English Chess Forum

Build it and they will come...

https://www.chesscentre.online

Well we built it, they came and they keep coming!
Our junior club is full to burst, resulting in the launch of a second junior club night. Our adult socials have attracted no less than 40 brand new players since May (ok not all have signed up but a good number have). We have hosted multiple events already and our monthly RapidPlays are proving particularly popular. We will soon be entering teams in two local leagues due to start up again in Sep/Oct. We have a fully licensed bar, run entirely on a not-for-profit basis by volunteers. We are in the process of donating 120+ free sets to local primary schools in Sep and we’ve even had a couple of recent GMs visit us!
Not bad for a couple of unknown lads from Yorkshire

On a serious note though we are approaching the 6 month mark of our initial 3yr project and everything is progressing very well. We have been overwhelmed by support both locally and further afield. We hope to publish a paper in due course on our project - a blue print if you will on how chess facilities can be created to very high standards, very cost effectively and on a sustainable basis. We firmly believe that this is needed for the future of our game in the UK and we welcome anyone who is interested to get in touch to learn more - [email protected]

How as the evening spent....boxing up 120 Free Chess Sets ready for delivery this coming week to local Primary Schools!
Many thanks to the BDCA (Sam Scurfield Legacy), Malcolm Pein and Chess in Schools & Communities for their support towards this project.
We need to nurture grass roots Chess across the country. There are many great initiative out there, but more of us need to get involved.
#thechesscentre
#notforprofit
#givingsomethingback

That's great news Andy and I agree entirely with your last sentence.

Very excited that we will be hosting our first ever IM Norm Event (All Play All) in Feb 2022!

See the ECF Calendar for the EJCOA Ilkley Chess Centre IM Norm Event 23-27 Feb 2022.

Alongside this will be a FIDE Rated 10 Player Junior Invitational for aspiring junior players on the same dates.

Andrew Wainwright wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 09, 2021 12:19 pm

.

Alongside this will be a FIDE Rated 10 Player Junior Invitational for aspiring junior players on the same dates.

Sounds exciting.
Have you considered organising Scheveningen (team all play all) of juniors Vs adults?

Wadih Khoury wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 09, 2021 3:53 pm

Andrew Wainwright wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 09, 2021 12:19 pm

.

Alongside this will be a FIDE Rated 10 Player Junior Invitational for aspiring junior players on the same dates.

Sounds exciting.
Have you considered organising Scheveningen (team all play all) of juniors Vs adults?

Interesting idea. Not something we have looked at yet, but looks of interesting projects coming next year!

Andrew Wainwright wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 07, 2021 10:05 pm

How as the evening spent....boxing up 120 Free Chess Sets ready for delivery this coming week to local Primary Schools!
Many thanks to the BDCA (Sam Scurfield Legacy), Malcolm Pein and Chess in Schools & Communities for their support towards this project.
We need to nurture grass roots Chess across the country. There are many great initiative out there, but more of us need to get involved.
#thechesscentre
#notforprofit
#givingsomethingback

I didn't notice this post before - are these the very same sets that were talked about years ago in the holloid plastics promotion?

Joey Stewart
>I didn't notice this post before - are these the very same sets that were talked about years ago in the Holloid plastics promotion?<
NO. That project was an almost total disaster. It was too ambitious.
Another matter. Just giving sets away does not always work. People onsite who will make use of them are even more essential.
As with Joey, I hitherto failed to notice his question.

Quite right Stewart, we have nothing to do with that project. These sets were bought by us from Chess & Bridge, with several contributions as detailed above. They were donated for free to local primary schools as a part of our mission to galvanise the local chess community.

I can't believe that it coming up to the 1st anniversary of the Chess Centre taking our premises in Ilkley. What a year it has been!

We look forward to publishing our Year 1 Report in the coming months - A tale of lessons learned, what went well, how we would do it better next time, what did it all cost, and is it now standing on its own two feet?

Full line up for our IM Norm event next month (in partnership with EJCOA) is on Tim Wall's website:

https://northumbriamasters.com/3rd-ejco ... -feb-2022/

1 IM Jose Camacho-Collados (KOR, 2400)
2 FM Jonah Willow (ENG, 2360)
3 FM Yichen Han (NED, 2347)
4 IM David Eggleston (ENG, 2343)
5 FM Paul Macklin (ENG, 2341)
6 FM William Claridge-Hansen (ENG, 2340)
7 FM Iain Gourlay (SCO, 2318)
8 IM Stephen Mannion (SCO, 2271)
9 FM Shreyas Royal (ENG, 2243)
10 FM Adam Ashton (ENG, 2379)

Should be a great first IM Norm event at the Chess Centre.

Great job, helping more British players get titles is a positive tournament outcome.

Very cool to see round 1 of the first IM Norm event at the venue going so well.

https://lichess.org/broadcast/3rd-ejcoa ... 1/fA7CvZTq

Great stuff. I'll be rooting for W C-H of course. Hopefully the live board issue will be sorted for subsequent rounds.