Detailed History 2020 to now

First online tournament

With play in all the local chess leagues, now suspended, Stourbridge Chess Club has moved to playing online. Stourbridge Chess Club is now set up on chess.com and their first online blitz tournament was held on Wednesday evening with a time control of 10 minutes per person per game. Nine players took part. It was won by Chris Evans who was rather lucky in the last round when he faced Julie Wilson. Julie had checkmate in 2 moves when she lost on time. The final results were:

1. Chris Evans 3.5
2. Jeremy Humphries 3
3. Pete Seeley 2.5
4. Julie Wilson 2
5. Colin Woodall 2
6. Ethan Chan Smith 2
7. Kevin Powis 2
8. Seth Chan Smith 2
9. Steve Alcock 1

WMA online league

Stourbridge Chess Club has now joined the West Midlands Area online chess league. They have 2 teams – “the Glass Cutters” and “the Glassblowers” in division 2. League matches are played weekly every Thursday. Players play each other twice once with each colour with a rapid play time control of fifteen minutes with a 10 second increment for each move.

In first match the two Stourbridge teams faced each other, and the result was a 3-3 draw. It should have been a four-board match, but one player had trouble logging in. Nic Fallowfield and Colin Woodall played well to win both their matches.

The second round was played this Thursday. The Glass Cutters played against Solihull and won convincingly; 7-1 with Jeremy Humphries, Pete Seeley and Ethan Chan Smith winning both their games. The Glassblowers faced Coventry and did not do so well. The final result was disappointing loss 6½-1½. Board one Nic Fallowfield was the only player to win a game.

Press Report 27/06/2020

On Thursday, the Glass cutters faced Coventry and were lucky to draw the match thanks mainly to the fact one of the Coventry players failed to show!

At the same time, the Glassblowers faced the Isle of Wight who are guests in this league. They also drew 4-4 with the glassblowers winning the first match and the Isle of Wight the second. Stourbridge board one Nic Fallowfield won both his games. Nic is one of the top scorers in the league with 13.5 out of a possible 16.

 The club is also holding regular online events on Monday evenings.

There is now an online county championship. Worcestershire are playing in open division 2B. They played their first match against Shropshire and lost 7½-4½. Stourbridge’s Julie Wilson and Hossam Aboushady both drew their games.

Press Report 17/08/2020

Stourbridge Chess Club is continuing to play chess online. The fifth and last round of the club’s annual Summer tournament was held last week. After four rounds, Tony Shaw was in the lead with 3.5 points followed by John Foxall and Julie Wilson on three. In the final round, Julie beat John and Steve Alcock did Julie a big favour by playing a cracking game to beat Tony Shaw. So, the overall winner was Julie Wilson on four points. Tony Shaw was the runner up on 3.5.

The West Midlands Area online league has just started a Summer/autumn competition, with Stourbridge playing in division 2. On Thursday they faced Mutual Circle in a six-board match with the top four boards counting for the league. Each player plays their opponent twice, once with white and once with black using the fast time control of 15 minutes per game with a 10 second increment for each move. Stoubridge won the 6-board match 7.5 to 4.5. Nic Fallowfield, Hossam Aboushady and Colin Woodall won both their games. For the league, Stourbridge won the first match 3-1 and drew the second 2-2. This was a great start for the team.

 In the online county championship, Worcestershire is through to the minor counties final where they will face Somerset. They won the semi-final 7-5 against Berkshire. Hossam Aboushady and Tony Shaw both won their games.

Stourbridge Chess Club is also holding regular online events on Monday evenings.

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Committee meeting 16/09/2020

Change of Club secretary and treasurer

Dave Scriven has resigned his roles as club secretary and treasurer. We thank him for all the hard work he has put in over the years and wish him well in the future. Paul Sharratt and Steve Alcock have taken over the roles on an interim basis. Paul as club secretary and Steve as treasurer. This will be until the club is able to hold an AGM.

AGM

The club normally holds a committee meeting followed by an AGM at the end of the season in May. However, this year that was not possible due to the covid pandemic.. We were then hoping (rather optimistically) that things would get back to normal Unfortunately, that has not happened. Instead the committee has been deliberating (via email) and held a committee meeting on 16th September.

