Peter Kitchen writes.
The top two seeds in Shrewsbury Chess Club Championship have been drawn to face each other in a potentially pivotal tie.
Tournament leader and defending champion Francis Best will defend his 100 per cent record in this year’s competition with the black pieces against Peter Kitchen.
Both players achieved significant victories in round two. Best ground down Dan Lockett with the white pieces in a positional struggle, while Kitchen came out in top in a more open, tactical affair as black against third seed Mark Smith.
Games between the pair are usually tight affairs – and strangely all but one of their competitive encounters spanning more than 15 years has seen Kitchen have the white pieces.
Some of the matches have been truly significant – Kitchen beat Best in the final round to claim his first club championship about a decade ago, while about four years ago Best won a playoff between the two after the pair had been tied in joint first place after the five regular rounds.
Kitchen is one of three players with a win and a draw to their name – Stephen Priestley and Norman O’Connor will both be black against Lockett and Richard Vernon respectively.
All of the games in this season’s competition are being played online on Lichess, with a time control of 45 minutes for all moves with 15 seconds increment per move.
Players must complete their games by April 15 to claim the half-point bonus on offer from tournament controller Tony Purser. So far, all games have been played by each round’s deadline.
To see the full draw, visit the club championship page on this website.