2022-3 season
Member Chris Lee wins Worcestershire Minor Champion’s title
27 Aug 2023. Chris Lee ended an excellent first year with Worcester by winning the Worcestershire Minor Champion title at the Closed congress held at the King’s School Worcester on the Bank Holiday weekend. Chris finished with 2½ points ahead of David Waud (Kidderminster).
 |
Worcester u1650 team win the Summer Cup25 Aug 2023. Aiden again captained his team to victory in theaway final against Longbridge. It was a close run thing with the match score 2 - 2, but Seamus won on board 1 to take the match on tie-break. The open team final for the Towers Cup was also played, but Worcester lost 1-3 to Redditch. See full score cards. |
Worcester beat Hereford
13 Jun. Worcester played Hereford in the away fixture in the second of two friendly matches. Worcester had strengthened its upper boards compared with the home fixture and won 5-2. See score card.
First evening at 2023 summer venue8 Jun 2023. Good weather ensured games could be played outside at the 2023 summer venue Spin The Black Circle, Pump Street. members and visitors enjoyed a beverage of their choice and interesting games. |
 |
Worcester lose to Ukmerge in international team battle
4 Jun. Worcester City Chess Club and Šachmatu Klubas Juodasis Rikis (Black Bishop Chess Club) from Worcster’s twin city in Lithunia played online. Although Worcester teams have played international online matches against clubs in Ireland and Scotland in the Four Nations Chess League, this was the first organised by Worcester Club. Nineteen players participated and 44 games were played in a rapidplay team battle on lichess. Juodasis Riskis had the higher rated players and ran out winners 48-22. See results.
Worcester beat Hereford
1 Jun. Worcester played Hereford at home in the first of two friendly matches. Worcester prevailed through wins on the lower boards. See score card.
Worcester members at Cotswold congress
29 May 2023. Andrew Farthing, Aiden Griffiths and Colin Vernon travelled to Gloucester to play in the bank holiday weekend congress. Aiden and Colin played in the Minor tournament and scored 2 and 1½ and 2 points respectively. Andrew helped with controlling the tournaments and also ran a very successful chess bookstall that raised over £800 for St Richard’s Hospice. See full results of the tounaments.
Club annual meeting25 May 2023. The club held its 187th annual meeting at St Stephen’s Church Hall. President, Andrew Farthing, who has steered the club through the covid emergency announced his retirement and the new President is Rob Sutton. Other officers and team captains are unchanged. The secretary said the season had been the most successful for at least two decades, with two trophies - Worcester & District League Champions and winning the Wheatley Cup as well as an increase in membership. |
 |
Worcester win the Wheatley Cup
|
|
| 18 May 2023. Worcester hosted Redditch for this handicap Cup match. The Redditch team easily out-rated the home team, but faced a stiff challenge having to win 3½-½ over-the-board when the handicap was added to Worcester’s score. The first game to finish was on board 4 where John Hesketh won. The remaining games were fiercely contested. Arnold Kirkland on board 2 pulled off a magnificent win against his opponent rated over 200 points higher. Redditch scored their first point on board 1 leaving Scott Oxtoby’s game still in progress. Scott had a far advanced central pawn and an "octopus" knight and neither player had much time to think. Scott was unable to defend the advanced pawn and players swapped pieces to enter a K+P ending which his opponent duly won. The over-the-board score was 2-2, but when the handicap was added the final competition score was 4.1-2.0. See score card. | |
First male Chinese world chess champion
30 Apr 2023. Ding Liren became the first Chinese national to win the World Chess Championship after breaking the tie-break with Ian Nepomniachtchi in the fourth rapidplay game of thier match in Astana, Kazakhstan . The first Chinese world chess champion was Xie Jun who won her title in 1991 and the current World Women's Chess Champion, Ji Wenjun is also Chinese.
Worcester Knights complete fixtures
26 Apr 2023. Worcester Kinghts travelled to Redditch and prospects looked grim after the first leg of the fixture saw a whitewash, but the Knights recovered their compsure and won the second leg 3-1.
Member stars in local show
22 Apr 2023. Andy Gilhooly played Captain Georg von Trapp in Worcester Operatic and Dramatic Society’s production The Sound of Music played at The Swan Theatre, Worcester.
Worcester Bishops and Worcester City complete fixtures
21 Apr 2023. After completion of all fixtures in the County League, Worcester City finished fourth and Worcester Bishops, inspite of their last match upset finished first.
20 Apr 2023. Worcester Bishops, already certain to come top of the District League, were whitwashed in the last fixture against Redditch. See score card.
