During the pandemic we have begun a number of activities online. We held two tournaments on Chess.com and have now established Telepost Dark Knights as the focus for online competitions.

Telepost Dark Knights is intended as a place for social chess, friendlies against other clubs, and club tournaments. It is based on Lichess.com, which is the platform used for the Shropshire League 2020-21 season, 4NCL Online, ECF County Online and other tournaments. We played our traditional pre-season friendly against Shrewsbury Light Squares (Shrewsbury Chess Club) as the Dark Knights, and have two club competitions currently running - a Winter 20 Individual Swiss competition held over six rounds, and a Chess Ladder in which each month players challenge a player above them in the ladder, in an attempt to reach the top of the ladder and become the White Knight. It is also a place to arrange social chess amongst club members. John Casewell is the Dark Knights co-ordinator.

If you would like to join the Dark Knights:

Create a Lichess account if you don’t already have one.

Let John Casewell or Nick Holmes know your Lichess username so we know who’s asking to come in!

In Lichess, log in, go to Community, then Teams, then All teams

Use search box on top right of that page to search for Telepost Dark Knights.

Once Telepost Dark Knights appears, hit return to go to that page, then click on Join.

Lichess makes it very easy to spectate a particular game and Kate Walker has created a calendar of online matches taking place "in" Shropshire. So, if you fancy watching Shropshire's answer to the Magnus Carlsen Tour, plan your viewing on the calendar below. Contact Kate to add a game to the calendar.

To the Dark Knights