Storm Goretti: How a local family helped Shropshire's biggest chess event avoid a decisive check mate during the heavy snow
Shropshire family moves to help save Shropshire chess competition from Arctic weather checkmate
With the annual Shropshire Chess Congress competition, which was held over the weekend at the premises of Wrekin Housing Group in Telford town centre, drawing players from across the region, but also further afield, some understandably decided not to travel because of the Arctic conditions.
And while surrounding main roads were not a significant problem, snow and ice on the venue car park and paths meant it was in the balance whether it could go ahead.
"It's gone as well as it could do under the weather circumstances," said one of the principal organisers, Chris Lewis.
"It was very touch and go whether it was going to happen. Wrekin's health and safety team probably almost cancelled on us, but thankfully the Wrekin snow team came out and we cleared the car park on Friday morning.
"So we are very grateful to them, and even more grateful to the Tumanyan family who play chess with the Darwinian Knights club in Shrewsbury. They came out with me at 7am on Saturday and Sunday morning and cleared the snow and gritted the paths.
"The whole event would not have happened without Georgi and his sons Daniel and Gabriel, who were all playing in the congress.
"Other than that, the congress has run smoothly."
He reckoned that had it not snowed the congress would have hit its entry cap of 180 players - which would have been a record - but in the event over 160 players took part.
"Ten pulled out, and around another 10 who would otherwise have entered did not do so."
The tournament began on Friday evening, and continued on Saturday and Sunday, with all players playing a total of five matches, although they could choose to take a bye in one round.
Chris added: "All the players are happy, and we thank Wrekin Housing Group for the use of the venue for another year. A lot of the sections have been very close, with no runaway leaders. It's great to see my juniors doing so well across the sections. There has been a new trophy this year for the top junior - the Ray Cox Trophy."
The congress had four sections - the Open, for the strongest players; the Major; the Inter; and the Minor, with a first prize of £300 in each section.