Player Profiles

Name: Callum Abbott
Years: 2021-Present
Callum made a big impression when he joined our club with some good wins for the Cadets team and making it onto the Bombers team within a few months. Callum is also very popular in the club, always fun to play against and his relaxed attitude to the game helps to create a good atmosphere on our club nights. Callum is also known as the most tattooed player in chess and he runs "Holy Goat Tattoo" in Middlesbrough!

Name: Andy Austen
Years: 2018-Present
Andy is a latecomer to chess having started playing in the local libraries. He is pretty much ever present on our club nights and always happy to play anyone. He is getting better all the time and plays regularly for our C and D division teams.

Name: Daniel Ayre
Years: 2022-Present
Daniel met us at Thornaby Show and has been almost ever present at the club since. He was completely new to chess when he joined, but keen to learn and full of enthusiasm!

Name: Francis Batchelor
Years: 2017-Present
Francis is our Aces team captain and regular board 1 player for the team. He arrived at Thornaby via Scotland and the Birmingham chess league. He has won our club championship the last 4 times it has been held. Francis is always very helpful when he wins games at the club and happy to show the rest of us where we went wrong!

Name: Avanish Batra
Years: 2024-Present
Avanish is a friend of Ajay's and although he is new to club chess, has some impressive school and junior results behind him. He's looking forward to his first season playing in the league.

Name: Vardhan Bunga
Years: 2022-Present
Vardhan joined our club towards the end of 2022 and made a quick impression. He was playing for our teams only a month after joining the club and he won on his debut for the Thornaby Challengers. He also joint won our September Quickplay in 2023.

Name: George Butterworth
Years: 2023-Present
"Jiu Jitsu George" as he is known at the library had been coming to our library sessions for 2 years before he joined the club. George always joins the sessions halfway through in his Jiu Jitsu uniform! George had medalled in age group competitions before joining and he has impressed some of our older members (including Francis) with his concentration and knowledge. He recently made his debut for the club and got his first win.

Name: Shanaya Chauhan
Years: 2024-Present
Shanaya is one of our youngest members, but still has a very adult appraoch to the game. She takes her time compared to most junior players and records the moves of some of her friendly games in the club, so she can look though them later. She's already an age group champion and it will be interesting to see how she does in her first league season!

Name: Mike Creaney
Years: 2007-Present
Mike is the longest serving member at Thornaby Chess Club. He has been a member since the club's formation and holds a lot of club records for appearances and points scored for our teams. Mike is still one of our strongest players and always a contender for our club championship. He has joint won it twice (in 2015 and 2020) and been runner up on a further 4 occassions.

Name: Brian Ellis
Years: 2008-Present
Brian is one of our top Aces team players and is a former winner of the individual Cleveland Minor Trophy. He was also the Thornaby club champion in 2011. Brian is a brilliant tactical player and has a distinctive bird-like style of looking around the board to find the weaknesses in your position that he can exploit!

Name: Jonathan Feasby
Years: 2023-Present
Jonathan played a lot online before coming to the club and won all his games except one on his first night! We were soon convinced enough to put him on board 1 for the Destroyers and also into the Challengers squad. Jonathan has made a great start to league chess winning 3 of his first 5 games.

Name: Josh Fisher
Years: 2023-Present
Josh is on of our most talented young players. Almost entirely taught himself from internet videos. He first came to our library sessions in September 2023 having never even played in a school club! Despite this, he was playing in group one and beating some of our top library players within weeks of his first visit!

Name: Malcolm Goldspink
Years: 2022-Present
Malcolm has the longest gap in his chess career of any of our members. He first played at school and then decided to take it up again after he retired 40 years later! Malcolm initially came to the club as a fun only player, but decided to try competitive chess towards the end of the 22/23 season after a few months at the club. He is now the captain of our Comets team and a solid C and D division player.

