Abbots Bromley Chess Fest Success!
Abbots Bromley Chess Club was founded online back in April 2020 through a chance conversation with myself, a former staff member of Abbots Bromley School, and Andy McCafferty a former parent of a student of the same school.
We recruited people with links to the school and from the local community and entered the '20/20 World Championships', as a newly formed village team it was somewhat a baptism of fire at first but results picked up with thrilling wins against Liverpool University, Asociacion Mexicana de Ajedrez-AMA and CIESZYĆSKIE LEGENDY to finish a very respective joint 80th.
In June these half-a-dozen founding players met up for their, and the village's, first ever 'over-the-board' meeting which was a lovely occasion and people who had talked and played together online for over a year were finally able to meet in person.
Following on from this 'one-off' meeting, it was decided that an attempt to launch a weekly club should be made, and with that in mind we planned with the extensive help from FM Jonathan Blackburn a 'Chess-Fest' to mimic the successful event that had taken place in London the week before.
On Sunday 25th July we had this event, which attracted 20-30 people attending across the afternoon and evening with people travelling from Lichfield, Stoke-On-Trent and beyond. It started with casual games for the adults and a masterclass teaching session from Jonathan for the juniors which went down extremely well, using sets kindly provided by the 'Chess in Schools' initiative.'
After that it was time for the first 'Hybrid Chess Match' against Dundee City. We even had arbiter Matthew Carr dropping in to make sure everything was above board before he went on to help run the British Championships, and myself to ensure that there were no technological issues and that everyone logged in! It was a bruising encounter against a very strong and well organized team, our thanks to their club and captain David Findlay, as the team went down 19-3 though it was great to get people playing online, as well as a club record turnout for a match.
Particular congratulations to junior Joe Conway-Lees who picked up a fantastic win against an established experienced played rated 400 points higher.
Following on from that after a well deserved drinks break (thanks to the Coach & Horses for hosting us in your beautiful garden and for looking after us!) it was time for the 14 board simul starring Welsh Champion FM Jonathan Blackburn. Everyone put up a really tough fight and Jonathan had to work hard for every win bar one, where new member Luke Sullivan claimed a draw and with that a medal and Chess & Bridge subscription as a prize!
As the sun was setting it was time to wrap up on a very successful day, whilst the sun was set on that day it the Chess sun is only just rising at Abbots Bromley and will surely burn brightly; the club will meet again next Sunday at the same time next week!
We hope that these events can be modelled by clubs across the country and beyond.
Thank you to all those involved, and to Max Sarasini (
http://www.maxsarasiniphotography.co.uk/) for the photos
If you would like to join please email
[email protected]