Colin Byrne is organising our Club Championship 2009 - 2010, details of which he has provided in the following statement.

Entries are invited for the Club Championship 2009 - 2010. The Championship will use the Swiss System with seven rounds. The draw for the first round will be made in the later part of August, and the aim is to complete the competition during the first half of May, 2010.

The closing date for receipt of entries is Saturday, 5th September (updated from 21st August). Late entries will be sympathetically considered, but their acceptance cannot be guaranteed.

New members, and any who are considering joining, are encouraged to take part.

All who are interested in participating should notify me as soon as possible, preferably by e-mail, addressed to championship@cambridgechess.org.uk with the subject being "Club Championship". Please give your full name, 2008 grade, new grade if available and your e-mail address. Please also give your age if you are entering as a junior (under 18).

All entries will be acknowledged before the 5th September deadline.

Further information about the competition is as follows:

1. The winner will be presented with the Club Championship Cup to hold for one year. The winner's name will be added to the list of previous years' winners of this tournament on the Club's website.

2. All games will be graded.

3. The rules of play will be the same as those for the Bury League except for any changes that may be announced before the competition commences. The Bury League rate of play is 30 moves in the first hour-and-a-quarter with all of the remaining moves having to be completed in an additional 15 minutes for each player. (This implies that each game will take a maximum of three hours.)

At the Club's Annual General Meeting in June, it was decided to increase the number of rounds in the competition (from last year's five rounds) partly to reflect the importance of the event in the Club's calendar and partly to improve the validity of the final rankings, especially those of competitors below the highest-placed.

It was, however, recognised that it was going to be challenging to fit seven rounds in the time available. Our Club now has so many team events that, during the period October to March, it can sometimes be difficult for two players who have been drawn to play together to find a Wednesday on which they are both free, given their commitments to the various teams for which they play. The problem with the Swiss system - at least in the form in which it is usually practised - is that the draw for a round cannot be performed until all games in the previous round have been completed. Therefore, a single result that is outstanding prevents the draw being made for the following round and consequently delays the whole competition. Nevertheless, the competition must negotiate our team commitments, people's personal commitments and the inevitable intrusion of totally unexpected occurrences like illnesses and bad weather.

I am currently examining all ways in which to minimise the difficulties that we may face and will inform participants later of any developments in this respect. For the moment, however, I would simply ask all who wish to enter the tournament to notify me as soon as possible so that the event can commence before the end of August and so that we can complete as many rounds as possible - probably a maximum of three - before the season gets firmly underway during October.