Name: Tristan Green
Years: 2022-Present
Tristan is now at Secondary School and he's one of our most promising young players and a regular on our Juniors team. He is already starting to beat adults in the club and twice finished in the medals in the 11 and under section of the Teesside Individual Championship. Tristan was his Primary school champion with 5 wins from 5 games.

Name: Sam Greig
Years: 2022-Present
Sam has emerged as one of our top players. He had played a lot of online chess before he joined, but only played his first ever live games at the Durham Congress in May 2022. He joined our club soon after and started playing for our teams towards the end of the 21/22 season. He had a fantastic 22/23 season for the club rising up the rankings and playing as high as board 2 for the Aces as well as becoming the Durham County Under 1600 rating Champion. Sam has incredible concentration and is almost trance like while he is playing, you wouldn't want to play poker with him!

Name: Eva Harris
Years: 2024-Present
Eva arrived at our library sessions in November 2024 and made an immediate mpact by winning the 2nd group of players. She transitioned stright to the club and is going to start playing for our teams soon. Eva had played a bit at home, at school and online before deciding she wanted to take chess further and try a club.

Name: Clair Hartill
Years: 2024-Present
Clair originally started chess by bringing her sons to our Ingleby Barwick library sessions. She soon decided to have a go herself and is now a regular at both Ingleby and Thornaby libraries. The Hartill's are emerging as one of our newest family dynasties, Clair's twin sons Joseph and Matthew are the only twins ever to joint win a Teesside Junior Championship having shared the Under 7 title in 2024.

Name: Charles Hind
Years: 2023-Present
Charles is a rapidly improving player from the library sessions. He is Tim's son and Freya's brother and was initially a little bit in their shadows. He has emerged as a very good player in his own right and regularly wins the 2nd group at the library. He won on his debut for our Junior team in November 2023 to continue his excellent progress.

Name: Freya Hind
Years: 2023-Present
Freya is a very promising junior girl player from our library sessions. Within 3 months of starting she placed 3rd in the Teesside Megafinal for Under 10 girls! She has recently joined the club and already holds several club records! She is the youngest girl to both play and win for the club in the league. She was also the first female player of any age to win a league game for the club.

Name: Tim Hind
Years: 2023-Present
Tim is a teacher, a recent addition to Thornaby chess and a very welcome one! He helps out at the library every Saturday morning where he particularly focuses on the beginners and younger children. He is a registered Chess in Schools and Communities volunteer. Tim puts a lot into the club and he is also the captain of our Destroyers team.

Name: Laura Holdforth
Years: 2022-Present
Laura started at the club after playing a bit online and she wanted to challenge herself in a club environment. She is getting better all the time and has recently started playing for our teams.

Name: Geoff Howsden
Years: 2014-Present
Geoff is the current Thornaby Chess club treasurer and has played for us since 2014. Geoff works away on rigs, so doesn't get as many games for the teams as he would like, but he's always fun to play against when he is around.

Name: Fletcher Hoyland
Years: 2024-Present
Fletcher is a very talented junior player who immediately caught the eye of Chris in his first session in one of the school chess clubs Chris runs. It was simul week and despite being 2 years younger than most of the other players, Fletcher lasted longer than anyone else! An extremely dangerous attacking player, Fletcher won both his class competition and his school competition with 100% records last season. He's going to try league chess now and is looking forward to his first season.

Name: Rosie Irwin
Years: 2022-Present
Rosie is a quirky Cockney lady, who took up chess having watched the Netflix's show "Queens Gambit" during the COVID19 pandemic national lockdown. A fast study, Rosie rapidly got her playing strength to club level and has participated in some weekend tournaments already. Within a year of learning the game, she was participating within match play for a local Sheffield team. Fascinated by her remarkable progress, Steel City Press owner, Jonathan Arnott, collaborated with Rosie to write her story. The Queen's Gambit - accepted" which can be purchased here. Rosie will be playing in some matches for Thornaby this season.

