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31st Chess Theme Break
From Saturday 25th January to Saturday 1st February 2025, over thirty BCA members gathered at the Lauriston Hotel, Weston-super-Mare for the 31st Chess Theme Break. It’s a very popular event as it combines a holiday with chess coaching, a tournament and a variety of evening entertainment. We had twelve chess trainees, eight coaches and twelve friends…
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Saturday 5th July to Saturday 27th September 2025: BCA Summer Cup to be played remotely
The Summer Cup will be a five-round tournament in which games are played on any mutually agreed internet-based platform such as Zoom, Lichess or WhatsApp, or by telephone. The general default platform will be Zoom as most members find this accessible and people can dial into meetings if they prefer or if they do not…
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BBC Radio Bristol at the 31st Chess Theme Break!
From 25th January to 1st February 2025, the BCA was in Weston-super-Mare for our Chess Theme Break. Members who are stronger players coached those with less experience. We also had a tournament and a few games against members of Weston Chess Club. Everyone enjoyed their chess immensely! The audio in this clip is from BBC…
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Saturday 19th to Saturday 26th July 2025: Chairman’s Cup
This will take place at the Marsham Court Hotel, Bournemouth, which has proved to be a very popular venue for some of our recent events. It is very friendly and comfortable, and we also have use of an outdoor heated pool. The parking and green areas are also very good. The tournament is open to…
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2025 AGM Weekend Chess Congress
This will be held at The Hilton Leicester Hotel, Leicester. The AGM will take place at 20.15 on Saturday evening, 15th March. We shall also aim to enable members to join in via an online platform if they prefer. This is our second year with the hotel after positive reviews from all last year. The…
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Chris Ross wins 2024 BCA International Autumn Tournament!
In October thirty-eight BCA members travelled to Kents Hill Park Training and Conference Centre, Milton Keynes for our 2024 Autumn Tournament. It was a new venue for us! This time we did not have any visitors from overseas, but we were pleased to welcome Joe Paton to his first BCA event. He did not take…
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3rd BCA Summer Cup
The BCA Summer Cup is a five round Swiss event, with games played remotely and two weeks allowed for each round. After experimenting with various formats for remote events during the Covid pandemic, we settled on this one in 2022 and the Summer Cup has now become an established event in the BCA calendar. The…
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Voldi Gailans wins 2024 ECF Award for Contribution to Accessible Chess!
Many congratulations to Voldi Gailans for winning the 2024 ECF Award for Contribution to Accessible Chess! At our recent weekend congress in Milton Keynes, Voldi (left) was presented with his ECF trophy by BCA Chairman, Bill Armstrong, who had submitted the nomination in favour of Voldi. There was huge applause from all present, and Voldi…
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Bill Armstrong is BCA British Champion for the 5th Time!
This year’s BCA British Championship was held from the 22nd to the 29th of June at The Old Swan, a familiar venue to the BCA for some time now. The BCA is very grateful for the generous support of The Sylvia and Colin Shepherd Charitable Trust, who very kindly gave a donation towards the cost of…
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Gary Hogan holds his own at the 2024 IBCA Individual European Championship in Romania!
