TAFCA Team Battle

The 4th TAFCA TEAM BATTLE ONLINE 2024-25
Event not active in 2024-25.

THE 3rd TAFCA TEAM BATTLE ONLINE 2023-24
Tuesday 16th January 2024, 7:30pm to 9pm
On Lichess.org – TAFCA League Online

Congratulations to Dundee Chess Club on winning the 3rd TAFCA Team Battle 2023-24! They were the strongest side by a mile and deserved the title! Castlehill Chess Club finished in runners-up spot a good few points behind Dundee! This year as I knew there could be problems with some clubs, we made it one team per club to try and help, but unfortunately, it did not!

STANDINGS
1st: Dundee Chess Club:  88 pts – Champions
2nd: Castlehill Chess Club: 60 pts
3rd: Kirkcaldy Chess Club: 8 pts
4th: Perth Chess Club: 5 pts

In all we had 29 players involved, but unfortunately only 4 teams took part (two teams no show) and two, only had one player each!

TEAM NUMBERS
1. Castlehill CC: 18
2. Dundee CC: 9
3. Kirkcaldy CC: 1
4. Perth CC: 1
5. Newport Knights CC: 0
6. St Andrews CC: 0

Castlehill Chess Club had more players than the other teams combined and this caused a big problem pairing wise as there was not enough players from the other sides to give everybody from Castlehill Chess Club a game! The Castlehill lower graded/junior players suffered the most with at least 3 only getting to play one game in 90 minutes. Disappointing to say the least. We will need to address this matter before the next event! Apologies to those affected.

Congratulations also go to Joshua Crofts (Dundee) on taking the honours in the TAFCA Individual battle finishing top of the heap on 14 points!

INDIVIDUAL STANDINGS
1st: Joshua Crofts (Dundee) – 14 pts
2nd: Ed Spencer (Dundee) – 13 pts
3rd=: David Findlay & Jonathan Kinnell – 12 pts

The top Castlehill players were, Andre Babin & Graham Mooney on 10 pts each.

Thank you to all the players who supported us on the night, including the lone wolf`s, Peter Selbie (Kirkcaldy) & Ian Caldow (Perth)!

For all the results, standings and matches, click the tab marked “TABLES” for all the info.

Once again, congratulations to Dundee Chess Club and Joshua Crofts (Dundee) on a magnificent night!

See you (and hopefully more) next season!

THE TAFCA TEAM BATTLE ONLINE 2022-23
Tuesday 10th January 2023, 7:30pm to 9pm
On Lichess.org – TAFCA League Online

This is only the 2nd official TAFCA Team Battle and the defending champions were Castlehill A who just piped Dundee A last year are defending their title. Also defending his individual title is Richard Polaczek IM (Castlehill).

Six teams entered this season, with three from Castlehill and one each from Dundee, Kirkcaldy & St.Andrews Uni. On lichess grading, St.Andrews A were the top seeded team (see below)

SEEDING
1. St.Andrews A (2148) 5 players
2. Castlehill A (2101) 8 players
3. Dundee A (1852) 9 players
4. Castlehill B (1733) 9 players
5. Kirkcaldy A (1497) 3 players
6. Castlehill C (1344) 6 players

This was a 5 round Swiss, 15 minutes each player, and runs for 1 hour 30 minutes only. Once the clock hits 9pm, any games in progress will carry on but will not count towards the score. The top 4 scoring players from each team provide the points for their team (on lichess they are called leaders). We had hoped to make it 5 players but one team had call-offs and were down to 3 players, so 4 it was!

Every player had a role to play, to score as many points as possible, to beat as many players from the other teams as possible and in truth, even if losing, keep the game going right to the end so their opponents play less games within that 90 minutes, it all helps!

It was an exciting night’s chess and despite being online, you could feel the atmosphere! Dundee A got off to a flying start and held the lead for the first 45 minutes or more, only for Castlehill A to start closing the gap in the final 10 – 15 minutes, then suddenly pull out in front by 6 points. With the clock ticking down to zero, we had no way of knowing if there would be a flurry of last minute results coming in to change the leader board?

Congratulations to Castlehill A who held off the challenge of Dundee A & St.Andrews A to take the TAFCA Team Battle online title for the second year in a row! Dundee A put up a valiant effort but had to settle for 2nd place again. Top seeds St.Andrews A finished in 3rd place.

FINAL STANDINGS
1.Castlehill A 54 points
2.Dundee A 48 points
3.St.Andrews A 42 points
4.Castlehill B 34 points
5.Kirkcaldy A 21 points
6.Castlehill C 16 points

In the individual battle, Richard Polaczek IM (Castlehill) did indeed defend his title with 16 points, but he was joined in equal first place by Rishi Vijayakumar J11 (Castlehill) and Ed Spencer (Dundee), both also on 16 points!

Congratulations to all three players! Richard Polaczek IM and Rishi Vijayakumar had both played 9 matches with only one loss each, but Ed Spencer did get the chance to take the title outright as he managed to play a 10th match, but unfortunately for him he lost it (two losses out of 10 matches), oh so close!

For all the results, standings and matches played, click the tab marked “TABLES”  to take you to the tournament on Lichess.

Thank you to all the TAFCA chess clubs involved and their players for supporting us on the night. I hope you all enjoyed the night. Also thank you to Lichess for providing the online platform to play this competition.

Once again congratulations to Castlehill A for their win and Richard Polaczek IM, Ed Spencer and Rishi Vijayakumar J11 for becoming the TAFCA Team Individual Champions!

We shall do this all again in 2022-23 season!

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TAFCA TEAM BATTLE (End of the show, show!)
Congratulations to Castlehill A (Richard Polaczek IM; Declan Shafi; Andre Babin & Graham Mooney) on winning the first official TAFCA Team Battle competition 2021-22! It was a dominating performance and well deserved on the night! In all 9 teams took part ( Castlehill A; B; C & D; Dundee A & B; St.Andrews A; Kirkcaldy A & Perth A) in this Lichess Arena event lasting 1 hour & 30 minutes, time control, 5 minutes + 3 seconds increments.

St.Andrews Uni A ( a mix of the A & B teams) did a fantastic job of finishing runners-up, just ahead of Dundee A (Winners of the test trial run in 2020), with Perth A taking a gallant 4th place!

Castlehill`s very own Richard Polaczek IM won the individual title on 18 points, with Andre Babin (Castlehill) in runners-up place on 14 points. Indeed Castlehill had 4 players in the top 5 places, along side Junior Max Whisson J15 (Dundee) who had one hell of a tournament and was in danger of a nose bleed! Well played Max!

This turned out to be a most enjoyable competition and hopefully will become a permeant fixture in the TAFCA Calendar.

Thank you to all the Chess Clubs, team`s and players that supported this event and make it a great success on the night!

See you all next year!