News

1 January 2026

The new ECF and FIDE ratings have been published.  The ratings of Hereford club members can be found on the membership page of this website.  December's most improved player was Kieran Lappin.

17 December 2025

It was a night of drama at the Hereford Chess Club this evening with eight club championship qualifying games and two potential new members visting the club for the first time.

The last competitive game to finish had the onlookers enthralled as Paul Barker established a winning advantage over Henry Spedding in a game he only needed to draw to qualify for the championship proper in the new year.  In what had been a complex and  tense game with both players under time pressure Paul simply seemed to forget about his clock and lost on time when deep in analysis choosing between two possible moves.  This victory secured Henry's place in the Championship Group next year whilst Paul's fate is now dependent on the outcome of Henry's final game against Stephen Priestley.  Earlier in the evening Stephen had kept himself in the hunt for the final championship place with a victory over Leanne Balsdon.  The other game played in Group A featured a win for John Preece over Alex Adarski.

There was a full programme of fixtures for round nine of Group B this evening too.  Lee Davis' win with the black pieces against Tim Peters confirmed the place in the championship group that Lee had, somewhat unsatisfactorily, secured the week before.  The outcome of Lee's game most pleased Chris Tremayne for that result, coupled with his own victory over Nick Tweddell this evening, guaranteed him a qualification place in the Championship Group for 2026.  Harry Taylor's win with black over Richard Morrison means that he only needs a draw from his two remaining games to take the third and final spot, and condemn Tim to the Major Group.  Roger Aris secured a win against Peter Davies that assured Roger's participation in the Major Group in 2026 and confirmed Peter would be contesting the Minor championship alongside Evelina Racheva, who lost with the black pieces to Kieran Lappin

Results and standings can be found here.

17 December 2025

It was a night of drama at the Hereford Chess Club this evening with eight club championship qualifying games and two potential new members visting the club for the first time.

The last competitive game to finish had the onlookers enthralled as Paul Barker established a winning advantage over Henry Spedding in a game he only needed to draw to qualify for the championship proper in the new year.  In what had been a complex and  tense game with both players under time pressure Paul simply seemed to forget about his clock and lost on time when deep in analysis choosing between two possible moves.  This victory secured Henry's place in the Championship Group next year whilst Paul's fate is now dependent on the outcome of Henry's final game against Stephen Priestley.  Earlier in the evening Stephen had kept himself in the hunt for the final championship place with a victory over Leanne Balsdon.  The other game played in Group A featured a win for John Preece over Alex Adarski.

There was a full programme of fixtures for round nine of Group B this evening too.  Lee Davis' win with the black pieces against Tim Peters confirmed the place in the championship group that Lee had, somewhat unsatisfactorily, secured the week before.  The outcome of Lee's game most pleased Chris Tremayne for that result, coupled with his own victory over Nick Tweddell this evening, guaranteed him a qualification place in the Championship Group for 2026.  Harry Taylor's win with black over Richard Morrison means that he only needs a draw from his two remaining games to take the third and final spot, and condemn Tim to the Major Group.  Roger Aris secured a win against Peter Davies that assured Roger's participation in the Major Group in 2026 and confirmed Peter would be contesting the Minor championship alongside Evelina Racheva, who lost with the black pieces to Kieran Lappin

Results and standings can be found here.

10 December 2025

Local flooding across the county meant the postponement of a few games this evening,  but six competitive games survived the bad weather warnings.

Congratulations go to Jack Clark who is the first to finish his full complement of games in a qualifying group and his victory with black against Alex Adarski has confirmed his place in the Championship Group in the new year.

Four games were played in Group B where a victory for Lee Davis with the white pieces over Kieran Lappin would have confirmed his place in the championship group, but for the second night running Lee threw away a straightforward win and Kieran hit back hard to secure the draw.  Chris Tremayne kept up the pressure on the front-runners  with a victory over Peter Davies with the black pieces, and Roger Aris moved to a 50% score with a win over Evelina Racheva: who is now confirmed as playing in the Minor Championship after Christmas.

In order to catch up with the tournament schedule Harry Taylor tried a two-board simul this evening but the decision rebounded.  First he went down to Alex Nicholls in the outstanding game in the Leslie Baker swiss and then fell to Tim Peters in Qualifying Group B.

Results and standings can be found here.

9 December 2025

Hereford club welcomed Kington into the Herefordshire Chess Association with a six-board challenge match at Kington's home venue this evening.  Henry Spedding, playing top board for Kington, secured a draw when Lee Davis failed to convert a winning advantage.  All other boards were victories for the Hereford players.  The match card can be found on the Team Matches page of the Tournaments section here.

