Chess
Cambridge District Cubs
Chess Championships

We host the Cambridge District Cubs Chess Championships at our hut, playing a time-limited version of the game. As checkmate can take some time, particularly for inexperienced players, each game is allotted so many minutes, and after that time if checkmate has not been made the pieces taken are tallied up for each player and the one with the highest wins. The tallies for pieces are the standard scores for pieces:

Piece		Points
Queen		9
Rook		5
Bishop		3
Knight		3
Pawn		1
Checkmate		Outright win

After the match the players are then re-ordered by the number of games won so far, and then players are paired off in this order. This means that all the players who won in the first round play someone else who won in the first round, and those who may have originally played a more experienced player will play against someone else who lost in the first round. The draw order is adjusted slightly to avoid players meeting again who have already played.

The end result of this simple draw mechanism means that players end up being pitted against other players of roughly their own abilities, giving everyone a good chance at winning a match during the championships.

Players are encouraged to bring their own boards along so that there are enough boards to play on.

There is always a clamour to be the pair who get to play on the set with the giant garden sized pieces. Generally this honour goes to the better pairs, but the allocation is adjusted to make sure as many get a go on this set as possible.

The shield is hotly contested and it is rare for the holding champions from the previous year to retain their grasp on it. Our cubs have been regular winners, being one of the more common names on the shield. Here are our 2011 winners proudly holding the shield:

 

Akela