AT THE halfway stage of Wellington Chess Club’s league season the club’s three teams are proving themselves to be  extremely competitive in all their leagues and are well placed to make championship challenges.

The Division 1 team in the Somerset team is the brainchild of Wellington’s top player Alex Conway and he has put together a team of elite players from the Taunton and Sedgemoor clubs, who have no Division 1 team, and, of course, Wellington who have provided Alex and Simon Pickard to the united team. With just one defeat so far they are making an excellent showing.

The Division 2 team playing in the West Somerset League are also having an excellent season. All six players involved have produced a series of league results which are likely to see their gradings rise when they are reassessed in January. Wellington opt to play 6 board matches in this division but are obliged to reduce their team size to 4 or 5 if their opponents wish to play less players. This rule worked much to Wellington’s disadvantage in their only defeat this season at Taunton where the home side played a team of 4 despite there being a dozen or so other players there who could have brought the team size up to 6.

Wellington’s Division 3 team, captained by David Smith, is also having a fine season. David has set a fine example with some excellent results. Their only defeat was also in their first match at Taunton. This is the team the club has in order to try to give all members a chance to play competitive chess. For this reason it is not always the strongest team available but those brought into the team have played remarkably well. There are so many at the club wanting to play in the league that the club may have to consider fielding two teams in Division 3 before long. Not bad for a team who five years ago had to withdraw from Division 3 for lack of members.

The junior section of the club is doing well. Court Fields student Adrian Adamiec was due to make his league debut last week before the match was called off by the opposition. When he does eventually get his chance it will be well deserved. One of the most recent junior recruits, Ethan Denslow-King has been selected for Somerset’s under 9 team and clearly has a bright future.