Guildford Chess Club

Welcome to our world!

We aim to provide a safe and secure inclusive environment for all chess players to play and learn about chess.

We are one of the strongest chess clubs in the UK, with over 50 regular adult players and 100 juniors in membership, spanning the complete ability range from beginner to expert.

We currently field 20 teams across four leagues – the Surrey League, the Surrey Border League, the 4 Nations Chess League and the 4NCL Online. Some of our members also play for Surrey County teams and have represented England at both Junior and Senior levels.

Our regular club night is at 7.30pm on Mondays night for adults (earlier for juniors) from September to July at the Guildford Institute on Ward Street – we're closed in August and on Bank Holidays.

We encourage all our members to participate in the life of the club in some way.

Map

How the site works

Access to everything on the site is via the Navigation menu at the top of the page. Move the cursor over each item to reveal a drop-down menu with links to all the pages.

  • About – our constitution, contacts, gallery, history, library, membership, privacy policy, roll of honour, and safeguarding policy.

  • Activities – our calendar, coaching, junior club, league chess, and tournaments.

  • Directory – chess advice, games by club members, and links to the outside chess world.

And below on our home page, see our blog with all the latest news about the club.

It's easy to contact us. There's a contact form below for adults, and a contact form on our Juniors page for juniors.

Click on the club logo on the top left to return to the home page.

Latest news

30 September club night

Last night we played two home matches in the Surrey Border League. In Division 1, Guildford A won 3–2 against a strong Farnham A side. Although we had a rating advantage of over 100 points a board, this was a tough match, with the outcome in doubt until the end of the evening. In Division 6, the all-junior Guildford F team did very well to beat the higher-rated Farnham E team 4–0.

The Internal Rapidplay and (new) Internal Standardplay events continued. We welcomed Oleg Maksak and his daughter Liubava to the club, from Ukraine and now living in the UK. Liubava is the current British Under 8 Girls champion.

Thanks also to Mike Gunn for running the Beginners' Group this week.

Tags: October 2024

High Street recruitment event – Saturday 14 September

Our annual recruitment event takes place on Guildford High Street from 10.00am to 2.00pm on Saturday 14 September. Club members will be playing chess against each other and anyone else who wants a game, and there will be a large demonstration board as well. This is to publicise the club and we hope to attract some new members.

Tags: September 2024

Programme of activities for 2024/25

Following the AGM on Monday 2 September, the main elements of our programme for 2024/25 are as shown below. Everything starts at 7.30pm except for the Junior Club which runs from 5.15pm to 7.15pm. All competitive games are submitted for ECF rating. All events are free to club members except the club dinner in September 2024 and the Guildford FIDE Congress in April 2025.

On pre-arranged match nights:
  • League and cup matches in a range of competitions – for teams of between 4 and 10 players. Mostly standardplay, some rapidplay.
Every week from September 2024 to May 2025:
  • Internal Rapidplay – 3 rounds an evening, time control 15 minutes for the game plus 15 seconds a move.
  • Internal Standardplay – Time control 75 minutes for the game plus 15 seconds a move (or 45 minutes for the game plus 15 seconds a move if both players agree).
  • Beginners and Improvers groups – casual games, commentary, informal coaching by club members. On some dates there will be a training session with IM Andrew Martin.
In term-time (3 terms a year):
  • Junior Club, with training by qualified chess coaches in a range of different ability groups.
Tournaments:
  • Guildford FIDE Congress – 11 to 13 April 2025 at the University of Surrey.
  • Guildford Summer tournament – on 8 Monday nights in June and July 2025.
Special events:
  • High Street recruitment event – 14 September 2024.
  • Club Dinner – 27 September 2024 at 7.30pm at Olivo's in Guildford.

Tags: September 2024

Guildford Blitz Tournament

Guildford Blitz 2024

20 players entered the end-of-season blitz at the club. This was a 9-round individual blitz at the time control of 3 minutes a game plus 2 seconds a move. The top seed, Jon Ady, was the runaway winner, finishing on 9/9. Second equal on 6.5/9 were Anton Barysenka and Riyad Bensoussane. Thank you to everyone who played. For the final table see the tournament page on Chess-Results.

Tags: July 2024

Guildford Summer Tournament

GST 2024: final report

The tournament is now finished. Thank you to all the players who took part. Congratulations to the section winners, who each become club champion for their section for 2024:
Open – Gwilym Price on 6.5/8
Minor – Sean Sussex on 7/8.

A total of 59 players entered the tournament, which sets a new record.

Tags: July 2024

Guildford Summer Tournament

GST 2024: Round 2

Round 2 took place tonight. As before, the results mostly went the way of the rating in both sections. In the Open, 7 players share the lead on 2/2. In the Minor, 3 players share the lead on 2/2. Expect to see some heavyweight clashes next week.

The tournament numbers increased to 57 with one further entry to the Open from next week onwards.

Tags: June 2024

Guildford Summer Tournament

GST 2024: Round 1

There was a late flurry of entries bringing the total to 56 (Open 41, Minor 15). This is a new record. Setting the upper limit of the Minor at 1550 seems to have achieved the aim of bringing members of the Beginners' Group into competitive tournament play. Well done them.

In both sections, the results very much went with the ratings. Although this is less meaningful in the Minor where more of the ratings are estimates. The last game in the Open did not finish until 10.30pm. One of the most heartening features of the evening was the beginners' post-match analysis in the downstairs room with Seb Galer, Peter Hegarty, Sean Sussex and others.

Tags: June 2024

Match reports

20 May club night

The Surrey Border League finished on a high note for Guildford when the A team beat Sandhurst A by 3.5–1.5. The highlight was Gwilym Price beating Steven Jones on board 2, taking revenge for his loss to Steven in this fixture earlier in the season. This means Guildford A finish runners up to Sandhurst A in the Division 1 table.

The internal rapidplay has finally ended, after 30 evenings and 93 rounds featuring 62 players. Riyad Bensoussane and James Toon both finished on 25 points so will play off for the title over the summer.

All eyes now turn to the summer tournament, due to start on 3 June. This will be the only organised event in the club for a period of 8 weeks from 3 June.

Tags: May 2024

Guildford FIDE Congress

Guildford FIDE Congress 2024 – Home players do well

The congress took place over the weekend. It ran smoothly and the players seemed to enjoy it. A total of 164 players took part. 75 in the Open, 61 in the Major and 28 in the Minor.

Guildford players featured strongly in the prizes:
  • In the Open, Alex Golding and Gwilym Price were among a group of six players who tied for 1st place on 4/5.
  • In the Major, Liam Ireland came equal 1st on 4.5/5. Harry Taylor came equal 3rd on 4/5. Julien Shepley also came equal 3rd, but walked away with the prize for the best senior player congress-wide.
  • In the Minor, none of ours won a prize, but there's an honourable mention for Ivy Piatt who finished just outside the prizes on 3.5/5.
Next year's event takes place at the same venue from Friday 11 April to Sunday 13 April 2025.

Tags: Progress report

Page 1 / 5 Next Page >

Contact us

This form is for enquiries from adults. For juniors please use the contact form on our Juniors page.

© 2024 Guildford Chess Club