The first draft of next season’s fixture list is now available on the Oxfordshire Chess website.

In division one, newly promoted Bicester 1 kick off with a home match against league champions Witney 1 on Tuesday, October 4.

Three days earlier — on Saturday, October 1 — Oxfordshire play their opening match in the Chiltern League 1st division. The Chiltern Cup is played between teams form Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Hampshire in various ratings-limited sections. The matches are usually played on Saturdays. In the top section — previously under BCF 200 —Oxfordshire just pipped Berkshire to the title last season. This season though, the competition is open to all players and it will be interesting to see if Oxfordshire can maintain their dominance — particularly if Berkshire field some of the grandmasters who regularly play in the Berkshire League. Oxfordshire captain Ian Brooke is keen to hear from strong players who want to help Oxfordshire stay at the top and he can be contacted via the Oxfordshire Chess website.

The British Championships are under way in Sheffield. You can view the action live on the Internet — just follow the links on the ECF website. The tournament runs until August 5 and games begin each day at 2.15pm. Witney Club’s Peter Wells and Cowley Club’s Adam Hunts both warmed up nicely by winning international tournaments. Peter won the 8th South Wales International ahead of Keith Arkell and Adam was joint first at the Artemis Cup tournament in Greece. The following round 8 game shows Adam in ruthless form against a highly rated Hungarian grandmaster.

White: Adam Hunt Black: Attila Czebe 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 e5!? 4.f4 A decent alternative to the more popular moves 4.Nf3 and 4.Nge2. It looks tempting to force Black's king to move with 4.dxe5 dxe5 5.Qxd8+ Kxd8 — but after 6.Bc4 Be6 7.Bxe6 fxe6 White has only the slightest of endgame advantages.

4...Bg4 5.Qd3!? 5.Be2 looks more natural — but Black is fine after 5...exd4 6.Qxd4 Nc6 7.Bb5 Bd7.

5...exd4 6.Qxd4 Be7 7.h3 Nc6 8.Qf2 Be6 9.Bd3 Nb4!? 10.Nf3 c6 11.Be3 Qa5 12.f5 Bd7 13.0–0 Nxd3 14.cxd3 c5? Perhaps Black feared that 14...0–0 would be met by 15.g4 — and indeed this does look dangerous for Black. However the pawn storm weakens White's king too and 14...0–0 would have offered Black better chances than the move he chose in the game.

15.e5! dxe5 16.Nxe5 Rd8? Now 16...0–0 17.Nc4! After this move, Black never gets a chance to castle and is already lost.

17...Qa6 No better was 17...Qc7 since 18.Rae1 0–0 19.Bf4 costs Black a piece.

18.Bxc5 b6 19.Rae1! bxc5 20.Rxe7+! Kf8 After 20...Kxe7, 21.Qxc5+ is devastating. For example 21...Ke8 22.Nd6+ Kf8 23.Nc8+ Kg8 24.Ne7+ Kf8 25.Ng6+ Kg8 26.Qf8+ Rxf8 27.Ne7 checkmate. 21.Qxc5 Rc8 22.Qe5 Kg8 23.Nd5 1-0