Stafford Chess Club

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Stafford Chess Club welcomes players of all abilities and genders - whether you’re new to chess, returning after a break, or simply curious to try it.

📍 Walton Village Hall, Stafford 📍
Fridays, 7.30pm – 10.30pm

For anyone who is familiar with the late Jeremy Silman's excellent book: 'The Amateur's Mind', you will know that first ...
21/06/2026

For anyone who is familiar with the late Jeremy Silman's excellent book: 'The Amateur's Mind', you will know that first main chapter of the book looks at 'The Battle Between Bishops and Knights'.

Jeremy dismisses the claims of some authors that the Bishop is superior to the Knight in the endgame, with some even assigning it a 3.5 point value compared with only 3 points for the Knight.

As Silman clearly demonstrates in this highly instructive chapter, the value of the piece depends on the position on the board, stressing the point; "It's up to you to manipulate the position and make whatever piece you own more valuable".

The given position from one of our members online matches, demonstrates this point perfectly.

Black has just played 32...Qe1 putting pressure on the c3 pawn. How did White immediately manipulate the position to maximise the value of his Knight?

21/06/2026

It was another week for catching up on our club's internal Summer Rapid tournament matches, with 6 players trying to improve their chances of qualification for the Major finals and another 6 in the Minor section.

In the Major section, Steve maintained his lead over the field with a good win this week, while Stan made sure he remained in contention with a win against Ken, who himself only managed 1 win from 2 matches, leaving himself mathematically unable to qualify.

In the Minor section, Noah and Arthur are standout leaders, although Philip kept himself in with a shout, scoring 2 from 2 this week. Despite also picking up a good win this week, things look slightly more difficult for Glen.

So it's still all to play for at the top of both sections, with 3 weeks remaining in the Round Robin stage.

16/06/2026

We have played 2 of our 4 South Staffordshire Rapidplay games in the past week or so...

Last Friday we took advantage of an understrength Rushall team to inflict a 6.5-1.5 demolition on them. We rotated a total of 7 players across the 8 boards with wins for Jake (2), Andrew, Steve, Jimmy & David M.

Then on Thursday we travelled to Walsall Kipping & had a shocker. Against a much weaker team (according to the ratings anyway) we lost 3.5-4.5 with 1 win each for Jake, Stan & David M. Our 2 return fixtures are at the start of July.

In our Club Rapidplay competition most players have now played over half of their games. On a busy Friday this week, a total of 12 games were played across the Major & Minor sections. There are now 4 match weeks left to complete the games plus play the home South Staffordshire game versus Walsall Kipping. So far, the leaders are Steve 3/3, Stan 2.5/3 & David M 2.5/4 in the Major & Noah 6/7, Arthur 6/8 & Jack 3.5/5 in the Minor.

29/05/2026

Our final Cannock league division 4 match against Norton Canes was a rearranged fixture played at their new venue at Burntwood. Ailen (with the black pieces) finished first; He launched a strong attack and white resigned after just twelve moves.

Darren, with the white pieces on board three finished next; A close game, but a pawn push on the c-file caused havoc, backed up with the bishop and knight. Darren resigned on move 36.

Jimmy (with white pieces) on board one finished next. Another close game, but Jimmy ended up resigning, after what he described as "running out of steam".

The game of the night was David (black) on board two. David's opponent was blind, and used a new time control (80 minutes with a 10 second increment) and he told David what moves to make using notation. The game was the best of the night. David played very well, but his opponent had a very strong defence, restricting David's pieces. David resigned after falling foul of a knight fork.
Final score: Norton Canes [3-1] Stafford.

DC

19/05/2026

Welcome return for Boris.

Captain Peter Evans was hoping to sit out the final home match in Cannock League 4, against Norton Canes B, but due to misunderstood communications Stafford just had two players present, Ailen and Atharva. Boris stepped up and after a couple of quick phone calls he volunteered to play board two and Peter took top board. It would be Boris’s first match for Stafford for over 12 years.

Atharva on board three with black was the first to finish. It is always difficult to get an assessment of games played by Juniors due to their speedy play. His opponent was building a powerful wall of pieces in front of Atharva’s castle king, ignoring Atharva quietly building an attack with queen and bishop on the g2-h8 diagonal. Atharva’s checkmate came as a surprise to his disappointed opponent.

Ailen on fourth board started well and won three minor pieces, but his opponent recovered after a queens exchange leaving them a rook each with Ailen having a bishop. The Norton Canes board 4 was attempting to support a passed pawn on the f file when he moved his rook into the bishop’s range. 2-0 to Stafford.