3 December 2025

It was open evening at the Hereford Chess Club this evening but there were three competitve games despite that.  In the Leslie Baker Swiss Peter Turner beat Harry Rhodes with white in "The Battle of the Two Debutants"

In Qualifying Group A of the club championship Nick Hanne beat Alex Adarski with the black pieces - although he should have been playing white!  Nick apologised for the error, which he noticed when he went to fill in the results sheet, and offered to replay the game, but Alex graciously allowed the result to stand.

Kieran Lappin beat Peter Davies in Qualifying Group B.  It was a good week for Kieran who had beaten Nick Tweddell on Monday in the same competition.  Nick in turn was beaten in short order by Lee Davis on Tuesday.

Results and standings can be found here.

1 December 2025

New ECF and FIDE Rating lists are published today and can be found on the Membership pages.  There was little movement in the ratings this month with the largest gain being delivered by new member Alex Nicholl's 24 point rise.

26 November 2025

The first of two open evenings featured at the Herdsman today and the club was pleased to welcome a potential new member who played some off-hand games - including taking Lee Davis all the way to a queen and pawn ending.  Kieran Lappin and Paul Barker played some blitz games whilst Billy Edwards played some games including an all-junior clash with Alex Adarski.  

For the competitive part of the evening Evelina Racheva achieved a kind of double by losing two Group B games - one to Richard Morrison and one to Lee Davis - whilst Harry Taylor preserved his 100% record by beating Peter Davies with the black pieces.  In Group A Alex Adarski went down to Stephen Priestley but not before missing the win of a piece which would have been welcomed by Stephen's rivals for one of the three qualifying places for the championship proper.

Chris Tremayne and John Preece introduced a new element to the Hereford Challenge event by playing two rapid-play games each worth 50% of the score value of a classical time-limit game.  The first game was drawn before John took the second with the white pieces.

Results and standings can be found here.

19 November 2025

The qualifying groups for the club championship are becoming more tense as the end of the year approaches.  Four players are vying for three championship qualifying places from Group A and all four were in action this evening.  Jack Clark completed a routine victory over Blake Newman and his qualification looks almost assured as his rivals are still to play each other.  Henry Spedding could not really afford to draw his game with Nick Hanne so he must have been relieved when Nick blundered a piece in a complex but level position.  Stephen Priestley put his swashbuckling sactificial style on show in a crucial game against Paul Barker and forced a draw when down on material but with Paul's queenside undeveloped and his king exposed to checks from Stephen's lone queen.  Paul and Jack Clark are joint leaders with six points from seven games.  Henry has five from six and Stephen has 3.5 from 5 and is scheduled to play Henry in the next round.  The night's round 7 games from group A were completed by John Preece defeating Leanne Balsdon.

In Group B Tim Peters preserved his lead with a drawn game against Kieran Lappin.  Tim had a fierce attack against Kieran's king but Kieran found a clever tactical response that assured the draw.  Chris Tremayne maintained second spot in this group by winning with the white pieces against Evelina Racheva and has a promising run-in that might earn him one of the three qualifying places. Lee Davis won a pawn against Roger Aris in the early middle game and Roger resigned when more of his pawns became destined to fall.

Results and standings can be found here.

12 November 2025

The focus returned to the qualifying groups for the club championship this evening after the excitement of the knockout games the previous week.

In group A Henry Spedding won material aginst John Preece while Jack Clark had a routine victory over Leanne Balsdon.  The performance ogf the night was probably Nick Hanne's draw with the black pieces when playing group leader Paul Barker, thereby denting Paul's 100% record. 

There were four white wins in the four games played in group B.  Chris Tremayne blundered the exchange and gave up a piece to try to complicate matters but a second blunder gifted the win to Lee Davis.  Tim Peters preserved his lead in the group by beating Roger Aris whilst Kieran Lappin unwisely gave up his fianchettoed black squared bishop and duly lost to Harry Taylor.  Peter Davies' early resignation in a very strong position gave Richard Morrison the opportunity to later win a challenge game against Billy Edwards

Results and standings can be found here.

5 November 2025

Round one of the club Knockout took centre stage today and featured what on form might be considered a surprise win for Roger Aris over Jack Clark.  Chris Tremayne moved into the second round by beating Richard Morrison, Stephen Priestley prevailed against Pete Hughes, Ben Mason lost to Tim Peters in his debut club game and Alex Nicholls and Kieran Lappin played out a draw and will have to replay.

