Mid tournament snow failed to checkmate Shropshire's premier chess event which set a new record for entries

"The snow was potentially a bit of a hiccup, but we were lucky it was not as bad as had been feared," said Shropshire Chess Congress' joint organiser, Chris Lewis.

Nevertheless, fellow organiser Phil Love decided not to risk being snowed in at his Newport home, and slept on Saturday night in his camper van at the Telford venue.

A total of 171 players entered the competition, although in the event 166 took part. The bumper entry for the tournament held at the premises of Wrekin Housing Trust took it to capacity and meant it had to close the entry list several days in advance.

"It's definitely a record," said Lewis, who said factors in the success were both the venue, and also the on-site food.

A first for the congress in its 50-year history was a special £100 prize for the best performing female player.

"One of the big focusses of Shropshire chess this year is female chess. Our proportion of female players, even relative to the English Chess Federation, is quite low. I don't know why ­- it's a mystery.

" I think we are at five per cent and the overall average is 13 per cent in the ECF. It's something we want to address and this is just a first step."

Around half a dozen female players entered the tournament and one of them, Margaret Gretton, was in the prizes. However, the female prize for best performance will involve a calculation ­to find which player outperformed their rating by the highest amount.

Lewis added: "As always we are very grateful to the Wrekin Housing Trust who we have to thank for the use of the building. We will be here again next year, although we might lose the use of the top floor and so might have to repurpose the analysis area on the ground floor as a playing area."

The tournament ran from Friday night to Sunday afternoon, with all competitors playing five games over the weekend (although they could chose to take a bye in a round). First prize in each of the four sections was £300.

Joint winners of the Open section, for the strongest players, were Shabir Okhai, of Syston chess club, and FIDE Master Tim Kett (FIDE is the international chess governing body), of Rhyfelwyr Essyllwg. They scored four points out of five. There were four runners up on 3.5 - Tomasz Sygnowski of Wolverhampton, Nathanael Paul of the Shrewsbury-based Telepost club, Rudy van Kemenade of Oswestry, and Phil Zabrocki of Telepost.

Glyn Pugh was outright winner of the Major, for players of a strong club strength, with a score of 4.5. He plays for the Oakengates-based Maddocks chess club. Runners up on four were Carmelo Tirado Simarro, from Spain, and John Cawston, from Ye Olde Starre Inne.

A local junior player, Waylon Chan, of Newport, shared first prize in the Inter with Neil Homer and Nicholas White, each on four points, and there was a six-way tie for the runners up spot, which included locals Roger Brown of Telford and James Holyhead of the Shrewsbury-based Darwinian Knights club.

In the Minor section, Cesar Pileggi of Darwinian Knights was outright winner on 4.5 points, with second place shared by Margaret Gretton, and Sam Bartlett of Ashton.