Member plays at Nottingham Congress
15 Apr 2023. Seamus Flynn scored 2 points from his five games at Nottingham playing in the Intermediate tournament.
Recent league results
13 Apr 2023. Worcester City held the future league champions Halesowen to a draw. Scott Oxtoby and Chris Lee won their games. See score card.
6 Apr 2023. Worcester lost the away fixture to Longbridge. See score card.
City club 2023 blitz Champion
30 Mar 2023. Rob Sutton was first placed in the preliminary all-play-all stage to decide the four semi-finalists. Rob then proved he was a worthy winner by beating first Seamus Flynn in a semi-final and then Joe Rastall in the final. The deciding game was a tough one, with both players having chamces and resolving to an ending where both players had chances. In the end, Joe overstepped the time control losing in what players thought was a drawn position. The losing quarter finalists were new players Keith Sorrell and Seamus Flynn. See full table.
Worcester’s eague results
23 Mar 2023. Worcester Knights ended up even with Stourbridge in the Rapidplay tournament winning the first leg of the fixture and losing the second.. See score card.
16 Mar 2023. Worcester Rooks drew with a strong Redditch team at home. See score card.
7 Mar 2023Worcester City lost playing away to Halesowen. See score card.
3 Mar 2023. Worcester City lost playing away to Malvern. See score card
2 Mar 2023. Rooks draw against Stourbridge. Joe Rastall and captain, Chris Lee, won their games. See score card
23 Feb 2023. Worcester Knights were comprehensively beaten by Kidderminster in the Rapidplay League. See score card.
Worcester players win in county match against against Warwickshire
25 Feb 2023. St Stephen’s Church Hall hosted the Worcestershire - Warwickshire county match. Two club players, Peter Kitson and Ray Collett won thier games and Worcestershire beat local rivals 10½-5½. This win takes Worcestershire into the national quarter finals. See score card.
Worcester’s winning league results
16 Feb 2023. Bishops certain to top District League. The Bishops team beat Longbridge 3-1 at home. Their last fixture, also at home, is against Redditch and the last fixture in the league, but Redditch are 3 points short and cannot catch the Bishops. In the latest match, Scott and Chris won their games. Congratulations to Scott for his team’s win! See score card.
9 Feb 2023. The City team drew the home fixture against Redditch in the Championship League. Ray Collett and Joe Rastall won their games. Ray’s game was a marathon of 118 moves. See match score card.
8 Feb 2023. Worcester Knights drew their first leg of the away fixture against Stourbridge and won the second. Rob Sutton won both his games. See score card.
6 Feb 2023. Worcester Wolfpack teams won in the 4NCL Online league. See score cards.
2 Feb 2023. Worcester Rooks beat Kidderminster at home. This was the team’s first match win of the season and places them fourth in the Challengers League. Joe Rastall, Seamus Flynn and Aiden Griffiths won their games. See score card.
Worcester players in Midland Counties truimph
28 Jan 2023. Arnold Kirkland, David Cleak, Simon Berry and Aiden Griffiths travelled to Stratford-upon-Avon to play Warwickshire in the final match of the under-1650 competition. Worcestershire beat Warwickshire 10-4. David Cleak, and Aiden Griffiths won their games.
League results
27 Jan 2023. Worcester Rooks drew against Malvern in the Challengers League. See score-card.
Wolfpack goes countywide and chalks up three match wins
24 Jan 2023. The 4NCL online season sees three Wolfpack teams and Colin Vernon rejoins as a team manager working with Ray Collett. Worcester Wolfpack 1 won 4-0 aginst Chess Challengers B. Worcester Wolfpack 2. also won 4-0 playing Telepost Dark Knights 2. Three City Club members contributed in team 2: Phil Austin, Tony Shaw and Robin Hayles. Worcester Wolfpack 3 beat Chess Challengers A 2½-1½. City players Seamus Flynn and Colin Vernon won their games. With countywide team membership, results are now published on the county association website. All teams are playing in Division 5 and highest rated players of the squad will play in team 1 to try to get promotion to Division 4. New players have been drawn from clubs across the county.
Although Ray Collett and the City Club are administering the teams, the plan is for at least two teams to transfer to the county association for next season starting in September 2023. See score cards.
Busy night at club
12 Jan 2023. A busy night at the club with two matches and social games in play. The City team ran out 3-2 victors against Kidderminster. The first game of the match to finish was captain Rob Sutton, who benefitted from a knight fork early in the middle game. The other games were drawn, but not without interest. The last game to fionish was on board 1 and attracted several spectators. Stephen Mellor and Joseph Friar, with little time left on the clock had a difficult B+N vs R ending. The Worcester Rooks team was less successful losing 1-3 to Longbridge. Worcester's sole winner was new member Joe Rastall playing on board 1. See score-cards.