Henry Spedding beat Nick Hanne with white in a challenge game.

1 November 2025

The new ECF and FIDE ratings were published this morning and can be found on the 'membership' page of this website.

Billy Edwards' remarkable P rating rise of 206 points must be mentioned whilst the highest rating increase award is shared between Jack Clark and Alex Nicholls, who both gained 30 points during the month of October.  Congratulations should also go to Chris Tremayne for breaking into the 1700s.

29 October 2025

Paul Barker took his score to 5 wins from 5 games with a victory over Leanne Balsdon in club championship qualifying group A this evening and retained his lead in the group, but the game of the day was played out between Jack Clark and defending champion Henry Spedding.  Jack prevailed in a sharp fluctuating encounter that went all the way to 'tactics on the increment'.  Both players came within seconds of 'flagging' as their clocks went down to a few seconds before they made their moves - and all this to the rising volume of Roger Aris's crisp munching as he stood enthralled by the action.   The win takes Jack into second place in the group and he now stands in a very good position to qualify having already played the five highest rated players in his section.

In group B Tim Peters moved into joint lead with a victory over Richard Morrison with the white pieces, whilst in a game played in the Leslie Baker Swiss the evening before, Lee Davis won a tight contest with the black piece against Chris Tremayne.  Lee won a pawn but an opposite coloured bishops endgame gave Chris good drawing chances - even more so when Lee blundered the pawn back, but a late inaccuracy from Chris allowed Lee to get two united passed pawns on the queenside and that was enough for the victory.

Results and standings can be found here.

22 October 2025

Paul Barker took his score to 4 wins from 4 games and stormed into sole lead in Qualifying Group A of the club championship by beating John Preece with the black pieces this evening.  Also with the black pieces, Stephen Priestley won his game against Nick Hanne and kept himself in what seems to be becoming a four-way race for one of the three qualifying places available.  Alex Adarski scored his first point in the group with a smooth win with white in his game against Leanne Balsdon.  

Chris Tremayne's drawn game with Tim Peters was enough to take him into sole lead in Gropup B but there are 5 players with plus scores in what is beginning to look a very competitive group.  A key game that turned on one move was the game between Roger Aris and Kieran Lappin.  Kieran was in a winning position but blundered into a fork check and lost a whole rook,  The result takes Roger into 3rd place in the group and leaves Kieran with a negative score in the standings.  Richard Morrison played a careful game against top seed Lee Davis before suffering pins along the diagonal and the d-file, and Lee exchanged off into a won pawn ending.  By universal agreement the performance of the night was Evelina Racheva's strong tactical victory over Nick Tweddell.

Results and standings can be found here.

15 October 2025

Six more games were played in the qualifying tournament for the club championship upstairs at the Herdsman this evening.  In Group A Henry Spedding moved to 3 wins from 3 games with a win over Alex Adarski.  Henry was joined at 3 from 3 by Paul Barker who won his game against Jack Clark.  Jack seemed to have a big advantage but rushed a move and dropped a rook.  Jack holds third place in the group which will qualify him for the full championship group after Christmas if he can hold that position.

In Group B rookie member Harry Taylor moved to 3 wins from 3 games with a win over the experienced Roger Aris, whilst  Chris Tremayne enhanced his qualification chances by beating Kieran Lappin with a 'nasty' bishop scarifice which forced a pawn promotion.  Peter Davies got his first win in this group by beating Evelina Racheva with the black pieces.

Results and standings can be found here.

8 October 2025

There was 'blood on the floor' again this evening at the Herdsman as eight games were played in the qualifying groups of the club championship with only the all-Leominster pairing of John Preece versus Nick Hanne ending peacefully.  Jack Clark is once again excelling in the qualifying competition with an impressive victory over the reigning county champion: Stephen Priestley.  Jack now leads  Group A with 3 wins from his 3 games.  Henry Spedding was given a scare by Blake Newman but survived to tell the tale and stands in second place with 2 wins from 2 games alongside Paul Barker who won his game with black against Alex Adarski.

Group B nearly featured the upset of the season when Peter Davies had a winning position on the board against top seed Lee Davis but didn't find the killer blow and Lee was able to take the full point, but only after a further couple of errors from Peter.  new member Harry Taylor holds first place in this group after beating Evelina Racheva.  Chris Tremayne won his game against Roger Aris to move into second place in the standings alongside Roger and also alongside Tim Peters who lost to Nick Twedell by blundering into a knight fork.

