English Chess Forum

I am investigating possible venues for an international game (non-chess) tournament to be held next November. Expected attendance 100-120. Most attendees will be flying in. Ideally the accommodation should be at the venue or nearby. London is preferred but may be too expensive. Is there a list of tournament venues in England? Suggestions welcome.

Perhaps the closest there is to a list of tournament venues is the ECF Congress diary

Organisers (who are not the ECF) who discover excellent cost effective venues for hosting chess tournaments are generally quite shy and modest in revealing the venues details to other chess organisers.

Quite often they have put in the donkey work, attended dull and tedious meetings, travelled afar and sweated blood (and more) to secure a venue that works for them.

Creating a useful public database of venues could really only fall under the remit of the NGB (ECF) and regional layers such as Unions or county associations. Even then they will claim insufficient resources to make it happen.

What to do? Is there an ECF venue curator?

I am guilty of this myself with a venue that has served me well for many years with a superb relationship with the venue provider.

Many decent venues have been lost to chess by inconsiderate use over the years.

Wellington College was lost when an organiser parked his branded van on the freshly manicured lawn only to inform the porters that he was too important to have to move it.

John Foley wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 24, 2026 11:06 am

I am investigating possible venues for an international game (non-chess) tournament to be held next November. Expected attendance 100-120. Most attendees will be flying in. Ideally the accommodation should be at the venue or nearby.

In the past, the marketing departments of hotel chains have been keen to promote their conference facilities for such events. The model was that the event fills the hotel and the organiser gets the conference rooms thrown in. Some organisers have taken advantage of this to run regular chess tournaments. Perhaps for chess anyway, the room rates demanded are now too expensive.