Name: Mehmet Isci
Years: 2023-Present
Mehmet is a vet and also a good chess player. He joined the club soon after moving to this country from Turkey and he said it helped him to make new friends and he felt very welcome at our club.

Name: Matt Jackman
Years: 2023-Present
Matt joined us from the Buffs chess club after their Thursday home nights became a bad night for him to play. He's one of the top players in the CCA and a former joint CCA Individual Champion. In his first season at the club, Matt helped our Aces team to their highest ever finish in the A division when they finished in 2nd place.

Name: Alex Jamieson
Years: 2024-Present
Alex joined the club in June 2024 after playing a full season at York University. Alex is already a solid club player and will be playing for our teams when he is home from uni. A measure of the growth of the club over the Summer, by September Alex said to me that he already felt like a veteran with so many new players coming through the door after him!

Name: Charlie Johnston
Years: 2022-Present
Charlie started coming to our library sessions in January 2022 and was winning the top group of players soon after. He quickly made the transition to our club and played well in is first competitive season.

Name: Tashil Lankapura
Years: 2023-Present
Tashil started playing chess at school in Sri Lanka and came to Thornaby after moving to this country. A very talented player for his age, he held our club record as the youngest player to play in a match and win a match for Thornaby, both when he was just 8 years old! He's become a big danger in our club speed events and he made the final of our Easter blitz event in 2024.

Name: Toefl Lankapura
Years: 2023-Present
Toefl is Tashil's father and a good chess player himself. He soon joined our club after his first visit with Tashil and was playing for our C division teams within a month. Toefl also helps out with our Saturday library sessions and he's a registered Chess in Schools and Communities volunteer. Toefl is also the only player in the club who is a qualified ECF arbiter.

Name: Zhuoyi Lin
Years: 2024-Present
Zhuoyi first started attending our library sessions in the Summer of 2023, but then took a bit a break before coming back in January 2024. Zhuoyi is one of our most rapidly improving players and after some good league results at the end of 23/24 he was a joint winner of the Under 12 boys at the Teesside Megafinal in May. He regularly plays in the top group at the library now and looks all set for an excellent first full season in the league.

Name: Manuel Lopez
Years: 2022-Present
Manuel is a college Maths teacher who is originally from Spain. He has been coming to the club for a while now and had some good results in our quick events. He plays for our teams when he's not too busy and is always a dangerous and unorthodox player!

Name: Isaac Machin
Years: 2023-Present
Isaac is Joseph's younger brother and one of our most promising primary school age players. He's being coming to our library sessions for over 3 years now and he's won both the Teesside Junior Championship and Darlington Junior Event for his age group. He's joined the club to help him improve even more!

Name: Joseph Machin
Years: 2019-Present
Joseph is our original young superstar and a very bright prospect for the future. He'd been in our club for a couple of years before starting to play for the teams in the 21/22 season. He usually plays on the top 2 boards for the Cadets team and shows he's there on merit with some solid wins and draws against very experienced players. His experience and enthusiasm make him a great role model for our excellent crop of young players and we made him our Junior Captain in 2023.

Name: Geoff Mann
Years: 2023-Present
Geoff first came to our club in the first week of 2023. He joined on his first night and played his first game for the team within a month! Geoff is the captain of our family based Thornaby Dynasties team which features Fathers and Sons. In his first season as captain, Geoff led the team to 2nd place in the D division and promotion.

Name: James Mann
Years: 2023-Present
James is Geoff's son and is a regular in our D division teams. There's a definite family rivalry and James was very pleased to be ahead of his dad on the ladder after their first week of games! Geoff and James are only the second father and son ever to play on the same team at Thornaby, they both played for the Destroyers a few months after joining. James had a good season in 23/24 and will be playing regualrly in the C division this season.

Name: Bill March
Years: 2009-Present
Bill has been a member of Thornaby Chess club for a long time and is one of our longest serving members. He is a rare member of the club in that chess is not is favourite game! Bill's primary love is bridge and he plays competitively at a very high level.

