England had another successful tournament in the European Senior Teams Chess Championship, which finished in Swidnica in Poland on Thursday 20th July, winning two team Gold medals, one Silver and one Bronze. You can read Leonard Barden’s report here – https://www.ft.com/content/fbe70115-2edd-4713-a13e-62fe657f7a8b
The England 50+ 1st team (Mark Hebden, John Emms, Keith Arkell, Glenn Flear and Chris Ward) successfully defended their title as European 50+ Seniors Team Champions, and were brilliantly led by Mark Hebden who scored a stunning 7½ from 8 games and taking the individual gold medal for board one. Team-mates John Emms, Glenn Flear and Chris Ward also took gold medals for their boards.
The England 50+ Women’s team (Susan Lalic, Sheila Jackson, Ingrid Lauterbach, Petra Nunn and Natasha Regan) also took the team gold medal and became the European Women’s 50+ Champions. Natasha Regan was their stand-out player, scoring 4/5 and securing the silver medal for her board.
The England 50+ 2nd team (Graeme Buckley, Steve Dishman, Richard Holmes, Phil Crocker and Bob Noyce) had an impressive tournament and took the team bronze medal, with Steve Dishman getting the individual silver medal for his board with his team-mates all securing the bronze medals for their boards.
The England 50+ 3rd team (Jonathan Hill, Haran Rasalingam, Paul Dupre and Mark Hogarth) finished 8th out of the 10 teams in the event.
The England 65+ 1st team (John Nunn, Tony Kosten, Peter Large, Chris Baker and Tony Stebbings) took the team silver medal behind Slovakia 65+, who just pipped them to the title, in what was a very close contest. World 65+ Champion John Nunn and Chris Baker both took individual gold medals for their boards, whilst their three team-mates took the silver medals.
The England 65+ 2nd team (Stephen Orton, John Quinn, Peter R. Wood, Stephen Williams and Stewart Reuben) finished 8th and the England 65+ 3rd team (Richard Freeman, David Tucker, Tim Spanton and Bob Kane) finished 14th out of the 18 teams in their event.
A big thank you needs to go to the ECF, the Chess Trust, and the Friends of Chess for their generous financial support towards this event, along with further support from Nigel Povah, Ian Reynolds, Natasha Regan amongst others. None of this would’ve been possible without their support.
A photo gallery by Kamil Galuszka can be found here