Club’s newest member scores in Shropshire congress
8 Jan 2023. Joe Rastall celebrated the New Year in fine style scoring 4 points in the Intermediate tournament at Telford and sharing second place with three other players.
Poor league start to New Year
5 Jan 2023. In the first league match of the new Year, City crashed to Malvern 1-4. Only Stephen Mellor and captain Rob Sutton were able to draw.
Christmas variants
 |
23 Dec. Members and family enjoyed mulled apple juice, chocolates and chess variants all selected by Rob Sutton at the club's traditional pre-Christmas meeting. Variants included Pocket Knight where each player can add an extra knight on any vacant square once in the game. On one board, instead of knights, players had the fairy piece known as giraffe. |
Rooks have a bad patch
22 Dec 2022. The team travelled to Redditch for the final club team match of 2022 taking Stephen Mellor to play on board 1. Redditch also turned out their best player Daniel. Lambourne and the home team won 3-1. See score-card.
15 Dec. The team lost 1-3 against a youthful Malvern team. Colin Vernon was the only Worcester player to win. See score-card.
Bishops team again victorious
8 Dec 2022. Scott led his team to another away victory. Arnold and Scott won their games fairly cleanly whilst David fell victim to the Polish opening (1.b4), something he had not prepared for under the presumption that no one would be silly enough to try it. Though as he himself noted, given the result perhaps it was the right opening choice after all. Séamus meanwhile had the last game to finish where he had queen and pawn against for a rook, knight and bishop. Despite this material disadvantage he had big initiative and choose to accept a draw offer from his opponent winning the match on the spot. See score-card.
Wolfpack finish tenth in 4NCL Division 5
6 Dec 2022. In the last match of season 6, Worcester Wolfpack faced Dundee City E team. Players were evenly matched on form, and the two top boards ended in draws. On board 3, Worcester mishandled the opening and was under increasing pressure with his king caught in the centre before eventually resigning when faced with mate. Colin on Biard 5 achieved an equal middlegame position, and knowing the result on board 3, turned down the offer of a draw, but his attempt to square the match was unsuccessful. See score-card.
Worcester beat Kidderminster
30 Nov 2022. Worcester unexpectedly beat Kidderminster playing away in the Championship League. See score-card.
Worcester players in county match26 Nov 2022. Four City club members played for Worcestershire under-1650 team in the match against Staffordshire at St Stephen’s Church Hall. Althought Staffs ran out winners 7½-5½, David Cleak (board 4) and Scott Oxtoby (Board 6, pictured) won their games. Aiden Griffiths and Colin Vernon also played. See score-card. |
 |
Mixed fortunes in league matches
23 Nov 2022. Worcester Rooks lost 1-3 in their away fixture in Challengers League against Stourbridge where new captain Chris Lee had to make a late substitution. See Score-card.
22 Nov 2022. Worcester Wolfpack beat Barnet Knights D 3½-½ online in 4NCL Div 5. Stephen Woodhouse, Tony Shaw and Colin Vernon won their games.See score-card.
New member Seamus at Birimingham Open
20 Nov 2022. Seamus Flynn played in the Intermediate tournament of the Birmingham Open Congress scoring 3 points from 5 games. A very creditable performance to achieve 13th place on tie break out of 42 players and an ECF live rating of 1675.
League results
16 Nov 2022. The Knights team under new captain Andy Gilhooly drew both legs of their away fixture against Kidderminster. Chris Lee won both his games. Captains agreed to play an extra board and Aiden Griffiths also won both his games.
10 Nov 2022. Worcester Knights in their first Rapidplay League fixture lost the first leg of the fixture and were on the ropes, but scrambled a narrow win in the second leg. See score-card.
9 Nov 2022. Worcester Rooks under new captain Chris Lee drew their first match of the season against Kidderminster. See Score-card.
8 Nov 2022. Wolfpack faced Farnham's B team and one of our players had to step in at short notice. The opposition was led by an up-and-coming very young FM and the Wolfpack was out-ranked fell 1½ - 2½. See score-card.
New team captains appointed
3 Nov 2022. Scott Oxtoby was confirmed in his position as Team Captain for the Bishops in the District League and two other appointments were made. Chris Lee is captain for the Rooks team in the Challengers’ League and Andy Gilhooly is team captain for the Knights team in the Rapidplay League.