Results and standings can be found here.

1 October 2025

Six games from the Leslie Baker Swiss took centre stage upstairs at the Herdsman piub this evening.  Stephen Priestley's somewhat speculative knight sacrifice was efficiently refuted by Pete Hughes on his debut in the competition, whilst fellow debutant Billy Edwards had an encouraging victory over the experienced Roger Aris.  Peter Davies won what would have been a decisive advantage in material in his match vs. Nick Hanne but was unable to continue due to health concerns and offered Nick the full point. On second board Henry Spedding got in an early blow with a victory over John Preece, and Tim Peters won with the black pieces against Richard Morrison.  Mark Calderwood appeared to have sufficient advantage to cause an upset in his game with Paul Barker, but Paul fought back to secure the draw.

1 October 2025

The new ratings are out today and can be found on this website.  There are some new names on the list and some old names removed whose membership has lapsed.  Congratulations to Henry Spedding for reaching the 1900 mark and to Jack Clark for being this month's most improved player.  Lee Davis has once again dropped below 2000.

24 September 2025

The club championship got into full swing this evening with seven games being played and two potential new members coming aloing to play social chess.

All the games in Qualifying Group B were victories for the player with the white pieces.  Tim Peters and Roger Aris share the early lead with wins over Peter Davies and Richard Morrison respectively, whilst Kieran Lappin and Harry Taylor both opened their accounts with wins over Nick Tweddell and Chris Tremayne.

In Group A Henry Speddding opened the defence of his title with a victory over Leanne Balsdon and Paul Barker beat Blake Newman in his first game in this year's compettition.  The solitary win for black was the last game to finish where Jack Clark won a study-like king and pawn ending against Nick Hanne, where later analysis with an engine shaowed remarkable resources for both sides which would have been very difficult for players to find on the night given that both players were under time pressure.

With 16 players in the room and a few of non-playing spectators the evening did get a little too noisy on occasions.  Club members are reminded of the need to keep good order when competitive games remain in play.

17 September 2025

The new season kicked off with a win for club champion Henry Spedding over new member; Billy Edwards in the first round of the club knockout

Five games in the club championship were played .  In group A Stephen Priestly beat Blake Newman with the black pieces whilst Jack Clark found a very nice tactic to beat John Preece.  The three games played in Group B were all won by the player with the black pieces:  Chris Tremayne beat Richard Morrison, Tim Peters beat Evelina Racheva and, in the last game to finish, Roger Aris beat Nick Tweddell.

A new member joined the club on the night and has been allocated competitive places in each of the three tournaments.  Results and standings have been published on the relevant pages of this website.

10 September 2025

The now traditional 'season opener' club blitz was held upstatirs at the Herdsman this evening.  Eight players entered and the tournament was won by Lee Davis with six wins and one draw from his seven games.  The only player to deny him a win was promising newcomer; Billy Edwards who claimed a share of 3rd place with four points from seven games.  Paul Barker's five points from seven was enough to secure second spot.

Final standings and performance data can be found on the Tournaments pages of this website.

3 September 2025

It was announced at the AGM that competitive games at the club will commence on 10 September with the, now traditional, Hereford Blitz Championship; delivered as a  a 7-round Swiss Tournament.

The season's schedule, and pairings for the various club comepetitions can now be found on the relevant pages of this website.

3 September 2025

The Hereford Chess Club AGM was held upstairs at the Herdsman this evening signalling the start of the 2025-26 season.  The following awards were made for the season 2024-25:

Club Champion                                                               Henry Spedding

Winner of Club Major Championship                    Roger Aris

Winner of Club Minor Championship                    Alex Adarski

Winner of Leslie Baker Swiss                                      Lee Davis

Club Kock-Out Champion                                            Lee Davis

Club KO Plate Champion                                       Chris Tremayne

Challenge Champion                                                   Henry Spedding

Highest Finishing Junior                                          Aidan Jelf

Best Rating Increase since 1 September 2024            Henry Spedding 135

Hereford Early Season Blitz (2024 Delayed)             Dillan Duke

Hereford Summer Blitz 2025                                       Dillan Duke

Hereford Xmas Lightning Buzzer                               Paul Barker

Hereford Summer Lightning Buzzer                         Paul Barker

GM Simul

Winners                                                                             Henry Spedding

                                                                                          Perry Walker

Drawers                                                                             Tim Peters

                                                                                          Richard Morrison

All news items and tournament results for 2024-25 have now been moved to the archive pages of this website