Club makes move to swell numbers

For 114 years, its members have met to compete and perfect their skills.

West Bromwich Chess Club was first formed in 1897 and has produced numerous top players.

These include Peter Harris, who was the European under-18s champion in the 1950s, and Lawrence Cooper, who is currently captain of England.

Now the club is looking to increase the popularity of the game among youngsters by promoting it in schools. Members will be offering coaching and also organising matches.

Club president Derek Backhouse, from Great Barr, said: "At the moment we have 17 members aged between 20 and 70. We do encourage youngsters but, generally, we have struggled to attract them.

"A lot of youngsters may be interested in chess but they may also be interested in football. And they think it's more important that they're good at football because they want to be accepted by their peers.

"So we're trying to get them over that."

Currently the club's youngest member is student Ryszard Maciol, 25, who said: "I like competing with other people. I love winning. I like that fact it's all about mind games."

The club was founded at the West Bromwich YMCA in St Michael's Street and then became part of the West Bromwich Institute.

Now members meet at West Bromwich Labour Club, in Sandwell Road, every Monday at 7.30pm.

It has teams in four leagues — Birmingham Wolverhampton, Dudley and Cannock — and in the past two years has won the Birmingham and District Cup, the Birmingham League Division Two and the Dudley League.

England's current chess captain Lawrence Cooper, from Baswich in Stafford, is in his second season with the club. The chess situation in England at the moment is okay — we're ranked about 15th in the world — but I feel we should be doing better than that," he said.

"At the moment the sport is dominated by eastern European countries like Russia. For them it's a way of life."

But Mr Cooper, who is also director of international chess for the International Chess Federation, said the situation could change if they could get youngsters into it from an early age.

The club has already made contact with its first junior school, Hamstead Junior School in Great Barr. Any other schools interested can call 0121 3574786.