News

Birimingham League Promotion

Last night, our first team played their last match of the season in Birmingham division 3. We beat Coleshill 5½-½. This means we are joint first with South Birmingham and are sure of promotion to division 2. We will now be in a play-off to determine the division champions. Joe Friar, John Wrench, Nic Fallowfield, John Foxall and Tony Shaw all won their games and Julie Wilson drew. The team is captained by Paul Sharratt.

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Staffordshire Congress

The Staffordshire Chess Congress is returning in August. The Congress will be held at King’s Hall, Kingsway, Stoke-on-Trent, ST4 9SB on Saturday 16th and Thursday 17th of August 2025. This is a prestigious venue, and its use has been generously donated by the City of Stoke-on-Trent as part of the City’s centenary celebrations. Entry forms and further information may be found on the congress website.

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BDCL rapidplay

In the 40th BDCL rapidplay tournament, Ben Doran played well to score 4 out of 7. All his games were against higher rated opponents.

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Venue

With much regret, the club decided unanimously at it's AGM to leave it's long term venue - the Stourbridge Institute. This was because the high membership fees were deterring chessplayers from joining the club. On the 2nd July we moved to the Talbot Hotel which suited us perfectly and was free.
Unfortunately, the owners had other ideas and sold the the hotel behind the manager's back.! There was a lot of uncertainty surrounding the new owners' intentions and we had to take the difficult decision to move again.

On the 26th November the club moved to it's new venue the Queens Head on Enville St. The staff there and the landlady Vicky have been very welcoming. We now meet there every Tuesday in the skittles room. 

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Pre-season blitz

An internal blitz tournament was held to kick-off the 2024/25 season on 27th August. 8 of us played altogether in a round robin format with a time control of game in 7 minutes. There was a friendly atmosphere throughout with new and old members all mixing in and taking part. New member Dan Jones won the tournament with a perfect 7 out of 7. John Foxall came second with 5 points.

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Annual General Meeting 19/6/2024

The club held the  AGM at the end of the season at the Stourbridge Institute on Wednesday 19th June.

Most of the AGM was spent discussing the club venue. It was felt that the Stourbridge Institute's memebrship fees are too high and are putting players off joining the club or remaining as members. There was unamious vote in favour of moving to the Talbot Hotel and changing our club night to Tuesdays. The venue is free but chess players must buy drinks there.

The first club night at the new venue will be on the 2nd July. 

• The Presidents Cup, awarded for services to the club, is awarded to Eric Horwill who at the age of 90 offered to help out by captaining the second team.
• The Denis Fernihough Trophy is for the most improved player. This year there was one player who really stood out and that is Richard Wilkinson whose rating increased from 1594 to 1662.
• The Sydney Willets trophy is awarded to the most reliable club player. This year it is awarded to John Wrench who despite being a second claim member turned out regularly for the first team, always replied promptly to emails and was very supportive throughout the season.

The actual trophies will be presented at a later date in our new venue.

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

The club needs more captains. If you are interested in becoming a team captain or would like to help out, please contact Paul Sharratt or Julie Wilson.

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Online Chess

Stourbridge has an online club on chess.com. Any local chess players are welcome to join us online. We hold monthly tournaments and play "daily matches" against other clubs. 

There is a BDCL meta club which organises events for players associated with the BDCL.

In order to join either club, you need to be a member of chess.com which is free.

Useful links

(Each link opens in a separate window)

• How to join chess.com.
• How to join a club

Stourbridge Chess Club is now an affiliate of chess.com. If you use one of our links to access chess.com and then take out a premium subscription it will benefit the club. Being an affiliate enables us to offer diamond memberships as prizes in our online tournaments.

End of Season report

The 2023/24 chess season has now finished. It brought mixed results for Stourbridge Chess Club .

BDCL3

This was the  first season for Stourbridge's first team in division 3 of the Birmingham league. The team finished disappointingly in mid table with 11 points from 11 matches. However this belies the fact a lot of their matches were very close and they several 3-3 draws and 2½-3½ losses. The top 3 boards all scored well when they played but were not available for enough matches. Hopefully their availibility will improve with our club night on Tuesdays.

BDCL4

The second team did well to finish third in this division and narrowly missed out on promotion. The teams best player was Richard Wilkinson who 7, drew 1 and lost 1.

WDCL2

Stourbridge finished 4th in division 2. A higher placing looked likely until we lost the last two matches of the season.

 .  Paul Sharratt played well to win 4, draw 2 and lose 1.

WDCL3

Stourbridge finished mid table. Richard Wilkinson played in all 10 matches and won 3, drew 6 and lost 1.