Name: Joe McGinnis
Years: 2019-Present
Joe joined Thornaby in 2019 and he is the current Bombers team captain. He played in Scotland many years ago and decided to start playing again after retiring from his job as a university lecturer. Joe is also interested in helping children learn to play the game and he runs the Ingleby Barwick library session on Friday beween 4pm and 6pm. He is a registered Chess in Schools and Communities volunteer.

Name: Janos Mehes
Years: 2020-Present
Janos is 82 years old, originally from Hungary and a real character! He quickly established himself as a club stalwart attending almost all of our club nights and he is a regular in our C and D division teams. Janos is a popular member of the club, partly because he always brings snacks for everyone!

Name: Bertie Mellis
Years: 2024-Present
Bertie is Iain's son and has been an on-off visitor to both our library sessions over the last 2-3 years. A talented player who has always been able to give our group one players a hard game, he has decided to challenge himself by playing some games in the league this season.

Name: Iain Mellis
Years: 2021-Present
Iain is well known in Thornaby as a local optician. He used to play in school and he decided to join our club after chatting to one of our members about chess during an eye test. Iain is a very good speed chess player and has an aggressive attacking style. He made an instant impact at the club winning 4 of his first 5 competitive games and is already a very solid B division player. Iain is also interested in helping children learn to play the game and he helps out at our library sessions in both Thornaby and Ingleby Barwick. He is a registered Chess in Schools and Communities volunteer.

Name: Aryan Nalawade
Years: 2024-Present
Aryan is new to club chess, but a prolific winner of local school and junior events. Some of our top juniors including Sagar, Joseph and Ajay had all mentioned how good he was to Chris. As a result, Chris decided to try to recruit Aryan by chatting to his parents at the Teesside Megafinal in 2024. Aryan made an almost instant impact at the club by scoring 10.5 out of 11 in his group and then crusing through the knockout stages to eventually lose to Francis in the final of our Summer blitz event. He will be going straight into our Cadets team this season.

Name: Kaira Nalawade
Years: 2024-Present
Kaira is Aryan's younger sister and a good player in her own right. Kaira was the overall runner up in the Under 11 section of the Teesside Junior Championships in 2024 which made her the girls champion. Kaira is confident for her age, always smiling and clearly enjoys the social side of the club as well as the chess.

Name: Stephen Ollis
Years: 2023-Present
Stephen had 2 years of experience playing for the Buffs club before joining Thornaby and he is already a good club level player. He had some good results in the B and C division in his first season for Thornaby and is rapidly climbing up our rating list.

Name: Maurice Olum
Years: 2024-Present
Maurice came to the club recently via our Ingleby Barwick library sessions. He wasn't sure if he was good enough to play in the league, but looks to be a solid player who should do well in the D division this season.

Name: Rhys Orton
Years: 2023-Present
Rhys is another of our excellent library juniors who finished as the runner in the 14-16 age category at the 2023 Darlington Junior Chess Championship. He qualified for the Giga final in 2024 and had a good season on the Cadets team in 23/24. Rhys also loves playing rugby and is a member of the "tea club" at school!

Name: Santiago Palencia
Years: 2024-Present
Santiago joined our club in September 2024 and made an instant impact by finishing on 4.5/5 in our September Quickplay. He followed that result up by finishing as the Runner Up in a Billingham Rapid event in the same week. Santiago will initally be playing for our Challengers team and is undoubtedly an exciting prospect for this season.

Name: Wes Park
Years: 2022-Present
Wes is another of our excellent junior players. Harris might be getting commission soon as he is another player to come from the same school club! Wes is very competitive in the top group of library players and won it within a few weeks of his first visit. He first came to prominence at the club in our 2022 Xmas rapidplay by making the semi finals and went on to have an excellent season for both our B52s team and Cadets team in the 22-23 season.

