Congress and rapidplay mark busy start to the year

It may have taken a little while for the league campaign to resume following the festive break – but that didn’t stop some of Shrewsbury Chess Club’s players having a very busy and competitive January.

Mark Smith and David Edwards were joined by former club stalwart Francis Best – now based in the Isle of Wight – at Shropshire Chess Congress.

And the club’s A and B teams also competed in the latest rounds of Shropshire Rapidplay Chess League, putting in competitive showings, writes Peter Kitchen.

The Shrewsbury trio were in a field of more than 100 players at Shropshire Chess Congress, which was held over the opening weekend of January at Wrekin Housing Trust’s headquarters in Telford.

Best found the going tough in the Open section, but a final round victory with black over Oswestry’s Julie van Kemenade helped him to a final score of 2/5 and a share of 18th place out of 31 competitors.

Fifty-two players signed up for the second tier Major section – but Smith refused to be overawed. His 2.5/5 score was good enough for a share of 21st place, picking up a win in round four and securing three solid draws.

In the third string Intermediate section, Edwards was left to rue what might have been. On a couple of occasions, he let promising positions slip to fall to painful defeats.

He picked up a good win over Daniel Westhead in round two, but the two defeats that followed left him in damage limitation mode, and a final round draw saw him finish on 1.5/5 for a share of 27th out of 37 entrants.

It was definitely a tournament where the county’s junior talent shone – Ethan Parker (Darwinian Knights) and Newport due Muhammad Qadri and Krish Thimmegowda took the top three places in the Major, while Newport’s Malcolm Fletcher took a share of first in the Intermediate.

In the rapidplay league, Shrewsbury A endured a difficult evening in their latest division one outing at Telford, winning one and losing two of their three matches.

Peter Kitchen’s poor rapidplay league form continued as he picked up just half a point on the top two boards.

But Olusegun Ilesanmi had a fine night with 2.5/3 on board two, as Shrewsbury recovered from a heavy defeat by Newport A to defeat Darwinian Knights 2.5-1.5, before falling to a defeat by the same scoreline against Telford A in the final round.

Fred Bennett was given his first A team rapidplay league appearances, picking up 1/3 after some competitive showings on bottom board.

The As lie seventh in the eight-team division – but have played up to six games less than other teams in the division. And they don’t play again in the rapidplay league until April 15 at Oswestry, sitting out four evenings in a row courtesy of a quirk of the fixture list.

In division two of the rapidplay league, Shrewsbury B were the night’s hosts for their opening fictures of the season. They lost 3-2 to Darwinian Knights B and Newport B, but defeated Telfrod C by the same score. David Edwards was top scorer with 2/3 on board two.

The Bs are bottom of the six-team division on two points, but have games in hand on all the other teams in the division.