Under One Sky (UOS) is a UK charity supporting people affected by homelessness. It aims to tackle the worst and most obvious form of homelessness, street homelessness. Miss Birrane is herself a ‘Skywalker’, a Team Leader in fact for the charity on its numerous walks around central London.

The Under One Sky NLC Blitz Chess Tournament Fundraiser was the brainchild of Miss Emma Birrane, aided by incoming NLC Chess Captain, Doctor Richard Saldanha. In April 2024, Miss Birrane approached Doctor Saldanha with this idea, and a few months later, around 35 people, with the invaluable help of NLC staff, came together on the 9th of August to turn Miss Birrane’s idea into reality. The event raised well over £1,400 for UOS in the process and donations are still coming in!

A fine turnout for the Under One Sky Blitz Chess Tournament.

Blustery blueprints

On an unsettled Saturday in June, Ms Abel Smith—founder of the hugely successful London Inter-Club Social Chess Network—and Doctor Saldanha joined Miss Birrane on a UOS Soho walk. Ms Abel Smith and Doctor Saldanha were keen to learn more about the charity first hand. After ploughing through heavy rain and serving tea, coffee, sandwiches and many other essentials to UOS friends on the street for hours, the trio caught up with the delightful author and Big Issue vendor Mister André Rostant. Mister Rostant had just had his first book published, ‘The Muffin Man’, a novella depicting life on the streets of London in the 21st century, which is not a happy tale. Sights were firmly set on the task of organising a successful fundraiser for this worthy charity.

Building bridges

The day started off with a trip to one of our generous sponsors for the event, The London Chess Centre, on Baker Street. LCC Manager, Mister Tao Bhokanandh (introduced by our good friend Mister Matthews of the RAC) had kindly agreed to lend us 15 consistent sets of chess pieces, boards and clocks for our evening of blitz chess. The LCC also threw in a number of copies of their excellent CHESS Magazine, thus ensuring that no one would go home empty handed after the Tournament.

Doctor Saldanha and Miss Birrane with LCC Manager, Mister Bhokanandh (pictured in the centre), at the LCC shop 44 Baker Street. (The shop is well worth a visit if you’ve never been there before.)

Time flew by and at 6:30pm we welcomed over 35 people to the event. 

Excitement is in the air as guests arrive at the tournament.

Brutal blitz

And so to the chess, Tournament participants were allocated to one of three groups: Soho, King’s Cross or Embankment, as these names match the geographical locations of three of UOS’ Central London walks. Players fought over the chess board in their respective groups in paired blitz matches (five minutes per player with no time increment) over five rounds using a Swiss system. A further two knockout rounds followed for the top four players in each group. 

Certain London clubs may choose to engage a professional harpist, plucking out the lightest of classical airs, for their chess events. Not so the NLC chessers, who instead employed some thumping techno beats by way of a 15 second countdown followed by the words ‘play chess’ delivered by Doctor Saldanha in full stentorian voice. It is testament to the politeness of Tournament participants that they still felt the need to shake hands before starting chess clocks.

Nic Ioannou (pictured left) and Danny Rosenbaum (right) even shook hands after their game.

Tensions were high as everyone got stuck in, clocks ran out or checkmates were delivered.

The Embankment group in action.

Whilst the early games were taking place, Mister Charles Gillett, the NLC’s wise and generous Archivist, took our spectators on a tour of the NLC. There was praise all round for Mister Gillett’s wonderful tour.

Mister Charles Gillett (NLC Archivist), Mister Louis Scott, Mrs Izzie Rhatigan, Doctor Elizabeth Files and Mister André Rostant about to embark on a guided tour of the Club.

As four became two, the stakes were high. Top quality games were being played in all groups, to which our three winners emerged from this fast-paced excitement. We highlight the final match between Messrs Edvin Morell (Oxford and Cambridge Club) and Dashiell Shaw (Hackney Chess Club, Chessboxing Nation), which was a truly blistering battle.

Comments on the game from Mister Shaw:

The first 20 or so moves are largely Sveshnikov theory.

22. Bd5..  here I calculated Qxb2 with the threat of Qxf2 meeting the immediate Rb1. My heart sank, however, on seeing 23. Ra2 which serves the dual purpose of defending f2 whilst forcing the queen to retreat on the b-file. 

23. Rb1 should force White to win the bishop unless… Bxd5! A move found more out of necessity than design, but it is by far the best way for Black to give up the queen, in return getting the bishop pair and a passed pawn. Stockfish gives the resultant position after 1. … Bxd5, 2. Rxb6 Bxa2 as equal. However, 

I think in a Blitz game it is practically much easier to play for Black.

28. … a3 and 29. Nxg7 – remarkably, even though the queen, rook and knight are all attacking the Black king, there is a severe lack of coordination and after 29. … Bd5, the bishops do a fantastic job of protecting the king, after which the a-pawn is now decisive. Stockfish gives this as -10.

