History of Shropshire Chess

The Balance of Power Changes
The new millenium opened with a first league championship for Shrewsbury based Telepost A. The team of Nigel Ferrington, Dave Bryan, John Bashall, Keith Tabner, and Neal Allen had been unchanged for seven years narrowly missing the title throughout the 1990's. Now, with Richard Bryant and Steve Rawlins added, Telepost retained their crown for five of the six years under review, just being pipped by Shrewsbury A in 2004. The summer cup was a different story however with three wins for Shrewsbury and one each for Telford, Telepost (the 2003 double), and Newport.
The County Individual Championship was won twice each by Nick Rutter and Nigel Ferrington, and once each by Jamie Hopkins and Trevor Brotherton.
It was on the junior front however that the most exciting changes were taking place. Alan Shaw had been running his Shropshire Junior Chess Academy at Dothill School since 1992 and in 2004 he retired from that role. By then the fruits of his labours were evident for all to see, with five junior international players amongst the many graduates from Dothill.
In 2005 at age 16, Simon Fowler became the youngest Shropshire player to beat a grandmaster and ended the year as the county's strongest player, a position that Nick Rutter had held for many years.
In 2003 at age 13 Thomas Pym won the prestigious Junior Masters title at Ampleforth, a remarkable feat which he repeated in 2005.
Louis Graham, Peter Mellor (England) and Iain Fenton (Wales) also became junior international players in their respective age groups. In addition the UK Chess Challenge encouraged many schools in Shropshire, and indeed the whole country, to introduce chess to a new generation of youngsters.
Also in 2005 John Cox, a former Shropshire County Champion now based in London, won his third and final I.M. norm.
The Shropshire County Teams are normally heavily outgunned by other much larger counties. Surprisingly this period saw our teams enjoy considerable success.
In 2003 Martin Patterson and Steve Jones led the County U100 team to be Midlands Champions.
The following year captain John Westhead led the County U125 team to be Midlands Champions, and then onwards to be National Champions defeating Middlesex in the final!
In 2005 the County Open Team led by Windsor Peck reached the quarter finals of the National Championships for the first time in their history, before being beaten by a very much stronger Kent team.
From 2002 until 2004 the 4NCL used the Telford Moat House as a regular weekend venue. This not only gave local players the opportunity to see many of the world's top GM's in action, but also allowed several Shropshire players to take part and gain valuable experience.
In 2003 Graham Shepherd handed his stewardship of the Wrekin Chess Congress on to David Gostelow. League Controller John Casewell introduced a new annual event, the Darwin Chess Festival, to Shrewsbury's summer season, whilst the Oswestry Rapidplay continued to be successfully organised by Keith Grice. 2003 also saw the launch of the new Shropshire Chess website, the brainchild of Vinny Crean and Keith Tabner, with Nick Rutter, Colin Roberts, John Casewell and John Westhead heavily involved.
In 2001 Market Drayton Chess Club joined the league. The following year the Shrewsbury based Perkins Club closed, and the Shifnal and Telford clubs merged.
The 2005 season ended on a sad note with the death of Telepost's team captain, Neal Allen.