21st Century Chess, in 21st Century Facilities!

[Andrew Wainwright]

Imagine, a venue that is solely dedicated to promoting Chess at all levels, based outside of London.
A true centre of Chess excellence, where a Chess community can come together to enjoy their love of the game.
No more dingy upstairs rooms/basements in a pub or social club, hidden away from the world, uninviting to new members and junior players alike.
A modern, safe, welcoming, digitally supported and purpose built facility.
A highly accessible location, with great transport links by road and rail.
Now wouldn't that be something???

*Watch this space

[IM Jack Rudd]

It would be something. (It would also be something pretty expensive to build and run, which is the main reason such a thing doesn't already exist.)

[Matt Bridgeman]

I remember in South Australia they have a really useful, large, detached ‘Chess Centre’ in Adelaide. It’s generally always buzzing with junior and senior events and coaching, and it’s probably why South Australia is one of the more active states in Australia for chess. From memory I think the building was willed to Chess South Australia a few decades ago, but I may be mistaken. You’d probably need a similar generous gift to make the idea work here.

[Roger de Coverly]

Imagine, a venue that is solely dedicated to promoting Chess at all levels, based outside of London.

There was an attempt around twenty years ago to develop such a facility in Hastings. The local council was in favour and there may even have been a site in mind. It would have used National Lottery funding and they said "no".

[Matt Bridgeman]

It’s a shame in a way some permanent infrastructure doesn’t remain from the 1980’s boom of successful English grandmasters.

[Mick Norris]

Imagine, a venue that is solely dedicated to promoting Chess at all levels, based outside of London.
A true centre of Chess excellence, where a Chess community can come together to enjoy their love of the game.
No more dingy upstairs rooms/basements in a pub or social club, hidden away from the world, uninviting to new members and junior players alike.
A modern, safe, welcoming, digitally supported and purpose built facility.
A highly accessible location, with great transport links by road and rail.
Now wouldn't that be something???

*Watch this space

Will we able to see it from this side of the Pennines

[Andrew Wainwright]

Imagine, a venue that is solely dedicated to promoting Chess at all levels, based outside of London.
A true centre of Chess excellence, where a Chess community can come together to enjoy their love of the game.
No more dingy upstairs rooms/basements in a pub or social club, hidden away from the world, uninviting to new members and junior players alike.
A modern, safe, welcoming, digitally supported and purpose built facility.
A highly accessible location, with great transport links by road and rail.
Now wouldn't that be something???

*Watch this space

Will we able to see it from this side of the Pennines

Don't know about that Mick, but we certainly home you lot from the "wrong side of the hills" will come visit some time

[Andrew Wainwright]

It would be something. (It would also be something pretty expensive to build and run, which is the main reason such a thing doesn't already exist.)

Doesn't exist yet.........

[Joey Stewart]

I guess there is always a chance a chess player wins the euro lottery and just cant think of anything better to do with their hundreds of millions then building some sort of shrine to chess, but until that happens I think the old chess and bridge clubs are as close as we will ever get in the UK - the impression I have got from attending years of chess AGMs is that most chess players are pretty reluctant to part with money for anything that they do not consider to be of vital importance so crowd funding a £50 million chess kingdom may well be impossible.


I have got to say, it would be pretty cool though, I would definitely go check it out if it ever does happen

[Andrew Wainwright]

It has been a while since I posted on this topic, which I am sure you will understand is as a result of COVID delaying our project.

Anyway, our plans are progressing and we have great hopes of opening the doors of the Chess Centre later this year.

More details to follow in due course.........

[Stewart Reuben]

ANDREW that is good news indeed.
I have never visited the 3Cs establishment, but understand it meets some of the criteria.

Losing the National Chess Centre in the 1950s in London was a serious blow.

Marshall CC in Manhattan i still going. In the 1960s there were several others, including the late lamented Manhattan.

Four dedicated venues in New Zealand where Britain can only manage three.

[RichardChristie]

Which 4 dedicated venues in New Zealand, Stewart? Do you mean the clubs that own their own venues?

[Nick Burrows]

Best of luck with this project. I find this a really exciting prospect that would be an invaluable resource for English Chess. Lets hope this virus bites the dust pronto.

[Alan Walton]

I have never visited the 3Cs establishment, but understand it meets some of the criteria.

The 3Cs venue is a church hall, but we have our own dedicated room within it (containing a library of chess books and a couple of computers); then there is the main hall where the young/beginner coaching occurs, the the improving juniors use the smaller room for more detail coaching, and finally upstairs in the main function hall an advanced group gets coaching (using overhead projector and Chessbase)

Whilst we don't own the building we have agreement that Thursday is always our night, and Tuesday evenings are match nights

On the location, it is in the village of Lees (fortunately I live 50 metres away), which is around a mile from the tram stop at Oldham (with a bus link every 15 mins to the village); so very accessible, but a little problematic with public transport for very late finishes

Historically since the beginning of the club, we have normally been located at the school wherever Stephen Rigby (the founder) was teaching; this is how I got involved in the mid-1980s at my junior school

[John Clarke]

The trouble with having a dedicated chess centre in a convenient location is that sooner or later some greedy-bastard developer is likely to start eyeing it up and figuring how the property could be made to yield more "return". I can think of at least two places in central Wellington that for years served worthy community or cultural purposes, but were ultimately taken over by the multi-storey addicts, aided by a friendly council and/or government. Token gestures to continuity ultimately came to nothing.