Awards

• The Presidents Cup, awarded for services to the club, is awarded to Julie Wilson
• The Denis Fernihough Trophy, awarded for most improved player, is awarded to Richard Wilkinson.
• The Sydney Willets Trophy, awarded to the best club player, is awarded to Dave Scriven.

Reports

The committee members have written their usual annual reports and instead of reading them out at an AGM, these have been distributed by email.

Subscriptions

The payment of subs will be waived until May 2021.

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Zoom meeting September 2020

On Wednesday 23rd September, the chess club held a zoom meeting for members. It was really nice to see everyone and have a catch-up.

We discussed what sort of chess activities we'd like with the focus being on online chess.

The things we considered were:

• Online club nights
• Proposal for a "mega online club"
• An Autumn Swiss tournament
• Online league chess
• Team battles on lichess.org

The highlights of the discussions were:

• We will have a 5 round Swiss Autumn tournament with one game every week, which will replace the Monday night tournaments.
• Worcestershire is entering two teams (open and under 1825 (150) ) in the MCCU championships.
• We are in favour of Chris's idea of a mega online club.
• Worcestershire chess association is likely to be holding some individual events and an online league.
• Only one of the attendees likes fast time controls!
• There will be another zoom meeting in about a month

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Autumn Tournament

The Monday club night online tournaments have not been well attended so we decided to do something different.

For  5 weeks, starting on Monday 28th September there was a 5 round online tournament with one slow game a week.

It was flexible with players being able to change the date and time when they played their  game by agreement wth their opponent.

The main emphasis was to allow players to play slow games of chess.

It was won by Mark Podlesak on 4.5 points. John Foxall came second

The complete results can be seen here.

Zoom meeting January 2021

With England in lockdown, the club held a zoom meeting on the 27th January. The attendees talked about the history of Stourbridge Chess Club . The club was founded in 1852 and there is currently a project underway to document the history of the club on this site. Our longest serving member Eric Horwill talked about his experiences when he first joined the club in 1950.

Zoom Meetings

The club held a zoom meeting on the last Wednesday of each month while we were unable to meet in person This was a chance to see everyone and have a catch-up.

The last meeting was held on the 28th April 2021. When the attendees talked about the proposals from Tim Lane on how to conclude the BDCL 2019-2020 season and the league clubs' responses. There was no appetite for playing out the remaining matches and it is now proposed that the 2019-20 league tables should be finalized on the basis of a points-per-match calculation. This means that the Stourbridge first team would be safe in division 2 and the second team are division 4 champions. The Stourbridge second team is in the final of the Townsend trophy and the club is happy to either share the trophy or play out the final.

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Committee business

Meeting

The chess club committee met in the Falcon Room at the Stourbridge Institute on Wednesday 19th May 2021. All the committee members were present: Julie Wilson (chairperson), Paul Sharratt (secretary) Steve Alcock (treasurer) and team captains: Colin Woodall, Sam Bradley and Eric Horwill.

AGM

It was decided to hold an AGM as soon as possible after all Covid restrictions are lifted.

Over the board chess

Paul Sharratt will talk to the Institute about resuming Over the Board chess as soon as possible.

Awards

The club discussed who should receive the 3 awards for the past season. It was decided in the future, if the members agree there should be an award for the "best club member" i.e. the club member who contributes the most  to the club and is most supportive. In this exceptional year, no members had improved significantly, therefore it was agreed to award the Denis Fernihough Trophy to the "best club member".

The awards will be presented at the AGM. If this is not possible they will be announced by email.

Reports

The committee members have written their usual annual reports and these will be read out at the AGM.

Subscriptions

Subs for the 21-22 season are now due. The committee would like to keep them at the same amount as the previous season. This will need to be ratified by the AGM.

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Quads Tournament

We held an OTB "quads tournament” on Wednesday 18/8/21 at the Stourbridge Institute. Play was in groups of 4 in a round robin with a time control of game in 20 minutes

12 of us played in 3 groups. There were no draws in the whole event! The three winners were Jeremy Fallowfield, Ethan Chan Smith and Joe Conway-Lees all of whom scored a perfect 3 out of 3.

