Having already picking up a first ever Coventry League Division 1 championship, Kenilworth Chess Club went one better in the Leamington League competition, by collecting both Division 1 and Division 3 titles to make it a season to remember.

Kenilworth A cruised through the 2022-23 campaign, winning 13 of 14 matches and securing the title by nine points.

Only three individual games were lost all season, out of 56 games, and the title was clinched in convincing fashion with a 3.5-0.5 win away at second placed Olton.

This was a third successive League title for Kenilworth and a 13th in all.

England junior international Jude Shearsby led the way, scoring a remarkable 81 per cent on top board at the age of just 12, and there were also big contributions from captain Mark Page and Josh Pink, ably backed up by Andrew Paterson, Andy Baruch, Javier Valdepenas and Mike Donnelly.

And in the last match of the season against Stratford, there was a winning debut for 11 year old Billy Fellowes, another England junior international in the Kenilworth ranks.

In contrast, the Kenilworth D team's fight for the Division 3 championship went right down to the wire, with the title only being clinched in a last winner takes all, shoot out against previous leaders Daventry A.

And it was very much a case of youth to the fore, as the winning Kenilworth team of Katya Khomytska, Keaten Patel, Dhairya Pandya and George Topping had an average age of just 15.

Download our Nub News App!

- It’s FREE and available now
- Breaking news notifications
- Your Town in Your Pocket

Other star performers for the team, expertly captained and managed by Roy Watson, were Harry Myring, Steph Brown, Patrick Eaton and Hector Smith, while juniors Gregory Kornilovich and Lionel Zhang both won on their only appearance for the team - at the ages of 11 and 9 respectively.

The future of Kenilworth Chess Club looks very bright indeed!