Three-sy does it as extra league team entered.
Shrewsbury Chess Club will enter three teams in the Shropshire Chess League for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic, it has been confirmed.
The club has asked for a Shrewsbury C team to be entered in division three for the forthcoming 2025/26 season.
In addition, Shrewsbury B will accept promotion to division two after winning the division two title last season, while the club has asked league controller Dan Hilditch-Love if Shrewsbury A can remain in division one, despite ending the 2024/25 campaign in the relegation zone.
The requests have been made following discussions between members at the club’s recent AGM, and the move to enter three teams is seen as a key step to helping the club to grow and provide more opportunities for members to play competitive chess.
The C team last featured in the 2021/22 season played online due to Covid.
Club secretary Peter Kitchen said the club had come close to entering three teams last season, but that members had agreed to take the plunge this time around.
“The club is continuing to grow and attract new faces, which is absolutely fantastic news for us,” he said. “But we need to make sure we can offer enough opportunities for players of all abilities to play competitive chess, and bringing back the C team will be an important part of that”.
“We want players who perhaps have had little exposure to league chess to gain that experience and have every chance to grow and improve. We’re really excited to be able to do that.”
The request for the A team to remain in division one was discussed carefully at the AGM, especially “In terms of the A team and where it plays next season. Members felt it was something that the A team squad needed to drive,” Peter said. “While we accept we finished in the division one relegation zone last season, we did so with a record number of points for a team in the bottom two.
“We also had to weigh up the logistics of trying to field three teams in divisions two and three in the event the A team is asked to step down a level. The majority feeling was that it would be easier for us to manage this if we had one team in each division”.
“We’ve made our views known to the league controller which he has received and acknowledged – and we are really grateful that he is keen to listen to what we have to say. We look forward to constructive discussions on this going forward.”
The captains and nominations for the three teams will be confirmed closer to the start of the season.
Two teams will be entered into Shropshire Rapidplay Chess League this season, with the hope that the A team, captained by Dan Lockett, will be in division one and the B team, led by David Edwards, will be in division two.
Club members celebrated the successes of the previous season at the AGM, which included Shrewsbury B winning division three of the Shropshire Chess League and finishing runners-up in division two of the rapidplay league. In addition, Shrewsbury 2 became the final champions of division two of Shropshire Online Chess League – the local online leagues have now been wound up.