Extraordinary General Meeting

The club held an EGM at the Stourbridge Institute on Wednesday 15th September to kick start the 2021 - 2022 season

The new club constitution was formally approved and has now been adopted.

This year without any OTB chess, the awards took on a slightly different flavour and were awarded as follows:

• The Presidents Cup, awarded for services to the club, was awarded to Julie Wilson
• The Denis Fernihough Trophy, is normally awarded for most improved player. However, looking at the online results, there was nobody really who had made a big enough improvement to warrant the award. However there were 3 players who had been very supportive of efforts to organise chess club activities online – namely Colin Woodall, John Foxall and Jeremy Humphries. It was therefore decided to make the award to the most supportive club member – Jeremy Humphries. Jeremy was the only club member who attended all the zoom meetings and he also always responded to emails and played or watched all the tournaments.
• The Sydney Willets Trophy, awarded to the best club player, was awarded to Nic Fallowfield for his outstanding performance in the first two seasons of the WMA online league. He scored 13½ out of 16 in the Spring league and 7 out of 12 in the Summer league.

The following officials were elected:

• President : Julie Wilson
• General Secretary :Paul Sharratt
• Treasurer: Steve Alcock
• Website: Julie Wilson, Reece Cottam
• Publicity :Julie Wilson
• Social Secretary: Julie Wilson, Ben Doran
• Safeguarding Officer :Paul Sharratt
• First team captain : Paul Sharratt
• Second team captain: To be decided
• Third Team Captains: Colin Woodall, Steve Alcock

Full minutes of the meeting can be seen here.

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Nick Harris memorial match

Earlier this year we learned of the death of Nick Harris, a well-liked and highly respected member of the Worcestershire chess community, and longstanding player for both Worcester City and Stourbridge Chess Club s.

In memory of Nick, the Nick Harris Memorial Match, took place at the Worcester City venue (St Stephen's Church Hall) on Thursday, 16th September 2021, at 7:30p.m.

One of the players originally intending to come had to call off at short notice because of mild symptoms so the match took place over five boards. Two social players from Worcester club, Stephen and Douglas Nicholls also played a non-match game as part of the event. Players in the match came from Malvern and Kidderminster clubs as well as Stourbridge and Worcester. The overall result of the match was a 3-2 victory for Stourbridge.

Worcester All Stars vs. Stourbridge All Stars

 1. Stephen Mellor (w) 1-0 Brian Turner

2. Phil Austin 0 – 1 Julie Wilson

3. Robin Hayles 1 – 0 Paul Sharratt

4. Phil Smith 0 – 1 Hossam Aboushady

5. John Hesketh 0 – 1 John Varilone

There was also a book stall and refreshments at the event with donations going to St Richard's hospice in Nick's memory. A total of £217.50 was raised.

Nick's wife Rosie, gave a bottle of wine to each of the players taking part in the match for them to drink in memory of Nick.

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Townshend Trophy

The final of the Townshend trophy for the 2019/2020 season was finally held on December 14th 2021. It was originally scheduled to be played on 21st April 2020 but the Covid lockdown prevented this.

This trophy is open to teams from the lower divisions of the Birmingham League. The Stourbridge second team faced Coleshill who also play in division 4.

Only players from the 2019/202 were eligible and Stourbridge were missing several of their players whereas Coleshill were only missing one.

We lost the toss resulting in Coleshill getting white on odd boards. First board to finish was Colin on board 6, after the center was open and his opponent's king still in the middle, Colin was able to secure the win. Martin with black was next to finish on board 3, opposite side castling and h file open Martin's opponents attack was too powerful to defend. Richard had slight edge on board 4 but was unable to convert to a win. Match was tight after 3 boards finishing score was 1.5 each. On top board Sam got some activity against his opponent's exchange Slav. After all pieces exchanged apart from knight and bishop and the Kingside pawn structure closed, focus turned to the Queenside, his opponent had the opportunity to sacrifice his bishop for two connected passed pawns. However he decided it was too risky and a draw was agreed. Eric on board two lost a pawn in the opening but had compensation with strong knight on e5 and attacking opportunities. However Eric's attack fizzled out and opponent was able to win the game. Board 5 was last to finish, playing well in the center Steve created a passed d pawn, in a position which looked advantageous to Steve, the game ended with his opponent's flag dropping. The match ended 3-3 with us losing on board count.