Commiserations to Mister Morell, a thoroughly worthy opponent, who very nearly won through against Mister Shaw. It is worth noting that by day Mister Shaw is a mild-mannered civil servant but by night he is a chessboxing superhero. (Keen readers may recall the NLC’s visit to Octoberfist (sic) last year; see everyones-a-liberal…)

The final standings of all players who took part in the Tournament may be found on the event minisite. One particularly pleasing feature of the event was that no one failed to score at least a point.

Beautiful bounty

To the victor, the spoils. Mister Dashiell Shaw (Soho Group winner) is shown receiving his swag from Miss Emma Birrane.

Congratulations to Mister Dashiell ‘Demontime’ Shaw, from Hackney Chess Club and Chessboxing Nation, for winning the Soho tier of the tournament, who swiped the following fabulous prizes:

• a three-month diamond Chess.com membership – Sponsored by Chess.com;
• dinner and a bottle of wine for two at The Punjab Restaurant, Covent Garden – Sponsored by Mister Amrit Maan, Punjab Restaurant proprietor, UOS Charirty Trustee and NLC Member;
• a box of 12 Cobra beers – Sponsored by Mister Amrit Maan, The Punjab Restaurant; and
• a bouquet of gorgeous flowers – Sponsored by Freddie’s Flowers.

The victorious Mister Nico Hauck (winner of the King’s Cross Group) and his prizes.

Congratulations to Mister Nico Hauck, from Oxford City Chess Club, for winning the King’s Cross tier of the tournament, who took home some superb prizes:

• a three-month diamond Chess.com membership – Sponsored by Chess.com;
• dinner and a bottle of wine for two at The Punjab Restaurant, Covent Garden – Sponsored by Mister Amrit Maan, Punjab Restaurant proprietor, UOS Charirty Trustee and NLC Member; and
• a bouquet of lovely flowers – Sponsored by Freddie’s Flowers.

Embankment Group winner Mister Freddie Miller holding his brand new GM signed chessboard and further prizes.

Congratulations to Mister Freddie Miller, from the Oriental Club, for winning the Embankment tier of the tournament, who took home the following great prizes:

• a three-month diamond Chess.com membership – Sponsored by Chess.com;
• a signed chessboard – Sponsored by Chessboxing Nation, kindly signed by GM Simon Williams (aka the Ginger GM) –; and
• a bouquet of fine flowers – Sponsored by Freddie’s Flowers.

Bursting bonanza

An excellent raffle took place once our winners had their hands full with their many prizes. A big thank you to all who bought raffle tickets, and a huge thank you to all our sponsors who generously donated these wonderful prizes:

1. two chess theory books – donated by Brian from Chessboxing Nation;

2. two more chess theory books – donated by Brian from Chessboxing Nation;

3. a three-month diamond Chess.com membership – Sponsored by Chess.com;

4. a second three-month diamond Chess.com membership – Sponsored by Chess.com;

5. a Chessboxing Nation Berserker hoodie – Sponsored by Chessboxing Nation;

6. a voucher for two tickets to the next Chessboxing Nation event in London – Sponsored by Chessboxing Nation;

7. a signed copy of London Lives: 24 iconic people and places around the clock, by Danny Rosenbaum and Rupert Vandervell – donated by Danny Rosenbaum, English Chess Federation Social Media Manager;

8. a voucher for two tickets to see an incredible cabaret show at The Phoenix Arts Club – Sponsored by The Phoenix Arts Club;

9. another voucher for two tickets to see an fabulous cabaret show at The Phoenix Arts Club – Sponsored by The Phoenix Arts Club;

10. a signed copy of The Muffin Man, donated by the book’s author André Rostant;

11. a truly fine shoe repair/maintenance kit, complete with brush, cloth and ointments – Sponsored by Grenson;

12. an antique Store discount worth £250 – Sponsored by ÆLFRED; and

13. an Oyster masterclass and lunch experience with wine for two guests – Sponsored by Bentley’s.

Finally, no one could claim to have gone home empty handed given free copies of the latest edition of the London Chess Centre CHESS magazine.

Beef and bavarois

A key element of the night was of course dinner, which was another coup for the very able Miss Birrane, who managed to organise a superb three-course affair for 20 guests.

A few words of thanks from Doctor Saldanha and Miss Birrane over dinner and it was last orders at the bar. We understand that a happy band of chess aficionados partied on (until dawn the following day in some cases) but what goes on in Covent Garden most definitely stays in Covent Garden.

Booming brilliance

The event can only be described as a rip-roaring success. A massive thank you to the players, spectators, sponsors, staff, those who donated but couldn’t join us on the night and the executive at the National Liberal Club.

We were blown away by the generosity of everyone in the lead up to this event and on the night. This would not have been possible without the enthusiasm of all involved, so we thank you all for making the event what it was, and for supporting Under One Sky!

Under One Sky – Go Fund Me

For anyone who would still like to contribute to Under One Sky, the link is: GoFundMe/UnderOneSky.

Thank You Again to all our Sponsors and Supporters

National Liberal Club

NLC Chess Circle

Punjab Restaurant

Chess.com

London Chess Centre

Chessboxing Nation

Phoenix Arts Club

ÆLFRED

Bentley’s

Nick Cornwall

Freddie’s Flowers

Charles Gillett

Grenson

Danny Rosenbaum

Oxquant