The activities of the club are financed through an annual subscription. Our membership year runs from 1 September to 31 August. Membership entitles you to take part free of charge in club activities for the year ahead. These include:
There are separate arrangements for taking part in the Junior Club which takes place earlier on Monday evenings. See the Juniors page. Also, the Guildford FIDE Congress is an open, public event, for which everyone pays an entry fee.
The annual rates for 2024/25 are as follows:
New members who start coming to the club from November onwards will be offered a pro-rata subscription rate.
Please note:
The membership fee is payable by bank transfer – details available from the treasurer.
Please give your name as the reference. If you are paying for someone else, eg a junior, please give their name followed by your name.
It is not part of the membership fee, but if you wish to make a donation to the club to support our work, please contact the treasurer separately. We are grateful for all donations received.
It is club policy that all members of the club should also become members of the English Chess Federation. This is the central body that organises chess in England. It offers a number of services to ECF members, most importantly the free rating of the games they play.
There are various levels of ECF membership. For club purposes you need to enrol at the Bronze level which covers all internal club activities and league matches, or at Gold level if you also expect to play in external tournaments.
Again, if this is financially difficult for you, please contact the treasurer.
ECF membership is annual and runs for 12 months from the date of joining (or renewing your membership) until the end of the relevant month in a year’s time. So if you joined or renewed any time in September 2024, your membership would run until the end of September 2025.
In order to join or renew, please visit the ECF website at https://www.englishchess.org.uk/ecf-membership-rates-and-joining-details/ which has all the information you need. Please note there are separate sections for existing members and new members. If you used to be a member, but your membership has expired, please click the Existing members button rather than signing up as a new member.
When you join the ECF you receive a 6-digit membership number which they will email to you direct. This is also recorded on the ECF Rating Database. To see your data including the membership number, please visit https://www.ecfrating.org.uk/v2/new/list_players.php and enter your surname in the box provided.