End of Season report 2022

This season (2021-22), our focus was on giving as many of our new members over the board match experience as possible. With a scaled down season in most leagues plus a late start, we were not too concerned about the final results.

BDCL2

We managed to escape relegation by drawing with Shirley and Withall and beating Olton towards the end of the season. We finished 8th out of 12 teams. Star player was Joe Conway-Lees with 3 out of 3. He is sure to be registered for the first team next season. John Foxall did well to score 2½; out of 3.

BDCL3

The second team did not fair so well and will be relegated to division 4.  The best performance was from Martin Berridge on 4 out of 6.

WDCL2

After 4 matches we were heading the table, with 4 wins from 4. We lost our final match against Oscott, but it did not matter we won the division with 8 points from 5 matches. This was a scaled down version of the Wolverhampton  league with clubs playing in teams of 4. We wait to see what will happen next season and whether or not we will be promoted to division one. The best Stourbridge player was Eric on 2½; out of 3. Well done Stourbridge!

WDCL3

We got off to a good start with 7 points from our 5 matches but then we lost our last two matches to finish 4th out of 8.  Team captain Colin Woodall played well to score 3½; out of 6.

Worcestershire division 2

Captain Steve Alcock made sure that lots of different players played in this league. We had some close matches but finally finished 4th out of 5 with 6 points from 8 matches. 14 different Stourbridge players played in the 4 board team. Best performer was Hossam Aboushady with 2½; out of 3.

Ladder league

The ladder league was won by Dylan Yates.

Dudley  league

The Dudley league did not recommence this season. However it hopes to restart for the 2022/23 season.

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Annual General Meeting 15/6/2022

The club held the  AGM at the end of the season at the Stourbridge Institute on Wednesday 15th June. this was the first AGM since May 2019.

• The Presidents Cup, awarded for services to the club, was awarded to Steve Alcock for his work as treasurer, team captain and welcoming new members.
• The Denis Fernihough Trophy is for the most improved player. This year there was one player who really stood out and that is Joe Conway-Lees. Joe started off the season unrated. Then in October his rating was 1410 and this gradually grew to 1691! His record for the club is played 14, won 9, drawn 2 and lost 3.
• The Sydney Willets Trophy, used to be awarded to the best club player which was difficult to define. It has now been decided to award it to the most reliable member. It was awarded to Eric Horwill.

The following officials were elected:

• President : Julie Wilson
• General Secretary :Paul Sharratt
• Treasurer: Steve Alcock
• Website: Julie Wilson
• Publicity :Julie Wilson
• Social Secretary: Julie Wilson
• Safeguarding Officer :Paul Sharratt
• First team captain : Paul Sharratt
• Second team captain: Sam Bradley
• Third Team Captains: Colin Woodall, Steve Alcock

The allocation of teams to captains will be decided later.

Full minutes of the meeting can be viewed here.

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Tony Evers Match

This annual friendly match against Halesowen was held for the first time since lockdown at Halesowen's venue the Townsend club on 26th July 2022. . There was a really nice friendly atmosphere throughout the evening and Halesowen put on a good spread for the buffet! We got off to a good start when Michael and Sam Green both won quickly. Eric also had a good win. Nic Fallowfield and Julie Wilson did well to draw against higher rated opponents. Jeremy Humphries (on loan to Halesowen) and Greg Parkes also drew.

Tony Evers Memorial Match Results

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Pre-season blitz

An internal blitz tournament was held to kick-off the 2022/23 season on 31st August. Eleven players played in an eleven round round robin tournament.

The winner was Joe Conway-Lees with 10½. Club secretary Paul Sharratt came second with 9½ and Eric Horwill came third with 8½

Tournament Successes

Joe Conway-Lees recently became Staffordshire under 16 champion with a score of 5 of 6, losing only to the eventual under 18 champion. He also played exceptionally well at the Shropshire congress to come equal first in the Major section for players graded under 1950 . He was unbeaten on 4 out of 5 with 3 wins and 2 draws.

