 29/09 to 01/10 at the Parks Sports Centre North Shields.

A number of members from Tynemouth took part in the different sections.

Open David Henderson and Paul Dargan played in a very competitive open section. David scored two wins and three draws and Paul one win and four draws. David finished tied fifth and Paul tied 9th in a tournament with 40 players. Also playing for those with long memories was David Egan a former club member who happened to play both Paul and David and scored 3/5.

Major John Clarke and Joel Tofield-Brown played and were drawn against each other in the first round with Joel coming out on top. John finished with 2 wins a draw and 2 loses and was tied 9th. Joel had 2 wins and 3 loses and was tied 16th out of 24 players in his first tournament at this level.

Minor Patrick Gorman played in the minor and also there was former member Bill Penny returning to competitive chess after a break.

I also saw Phil Jackson, Ron Plater and Antonio Moneva-Jordan in the room watching the action.

It was good to see former member Alex Macfarlane there as chief arbiter and a shout out to another former member Mick Riding for doing a great job organising the congress and putting on a great event.