Blowing Away the Cobwebs: January Blitz at Derby Chess Club
On Tuesday (5/1/26), Derby Chess Club kicked off the new year with its traditional January Blitz, a now well-established feature of the club’s First of the Month social tournament series. On a freezing winter evening outside, the club room was anything but cold, as players shook off the festive rust with fast-paced, competitive chess.
The familiar blitz format saw each round played as a mini-match of two games, with players taking both White and Black and the overall outcome recorded as a win, loss, or draw. The structure continues to strike a nice balance between fairness and intensity, rewarding both speed and adaptability.
As expected, Leonid proved a formidable force in blitz conditions and topped the field, underlining his reputation as one of the club’s strongest rapid and blitz players. Close competition followed behind, with several players separated by the finest of margins and plenty of evenly fought mini-matches across the evening.
The event was also notable for welcoming Joe and Srikanth to their first Derby Chess Club social competition, both of whom settled in quickly and contributed to the lively atmosphere — Srikanth in particular making an immediate impact at the boards.
The January Blitz once again highlighted what the First of the Month series does best: informal, inclusive chess with just enough competitive edge to keep everyone fully engaged. Full results are available here, but the real success was another enjoyable and sociable start to the chess year.
The final table was:
| - Rank - | - Name - | - Pts - |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Siedielnikov Leonid | 3½ |
| 2 | Wastie Asher | 2½ |
| Williams David | 2½ | |
| 4 | Lamont Stephen | 2 |
| Morrel Curtis | 2 | |
| Reddy Srikanth | 2 | |
| Rowbottom Jake | 2 | |
| Smith David | 2 | |
| 9 | Dalley Kevin J | 1½ |
| Singh Pav | 1½ | |
| 11 | Cockburn Andre | 1 |
| Kennedy Alan | 1 | |
| 13 | Cox James | ½ |
Kevin 11/01/26