Chess players nearly checkmated by burst tyre near Shrewsbury
Top chess players were left stranded on the A5 in Shropshire after their car suffered a burst tyre on the way to a key relegation decider.
Five members of the Celtic Tigers 1 team – including French grandmaster Matthieu Cornette and Polish international master Karina Szczepkowska – were on their way to the final round of fixtures in the Four Nations Chess League at the Telford Centre hotel when disaster struck just 45 minutes before the match was due to start.
Team manager Chris Skulte was forced to concede his game by default against North East England – a match where both teams needed a result to avoid relegation from the top flight of English chess.
One of the players – Latvian Ritvars Reimanis – needed to win his game to achieve an international master norm – the first step towards gaining the IM title.
But the remaining four players made it to the venue in time to play their matches after another team member John Quinn doubled back to pick them up.