Name: Bhima Patil
Years: 2022-Present
Bhima is Sagar's father and originally taught him how to play! He is a doctor at James Cook hospital with a speciality in Neurophysiology. Always fun to chat to on club nights, Bhima is a fair player himself and often joins in our internal competitions as well as playing for our teams as a reserve when needed.

Name: Sagar Patil
Years: 2022-Present
Sagar emerged from our library sessions as our most exicting young prospect. He made a name for himself at the club in our April 2022 rapid play tournament by making the final and only losing out to Francis. He followed that up shortly after by winning 2 pretigious junior titles. He won the Under 12 section of the Teesside Megafinal with 6/6 and the Over 11 Teesside Individual Junior Championship with 5/5. Sagar excels at chess puzzles and often finds the solutions to complex problems first at the library. He made excellent progress in his first competitive season to finish in our top 8 players on rating. In 23-24 he played regularly for the Aces and Bombers holding his own in the A/B division. Although others have closed the gap slightly, Sagar remains our highest rated junior player by some distance.

Name: Thomas Pyman
Years: 2024-Present
Thomas is a recent addition to the club who has played a lot online. He played several league matches at the end of 2023-24 season and looks like he'll be another solid player for us.

Name: Steve Rodgers
Years: 2023-Present
Steve used to play with Mike Creaney 30 years ago! He decided to get back into chess to keep his mind active and challenge himself. Mike told us that Steve used to be a very good player and we quickly found this out ourselves! Steve quickly forced his way into the Bombers team and made his Aces debut in the 2024 Cup final where he was our only player to win his board.

Name: Chris Ross
Years: 2019-Present
Chris Ross is one of the top blind players in the country and has represented England internationally many times. He is also one of the top players (including sighted) in the whole Cleveland area and he plays on the top board for the Thornaby Aces team when available.

Name: Sachin Saggar
Years: 2024-Present
Sachin lives some distance away, but is still a regular visitor to our club. He liked the look of our photos! Sachin plays a complicated atatcking style and always causes problems for his opponent. He reached the Quarter Finals of our Summer Rapidplay event and looks set to do well in the league for us this season.

Name: Ajay Selvan
Years: 2023-Present
Ajay started coming to our library sessions after 8 years of experience and success in local junior competitions. He won his first junior title when he was just 7 years old. This experience has shown and he has impressed at the library and club since joining us. In Summer 2023 he was the only library player to defeat Francis in a simul. His first competitive season in the league went well and he only lost 2 games out of 12 in the C division. This performance earnt him the prestigious club "Young Player of the Year" award for 23-24.

Name: Neil Sotheby
Years: 2024-Present
Neil was originally accompanying George's Dad in the bar on our club nights, but gradually got hooked watching the games and decided to give it a go himself! He's quickly got into it and is going to be captaining one of our new D division teams this season, the Thornaby Dragoons!

Name: Richard Stevenson
Years: 2023-Present
Richard is the father of Sam and a reasonable player himself. He initially dipped his toe into competitve chess in the 22-23 season by having a go at the Club Championship B division. In 23-24 he waspart of our promotion winning family based Dynasties team along with Sam. Richard is always a positive and enthusiastic personality at the club and he ran our 100 club in the 23-24 season.

Name: Sam Stevenson
Years: 2023-Present
Sam joined the club in 2023 having first played at Fairfield Primary School. He already had some good junior results before joining us! In 2023 he finished runner up to Sagar in the Teesside Megafinal Under 12 section despite being at the younger end of the age bracket and in 2024 he followd this up by winning the section. Sam regularly plays in group 1 in the library and is well capable of beating some of the older boys. He's certainly one of our brightest prospects for the future!

Name: Alan Stockley
Years: 2023-Present
Alan joined us as a very experienced player with over 30 years playing in the local league! He's Thornaby's oldest member at 91 years old and he's still a very solid club player. He had one of our club's highest percentages in the 23-24 season scoring well for both the Destroyers in the D division and the Challengers in the C division.