Joe has seen his rating rise rapidly throughout the season from 1691 in September to 1833. He now plays regularly for Stourbridge's first team.

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Christmas blitz

The club held a Christmas blitz tournament on 28th December 2022. With it being Christmas week, only a few members were available to play. The tournament was won by Joe Conway-Rees with Julie Wilson second.

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Mid season report 16/01/2023

For the first time in three years, Stourbridge Chess Club has a full program of league fixtures for the 2022/23 chess season which runs from September through to May. With the season half way through, Stourbridge Chess Club has had mixed results.

The first team have been struggling in division 2 of the Birmingham league. Last week they scored their first win of the season against Longbridge, with wins for Joe Friar, Paul Sharratt and Tony Shaw. This win moves them off the bottom of the table and they will need to continue to win matches if they are to avoid relegation.

The second team are faring better in division 4 and are currently in fourth place.

The first team are doing better in the Wolverhampton league and are currently third in division 2, while the second team are on 50% in division 3.

The club also has a team in Dudley division 3 which is used to give less experienced players match practice. The team is currently second in the division but won’t stay there for long as the other teams have games in hand. On Thursday they beat Warley Quinborne 1½-2½ with Ben Doran and Reece Cottam both winning their games.

In the Worcestershire Challengers league Stourbridge have only played 2 matches so far with one win and one loss.

In the new Worcestershire rapid play league, there is faster time control of game in 20 minutes with 10 second increments and players play their opponent twice in one evening, once with white and once with black. Stourbridge are again on 50% with one win, one loss and 2 draws.

Hopefully, Stourbridge will be able to move up the various league tables in the second half of the season.

We are looking for players to strengthen our squads for the remainder of the season.

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End of Season blitz tournament

An end of season blitz tournament was played on 24/5/2023. Playeres played in two round robins of 6 players with a time control of game in 7 minutes. Group 1 was won by Chris Evans on 4/5 with John Foxall and Ben Doran second equal on 3½ . Group 2 was won by Mason Yeung on 5/5. Josh Greaves was second on 4/5.

End of Season report

The 2022/23 chess season has now finished. It brought mixed results for Stourbridge Chess Club .

BDCL2

Stourbridge were unlucky to be relegated from division 2 down to division 3. They lost 3 of their matches by the narrowest possible margin 2½-3½. The squad strength was boosted by the presence of 2 strong Kidderminster players Joe Friar and John Wrench but this was not enough to escape relegation. Both players have confirmed that they will play in the 23/24 season so Stourbridge must be favourites to go straight back up to division 2.

BDCL4

The second team finished mid table. The best performance was from Joe Conway-Lees on 4 out of 5 after which he got tied to the first team. John Foxall also did well scoring 6½ out of 10.

WDCL2

The first team did much better in division 2 of the Wolverhampton league and were in contention for promotion for most of the season . They finally just missed out by finishing 3rd with 11 points from 10 matches. The best performance was from Joe Conway-Lees who was unbeaten with 4 wins and 2 draws. Reserve Richard Wilkinson won both his games

WDCL3

Stourbridge finished 9th out of 11 teams in this division. John Foxall did well with 3 wins, 5 draws and just one loss.

Worcestershire Challengers

Stourbridge finished mid table with 10 points out of 10 matches.

Worcestershire rapid play

It was the first season this league had been run and the Stourbridge players enjoyed playing it. In each match you play your opponent twice, once with white and once with black. The time control for each game was 20 minutes plus a 10 second increment for each move. Stourbridge finished third in the 4 team league. Joe Conway-Lees again did well to score 5.5 out of 8.

Dudley  division 3

This team is primarily used to give less experienced players match practice. Stourbridge finished mid-table. Mark and Dan Spooner both won in their debut match. Good performances were given by Ben Doran on 3½ out of 5 and Sam Green on 1½ out of 2.

The club is hoping for better results next season and already has several new members who are keen to play league chess.

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Eric Horwill's 90th birthday

Eric turned 90 on Thursday March 9th and is still an incredibly good chess player, turning out regularly for Stourbridge's first team. His imaginative attacking style of play continues to bring him many victories.