Clear win for Bishops
2 Nov 2022. Newly appointed team captain Scott Oxtoby led his team to a 4-0 victory at Redditch in the first Bishops match of the season. Scott was particularly please because it was the first league away win for him. Arnold was the first to finish with all the pieces traded down and an unstoppable passed pawn. The second game to finish was Simon wher his opponent opponent had heart and kept trying until the end in spite of a large difference in rating. Scott Oxtoby played an even Sicilian game right up until the point when his opponent inadvertently blundered into a royal skewer. David Cleak had the longest game, finishing late. Despite forgetting to hit his clock, David was able to wrap up the win. See score-card.
Success on line, but loss against Longbridge
27 Oct 2022. In their first match, Worcester Rooks lost 1½-2½ playing at home to Longbridge in the Challengers’ League. Arnold Kirkland was Worcester’s winner. See match card.
25 Oct 2022. Worcester played a Cornish team Lerryn Clowns. Board one was drawish throughout and on board 4 Vernon allowed his queen to be trapped early in the middle game. Rob Sutton in his first appearance for the team played a slid game and won the R+P ending. Tony Shaw was the star player. Playing slowly he was 15 minutes down with a poor middlegame position before his counter offensive began. Tony steadily outplayed his opponent and was a pawn up and had an active rook in a R+P ending, which he won in style making the final score 2½-1½. See score card.
City team lose away
19 Oct 2022. The City team lost 3-2 playing against Redditch at Alvechurch. Stephen Mellor won on board 1.
Wolfpack return to winning ways
11 Oct 2022. Captain Collett spent the afternoon finding a fourth player for the team and Phil Austin stepped in at short notice. In the end the effort was not essentail because Farnham had a default when the team lists were published. Worcester players claimed easy wins and scored a 4-0 victory. See score card.
Draw in club’s first over-the-board match and Wolfpack win online
6 Oct 2022. In the Championship League, the City team drew with Longbridge at home. Tony Shaw and Rob Sutton won their games. See score card.
Wolfpack crash in second round
27 Sep 2022. A disappointing night with the team losing 4-0 against Charlton Cobras C. Stephen obtained a promising middlgame on board 1 with pressure against a backward c-pawn, but an injudicious knight move allowed his opponent to win a key central pawn and free his game. Black exchanged to a R+P ending that offered chances of a draw and an inaccurate further exchange to a K+P ending made a draw more probable. In the end, Stephen's opponent promoted a pawn first and competently navigated the Q+K vs K+P on the seventh forcing mate. On board 2 Robin, playing black, missed an early chance to get a knight on e6 in a Sicilian Defence. His opponent won a pawn after an inaccuracy in the middlegame, but lost it from a blunder a few moves later. In a complex Q+R ending white gained a further pawn and exposed Robin's king to relentless checks that led to mate or loss of the queen. Colin played the white side of the Sicilian Defence and launched a king side attack. White overlooked a black central pawn grab and black’s pawns sprung into action forcing material gains. On board 4, Arnold held out the longest. Playing his trademark Philidor Defence. In a queenlass middle game black allowed a knight to become stranded on the edge of the board and white’s rampant bishops controlled the board. White then won a piece, but failed to see Arnold could regain it to reach an equal R+P ending. In quick play there were mistakes on both sides putting Arnold a pawn down and a draw was possible with both players having unstoppable advanced pawns and Arnold’s king nearer the remaining pawn. Unfortunately with little time left, his opponent promoted first and won Arnold’s rook. See scorecard.
More new members
21 Sep 2022. Another high attendance at an ordinary club night at St Stephen’s church hall led to a night of exciting chess.
Club enters every league competition
15 Sep 2022. Banking on an influx of new players and hoping the experienced members would be able to share some of the burdens of captaincy, secretary Collett entered club teams into the Championship, Challengers’, Worcester & District, and Rapidplay Leagues and the Knock out tournament for the Wheatley Cup.
Wolfpack team makes terrific start to season
13 Sep 2022. In the first found of 4NCL online, Worcester Wolfpack beat Watford Juniors B 4-0. Manager Ray played the club’s new signing Stephen Woodhouse on board 1 Other members of the team were: Robin Hayles, Tony Shaw and Colin Vernon. Tony had the toughest game. He mishandled the middle game resulting from a Queen’s Pawn Opening and lost a pawn. His opponent played some suboptimal moves allowing Tony to equalise and then win the exchange before cementing his victory.
Phil Austin at Kenilworth Blitz
3 Sep 2022. Phil earned 8½ points from his 15 games in a field with a GM, a WGM and 2 IMs at the ECF Midlands Qualifier.
New players at first night
1 Sep 2022. The club held its first meeting of the 2022-3 season. One new player and three who first came in the summer played with members. The club has been invited to submit team entries for Worcestershire Leagues.