Name: Chris Swales
Years: 2019-Present
Chris is a former York University Captain and a former Redcar Club Quickplay Champion. He stopped playing chess after moving away from the area for work in 1999, but started playing again in 2019 for Thornaby. After initially playing for the Bombers for 3 seasons, including finishing as the B division top scorer in 21-22, Chris climbed up our rating list into our top 5. As a result, in the 23-24 season Chris was a regular on the Aces team which finished as Runners Up in the league. Chris is also interested in helping children learn to play the game and he runs the Thornaby library Saturday morning sessions. He is also one of the 5 registered Chess in Schools and Communities tutors for the Teesside area and runs chess sessions in several local schools.

Name: Nick Tadd
Years: 2014-Present
Nick is a former player for the now defunct Guisborough team and a legendary character within local chess circles! Nick is also interested in helping children learn to play the game and he is a registered Chess in Schools and Communities volunteer. Nick has endless energy and enthusiasm for the game and since 2021 he has used those qualities to help drive the club forward as our club chairman.

Name: Pete Townson
Years: 2022-Present
Pete had played a lot online before joining our club and was immediately very competitive against some of our B division players. Pete spends part of the year in Spain, but when he is in the country he plays for Thornaby. Pete is a very positive and enthusiastic member of the club and in 24-25 he will be captaining our Challengers team for the first time.

Name: James Urwin
Years: 2021-Present
James joined the club after playing a lot of online chess during lockdown. A great addition to Thornaby, his infectious enthusiasm helps to create a good atmosphere on our club nights. James made incredible progress at the club after a slow start for the Cadets losing 4 of his first 5 games. He's now established himself as a respected B division player, a definite threat for the club championship and he has won a section in an external congress!

Name: Joe Vera-Sanso
Years: 2024-Present
Joe joined the club in the Summer of 2024 along with his father in law Phil Wales. He's new to club chess, but getting better quickly. Joe enjoys the social side of the club and in our September Rapidplay he said, "I may have lost most of my games, but I had a good time. Chess players should have a fun rating instead of just having a rating based on results!" An excellent attitude to have!

Name: Phil Wales
Years: 2024-Present
Phil joined the club in the Summer of 2024 after recently retiring from work. He previously played for Middlesbrough club for a season or 2 about 20 years ago. Phil showed his experience bny giving some of our best players tough games and he has finished in the top 4 of our last 3 quick events. He reached the semi final of our Summer Rapidplay and Summer blitz events and he was one of 3 players to share the joint win in our September Rapidplay event with 5/6.

Name: Ollie Walton
Years: 2022-Present
Ollie has been coming to our library sessions since 2018. Despite being an occassional visitor since then, he only joined our club in 2022. Ollie has a lot of other interests, including being an army cadet and playing rubgy. He decided to try to take his chess up a level by joining the club and playing regularly in the league for us. Ollie is always full of fun and he is a very aggressive player who often wins quickly against weaker players.

Name: Jayden Wang
Years: 2024-Present
Jayden had been a regular visitor at Ingleby Library for a while before starting to come to Thornaby as well. A brilliant player for his age, Jayden was the Teesside Junior Under 7 Champion in 2023 and the Teesside Under 8 Megafinal Champion in 2024. He moved to the club towards the end of the 23-24 season and he has already broken our club record as our youngest player in a league match at just 7 years old!

Name: Ben Webb
Years: 2024-Present
Ben joined the club in the Summer of 2024 and has played quite a bit online before. He's a fun new member of the club and is looking forward to his first season playing in the league.

Name: Harris Wilson
Years: 2022-Present
Harris is one of the best of an exicting group of youngsters to come through from our library sessions. He was a regular winner of the top group of players at the library before coming through to the club and quickly starting to beat some of our experienced team players on our club nights and in our rapid events.