News

4 November 2026

Another busy night ensued in the Herdsman's function room this evening as the scramble for qualification places to the club championships begins to hot up.

In Group A where Alex Adarski had beaten Josh Chan the night before in Leominster,  Lee Davis opened up a little gap at the top of the leaderboard thanks to a sporting resignation from John Preece when Lee won a second pawn in an endgame.  Chris Tremayne moved into second place with a hard fought victory over Jethro Kirk

Six out of the eight players in Group B have a case for arguing that they are in the race for the two guaranteed qualification places to the championship proper.  Stephen Priestley beat Tim Peters to go to the top of the group whilst Peter Turner preserved his 100% record with a black victory over Mark Calderwood.  The shock result of the night was a victory for KieranLappin over top seed Peter Hughes.  In a level endgame with opposite coloured bishops Peter blundered a pawn and Kieran, playing with the black pieces, delivered a bravura technical performance to take the whole point in what theory would argue to still be a drawn ending.  In the other game in this group Jay Alla beat Peter Davies.

Group C was similarly dramatic with Nick Hanne seizing on Paul Barker's one-move blunder to score a victory that takes him to the top of the group; one point ahead of Henry Spedding, who won his postponed round one game against Shay Reno.  Nick and Henry both have 100% records so far.  Billy Edwards will be relieved to have scored his first win in this group by beating Julien Mann.

In the more serene waters of round one of the Leslie Baker Swiss Manuel Gonzalez beat new member Stefan Potter and as one competitor has withdrawn this laves only one match outstanding in this round.

Results and standings can be found on the Tournaments pages of this website.

2 November 2026

The new ECF ratings were published yesterday and the ratings of all active club members can be found on the Membership pages of this website.  The welcome influx of new members is illustrated by the appearnce of four more 'first-time' P ratings on the list bringing the total of P- rated players to ten.  Julien Mann will be pleased by his debut P rating putting his name at the top of the list ( - time to take a screen-dump of that page, Julien ! 😂), but the official list is still headed by Peter Hughes in only his second year at the club.  The advance in October came from Henry Spedding whose rating rise was double the size of Lee Davis' rating drop, but just missed out on taking second spot away from him.

28 October 2026

Another busy night at Hereford Chess Club this evening with nine competitive game played and a 'new-joiner' able to enjoy some social chess and get to play with a clock for the first time.

Chris Tremayne went to the top of the standings in the club Challenge competition with a win with the black pieces against Nick Hanne, who now lies in second place.

All the other competitve games were from the qualifying competitions for the club championship.  Harry Taylor has withdrawn from Group A and his place has been taken by new member; Jethro Kirk who did not have a game on the night.  Lee Davis moved into top spot in Group A with a win with the black pieces against Richard Morrison.  Richard was holding the draw all the way into a rook ending when the slightest of inaccuracies gave Lee a winning endgame.  In the only other game in this group Tom Murray scored the night's sole victory for white by beating John Preece in a sharp attacking game.

Group B remains very competitive with two short wins: one for Stephen Priestley over Jay Alla, and another for Tim Peters over Peter Davies.  Mark Calderwood fought hard trying to hold his position when a pawn down to Pete Hughes, but Pete's technique was too strong and he won by swapping off into a winning king and pawn endgame. Stephen and Tim still share the lead in this group but five players are covered by only one point so there is still everything to play for.

Henry Spedding maintained his 100% record in Group C with a quick checkmate against Roger's exposed king and Jack Clark beat Shay Reno after Shay's recovery from a somewhat eccentric opening proved notquite enough to prevent a win for black.  The drama on the night was reserved for the late finish of the game between Paul Barker and Billy Edwards where Billy held a winning material advantage in the endgame before blundering into a one move checkmate.  This victory places Paul in top spot in Group C but there are three players only a half point behind him, two of which have 100% records.

Results and standings can be found on the Tournaments pages of this website.

21 October 2026

Reports suggest there were 22 people at the Hereford Chess Club this evening and ten competitive matches were played in the function room at the Herdsman.  In Group C of the club championship Jack Clark and Blake Newman played their round 3 game.  Jack, playing white, unleashed a vicious sacrificial king's side attack and scored a fine victory.

Two Challenge games were played:  Chris Tremayne won with white when Peter Davies resigned a pawn down in an otherwise balanced position, whilst Nick Hanne beat John Preece with black in the latest edition of the 'Leominster Friendly Grudge Series'.

The main focus was on the first round of the knockout cup where seven games were played.  Billy Edwards beat Ben Mason, Tim Peters beat Nethiran Vithunan, and Mark Calderwood beat Josh Chan.  Kieran Lappin won his game against Jethro Kirk after Jethro played what he described as a "silly blunder".  Alex Nicholls lost with white to Julien Mann .  Alex held an advantage out of the opening but then fell into a checkmate threat coupled with a rook fork.  Manuel Gonzalez and Jay Alla played out a draw and so must replay with the colours reversed.. Shay Reno and Roger Aris also drew their game but played their replay the very next day when Roger won with white.

