by Saul Marks
Well folks, another season is reaching its climax here at Wallasey, and there’s plenty to report on as March draws to a close. There are now just nine club nights left of the 2025/26 season and, while some titles look secure, others are still very much up for grabs, and the relegation battles are in full swing.
Let’s take a closer look…
CHAMPIONSHIP
Steve Pickles has maintained his mastery over this division throughout the season, with only Dave Barnes managing to get a draw against him so far. With 26 wins from 27 games, Steve clinched the title on 16 March, leaving the trailing pack far behind. Congratulations to Steve, in his first season at the club; this could be the first of many club championships!
Although the title is resolved, the fight for second place is neck-and-neck, between Mike Coffey and Richie Kelly, who are both on 52 points, although Mike has five games in hand. At this stage of the season, that may matter less, though, with not all games being played. Neither of these two look like they’ll be caught by the others behind them.
At the bottom end of the table, Sanjoy Banerjee looks like he’s left it too late to climb out of trouble: having only played five games all season and lost four, his late flurry of activity seems not to have paid off and, barring some extraordinary results, is likely to be playing in the Premiership next season.
Above him, the Uzbek siblings have also found themselves too busy to have played enough games, so have suspended their campaigns and are not expected to return next season. Adam Miller and Fergal Wright have both struggled to fit chess in around work commitments and, Adam looks likely to be joining Sanjoy in the Prem.
Fergal is involved in what looks like a very tight relegation battle, but is, in fact, less exciting than it looks. He is on 18 points and currently occupies the top relegation place. Above him, Joe Butterworth and Graham Carr are on 19, Steve Clare on 20, Ken Jones on 21 and Ed Taylor on 22. However, this is not a five-man thriller that’s going down to the final day, because Graham suspended his campaign earlier in the season due to health problems and Steve called time this week on his playing days. He will be sadly missed next season. As a result, Fergal and Joe both need just a few more points each to ease ahead of Graham & Steve and survive the drop together. Having said that, Joe’s schedule only allows him two more games, one against Mike Coffey and the other against Sanjoy, so he’ll need to draw or win one of those two games to survive.
PREMIERSHIP
The top end of the second division shows no substantial change since Christmas, with brilliant juniors Thomas Moran, Terrence Jiang and Joe Ledgerton still occupying the top three places. Thomas, whose rating is now a whisker under 1900 at the tender age of 12, leads Terrence by 15 points, but has very few games left to play. Still, he remains favourite to pick up yet another piece of Wallasey silverware!
Terrence, who’s lost only once all season, leads Joe by just four points, so the question of who gets promoted automatically and has to go into the playoffs remains not quite decided just yet. The gap to Brian Wiggett in fourth place is an enormous 17 points and I’m sure I speak for the vast majority at the club in hoping that all three juniors gain promotion to the top flight next season.
Joining Brian in the playoff spots at the moment are Jeff Povall and Chris Clemenson, closely followed by Chinenye Basil-Nwuchuku, Steve Simm, Saul Marks, Dave Simm and a resurgent Martin Hargeaves, who has banished memories of a poor first half of the season with a much stronger second. Jeff and Chris aren’t certain to remain in the playoff positions, though. Jeff currently has back issues and has temporarily withdrawn, awaiting treatment, and Chinenye has a number of games booked in when he returns from holiday, so the final make-up of the playoff places may go down to the last night this time around.
The Premiership relegation dogfight this year promises to be a thriller too. Marcello D’Onofrio discovered that his share of parenting a baby meant that his return to regular chess was premature, so suspended his campaign in January & will finish bottom. Ron Champion and Graham Heath have continued with torrid seasons, picking up only a combined three wins from their 62 games, and are likely to be relegated unless they can pull out some very late victories.
