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Last update: Friday June 3, 2005 9:44
This was the second year of the event, and proved very popular with the general public.
The shopping centre stage community based events and some of these are the result of a local artist Jacqueline Leech.
Following on from a visit to St. Petersburgh, where she saw chess being played in the street, she conceived and created a large chess set, the major pieces standing some five feet tall. I was invited to recruit players from the Shropshire league to play games, using two way radios, and communicating the moves from a balcony above the board to a person on the board who would move the piece.
As well as this there were tables set up for social chess and various tournaments.
This year we started the event with a match between Shrewsbury and West Shropshire against Telford and East Shropshire. A not to serious event which the latter won by one point and a large shield presented by the shopping centre management.
Later in the week the Shropshire under 125 team, who recently won the national title, took on youngsters under the match of the generations and Shropshire won 31-5. During the whole week 47 games were played that qualified under this title.
In all some 300 games were played during the week, and visitors from New Zealand, India, Slovakia and Seattle stopped to either film, admire or talk about the event.
The real winner was chess with approx 20 possible new members and lots of youngsters playing social chess.
It may seem a strange venue to play chess, but we feel this is bringing chess to the people, helping to lift any mystic about the game, and from feedback received from the centre staff the one event were the public do get involved.
Next years event has been fixed for 17-24 Sept with hopefully a one day event in the summer in The Square, Shrewsbury publishing the Sept event.
Happy to discuss with anyone wishing further information.