English Chess Forum

The Bucks Country Show, which this year takes place on the Penn Estate, Beaconsfield (near Amersham), on 4-5 May is a substantial event which typically attracts some 20,000 visitors. A word of warning - there are several shows with very similar names and this is the one where details appear at https://www.buckscountryshow.co.uk/ and also at https://www.quintessentiallybritisheven ... ows-venues. As you would expect, it's primarily an agricultural event - dogs, horses, sheep, cattle as well as a smattering of more exotic creatures - which has expanded into many other areas such as, to give just one example, motor-cycling. It runs from 10 until 5 each day - check either website for more information - and is an attraction in its own right. Ample parking. There's a range of ticket options but, as a rough guide, visitors' daily tickets for adults are £11.80p, children (age 5-15) £5, infants (under 5) free, if purchased in advance. "On the day" tickets are slightly pricier.

This year, Watford Chess Club has been invited as a new exhibitor. Club juniors, accompanied by parents and coaches and with club treasurer Sagar Patel as lead organiser, will be there to talk about chess and take on allcomers in blitz/rapid games. We'll be looking for some rotation so that the juniors can spend a couple of hours playing chess then take a break to investigate what else is on offer at the show. It's a new venture for the club which it accepted in the twin belief that it would be an interesting activity for club members, particularly juniors who have never been to this type of event before, and that it would raise the profile of the club, and chess generally, among attendees at the show.

First pictures now at https://www.watfordchessclub.org/. Watford juniors due to take over from adults, who played this morning, after lunch.

The images link to email attachments and hence don't work for anyone except the person who created the page!

I think we've now got all the pictures organised at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing.

Report from organising supremo Sagar Patel, after thanking the club members who volunteered, summarised:

"We've successfully participated in the Bucks Country Show even though the weather was far from ideal for an outdoor event. Despite the cold wind and the showers on Monday, we were able to attract multiple visitors to play games at our stand. Three adult club members and five juniors, the youngest just 5 years old, took turns on the rota to play visitors.

"The event in summary is that visitors were pleasantly surprised to see a chess club at the show. Youngsters were eager to play chess and gravitated to the playing boards wanting to sit and learn as well as play. The adults were happy to see their children so engaged at the chess boards and were eagerly conversing with us about the chess clubs at their school but they lacked information about their local chess clubs or access to them. The first day (Sunday) was virtually non stop chess till late afternoon and the better weather helped."