Grades offer a reality check to all of us at the end of a season.  Gradings are now issued twice a year, and likely to move to a weekly, real-time basis at some point, but I still like to compare my grading at the end of the season with the previous year. 

Viewed from that lens, 3 Ashfield players have shown significant improvement.Neil Graham has had a very good season on his return to the first team, evidenced by his rise from 146 to 158, demonstrating encouragingly it's not just youngsters who can improve. Andy Flint has boosted his grade from 107 to 121.

The most impressive surge has been by Nigel Wright, now graded 134,who was 112 in July 2015. Nigel's grade last year didn't reflect his level of play. Two seasons ago Nigel played very well against 2 tough old battlers in Graham Ladds and Janos Wagenbach. Those games didn't go his way but he's learnt from that  game experience, worked on his play and seems to have benefited from playing more this season.

Busy Bees . The ECF Grading Database lists games played during the season. Click on a player name and move to season 2015-16.

Six Ashfield club players played over 40 graded games this season. This does not include games played in the Sheffield or Yorkshire Leagues. Who do you think these were? Who do you think played most games? ( The player who did play most games got the second answer wrong !.) Solutions to follow.

Steve Burke  49,  Bob Taylor  48,  Derek Jarvis 46, Ray Sayer  44,  Andrew Toothill  42,  Nigel Wright 42.

No surprise to see our dual Ashfield/ Breadsall and 4 NCL players among these. I was surprised to see Ray who has retired from regular League Chess. Ray is our undoubted tournament king, having competed in 9 tournaments across the country last year.. Nigel ,who plays for Ashfield and Spondon, competed in 4 tournaments.