Results and standings can be found on the Tournaments pages of this website.

14 October 2026

The first round of the Leslie Baker Swiss dominated proceedings at Hereford Chess Club this evening.  There was an upset on board 6 when Peter Turner - ahead by two pawns  - blundered into a checkmate in his game against Jayanth Alla,  On board 10 Nick Hanne was outplayed by Julien Mann who was impressive in his first evr OTB match.  Henry Spedding survived a scare when his lost position against Tom Murray was miracul;ously turned into a winning pawn endgame when Tom walked into a knight fork when holding the positive side of the major exchange.  Roger Aris dropped a piece in a level-ish position against top seed Lee Davis.  Andy Jenkins made his long awaited return to competitive chess by beating Richard Morrison,  County Champion Stephen Priestley scored a victory with the black pieces over Billy Edwards and Jack Clark won against a strangely out of form Alex Adarski.  Tim Peters won with white against Peter Davies and the night's results were completed by John Preece beating Dill McFarlane and Kieran Lappin winning his game against Josh Chan.

Results can be found on the Leslie Baker Swiss pages of this website.

11 October 2026

There was more success for Hereford Juniors this weekend.  Alex Adarski and Billy Edwards took part in the Warwickshire Junior Chess Tournament in the U18 category (!!).  Both boys were placed into Group B.  Billy won all five games and took home the gold medal whilst Alex took silver in the same group.   A stunning performance in that category from both these young talents.

Here are the boys pictured with their medals.

8 October 2026

Congratulations to Henry Spedding, who has won the (very) delayed 2025-26 club knockout final by defeating Lee Davis in a repeat of last season's final.  Playing with the black pieces Lee made a very poor choice of move as early as move 11 which gave Henry a winning advantage, but Lee fought hard and - on the brink of equlaising and playing too quickly in his opponent's time trouble rejected  the move he had originally planned and replaced it with the most awful blunder that lost the game on the spot.

7 October 2026

It was another busy night at Hereford Chess Club this evening.  As it was an Open evening there were many off-hand games played and it was good to see two new faces at the club who were able to get some good friendly chess played.  Competitive chess still featured however and seven games were played under ECF rating conditions,  In club championship Group A Lee Davis won his delayed round one game against Tom Murray and In Group B Kieran Lappin achieved the same feat against Mark Calderwood.  There were two games played in Group Cwhere Billy Edwards was not able to secure the dominaing position he had against Henry Spediing in their abandoned game from last week and the full point went to Henry.  The crowd's favourite game this week was the Group C game between Roger Aris and Nick Hanne when a sizeable group of kibbitzers surrounded the board to watch Nick's Queen, Rook and Knight combine to torture and eventually kill Roger's exposed King.

In the Leslie Baker Swiss there was a small upset when Shay Reno, in only his third game at the club and after two losses, recovered from a pawn down to infiltrate Chris Tremayne's position with his rooks and force a resignation.

There were two Challenge games played: Paul Barker beat John Preece with the black pieces and Jay Alla won with white against Jethro Kirk, who was making his debut at the club.

Results and standings can be found on the Tournaments pages of this website.

5 October 2026

Lee Davis travelled down to Cardiff this weekend to play in the Welsh Seniors' (over 65s) Championship and came away as joint winner for the second time in the last three years.  This to add to his outright victory in the Welsh Seniors in 2017 when the competition was for over 60s.  Here he is photographed with the trophy alongside joint winner Peter Varley of the Newport club.

1 October 2026

The new ECF and FIDE grades are out today. Pete Hughes holds on to the top spot whilst Peter Turner's P grade leaps 92 points !  Congratulations to Jay Alla who now has an official K grade with a leap of 87 points this month !  Josh Chan and Shay Reno are new names on our list and Billy Edwards' FIDE Blitz rating of 1645 is of particular note.  Roger Aris' rating rise of 23 points is a mystery to us all.

The ratings of club members can be found on the Membership pages of this website

30 September 2026

Ten competitve games were played this evening in the club's 'new home' of the function room at the Herdsman and many off-hand games were played by 'new joiners' to the club.

The competitve games were played in the qualifying groups of the club championship.

In Group A  John Preece moved into sole lead with a perfect score from his 3 games when he won his game against Josh Chan, whilst Chris Tremayne slipped up and lost to Tom Murray in Tom's first game in the group.  Harry Taylor also kicked off his campaign with a victory over Richard Morrison whilst Lee Davis preserved his 100% record by overcoming the stubborn resistance from the much improved Alex Adarski.

There was also a full programme in Group B where the upset of the evening was Jay Alla's win with black against top seed Pete Hughes.  Stephen Priestley returned to winning ways by beating Mark Calderwood and Kieran Lappin won his game against Peter Davies.  Peter Turner moved to the top of the group standings by beating Tim Peters with black in the last game to finish on the night.  Tim's two connected passed pawns being not quite far enough up the board to evade capture from Peter's rook.

