Shrewsbury B’s worrying start to the season continued with a third consecutive defeat, this time at home to Newport B. Deprived of Mark Smith for the second game, captain Matt Best opted to give Geoff Knox his first game for the club on board two. The match got off to a fairly steady start, with Best agreeing a quick draw with Steve Cooper on board 5 after the Scandinavian petered out into a deadlocked, almost symmetrical position after just 18 moves. The second game to finish ended in the same result. Norman O’Connor and Chris Paul played an interesting game on board three which ended up with level material, opposite Bishops and…

There was a sombre mood at Shifnal & Telford on Wednesday night on account of the fact that Iain Wilson, previous President of the Shropshire Chess Association, had died that afternoon.  Iain had been suffering from cancer for a while and was a good friend of Shropshire Chess over many years, as well as of many of us individually.  There was probably no better way of honouring Iain’s memory than by having a good scrap over the board, and it’s fair to say that each and every player duly obliged by giving it their all; no short, “grandmaster” draws! On top board, captain Jamie Hopkins declined Dave Gostelow’s habitual early…

Despite our requests, the hospital remains adamant that we cannot store our equipment on site at the Redwoods Centre.  I have been holding off buying the new equipment agreed at the AGM until this matter was resolved but it looks like we will have to transport sets, boards and clocks back and forth each week, for the foreseeable future. At the moment, the plan is for everyone to take at least one of each (board, clock and set) for safe custody home and back.  I also have a suitcase containing several of each type of equipment but this is unwieldy and I would rather not continue with this for too…

Shrewsbury B narrowly missed out on a hard-fought result against recently relegated Ludlow. Deprived of both Mark Smith and Norman O’Connor, captain Matt Best opted to retain the services of Dan Lockett on top board with the former skipper yet to play 3 games for the A team and therefore still eligible, and Francis Rooney – the former Shrewsbury Junior without a regular team this season with Church Stretton B having been forced to fold. The match got off to a fairly quiet start, with Best and Lewis picking up quick draws on boards three and five against higher graded opponents. Things then got hectic. Firstly, Ivor Salter’s position on…

Shrewsbury Chess Club have completed their relocation to the extremely smart Redwood centre (pictures to the left). The centre is just 300 yards or so from the old playing area; just down the road from the old entrance. There are far more parking spaces than previously! To get to the centre, proceed as per previous until it gets to the entrance to the hospital previously used on the right. Carry on straight past there (there is a signpost on the left hand side of the road that should indicate if you’re doing well!) and it’s the large, lit up building to your right. Simply enter through the doors and let…

Andrew Lewis came to the rescue of Ian Davies’ Shrewsbury C team as they started the season with a 2-2 draw at home to fellow promotion contenders Wellington B. The game was the first on Shrewsbury’s new premises at the Redwood centre (very smart!) and looked to be off to a good start when Fred Harris marked his return to regular league chess by winning a rook against Colin Mace on board 4. Eric Inglis on three then promptly proceeded to win an exchange to put him in a commanding position, whilst Andrew Lewis had a superior position on board two. The only signs of trouble were on top board…

Jamie Hopkins’ tenure as Shrewsbury A Team captain got off to a solid start with a 2.5-2.5 draw away to Priorslee Lions A. Deprived of regular Peter Kitchen, Hopkins called upon B Team Captain Matt Best to fill in on board 5, with Dan Lockett making his first appearance as an A Team regular on board 4 and Hopkins on top board; Francis Best was on board two and David Everington on three. The match looked to be off to a bad start when Matt dropped an exchange on board 5 against Gary White – overeager to pull off a neat tactic which superficially appeared to win a piece, only…

Shrewsbury B’s league season got off to a bad start with a heavy 4-1 reverse at home to Telepost C. Despite looking a close match on paper, with board four featuring two players with identical gradings and just one point separating the players on board two, the visitors took control of the match early on and never really looked like relinquishing their grip on the match. Things started badly for Shrewsbury when new captain Matt Best dropped the exchange and a pawn in a promising position against Charles Micallef, leading to his resignation ten moves or so later when Micallef forced multiple exchanges to leave him with a clearly won…

Controller Matt Best has completed the draw for the first round of the club championship ahead of the new season. The pairings can be seen on the club championship tab at the top.

At last night’s Annual General Meeting, several significant changes were made ahead of the new season. Firstly, David Everington, having served as A Team captain for a long period of time, had announced last summer that he would like to step down after one final season. Jamie Hopkins agreed to take on the responsibility on the condition that B Team captain Dan Lockett would play this season for the A Team (a player short since early last season) on a full time basis. That created a vacancy for the B Team captaincy, which Matt Best indicated a willingness to take up. This follows on from Best’s promotion from the C…