News

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.

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

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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Christmas blitz

The club will held a fun Christmas blitz tournament on 27th December 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 will be a normal club night with social chess available. League chess will resume on January 10th.

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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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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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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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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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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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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.

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.