Above them, Trevor Shaw, Alan Kelly and Ian Stent are scrambling to avoid the drop. Following crucial wins tonight by both Alan and Ian, it’s Trevor who sits in the top relegation spot, after his opponent had to cancel. Above this group are Tom Whitby, Gordon Sommerville and Jon Booth, who will be keeping a close eye on the battle just below. With Graham, Trevor, Alan and Ian each separated from each other by three points, and Alan and Trevor due to play each other at the end of the season, this one is going to be an absolute nail-biter, with up to seven players desperately trying to stay out of two relegation places!
MAJOR
In the third division, Lee Whitford-Stark finally lost a game at the end of February, but he had already lost the lead of the division by that time to the enthusiastic and rapidly improving Sam Bakhshian. Sam currently leads Lee by four points and these two are favourites for automatic promotion, although Martin Cockerill is only six points behind Lee, who might be casting an anxious look in his rear-view mirror.
The other three playoff places are currently occupied by Paul Greenway, Kingsley Tan and Felix Lefeuvre, and there they are expected to remain. These four players are all very evenly matched, so the third player being promoted to the Premiership is anyone’s guess!
The long tail of the Major this year sees most of the less active players facing relegation or having already suspended their campaigns. Leo Rogers, however, has now joined Charlie Ren, Luca Sorrentino-Ryan and Mike Chadburn, all straddling the drop on 17 points. Leo and Harry Squire have resumed booking games in a concerted effort to avoid the drop and a host of players just above them may want to do the same in April to secure their survival. Who makes the cut and who doesn’t will be another fascinating battle to watch.
FIRST CLASS
The fourth division has been revitalised since Christmas with an influx of exciting new players, including, amongst others, Pranaav PV and his dad Prasanna, and young Ro Ford and his mum Dan.
Seth Marks has maintained his dominance of the division, winning all of his 18 games so far, and will undoubtedly take the title in due course. Behind him, Pranaav, Ro and the ever-smiling Freddy Powell, another new member, have raced up the league table and will, in theory, be fighting for the second automatic promotion place. However, whether it’s advisable for any of these players to be promoted remains to be seen.
The decision whether to split into five divisions or remain with four will be taken over the summer, after a process of careful liaison and fact-finding, which will allow us to gain a much more accurate idea of exactly how many players are likely to be in the starting blocks in September, and how best to provide as many as possible with competitive chess.
INTERNAL KNOCKOUT CUPS
In the quarter-finals of the Open Major, the stand-out result was Seth Marks’ defeat of Premiership player Chris Clemenson, using his favourite opening. However, he couldn’t repeat the feat against Ian Stent in the semi-final, with Ian reaching the final for the third consecutive even-numbered year in a row. There, on 2 March, he met favourite Joe Ledgerton, who ensured that Ian walked away as runner-up for the third consecutive even-numbered year in a row!
The Dave Camm has been beset with delays since Christmas. Paul Evans inflicted a rare defeat on Club Champion-in-waiting Steve Pickles in the first semi-final on 5 January, but then had to wait an inordinate amount of time to find out the identity of his opponent. Firstly, Mike Coffey defeated Dave Clark in their quarter-final replay, but then his semi-final against Terrence Jiang couldn’t be played until early February. After two draws under classical time controls, Terrence won the blitz playoff on the day Joe won the Open Major.
Terrence then faced Paul in the final, which was held in a packed playing hall on 23 March. Terrence had a technically winning endgame but couldn’t convert and yet another draw was the result. At the time of going to press, a date for the replay has yet to be arranged. It’s rather amusing to note that the Dave Camm had one fewer round than the Open Major, so was due to finish a month earlier, but it now seems the Dave Camm could finish over a month later than its little brother!
AND FINALLY...
It's quite possible that juniors could win three of the four internal divisions this season, plus both knockout cups! What an achievement that would be!
PLAYING DATES
A reminder of the last nine club nights of the winter season:
- Mar: 30
- Apr: 2, 9, 13, 16, 20, 23, 27, 30
Please note the club is closed on Bank Holiday Mondays 6 April and 4 May. The Blitz tournament will be held on Thursday 7 May and the summer season will begin on Monday 11 May. A copy of the club calendar is on the notice board for easy reference.