28 players took part in a hotly contested Telepost Club Rapidplay which saw Nigel Ferrington emerge the winner with 4.5/5 after a final-round showdown against defending champion Phil Zabrocki. Along with the winner’s certificate, there was a surprise prize of Stella Artois for the winner, donated by club secretary Dennis Bonner, which made the win all the sweeter for Nigel and added to Phil’s chagrin since last year he received a certificate and no beer! But the real star of the evening was junior Rudi Bedford who drew against Nigel and beat Kate Walker, matching Nigel’s score until the fourth round, when he had to leave along with a number of the juniors because the competition stretched well beyond 10pm. Rudi received a well-deserved Best Junior prize for his impressive 3.5/4 score. Congratulations to organiser Steve Wilson for a very enjoyable evening, with all the games in the five-round Swiss played in good spirits.
Congratulations also to John Westhead, who has been confirmed as the U1700 winner in the 2022-23 Club Championship with a score of 3.5/6. Meanwhile the Shrewsbury Town Championships is in its final weeks and Daniel Hilditch-Love can secure the title outright if he wins his final-round game against Shrewsbury’s Dan Lockett. Fred Bench’s excellent run of three wins was ended by Nigel Ferrington, the win putting Nigel currently joint top of the table with Shane Greenwood, awaiting the result of the clash of the Dans. A number of players can potentially join them on four points, leading to the possibility of a multi-player playoff if Dan Hilditch-Love fails to win outright.
Yet more, huge, congratulations from all at Telepost Chess Club to Newport’s Chris Lewis who has deservedly won the national English Chess Federation’s contribution to junior chess award. You can read all about it in Peter Kitchen’s report, but suffice to say Telepost’s Junior section and the imminent start of a new season with three dedicated Junior teams would not have happened without Chris’s tireless work to promote and teach the game. Chris has received great support from a number of Telepost members, including Dan Hilditch-Love, Kate Walker, Paul Billington and Matthew Clark, and he has plans in place to develop junior chess in the county even further.
A number of fixture dates for the new season have recently been amended, so do take time to check your team’s fixtures – links to all our teams’ fixtures can be found on the Diary page. We are delighted that Luke Bedford has agreed to act as non-playing captain for our Junior team. A reminder that ECF membership and club fees need to be up-to-date before the start of the new season. League fixtures commence at the club next Monday, 25 Sep, and we will have league matches and other competitive games every week throughout the season – please respect the new arrangements for quiet play on Mondays and remember that social chess nights continue on Wednesdays. And finally a reminder that entries are now being taken for this season’s Minor Individual, which promises to be highly competitive once again this year – entries by email to tournament controller Dan Hilditch-Love.