CSC Teesside: 2025

Sunday, 23 November 2025

16th Mike Closs Memorial Tournament

Today brought the 16th edition of the Mike Closs Memorial Tournament, played in honour of my late friend and teammate.

Five participants played in a double-round robin event, using a randomly selected series of Mike's favourite chess openings, namely: The Milner-Barry Gambit, The Sicilian Najdorf, The Modern Benoni, The French Tarrasch and The Accelerated Sicilian Dragon.

Dave Baillie, the defending champion and three-time winner of the event, was the pre-tournament favourite. Dave is also the only person to have played in all of the events in this series.

He was joined by Peter Harker, Richard Harris, Jo Hutchinson and Kevin Winter for a full day of sharp chess action.

After a whole series of very tough games, Kevin Winter emerged as the new champion (only the sixth champion across the 16 years).

Jo Hutchinson was on terrific form too, drawing 1-1 with Kevin in the first round and ending Dave's hopes of a successful title defence with a 2-0 victory, even though the games in that particular round featured the French Defence, in which Dave is a noted expert.

Final Standings

Kevin Winter, 8.5/10

Jo Hutchinson, 7.5/10

Dave Baillie, 5.5/10

Richard Harris, 4.5/10

Peter Harker, 4/10

The tournament was immediately followed by an expedition into town for a late lunch at Cena, which was enjoyed by all.

Here is a gallery from our very busy and enjoyable day.

The 17th edition of this long-running event will take place in 2026.

Sunday, 5 October 2025

30th Yarm Chess Championships

The 30th event in this very long running series took place at Yarm Preparatory School yesterday, as the recent storm kindly stepped aside for one day to allow everything to proceed very smoothly indeed.

The Under-11 section saw Yarm A in dominant form. They won every game - 20/20 - to secure first place.

As always, the bare scores never reveal the full story and there were at least a couple of games which could have gone the other way, but champions know how to show resilience and how to dig in deep and keep going through troubled times, instead of giving up.

Yarm B finished in second place and Holy Trinity played very well indeed to secure a very meritorious third place.

The Under-9 section brought a stern challenge for the defending champions, as Yarm A found themselves chasing the leaders, Thornaby Library, all day long.

Ultimately, Thornaby Library proved to be the best team on the day and they deservedly took the title.

Yarm A held second position, with Yarm B taking third place.

Full Scores

Under-11s

1st: Yarm A, 20

2nd: Yarm B, 13.5

3rd: Holy Trinity, 10.5

9: Billingham South

4.5: Yarm C and Yarm D

Under-9s

1st: Thornaby Library, 17

2nd: Yarm A, 15

3rd: Yarm B, 13

10: Yarm F

9: Yarm C

7.5: Yarm E

4.5: Yarm G

4: Yarm D

Thank you to everyone who helped to make the day such a great success, including Johannes Grundmann and the Yarm Preparatory School staff, Catherine Lloyd and Chris Swales.

Our special guest of honour was Jessica Lloyd, who not only helped with the running of the tournament, but also presented the prizes to the teams.

We awarded trophies, medals, certificates and a special chess keyring, courtesy of Chess in Schools and Communities.

Here is a gallery from our busy day.

Saturday, 27 September 2025

CSC Training Day Tour: Wakefield

The King In The North Archery & Chess centre is an extraordinary venue and it was ideal for the latest CSC Recruitment Day, which I delivered alongside the one and only Catherine Lloyd.

CSC’s Dan Staples was also on hand to guide the delegates.

The venue has to be seen to be believed.

Meanwhile, keep an eye on the tour page of our website for future dates.

Saturday, 30 August 2025

Open Thoughts: Session Two

The second of our Open Thoughts chess sessions took place today, at Costa Coffee in Yarm.

The series started in May, with a wonderful inaugural event.

These events are strictly by invitation only, partly due to space restrictions and partly due to an appreciation of who will derive the most benefit from the sessions and also who will bring the most to the sessions with their unique and special personalities.

Social chess should always be fun, as proved by the fantastic Chess by the Tees day at the start of this month.

Costa Coffee in Yarm acted as perfect hosts again, despite the pressure of space (the upstairs is currently being refurbished).

The wonderful Jolita (pictured, above) made the whole group feel very welcome.

Our colourful chess sets and boards, together with an array of chess variants (including the debut of Three Way Chess), all added to the fun.

On a personal note, I have to report that Clair defeated my Maharaja Queen (something whole groups of people - including Grandmasters - have never managed to do over the course dozens of CSC training days all across the UK) and Dara beat me 3-1 at Three Check Chess (although, looking at his scores against other players, I did well to score a single victory).

Thank you to everyone who helped to make the session such a great success.

The next Open Thoughts event will be towards the end of the year and I am hoping the people who were away this time will be available again.