Paul Barker and Roger Aris played out a hard fought draw in Group C whilst Nick Hanne won his game with white against debutant Shay Reno.

Results and standings can be found on the Tournaments pages of this website.

30 September 2026

In the Group C game between Billy Edwards and Henry Spedding this evening a situation arose which members might wish to note.  Billy Edwards was winning a complex game but with only 5 seconds on the clock realised that the clock had not been set to award incremental time after each move - therefore it seemed inevitable that Billy would lose on time.  The ruling in such a circumstance is that the players are responsible for ensuring that the clocks are set correctly  and therefore, were Billy to lose on time, the game would be awarded to Henry.  The situation was resolved when Henry, magnaminously, offered to declare the game null and void and replay the game at a later date; this was agreed by the tournament controller.

27 September 2026

Excellent performances from all three of the Hereford Juniors at the Abergavenny Junior Chess Congress today.  Nethiran Vithunan finished joint 3rd - classified 4th on tie break - in the under 8s with 3 points from 5 games, Josh Chan scored 4 wins from 5 games to finish joint second but be classified 4th on tie break in the under 10s;  only one point behind the winner, and Alex Adarski scored a perfect 5 out of 5 to win the under 12s !  The photo shows Alex with his trophy from the event.

 Exceptional performances from all three boys - congratulations !

23 September 2026

Unusually the Hereford Chess Club met downstairs in the functon room at the Herdsman Pub this evening where the black pieces dominated the proceedings.  8 out of the 10 competitive games played all fell to the player of the black pieces.  The only white win was in qualifying group B where Peter Turner defeated the reigning county champion to blow this group wide open.  The only other game not won by black was also in this group when Jay Alla drew his game with Kieran Lappin.  Peter Hughes beat Peter Davies in his first game in the group, whilst Tim Peters' victory over Mark Calderwood keeps Tim as the early leader in this group.

In group A Chris Tremayne and John Preece are the early pacesetters with wins over Richard Morrison and Alex Adarski respectively.  Richard was doing well in his game against Chris but a blunder ended his hopes of a more positive result.  Lee Davis won his game against Josh Chan who was playing his first ever classical rated game.

Paul Barker is the early leader in Group C after a hard won victory over debutant Shay Reno,  Blake Newman put up very stiff resistance against group favourite Henry Spedding before finally having to succomb in the endgame and Billy Edwards lost his game against Jack Clark.

Perry Walker and Roger Aris played off-hand games and also played against promising newcomer Jethro Kirk who will be entering some of the club competitions.

Results and standings can be found on the Tournaments pages of this website

19 September 2026

Billy Edwards scored 7.5 from 15 at the qualifying event for the British Open Blitz championship held in Cardiff today.  Billy delivered a tournament performance rating of 1616 - 61 points above his current international rating for blitz.

16 September 2026

Hereford Chess Club was delighted to welcome Grandmaster Peter Wells to the club this evening for its, now traditional, Grandmaster Simultaneous event.  Peter Wells is a three-time British Rapidplay Champion and twice English Seniors Champion and has represented England at Olympiads and European Championships.

More than twenty players attended on the night with a range of ages and abilities from primary school children and enthusiastic beginners to  more experienced players.

The evening began with questions from the floor and Mr Wells was able to comment on his own experience, giving lots of welcome advice on maintaining motivation and using different methods and tactics to improve game play and chess skills.

Mr. Wells played white in all games and Perry Walker (Rook Ending), Pete Hughes (opposite Colured Bishops) and Paul Barker (Bishop vs. Knight) each gained draws in their games, whilst Ben Mason (rated 1102)  seized on an error by the Grandmaster to secure a victory he will remember forever.

Mr. Wells presented autographed book prizes to Pete Hughes and Billy Edwards whom he considered to be the most outstanding performers on the night - Billy having been unlucky to fall ito a checkmate in a drawn but difficult Queen and Pawn ending.   Photos from the event are on the Photographs pages of this website.

9 September 2026

The first competitive chess of the new season featured the qualifying groups for the club championship and produced only one win on the night for the lower rated player, although there were also a couple of close shaves for the higher rated player.

The luck of the draw had given the higher rated player the white pieces in the first round of all three groups.  In group A  John Preece won his game versus Richard Morrison and Chris Tremayne beat Alex Adarski; although by Chris' own admission Alex stood well in the game before falling to a tactic.

In group B Stephen Priestley beat Peter Davies and Tim Peters beat Jay Alla, whilst three games were contested in group C.   Paul Barker beat Blake Newman and Nick Hanne beat Billy Edwards.  The rating difference between Jack Clark and Roger Aris is a mere 41 points so Roger's victory can hardly be classed as an upset and Jack seemed to stand better before losing his way somewhat, allowing Roger to secure the only win of the evening for the player with the black pieces

Long time member Perry Walker paid a visit to the club and along with Kieran Lappin, who had a free evening, was able to play some off-hand games with Shay Reno on his first visit to the club.

2 September 2026

The Hereford Club AGM was held.  The minutes and accounts are presented below...