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…

The fixtures for the 2012-2013 season have been published, with both Shrewsbury B and C teams starting the campaign at home. Shrewsbury C kick off the new season with three consecutive home games, against Wellington B, Telepost D and Newport C in a new-look third Division that, with the addition of two new teams this summer, has gone from the smallest of the divisions to the largest with 9 teams. The B team kick off their promotion challenge with a home game against Telepost C before a lengthy trip to recently relegated Ludlow in the second match. They will close the season with a tough double header against Priorslee Lions…

Shrewsbury Chess Club has confirmed that its Annual General Meeting will be hosted at the Club’s venue at the Training Suites for the Shelton Hospital on Friday 7th September, starting at around 7:45PM. If there is sufficient interest, there will be the traditional 5 round lightening tournament after the A.G.M for which people can sign up on the night. We would like to encourage as many members as possible to attend, and please send their apologies if they are unable to attend.

Francis Best has secured victory in this year’s Shrewsbury Club Championship with a draw in the final round against Dan Lockett. Best’s score of 4/5, without having lost a single game, leaves him a full point and a half ahead of the rest of the field with most players having one round left.

We’re finally online! Shrewsbury Chess Club are delighted to announce the launch of the official club website. We intend to update the site with match reports, fixtures and interesting games played by our members, as well as potentially expanding the site further. Make sure you add us to your bookmarks!