CSC Teesside: The First Inter-Library Chess Event

Yesterday brought yet another groundbreaking and innovative event on Teesside, in the form of the first-ever inter-library chess event.

It was back in August 2017 when we launched the new community chess sessions in our library and, as can be seen from this report, Sean Cassidy and Paul Weightman were there from the very start.

The library sessions have gone from strength to strength in Stockton (delivered by volunteers Sean Cassidy and Nicky Britton), Thornaby (Chris Swales and Tim Hind), Ingleby Barwick (Joe McGinnis) and Billingham (Paul Weightman), even managing to come back stronger after the dreadful COVID years.

A few months ago, we started group discussions on creating an inter-library event, with the aim of providing a friendly, slightly competitive occasion, with each team compromising of a whole range of ages and abilities.

Catherine Lloyd and I delivered the tournament, which featured three rounds on the Jamboree System.

Records were broken and headlines were made.

For example, there were 45 people in the Stockton Central Library chess room throughout the two-hour session (24 were playing in the event; the others were there for the love of chess).

Sean and Nicky had done a wonderful job of preparing the room and the team managers of the respective libraries had organised their teams well, too.

The family, community spirit of the day was further enhanced by the fact that the Ingleby Barwick team of six players featured players from three families and the Thornaby team was composed of two families, with three players from each one!

Just when one would think that was already enough action and excitement for the day, we were blessed by the presence of three of Marsh's Angels, who had a mini-match of their own against three other Stockton Library chess players.

Ingleby Barwick took an early lead in the tournament and they looked to be on course to be the clear winners when they emerged from the first two rounds two points clear Stockton.

However, the third and final round changed things again and Stockton managed to close the gap.

Final Scores

=1st: Ingleby Barwick and Stockton, both on 12.5 points.

3rd: Thornaby, 7.5 points

4th: Billingham, 3.5 points

All 24 players received medals and mini-chess sets, courtesy of CSC. There was also a brand-new shield for the winners, which will soon have two names engraved upon it (readers will know I never use tiebreakers; why make people unhappy?).

Thank you to everyone who helped to make the first-ever inter-library chess event such a huge success.

We shall conclude with a gallery from the very fine day.