Worcestershire Challengers

Stourbridge finished mid table with 7 points out of 8 matches.

Worcestershire rapid play

Stourbridge players enjoyed playing in this league but did not do very well ! 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 last in the 5 team league. New member John Loynes did particularly well in this league and scored 8 out of 10.

Dudley  division 3

This team is primarily used to give less experienced players match practice. Stourbridge finished third. Ben Doran played well to score 5 out of 7.

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

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Terrill Trophy

Stourbridge chess club have won the prestigious Terrill trophy.

This is a knock-out team competition organised by the Birmingham chess league based on handicap. In the final, the division 3 Stourbridge team faced the division 1 champions South Birmingham A at Warley Quinborne’s neutral venue. The match culminated in a 5 - 4.5 points win for Stourbridge. Stourbridge started with a 3.5 points handicap in their favour, as they are in division 3. It was a great team performance, with a win for club president Julie Wilson on board 3 and a hard-fought draw for team captain Paul Sharratt on board 4. This was enough to see SCC emerge victorious. The rest of the team John Wrench, John Foxall, Tony Shaw and Steve Alcock all put in good performances but lost to much higher rated opposition.

It was a great end to a good season! Thanks to all the players who have played in the Terrill trophy.

BDCL

Congratulations to club secretary Paul Sharratt on being elected president.

Jeremy Humphries

Stourbridge chess club member Jeremy Humphries passed away on Friday 26/01/2024. He had been battling cancer for a number of years. Jeremy joined the chess club in 2006 and quickly became a club stalwart. He was always one of the first to respond to any club emails. He always supported internal tournaments and regularly turned out for Stourbridge teams. He was also very supportive of our on line club and some of you may know him as cyclemath on chess.com.

Jeremy was everyone's pal, so friendly and obliging. He will be sadly missed.

Mid season Report 2024

The chess season is now half way through and it has brought mixed results for Stourbridge. In the last match before Christmas on Wednesday 20th December, the first team played at home against Warley Quinborne. On board 4, team captain Tony Shaw won by default when his opponent failed to turn up. It was followed by an excellent win by Julie Wilson on board one against a higher rated opponent. This meant Stourbridge only had to draw one of the two remaining games to win the four board match. John Foxall obliged with a draw on board 2 to give Stourbridge a 2½-1½ win. Stourbridge are now 4th in the table with 3 wins and 2 losses. They need some better results in the second half of the season to be in contention for promotion.

In the same league. the second team are currently mid table in division 3, with 1 win, 1 draw and 1 loss. With the majority of their fixtures in the second half of the season anything could happen.

In division 3 of the Birmingham league the first team are in second place having won 3, drawn 2 and loss 1. They have a game in hand over leaders Lichfield on the same number of points. Stourbridge won their most recent match 3½-2½ against South Birmingham. The second team are doing even better in division four. They are also in second place behind leaders South Birmingham with both teams on 10 points but Stourbridge have 2 games in hand and are unbeaten. They also won their most recent match with a score of 3½-1½ against Rushall

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Staffordshire junior championships.

Congratulations to Joe Conway-Lees on winning the Staffordshire junior championships with a perfect 6 out of 6. A fantastic achievement. View the full results here.

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Tony Evers Match

This annual friendly match against Halesowen was held at the Townsend club on 29th July 2024. . There was a really nice friendly atmosphere throughout the evening and Halesowen put ona great spread!. Stourbridge fielded a weak team and had to borrow 2 players from Halesowen who won the match 9-2.

Tony Evers Memorial Match Results

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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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Mayfair club

The Mayfair club is a new games lounge and cocktail bar in Amblecote where adults can go to play indoor games such as chess, backgammon, bridge, darts, monopoly, draughts and poker.

We will be working with the Mayfair club in the future to promote chess playing in the Stourbridge area.

The club will be open from 4:30pm to midnight Monday to Thursday and noon to 2:00am Friday to Sunday. The address is:

The Mayfair Club Unit 4, Wedgbury Wy., Brierley Hill DY5 3JT

You can find out more about the club at https://themayfairclubuk.com/about/

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ECF Membership

Worcestershire Junior Chess Academy

During school term-time the club meets on most Saturday mornings 10:00 am to 11:45 am at King's School Worcester, next to the Worcester Cathedral. Enter from Castle Place WR1 2NB. Most sessions are supervised by Ray Collett.

If you would like to join us, please contact Ray Collett by e-mail or by telephone Worcester 454 754 before your child's first attendance.

See Worcester Junior Chess Academy for more information.