Bury knights hit 52

Last Friday the Bury Knights Junior Chess Club had more players than at any time in the last ten years, with no less than 52 members present.  There are currently 60 members on the books.  Bob Jones has been running the club since September 1992 - over 27 years - and it is great to see it is still such a thriving club after all this time.

This success follows a move to a new venue at Moreton Hall Community Centre on the edge of Bury St Edmunds.  Members are split into five divisions, ranging from experienced players in Division 1 through to Division 4 and also a novices’ sections where beginners are taught the rules of the game and how to more the pieces.

It was a great evening with a constant buzz of activity.  With the results of all games recorded, players are able to see their progress and move up or down divisions based on their results​

​With the juniors finishing at 8pm, the second wave of chess began.  Several adults from the Bury St Edmunds Chess Club arrived for a relaxed club night and some of the top juniors stayed on to learn from the adults.

This is one of the reasons for the change in venue as it provides both an adult club night and a brilliant opportunity for the stronger juniors.

Thank you to the adults who came along - it really is great for the juniors - they get to see chess from a slightly different angle as the players talk through their games.  From a personal perspective, I think my son gets a lot from this and we are very grateful to the adults.

We would love to see more adults come along to play both each other and the juniors, and it would be great to see as many of the Division 1 juniors come along as possible.

Lastly, a big thank you to Bob - without his efforts none of this would happen and chess in Bury would be considerably weaker.

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