Worldwide Chess League Competition (Captain: John Cook)
The 2020 WWCL tournament on chess.com was started in March 2020 with 42 participating teams, 40 in the UK and one each in Germany and Russia. By the end of the year there were 120 teams from 39 countries taking part, with all the continents represented. PWOCC took part from the start and has played 44 matches up to the end of 2020. In the final stage of 2020 the club finished in third position, with highlights being very narrow wins against New Zealand and Kings College, London.
The club enters two teams: Petts Wood and Orpington A and Petts Wood and Orpington B. The opposition may be UK clubs or university teams, but mostly teams in other countries. Matches are generally played over the weekend or sometimes in midweek evenings to accommodate different time zones in the case of international matches. Among the overseas teams we have faced are ones from South Africa, Australia, the US, India. China, Bulgaria, Iran, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Argentina and Chile.
The number of players in a team varies between 4 (the minimum allowed) and 20. And the rate of play is all moves in 10 minutes with 5 second increments,
In the 2023/24 season the event was organised on a different basis from the previous season with the teams split into eight groups,with the group winners and best runners up proceeding to the play-offs. In the event Petts Wood and Orpington A lost to the very strong Warwick University team, scored wins against Imperial College and Reading University, and drew 4-4 with Cambridge University. The A team would have qualified for the play-offs if it had beaten Cambridge University in the final match.
Croydon League (Captain: Jean-Baptiste Jugand)
London League (Captain: Daniel Lindner)
Online matches for juniors (Captain: John Cook)
Time control: 10 minutes plus 3 second increment per move; each player plays once as white, once as black against the same opponent.
The number of boards for any match is usually determined by the number of players available to play for the opposing team, and is typically between six and twenty.
These matches are arranged with UK clubs with large junior sections and played on midweek evenings.
Online Events
The 2020-21 club junior tournament currently has 40 players.
The juniors have played online friendly matches against several English clubs as well as clubs from Italy, the US, South Africa, Cyprus and Indonesia (Borneo). They have also taken part in two team battles against other clubs in the London area. The latest involved six teams and 286 games were played overall in that event.