Gary Hogan was selected to represent the UK at the IBCA Individual European Championship in Ploesti, Romania, from the 15th to the 25th of June 2024. He travelled out early with his wife Alyona and daughter Natasha, and together they enjoyed visiting Bucharest before travelling on to the tournament venue, where they met Gary’s coach,…
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31st Chess Theme Break – Saturday 25th January to Saturday 1st February 2025
The 31st Chess Theme Break will be held at the Lauriston Hotel, 6-12 Knightstone Road, Weston-super-Mare BS23 2AN. The 2024 event was also held there, and it was found to be very convenient, with exceptionally friendly and helpful staff. The hotel is in an excellent location, one mile from Weston-super-Mare railway station, a short walk…
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2024 BCA International Autumn Tournament – 18th to 20th October
This year’s International Autumn Tournament will be held at the Kents Hill Park Hotel and Conference Centre in Milton Keynes. The hotel is situated in a very quiet area of Milton Keynes on the edge of an extensive area of parkland. It is comprised of a number of separate buildings connected by covered walkways. The…
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2024 BCA Summer Cup – Saturday 13th July to Saturday 21st September
The Summer Cup will be a five round tournament in which games are played on any mutually agreed internet based platform such as Zoom, Skype, Lichess or WhatsApp. The default platform will be Zoom as the majority of people find this accessible and people can dial into meetings if they prefer. The event will run…
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2024 BCA AGM Congress 15th-17th March 2024
This tournament was held in memory of Peter Gibbs, who passed away last summer. It was fitting that the event took place in Leicestershire – the county in which Peter had lived for many years. Celia Gibbs joined us for the weekend. The exact venue was the Leicester Hilton Hotel and this was the first…
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Chess Theme Break: Abi Baker Interviews Attendees
BCA Publicity Officer, Abi Baker, recently interviewed three people who were at the 30th Chess Theme Break. Eleanor Tew and Irene Elbourn had attended as trainees and Tony Elbourn had volunteered as a coach. Play the video below to find out what they thought about the week! The BCA is very grateful to Freya Smith…
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The 30th Chess Theme Break
In January 2024 members gathered at the Lauriston Hotel in Weston-super-Mare for our 30th Chess Theme Break! There was a drinks reception to celebrate three decades of this remarkable event and we were joined by Councillor Ciaran Cronnelly, the Mayor of the town. It was wonderful that Celia Gibbs, who ran the Chess Theme Break…
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2023 International Autumn Tournament
Excerpts from a report written by James Connors A year on from the BCA’s 90th anniversary, it was a warm welcome back to Solihull with 21 players and three guide dogs prepared to occupy the chess room and battle it out over five rounds at the board across the weekend. We also welcomed many other…
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Gazettes
Year Quarter 1 Quarter 2 Quarter 3 Quarter 4 2025 February 2025 2024 February 2024 May 2024 August 2024 November 2024 2023 February 2023 May 2023 August 2023 November 2023 2022 February 2022 May 2022 August 2022 November 2022 2021 February 2021 May 2021 August 2021 November 2021 2020 February 2020 May 2020 August 2020…
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Gary Hogan at the 2023 IBCA World Individual Championship
Gary Hogan writes: A few months after surprisingly finishing joint second with Steve Burnell in my first tournament in Harrogate, April 2023, I received an email inviting me to represent the BCA at the 2023 IBCA World Individual Chess Championship for the Blind and Visually Impaired from 8th – 18th October 2023, Rhodes, Greece. I…
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2023 Remote Summer Cup
The aim of the Summer Cup is to help BCA members keep their chess skills sharp from the comfort of their own homes over the summer months. It’s an ideal event for people who cannot attend our OTB tournaments for one reason or another! In this five round Swiss tournament, two weeks are allowed for…
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Chairman’s Cup 2023
Braille Chess Association – Chairman’s Cup The BCA held a tournament in the Marsham Court Hotel from Saturday 15th July to Friday 22nd July. 23 players took part, most of them visually impaired. During the week, 7 rounds of chess were played and in the evenings the group enjoyed entertainment such as a quiz, some…
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AGM Weekend and Chess Congress 2023
Members gathered at the Old Swan Hotel in Harrogate for our AGM Weekend Congress from the 14th to the 16th of April, 2023. We held our AGM on the Saturday evening. It was our first hybrid meeting, with members attending online as well as in person. The Annual Best Game Trophy for 2022 was presented…
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29th Chess Theme Break
Nearly thirty players, guides, family members and friends gathered in Weston-super-Mare from 28th January to 4th February 2023 for a chess themed holiday! The week started with a few days of coaching, during which six of our more experienced players trained ten other members in small groups. There were also some “How Good is Your…
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BCA Celebrates 90th Anniversary!
In October 2022 we celebrated our 90th anniversary of our chess association. The centre piece of our weekend was the anniversary but there was also competitive chess that needs reporting. We had a wonderful turnout of 27 players with Olle Engström (Sweden), Eamonn Casey (Ireland). Neda Koohnavard (Iran) and Bittor Ibanez (Spain) making both sections…
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Events
How Good is Your Chess? (Zoom) Usually held monthly, the next session is on Wednesday 30th April at 7.30 pm. Contact us to find out more. Voldi Gailans 22nd BCA Email Tournament Starts 1st March 2025. Closing date for entries 21st February 2025. Contact us to find out more. Eamonn Casey and Philip Doyle 2025…