Norton Canes recovered on boards one and two. On top board with black Peter faced his bête noire, the London System with Bishop f4 as white’s second move. After some early manoeuvring, Peter was please to remove the London bishop with his king’s knight. However, this left white a pawn on f4 that he advanced against Peter’s king’s side fianchetto. This was followed by a series of attacks first with minor pieces, then with queen and rook. Peter repealed most of the attacks, but the continual pressure and loss of position told and Peter was forced to resign.

Boris on board 2 with white started his game very well, he had several attacks and threats against his opponent’s king, but he found the 60-minute match time difficult. His teenage opponent survived Boris’s attacks and eventually set up a winning queenside attack against the long castled white king. Thanks to Boris for his help, and let’s hope that he will continue to turn out for the club.

A 2-2 draw, thanks to our opponents Norton Canes B for some good games and to Boris for his help. This puts Stafford in temporary third place in Cannock Division 4. A fine achievement after a slow start to the season, and hopefully we can consolidate the position in our remaining match later this month.

PE

With the Division title already won we played Lichfield A in our final Cannock League Division 2 game of the season.We s...
16/05/2026

With the Division title already won we played Lichfield A in our final Cannock League Division 2 game of the season.

We still put out a strong team & were keen to end on a high.

On board 3 Ken played the 'Poisoned pawn' variation of the French Winawer for his first time ever over the board. It's a very sharp variation that Ken has studied well but never had the chance to deploy. It soon became apparent as the moves stayed in book 14 ply deep, that Ken's opponent had done some prep! A weak rook move from Ken lost a critical tempo, which was all the Lichfield player needed to win the game, as he finished with 97.3% accuracy.

On 4 Noah blundered in the opening allowing an f6 Queen to fork his Rook on a1 & Knight on f3. Although he fought on, any hopes of getting a result were effectively over & when his Queen had no more chances to threaten his opponent's King he graciously resigned.

Stan was under pressure throughout most of his game on board 1. He defended a Queenside attack well, while throwing lots of pieces at his opponent's castled King on the opposite flank. However, he went a piece down & miscalculated an opportunity to even up material. With his attack rebuffed he resigned too.

Andrew was still playing on board 2 - trying to make the scoreline a little bit more respectable. He eventually got down to a minor piece & pawn endgame, with 3 minor pieces each but 1 fewer pawn. Sadly, this then became a piece each & 2 pawns versus none. With a pawn on either side of the board & Andrew's King too far advanced to get back to block the queening squares he also suffered defeat.

Final score: Stafford 0 Lichfield A 4

A shocking defeat on our own patch wasn't something that we expected. However, we still finished in first place due to our superior board difference over Lichfield B, so have had a very successful campaign despite the last game defeat.

Final League table for CDCL Division 2 is shown:

SW

Our last match in the North Staffs League Division 2 last night saw us travel to Crewe for the third time this season. T...
13/05/2026

Our last match in the North Staffs League Division 2 last night saw us travel to Crewe for the third time this season. Their D team were top of the league after beating us 10 days ago but we were playing their F team with everything still on the line. A 3-1 win for F would see them leapfrog the D team while a 3.5-0.5 win for us would see us finish 2nd ahead of our opponents.

Team selection was a challenge with several of our mid rated players unavailable while all of our top players were willing to play. With no team rating cap captain Steve was able to choose an unusually high rated team therefore, so we comfortably outrated our opponents on boards 2, 3 & 4.

On 1 Steve finished first. He gained a Pawn in the opening, but had doubled b pawns as a consequence. His opponent played passively & allowed Steve to gain a second Pawn in the middlegame. After swapping off the majority of pieces the game went down to a Knight & Pawn endgame which Steve won comfortably. His young opponent carried on until the bitter end & Steve eventually mated him.

On 2 Pavel played a lovely game as Black. He cleverly gained a Knight & then Bishop outpost on b4. At the same time he took the attack to White's castled King on the other side of the board. As pressure mounted his opponent blundered his Rook & Pavel took us to a 2 nil lead.

Mike also won on board 3. In his game, Queens were quickly swapped off & after further exchanges the endgame came down to Mike's Rook & 3 Pawns versus a Rook & Pawn. Mike lost one of the Pawns & sacrificed one of the others in order to exchange Rooks & give his King a head start to capture his opponent's last Pawn. He was then able to guide his own last Pawn towards the queening square. 3 nil.

