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Membership of Lichfield Chess Club,  plus recent newcomers has reached 73, the highest number in the club’s 55 year history, surpassing the previous highest totals in the early 1970’s and 1990’s.

The surge in membership at Lichfield started last year and reflects a worldwide chess boom attributed to juniors and adults taking up computer chess during the pandemic following the runaway success of the Netflix drama, The Queen’s Gambit”.

Ex Chairman Honoured

Former Lichfield club chairman and long serving first team captain Peter Collins was appointed Honorary Life Member at the club’s 2023 annual general meeting.

Peter was first team captain for more than 20 years, and had a long stint as club chairman. He is also one of the longest serving members of the club.

After recording a deficit of £325 in 2021-22, due largely to the purchase of digital clocks, the club has turned its finances round, recording a surplus of £325, not including member donations of £248 which is being used to buy more boards and clocks to meet the demands of running two venues for eight months of the year.

Treasurer John Fryer told the meeting that the club’s financial position was getting back to what it was pre Covid  pandemic and he was able to recommend no change to subscriptions. Whilst a number of members were leaving for a variety of reasons there were expectations that this would be counter balanced by the continued arrival of newcomers.

Secretary Stephen Smithson said he would particularly like to thank his fellow officials for their flexibility and openness to new ideas and change – change such as the planned programme of summer activities at the Brewhouse and Kitchen  which in particular will help to prepare young juniors for league chess.

Club chairman David Fone said that after the pandemic officials wondered if the club would attract old and new  members back to chess. “As a club we reinvented ourselves and put much more emphasis on social chess. This was a significant change as previously we had focussed more and more on league games at the expense of internal friendly and social chess. We are now providing league and social chess for over 70 members at two venues and have increased the range of internal competitions significantly. We had a record 21 teams running this season and even more impressively 17 different captains” he said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Outgraded on every board.

Outgraded on every board Lichfield’s Cannock 2B team lost 4-0 against Walsall Kipping, Whilst the games were not uneven it was the Lichfield player on every board who made the last major mistake. The team was Brian Homewood, David Fone, John Moughtin-leay and  the very promisingElliot Ward who was making his league debut.

What a relief. The result didn’t matter

Lichfield’s first team and Solihull B have been in relegation trouble in Birmingham Division 1 for most of the  season but when they met at Lichfield on Monday it was not the crunch match which had been long expected. Lichfield secured their place in Division 1 for next season two week ago and Solihull are safe as well after beating Lichfield 4-2.  Ben Nevett-Farmer was Lichfield’s only winner and while Maurice Staples was a pawn up in the end game the two Rooks cancelled each other out and the match was drawn.   .   .

Lightning competition

A large entry has been received for the club’s annual Lightning Tournament to be held at the Guildhall on Thursday 27th April. This will be the last session at the Guildhall until end of August but chess will continue most Mondays at the Brewhouse and Kitchen (two upstairs rooms) on most Mondays throughout the year.

Late entries can still be accepted for the Lightning event. There will be five or six rounds for all players with moves having to be made every 10 seconds on the sound of a buzzer. It feels slow to start with but after a dozen moves or so players start to feel the pressure.

It is hard to believe but the early years of Lichfield Chess Club ended with a punch up in the Guildhall and that in turn led to the club splitting into separate entities in the 1960’s.

What happened next is unrecorded but in November 1970 Lichfield Chess Club was formed again and its first meeting was officially regarded as the 17th agm. The meeting was held at the home of the man who became chairman, John Trickett, who lived at 31 , Shortbutts Lane. He gave his name to the Club Championship Trophy.

Meetings continued to be held for a time at the homes of members. The first subscription was £3 for adults and 15 shillings for juniors, plus 6p for every meeting attended.

The club played its first match, a friendly against Sutton Coldfield, the following year, an occasion which introduced some of the members to chess clocks  for the first time. In the August of 1971 the club was formally constituted. The constitution was improved the following year but subsequently lost and it was not until last year that a new Constitution was passed.

Lichfield registered for competition in the Birmingham League in 1971, playing initially in divisions two and four. Home premises were established at McNulty’s Restaurant at 8, Market Street. A programme of friendly matches and internal competitions was introduced to ensure that all members could take part in the club’s activities.

Captaincy of the first team was clearly taken seriously. The secretary resigned his post to concentrate on captaincy.

At the 1972 annual meeting a member expressed the view that in following the high level of interest in the recent world chess championship match between Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer ‘something should be done’ to tap into the interest. Something was done. It was decided to organise a series of lectures for beginners.

The club was clearly gaining strength, no fewer than 36 members attended the annuall general  meeting, held at a Lichfield landmark, the Windmill in Wheel Lane. The sercretary rvealed that the membership had increased by 150%. It was agreed that the outlook was outstandingly good.

Editor’s note: “A Peep into the Past” will continue later in the year, covering the years up to the 1980’s.