B Team Captain, Ian Davies, writes, “The B team’s second match and first home game of the season ended in a resounding victory over town rivals Telepost B.  I will just give a short resume of what went on as I don’t think I’m expert enough to give a detailed account of each game. This will be the theme of these reports as we go forward into the season. [N.B. if anyone else wants to submit comments on their own games in the B team, please send them to me – Francis] It was the same board order as our opening match with Andrew first to finish, securing a draw against…

Francis Best, A team captain writes: “This season promises to be a tough one with all teams able to hold their own and none by any means being a pushover.  Tough it proved to be, as we lined up against Priorslee Lions A in our opening match of the season.  I was white against Adrian Zdanowski and, for what seemed like the umpteenth time recently, we went down a variation of the Pirc in which Black plays an early …c5.  The books say the particular line is not supposed to be good for Black, but it seems to have served Adrian well and it did on this occasion too, as…

Ian Davies, team captain, writes: “Our season kicked off with an away match against a pretty strong Priorslee Lions B team and what a tense struggle it was. To be honest, I was so wrapped up in my own game against Marvin Carbin, that I didn’t really notice the detail of what was going on on the other four boards! Norman O’Connor was the first to finish after agreeing a draw on board 2 against Munro Morrison, followed by Ivor Salter’s loss to Gary White on board 3, after dropping a piece. Things got worse after Andrew Lewis had a rush of blood and losing a rook, having thought he…

Those of you who regularly read the website will know what a splendid job Matt Best has done over this last year or so at keeping it up to date.  Most of you will also know that he is now at Exeter University and is no longer in a position to manage the club website (or carry out a number of the other roles he has done in recent years).  Thanks Matt, for several splendid jobs well done! Unfortunately, we had NO takers for a number of roles at the club’s AGM and could really do with a few members stepping up to the plate.  Thanks to Ivor Salter for…

Matt Best’s final game as Shrewsbury B Captain ended in success as Shrewsbury B won the first piece of Silverware for the club since the A Team’s first Division triumph three years ago. The final, played at the Shrewsbury Club, was against Newport B – a side Shrewsbury finished above in the league and beat twice, but for the final Newport had the higher graded player on three out of the four boards. Things started off fairly slowly. Norman “quick draw” O’Connor had offered a draw to Danny Griffiths on board three before the match, and perhaps was more serious than we initially presumed as “quick draw”‘s quick draw (although…

It has been a busy week at Shrewsbury Chess Club despite the league season finishing, as the both the A and B teams were involved as hosts in cup semi-finals either side of the annual Quickplay event organised by Toby Neal at the Wrekin Housing Trust. For simplicity’s sake I’ll deal with them one at a time and chronologically, which means starting with the A team’s encounter with Priorslee Lions A in the Cox trophy, battling for the right to face Newport in the final. The first game to finish in that one was a surprisingly quick draw between David Everington and William Bates on board 2. The pair were…

Shrewsbury B booked a place in the semi-finals of the Minor Knockout to set up a town derby with Telepost B as they held off third division outfit Oswestry B. Matt Best’s team had a significant grading advantage over the boards, and the projected advantage was given to them after Mark Smith’s quick victory over John Molyneux on board 4. Mark, who arrived slightly late, made light of the time deficit by winning two pieces early on in the opening, and built on the advantage to give the hosts the lead. After that, though, things weren’t anywhere near as straightforward. Norman O’Connor was up the exchange against Euan Stevenson on…

The A team played against Telepost A on 12th May in the first round of this year’s Cox Trophy competition.  After our fairly lack-lustre performance in the league this year, it looked on paper as though we would be up against it on the night.  Difficulties in parking meant that I turned up a bit late and the other three games were already under way.  Richard Bryant had sportingly not started his clock and I observed that the home team was missing big guns Nigel Ferrington and Phil Zabrocki. David quipped that he had won the toss in my absence, with Richard retorting that they were now playing for four…

With the 2013-14 league season now officially completed, Shrewsbury’s A and B teams looked to build upon their successful campaigns with a good showing in this year’s Minor Knockout competition. The B team were up against Third Division outfit Telepost D, and the C team faced a challenging game against Telepost B, looking to draw inspiration from last year’s surprise victory over a strong Priorslee Lions B side. The B team were one up before any Pawns had been pushed, as Telepost had only been able to field 3 players for the re-arranged fixture. After some hasty discussions and checking up on Summer grades, Dan Lockett volunteered to take the…

Controller Matt Best has issued the draw for the 5th and final round of this year’s Shrewsbury Chess Club Championship, the details for which can be viewed on the club championship page of the website. The crosstable for the tournament can be seen below, and the deadline for these games is Friday 13th June. Finally – a reminder of the tie-break system which may become pertinent: If it is a tie between two players, then the two players in question would play another game under normal rules with a toss for colours. In the event of that match being drawn, then two 10-minute games, each player being White in one,…