{"id":24,"date":"2025-02-01T11:36:25","date_gmt":"2025-02-01T11:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southamptonchess.org.uk\/?page_id=24"},"modified":"2026-10-01T19:17:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T19:17:20","slug":"home","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/southamptonchess.org.uk\/","title":{"rendered":"Southampton Chess Club"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignfull has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-cover alignfull\" style=\"margin-top:0;min-height:213px;aspect-ratio:unset;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1400\" height=\"472\" class=\"wp-block-cover__image-background wp-image-124\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/southamptonchess.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/chess-board-pieces.jpg\" data-object-fit=\"cover\" srcset=\"https:\/\/southamptonchess.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/chess-board-pieces.jpg 1400w, https:\/\/southamptonchess.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/chess-board-pieces-300x101.jpg 300w, https:\/\/southamptonchess.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/chess-board-pieces-1024x345.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/southamptonchess.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/chess-board-pieces-768x259.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px\" \/><span aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-cover__background has-black-background-color has-background-dim-0 has-background-dim\"><\/span><div class=\"wp-block-cover__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-cover-is-layout-flow\">\n<div style=\"height:50px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Southampton Chess Club<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Welcome to Southampton Chess Club! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our new season is under way and we&#8217;re into our regular pattern of competitive, ECF-rated games on Tuesday evenings at St Denys Community Centre, along with more informal meetings which are usually on the first Saturday of each month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Want to give chess a try?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We meet for competitive, rated games on Tuesday evenings from September until May &#8211; newcomers are very welcome and you can see more info about these sessions below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If this feels a bit daunting, we also have more informal meet-ups once or twice a month. Maybe you play chess online or casually with friends and you&#8217;d like to step it up a bit &#8211; come along and test your skills! Here&#8217;s when we&#8217;re next meeting:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Saturday 3rd October <\/strong>at the Mitre pub on Portswood Road, from 11.00am to around 12.30pm<br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.greeneking.co.uk\/pubs\/hampshire\/mitre\">https:\/\/www.greeneking.co.uk\/pubs\/hampshire\/mitre<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Information for Visitors<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"block-0b3414ef-2022-49ac-8730-c72f7b923113\">Southampton Chess Club was founded in 1883. We welcome visitors and newcomers of all abilities, although see below for what one of our normal sessions looks like &#8211; we are serious about our chess!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"block-f5e283ff-ce1f-4fcb-b984-c2685a091b6d\">The club meets on Tuesday evenings, 7.00-10.30 p.m., September to May inclusive (except between Christmas and New Year), at&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.stdenyscommunitycentre.org.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">St.&nbsp;Denys&nbsp;Community&nbsp;Centre<\/a>&nbsp;(opposite the&nbsp;Junction Inn), Priory Road, St.&nbsp;Denys, Southampton, SO17 2JZ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our Club Championship internal tournament runs through the season from September to May but newcomers are very welcome to join at any time. Just come along to one of our Tuesday evening sessions at St Denys Community Centre &#8211; arrive from 7.00pm for a 7.30 start. You can play three games in the Club Championship free of charge before paying any membership fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"block-572031a5-28df-4a26-a4e1-276425ef2fcc\">Future League and Cup matches, along with details of meetings and other events are available on the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/southamptonchess.org.uk\/index.php\/club-tournaments\/2025-26-season\/\">Club Calendar<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"block-89267ab2-d5bc-4814-9240-a0a42612f67f\">Children and young people are welcome but under-16s must be accompanied by an adult as the Club is not set up to take responsibility for children. Also note that games often finish quite late although we do have an optional rate of play for school-age children which means their game will finish no later than 10.00pm. Other clubs in the area do have activities aimed at children &#8211;&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.hjca.org.uk\/junior-clubs\/\">see the Hampshire Junior Chess Association website for details of children&#8217;s chess activities<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"block-d673e496-6af5-4c1c-9daa-7cb7b5861501\">For more information, please see the &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/southamptonchess.org.uk\/about.php\">About the Club<\/a>&#8221; page, email us at <a href=\"mailto:southamptonchess@gmail.com\">southamptonchess@gmail.com<\/a>&nbsp;or call <a href=\"tel:07545774096\">07545 774096<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Local tournaments<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If you are interested in other tournaments, here&#8217;s what is happening locally over the next couple of months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>2026 UK Open Blitz Championships qualifier:<\/strong>\u00a03rd October at\u00a0Barton Peveril Sixth Form College, Eastleigh &#8211;\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.englishchess.org.uk\/2026-uk-open-blitz-championships-qualifiers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/www.englishchess.org.uk\/2026-uk-open-blitz-championships-qualifiers\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The 2026 Hampshire Chess Congress &amp; Hampshire Individual Championships:<\/strong>\u00a023rd-25th October at the\u00a0Lysses House Hotel, Fareham &#8211;\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.org.uk\/congress\/795\/home\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/www.congress.org.uk\/congress\/795\/home<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Isle of Wight Chess Ocean Tournament:<\/strong> 10th-15th November at the\u00a0Ocean View Hotel in Shanklin, IoW &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iowchess.com\/november2026\">https:\/\/www.iowchess.com\/november2026<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>London Chess Classic:<\/strong> 24th November &#8211; 7th December, mainly at the London Novotel West in Hammersmith &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.londonchessclassic.com\/\">https:\/\/www.londonchessclassic.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Update on last season&#8217;s competitions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Our tournament results for 2025-26 are <a href=\"https:\/\/southamptonchess.org.uk\/index.php\/club-tournaments\/2025-26-season\/\">here on the 2025-26 season page<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The new rapidplay tournament hasn&#8217;t quite finished, but here are the other winners:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Paul Hurn Knockout Trophy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Winner: Niclas Hordnes<br>Runner-up: Dan Nother<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Parsons Cup Lightning Trophy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Winner: Niclas Hordnes<br>Runner-up: Callum Smith<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Club Championship<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Results to be confirmed shortly<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Club Championship format<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Most Tuesday evening sessions are focused on our season-long Club Championship competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These games are put through the English Chess Federation grading system so you need to be a Club member (and an ECF member) to take part. Newcomers are welcome to play three games in the Club Championship before committing to joining for the season, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s how the Club Championship works:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Arrive at St Denys Community Centre from 7.00pm and register to play a Club Championship game<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>We&#8217;ll pair you up for a game with someone who&#8217;s doing roughly as well as you are (the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20250128050219\/https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Swiss-system_tournament\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Swiss S<\/strong><\/a><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Swiss-system_tournament\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">y<\/a><\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20250128050219\/https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Swiss-system_tournament\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>stem<\/strong><\/a>) but we will swap people around a bit in favour of relative beginners. It&#8217;s not always fun to have a run of bad losses against far more experienced players, though it can be a good way of learning!<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The time control is 36 moves in 75 minutes for each person, then 15 minutes to finish. We get started at 7.30pm so the game will finish by 10.30pm at the absolute latest (usually earlier).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>If both players agree then the time control can be 36 moves in 75 minutes, then 24 moves every 60 minutes (so the game might need to be adjourned and finished another evening)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Alternatively, if both players agree then you can play with 80 minutes for all your moves, and a 10-second increment from the start (you&#8217;ll need to use one of our digital clocks for this option)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Shorter rate of play for young people<\/strong>&nbsp;If either of the players in a game is in school year 11 or below, they can insist on a shorter time control to ensure their game will finish by 10.00pm. This is 30 moves in 60 minutes for each person, then 15 minutes to finish<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Southampton Chess Club Welcome to Southampton Chess Club! Our new season is under way and we&#8217;re into our regular pattern of competitive, ECF-rated games on Tuesday evenings at St Denys Community Centre, along with more informal meetings which are usually on the first Saturday of each month. Want to give chess a try? We meet [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":90,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-24","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southamptonchess.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southamptonchess.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southamptonchess.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southamptonchess.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southamptonchess.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24"}],"version-history":[{"count":95,"href":"https:\/\/southamptonchess.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":453,"href":"https:\/\/southamptonchess.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24\/revisions\/453"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southamptonchess.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southamptonchess.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}