Shrewsbury Chess Club will leave its current venue at the Nerdy Café at the end of the 2022/23 season, it has been announced. The club’s hosts have chosen not to extend the current arrangement, which was due to run until February next year, in order to explore other ways of using the space during busy Friday evenings. Club secretary Mark Smith has negotiated an extension of the club’s stay until the end of the 2022/23 league season, and it is expected the club will continue to meet at the venue in Mardol on Friday evenings on a fortnightly basis until then. The search has now begun to find a new…

Shrewsbury Chess Club’s annual general meeting will be held this Friday (September 23). Members have been invited to meet at the Nerdy Café in Mardol from 7.30pm. The meeting will feature reports from officers and captains of the club’s over-the-board and online teams over activities over the past season. It is also expected to be confirmed at the meeting how many teams the club will enter in both the local over-the-board and online leagues this season, and there will also be an opportunity to discuss any further business relating to the club. Last season the club fielded just one OTB team that finished bottom of division one of the Shropshire…

Francis Best writes. It struck me recently that we have gained several new club members over the last year or two that some of the established brigade won’t necessarily know.  It’s interesting how the pandemic has changed the shape of the club.  There are those new to chess, or whose interest was rekindled during enforced lockdown and who have recently come to (or back to) over the board chess.  Then there are those who have belonged to the club for years but who have not yet felt able to return to over the board chess, especially since moving to our new venue at the Nerdy Café.  It’s as though there…

Shropshire’s online chess league – which helped several Shrewsbury Chess Club members continue to play competitively during the Covid-19 pandemic – has been saved. Five Shrewsbury club members successfully argued for the online league to be retained for at least another season after a proposal to axe it was raised at the recent Shropshire Chess Association annual general meeting, writes Peter Kitchen. A number of the club’s members have been reluctant to resume over-the-board chess over the past 12 months as they are either shielding or classed as vulnerable to Covid. While Shrewsbury was only able to field one over-the-board team during the 2021/22 campaign, three teams competed online and…

First team captain Francis Best has cemented his stranglehold on Shrewsbury Chess Club Championship by clinching his third title in four years. Best, who came into the event as the top seed, defeated Dan Lockett in a playoff after the two players both finished the five-round tournament on 4/5. It is the fourth time in seven years that Best has won the competition – three of them have been in playoffs after victories over Olusegun Ilesanmi in 2015/16 and Peter Kitchen in 2018/19. It was a painful result for Lockett after a loss in a tight game denied him his first club championship title for eight years. Despite losing with…

Two of Shrewsbury’s first teamers have made the shortlist in the search for the best game of the season by a Shropshire player. Two games by top board Peter Kitchen – his win over Newport’s Nick Rutter in the Shropshire Chess League division one encounter in April and his recent victory over Dan Lockett in Shrewsbury Town Championship – are among the nine matches under consideration for the Colin Roberts Memorial Trophy. Captain Francis Best’s spectacular triumph over Maddocks A’s Adrian Zdanowski is also on the shortlist of matches. An independent panel of Shropshire chess players will be convened to decide which game will be awarded the title. Other matches…

Title glory is almost in touching distance for Shrewsbury B, who are now 11 points clear at the top of the table after victory over the club’s C team. The B’s triumphed 2.5-0.5 over the C’s to extend their unbeaten run in division two of Shropshire Online Chess League to 14 matches. They now have a huge lead at the top of the table with just two matches left – and could be confirmed as champions before they face nearest rivals Telford. Telford have four games in hand, but to win the division must win all their remaining six matches – including the encounter against Shrewsbury B in the week…

Shrewsbury C are facing an uphill fight to avoid finishing bottom of Shropshire Online Chess League division two – despite two battling displays against top half sides in recent weeks. The C’s lost 2-1 to Newport Juniors before gaining a creditable 1.5-1.5 draw with Oswestry C. It comes ahead of a key intra-club derby with promotion-chasing Shrewsbury B, which took place on Tuesday this week (June 7). Despite their efforts, the C’s are bottom of the table with just two fixtures to go, a point adrift of Telepost D. The next trio of sides up the table – Telepost B, Telepost C and Newport A – all have games in…

Four players still have a chance of becoming this season’s club champion going into the final round. Defending champion Francis Best lies in pole position to reclaim his crown, holding a half point lead over Dan Lockett and knowing he needs to only match his rival’s result to clinch the title. Both of the first team players have the white pieces in their final round matches – Best against Stephen Priestley and Lockett against arguably the tournament’s surprise package Norman O’Connor. Intriguingly, if both Priestley and O’Connor won the matches – or if Priestley wins and Lockett and O’Connor draw – it would force a three-way playoff to decide the…

Shrewsbury’s ultimately disappointing Shropshire Chess League season ended with a 4-1 home defeat against Newport A. But despite the heavy loss, there are really hopeful signs for the future. Will Apted played his first ever competitive game of chess with a clock and scoresheets, and held his own before being beaten by Phil Love on bottom board. Richard Vernon had probably his strongest game of the campaign, giving rising star Daniel Hilditch-Love one of his toughest games of the season – and those were Dan’s words – before eventually succumbing to defeat. Francis Best provided the night’s highlight with a nice win over Chris Lewis on board two. Elsewhere Newport’s…