Battle Royal

We visited Telford C on 15 Jan knowing that whoever won would move to the top of the league.
Charles Micallef won on board one against Richard Szwajkun,who apparently helped by making a couple of weak moves.Francis Rooney on board 2 seemed to have the upper hand against Andy Jones and so it proved 2-0 up and both my game and Toms looked promising.However,in my case we got down to six pawns each and I ended up in a zugswang position.Then sadly Tom ran out of time leaving the match drawn,and the league table now has four teams joint top with eleven points.

A good start to second half

A win against Shrewsbury A proved to be sweet revenge after their drubbing of us in this season's opening encounter. The return match at Shrewsbury saw us win 4.5-0.5 with four wins and a draw.

Shrewsbury were without one or two of their srongest team, but we were missing Michael as well. Early on we looked comfortable on most boards but there were no quick finishes. Graham, Francis and Eric finished within moments of each other and Graham tapped me on the shoulder and reported that we were 2.5 to 0.5 up. With my position looking good and Trevor steaming through the centre next to me, the win looked assured. We both managed to convert the wins to leave Shrewsbury a little shell-shocked.

All we need to do now is repeat the form, and the luck, in our next two matches against the other  top-three teams Telepost and Newport.

Shrewsbury A 1-4 Condover & Church Stretton A


F Best 0, T Brotherton 1;
D Everington 0, S Rooney 1;
P Kitchen 0, G Shepherd 1;
N O'Connor 0.5, E Elwell0.5;
M Smith 0, F Rooney 1.

Rapidplay fun

The second evening of the new Rapidplay competition was another entertaining affair. Our results were not great as we lost two matches and won one, but it was a very good-humoured pre-Christmas event with food generously supplied by some Telepost members.

The competition format seems to be working very well with four teams playing each other in three matches on each evening. The games are serious but there is a chance to chat and socialise between matches and both of the ones we've attended have had a great atmosphere.

The full results are on the Shropshire chess site here

Our next Rapidplay fixture is Fri 7 march at Shrewsbury.

A frustrating draw

We played Shrewsbury C on 4 December.Francis was first to finish with a draw against Andrew Lewis.Tom Williamson then secured a draw against Eric Inglis on board 3 despite being a pawn down,but Eric had doubled pawns.Chris Pimm-Jones on board 4 was the exchange down,but turned it around against Tony Purser forcing pawn promotion ahead of Tonys two passed pawns to secure a win.Charles Micallefs game on board 1 looked drawn against Ian Davies,but then blundered a rook away resulting in a loss.
However at the halfway stage we have secured 10 from an available 14 points and are handily placed in what is turning out to be a very tight division.

Back to winning ways

We played Oswestry B away from home on 18 November and came away with 2.5-1.5 win.First to win with a queen and knight mate was Shane Sweeney against Jon Smith.Shane remains unbeaten for our club.Charles agreed a draw with Steve Tulett followed by eventually a draw by Tom Williamson against Keith Bacon.While equal on material and up on the clock I fancied my chances against Alf Evans,but settled for a draw in case to give us the win.

All square at Telford

The A team shared the points with Telford A this week with the clocks again playing a key role.

Graham chalked up an early win against John Footner, too quick for me to even see much of the game! There was then a long tense gap as the rest of us battled on.

Francis  chalked up a win on board five having been an exchange up and seeing off an advancing pawn before his opponent lost on time. This was followed by Trevor agreeing a draw with Dave Gostelow on board one, he looked a bit better but was behind on time.

Eric was another casualty to the clock when he ran out of time in a very complicated position against Rchard Gillespie. Steve's game against Nazif also ended with time running out as a superior position evaporated in a swashbuckling blitz finish.

Telford A 2.5-2.5 Condover & Church Stretton A
D Gostelow 0.5-0.5 T Brotherton
N Nazif 1-0 S Rooney
J Footner 0-1 G Shepherd
R Gillespie 1-0 E Elwell
T Skidmore 0-1 F Rooney


Next match is our first rapidplay league encounter at Condover on Tue 12 Nov. Should be a fun night with four teams playing a three-match series, spectators welcome.

Our first defeat

We played Newport C away on 5 Nov. and after a close fought game went down 2.5-1,5.Charles  Micallef was the first to finish with a draw against Dave Lovegrove,and I followed with a loss on board 4 against ungraded Micheal Moore.I felt happy with my game until near the end when his knight and Queen found all the good squares.Francis put up a brave fight,but finally fell to Steve Cooper,while Tom Williamson played out a long game,his opponents flag finally falling.Tom had a queen,knight and bishop against both rooks and bishop.