By Hugh Coakley
Shoppers and chess fans were thrilled and amazed as nine chess Masters took on a rolling queue of 15 players each, simultaneously, in a marathon six-hour display outside of Holy Trinity Church on Saturday (September 11).
Around 400 players, as young as eight years old, gave battle against the experts on the 125 boards, celebrating the 125 years of the Guildford Chess Club meeting at the Guildford Institute.
International Chess Master, Andrew Martin playing 15 young hopefuls in the simultaneous chess display in the High Street.
Players, stewards and members met later for a well-earned celebration dinner at the Mandalay Hotel to toast the success of the event. Lead organiser, Nigel White said: “It took six months to plan but it’s been great fun.”
International Master, Nigel Povah, chair of Guildford Chess Club, said: “Chess is intriguing, competitive and bottomless. We are one of the strongest chess clubs in the UK and we welcome players from beginners to Grandmasters.”
Ranked 60th in the world, Grandmaster, Gawain Jones, said: “It’s a beautiful place to play chess. People are very excited.”
The “chess spectacular” was opened by Mayor Marsha Moseley, accompanied by her consort, Cllr Nigel Manning. Mayor Mosley said it was wonderful to see so many young people interested and taking part.
Guildford Chess Club member, Mike Gunn said: “Chess is all consuming, it’s like meditating. But incredibly competitive. It is a game of perfect information, you see everything on the board. The trick is calculating the future.”
George Henty, 8, and Ryan Jones, 8 were having great fun waiting for the game to start. Ryan lasted one and a half hours before losing to International Master, Nigel Povah.
Solomon Sutton (9) recently won the Epsom Mens Player of the Year 2021. Solomon said he was an Arsenal fan. Unlike his team, he said: “I’m going to win”.
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Roshan Bailey
September 12, 2021 at 9:59 pm
What a fantastic event this must have been – I wish I’d known about it beforehand. Well done to all concerned and please publicise via The Dragon in advance if you do another one. I will definitely try to attend if you do.
Brian Creese
September 14, 2021 at 4:55 pm
It was a great event – the weather was good and lots of people stopped to watch and chat. I think it would be great if this could become a regular event.
Sadly my total lack of preparation, unsurprisingly, didn’t help and I was soundly thrashed by Alex Golding in 35 moves. Perhaps next year I might do better.