David M finished last on board 4. The final position is shown with David as Black to play.

David had cleverly used his knowledge of triangulation to get to this position, while his opponent had used his knowledge of the opposition to defend it. With just seconds left on his clock & regularly dipping into the increment, David was forced to settle for a draw as his opponent claimed a threefold repetition (Black's King rotated between f4, f5 & e5 while White's moved between e1, f1 & e2). Only afterwards did onlookers see the potential of Pawn to e2 in this position with Black then able to gain the opposition off White & manoeuvre across to capture White's remaining Pawns.

The final score was therefore Crewe F 0.5 Stafford 3.5 so we finished as runners-up in the Division.

Here is a link to essential chess learning about 'Opposition' : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52y-iy48UoY

SW

10/05/2026

Chase Shield Victory!

Stafford Chess Club have made a clean sweep of the Cannock League cup competitions with a decisive victory over Tamworth to win the Chase Shield.

Jimmy on board two with black was first to finish with an 11-move win when white overlooked that a knight check revealed a discovered queen attack. Jimmy has recorded the game for posterity here. https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/pgn/usCrVxFNW/analysis

Peter on board 3 (white) faced the opponent he met last week in the league match, and this gave Peter a psychological advantage. The opening was a two knights defence and Peter ignored the possible fireworks and sacrifices to make a slower build up. After winning a minor piece in the early middle game, Peter was able to dominate the board and he mated with a queen and bishop combination on a1=h7 diagonal.

Damon on board 4 (black) took control after the early stages, winning a piece with a pawn fork of knight and bishop. His opponent tried hard and attempted to attack on the h and g files, but Damon’s rook and passed pawn advantage secured the win.

Glen on board one was last to finish. He gained a draw from a much stronger opponent. Despite being a knight down, he had connected central pawns and the draw was agreed.

Final Score Tamworth 0.5, Stafford 3.5.

PE

In a busy club night with over 20 members, our Summer Rapid tournament got off to a flying start last night with 7 match...
09/05/2026

In a busy club night with over 20 members, our Summer Rapid tournament got off to a flying start last night with 7 matches being played. In the major section, Jake and Ken both played 2 matches each, one of which was against each other. In their other matches, Jake drew with Stan and Ken lost after being outplayed in the endgame by Steve.

The minor section was just as busy, with Noah now topping the table after taking 2 wins, while Jack and Glen also got off the mark with one win each.

In Jake and Ken's match up, Jake dominated the game from his favoured Reti:KIA opening, building pressure down an open d-file, but the game swung when he allowed Ken to close off the centre. A long sequence of exchanges followed, which led to the position shown. Ken had spotted that a straight race for pawn promotion would likely result in his g-pawn promoting on the g1 square with check after the white King captures the a&b pawns. Was this the right way to proceed?

07/05/2026

Resign or Play to the End?

It has been a matter of discussion within Stafford Chess Club that players should not resign too early. Fighting to the end certainly paid dividends in the Cannock Division 4 match at Tamworth last week.

Peter on board two with black faced an early pawn attack with white’s pawns on f3, e3, d5 and c5. Peter took the c-pawn and was surprised when white declined the recapture but advanced his f-pawn to attack a knight. Peter was able to free the centre and develop his queen on a4. The queen had control of the board and white was forced to resign.

Board 3 was interesting, Jack with the white pieces attacked quickly and developed a strong attack until his queen was trapped in front of his king. Jack ended with rook, knight and bishop against queen and bishop, but black was vulnerable on his back rank and Jack was able to decoy black’s queen by a knight sacrifice and mate with his rook. Jack is noted for refusing to resign under any circumstance and this time his refusal was vindicated.

It began to look that the 2 wins would not be improved. David B on top board had a good attack on both the c and f files, but he overlooked a knight fork on queen and rook and was forced to concede the game. Stafford 2 – Tamworth 1.

All down to Darren on the last board. Darren made a promising start, but his opponent recovered and made a strong attack. Darren was left in an endgame with Tamworth a rook up. Darren did have a time advantage, and he was convinced that his opponent was good at combination attacks but shaky on endgame technique. An opportunity for a rook checkmate was declined and eventually the rook was sacrificed to permit the last pawn on the board to queen. Skillful defence by Darren prevented the queen mate and a stalemate was forced, giving Stafford a win by 2.5 to 1.5.

PE

Address

Walton Village Hall, Green Gore Lane, Walton On The Hill
Stafford
ST170LD

Opening Hours

7:30pm - 10:30pm

Telephone

01785 242120

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