David Reynolds Cup Update

I have just received an update to the current David Reynolds Cup standings. Click here to view or use the tab at the top of the page.

This Week's Results

Ashby 2 were well beaten at Syston 2 on Tuesday evening. A win for Larry on board 4 was all we could manage in a 4-1 defeat.

Braunstone defaulted their match against Ashby 3 last night, meaning that we have now moved up to 3rd in the table. With 3 matches left to play it is mathematically possible, but unlikely, for us to be runners-up in the Division.

Ashby 4 cemented their position at the bottom of Division 4 with a 2.5 - 1.5 defeat by Anstey 6. IM Ian Maskery demonstrated his inimitable endgame technique with a draw on board 2 and Ric got a slightly fortunate win on time on board 3. 

There were two games played in the 2nd round of the Club Championship, with Tom G. beating Steve and Paul beating Ben.

Club Championship 2nd Round Draw

The draw for the 2nd round of the Club Championship has now been made and can be viewed here, or from the Club Championship link on the left hand side of the page.

David Reynolds Cup - Current Standings

Tom Gerrard is still the runaway leader in this year's Reynold Cup and it is unlikely that, barring a miracle, anybody can catch him. Click here to view the current standings or use the tab at the top of the page.

2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament

You can follow the progress of the 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament on the FIDE website - www.fide.com.

GM Mick Brown and IM Ian Maskery have so far made no impact at the tournament and are unlikely to be challenging for the World Championship in 6 month's time.

Current Ashby Player Ratings

I have just published the Ashby player ratings as at 1st April - please use the tab at top of the page to view them. Once again, to be clear, these are NOT the ratings used by the LRCA for league matches. This is the current rating list published by the ECF on the 1st of each month.

This Week's Matches

Ashby 3 travelled to Melton Mowbray 2 on Wednesday and consigned the Pork Pies to their ninth loss of the season. There was a very early win for Steve on board 3, followed by Josh on board 1, to put us 2-0 ahead. Larry took his customary draw on board 2 to ensure that we won the match, before Nick conjured up a loss from a draw position on board 4, to make the final score 2.5 - 1.5. We have now moved into the top half of the table and, with a match in hand of Braunstone, who are our next opponents and just a point ahead of us, we have visions of a 3rd place  finish.

On Thursday evening  a decimated Ashby 2 went to Syston, with two Ashby 5 players on boards 4 and 5, and were hammered 4.5 - 0.5 by a strong Syston 2 team, who massively outrated us on all boards. It was left to Chris to get a draw on board 3 to enable us to avoid a whitewash.

Ashby 4 were at home against Latimer and drew 2-2 in a match we should have won. The evening started badly when Nick Wyld forgot he was playing and failed to materialise for his game on board 1. GM Mick Brown moved up the board order and was unlucky not to get a draw from his game. The talking point of the night though was IM Ian Maskery's game on board 2, where he blundered a Knight in the middle game but stumbled into an endgame where he had 4 pawns against a Knight and two Pawns. Two of Ian's Pawns were connected on the 5th and 6th rank and there was no way that his opponent was able to stop one of them from Queening. However, with just a minute on his clock he failed to see the finish and accepted a draw. Boards 3 and 4 resulted in a win for Ric and a draw for Ben.

Elsewhere, Steve beat Dan Vernon in the 1st round of the Club Championship.

Les Fancourt Comes Out Of Hibernation

Les re-surfaced this weekend in the Staffordshire Congress. He finished joint 12th out of 47, with a score of 3/5, in the Standard Section.