Three Shrewsbury Chess Club members will be among those chasing trophies and prize money at this weekend’s Shropshire Chess Congress.
The club’s top board Nathanael Paul, A team captain Francis Best and Ivor Salter have all confirmed their entry to the tournament, which will take place at Wrekin Housing Trust’s headquarters from tonight (Friday) until Sunday, writes Peter Kitchen.
Some 146 players from across the country had entered across the competition’s four sections at the time of writing, with cash prizes available in all categories.
Barring any late entries, Paul will be the eighth seed in a field of 24 in the top Open section. While competition will be fierce, only former Shropshire international master John Cox and Cheshire-based FIDE master Jonathan Blackburn are rated above 2200. Nathanael will face familiar competition from Telepost’s Nigel Ferrington and Maddocks’ Athar Ansari.
Meanwhile, Best is the 12th seed out of 41 players in the Major section for players rated under 1950 ECF. This section also features several seasoned “weekend warriors” who are regulars on the congress circuit across the UK. Local opposition includes Richard Bryant (Oswestry), Glyn Pugh (Maddocks) and Telepost captain Matthew Clark.
Salter is seeded in the bottom half of the 42 players in the Intermediate category for players rated below 1750. But – as several club members and players across Shropshire have discovered to their cost – Ivor revels at the possibility of upsetting supposedly superior opposition with higher ratings, and while the competition will be tough he will surely fear no-one.
Players will have one hour and 40 minutes of thinking time to make all of their moves in each game, with an increment of 10 seconds per move.
Today’s first round will start at 7pm, with round two commencing at 9.30am on Saturday and round three at 2.30pm. Sunday will see round four start at 9.30am and the final round at 2.30pm.
We wish all of our players competing the very best of luck for this weekend!