A chess club which started in Meltham just six months ago has gone from strength to strength and will soon have teams competing at regional level.

It was set up by Robert Mitchell and Brendan Briggs at the Travellers Rest pub on Slaithwaite Road in Meltham and meets every Monday evening with the juniors at 6.45pm and the adults at 7.45pm.

Robert has been amazed at how popular it has been already.

He said: “We advertised our opening night through social media and posters in local shops and were delighted with the turnout. Our busiest night had over 30 people and our events over the summer saw around 25 people coming.

“We have players of all ages and abilities – juniors and adults who are new to chess right up to former school champions who have rediscovered their love of the game.

“This year we are entering a team into the Silver Rook Yorkshire tournament and we’re also entering a team of juniors into the Yorkshire Under 18s league.”

The club was free for the first three months and only got off the ground thanks to Lindley Chess Club allowing them to borrow their boards and sets.

Meltham Chess Club introduced a membership fee in July which means they have now bought their own kit. The club runs on a zero profit basis with all membership fees spent on equipment and prizes for the club

The club has linked up with Kirklees Libraries and one member, Luke Haslam, runs a weekly chess club library. The two clubs played a friendly tournament in August with Meltham winning 17.5 to 12.5.

The club likes to keep things fun, friendly and welcoming so has run a chess bingo night, a bughouse tournament, a puzzle battle showdown night, as well as events for the juniors such as Rollerball Chess, Connect Four Chess and Battleships Bonanza.

The club also runs a weekly tactics competition and a Strategy Sunday discussion group.

A Ukrainian junior champion, Maksym Kryshtafor, hosted a simultaneous event and won all his games apart from one loss and one draw.

Anyone is welcome to attend on a Monday evening or can email for more information at melthamchess@gmail.com

Written by ANDY HIRST who runs his own Yorkshire freelance journalism agency AH! PR (https://ah-pr.com/) specialising in press releases, blogging, website content and copywriting.