On Saturday a few of the club’s long standing members were privileged to attend Eric’s 90th birthday tea ! Club president Julie Wilson presented Eric with a collection of “Eric’s greatest games” and a birthday card from the club. The games had been contributed by players in local leagues including Stourbridge members. Thanks to everyone who contributed a game. A .pgn file of the games can be downloaded here. Club secretary Paul Sharratt presented Eric with birthday greetings from members of other clubs and a print-out of the games from the 2016 under 140 County final where Eric played board 2 for the victorious Worcestershire team.

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Annual General Meeting 8/6/2023

The club held the  AGM at the end of the season at the Stourbridge Institute on Wednesday 8th June.

• The Presidents Cup, awarded for services to the club, is awarded to Paul Sharratt for his work as secretary and team captain.
• The Denis Fernihough Trophy is for the most improved player. This year there was one player who really stood out and that is Joe Conway-Lees. Joe started off the season with a rating of 1691 and finished at 1865. this was an increase of 174 points. This is the first time someone has won the award two years in succession.
• The Sydney Willets trophy is awarded to the most reliable club player. This year it is awarded to John Foxall who turned out regularly for the second and first teams, replied promptly to emails, helped set up and clear away equipment and was supportive throughout the season.

The following officials were elected:

• President : Julie Wilson
• General Secretary :Paul Sharratt
• Treasurer: Steve Alcock
• Website: Julie Wilson
• Publicity :Julie Wilson
• Social Secretary: Julie Wilson
• Safeguarding Officer :Jayne Greaves
• Team Manager : Paul Sharratt
• Wolverhampton division 2 team captain: Tony Shaw

Full minutes of the meeting can be viewed here.

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Tony Evers Match

This annual friendly match against Halesowen was held at the Stourbridge Institute on 19th July 2023. . There was a really nice friendly atmosphere throughout the evening! At "half-time", Stourbridge lead 5-2 and after that there was no looking back and Stourbridge won by 8½-5½and one of Halesowen's points was scored by Stourbridge player Jeremy Humphries who had been loaned to Halesowen for the match.

Tony Evers Memorial Match Results

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Pre-season blitz

An internal blitz tournament was held to kick-off the 2023/24 season on 30th August.12 of us played altogether in a round robin format with a time control of game in 5 minutes. There was a friendly atmosphere throughout with new and old members all mixing in and taking part. The final result was very close with 3 players tying for first on 8½ points. The top scorers were:

1st = Martin Berridge , Eric Horwill and new comer Junlin Li on 8½ 4th= Julie Wilson, Richard Wilkinson on 7½

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Press report 9/11/2023

This was an excellent week for Stourbridge chess club. On Monday they travelled to Birmingham to face St George’s in division 4 of the Birmingham league. Stourbridge won the 4 board match 1½-3½. Top board Julie Wilson with black settled for an early draw against a higher rated opponent. Paul Sharratt and Steve Alcock also drew while 90 year old Eric Horwill played a tremendous attacking game to win. Richard Wilkinson also came out on top in what started off as a very even game.

On Tuesday the first team played away against Mutual Circle in their new Jewellery Quarter venue for a match in division 3 of the Birmingham league. Stourbridge managed to draw against a strong Mutual Circle team despite fielding 2 reserves. Nic Fallowfield and Julie Wilson both won their games. Paul Sharratt drew and Colin Woodall did well to draw against an opponent rated almost 300 points higher.

On Wednesday Stourbridge faced a different Mutual Circle team in division 3 of the Dudley league which is for players rated under 1600. Stourbridge try to use this team to give less experienced players some match practice. On this occasion Stourbridge thumped Mutual Circle 4-0 with Ron Evans, Mason Yeung, Ben Doran and Che Adams all winning their games. This was particularly pleasing as juniors Mason and Che are both new to competitive chess.

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Christmas blitz

The club held a fun Christmas blitz tournament on 27th December 2023 7:30pm at the Stourbridge Institute.

There were seven players so we had a seven round round robin with a time control of game in 7 minutes. The result was a triumph for the Fallowfields. Jeremy Fallowfield won with a perfect score of seven and Nic Fallowfield came second, losing only to Jeremy and drawing with 90 year old Eric Horwill.

On January 3rd there was a normal club night with social chess available. League chess  resumed on January 10th.

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