The Friendly Club!
The St George Chess Club prides itself on a diverse membership with a range of chess abilities. We foster a social atmosphere for players of all ages and abilities.
The club runs regular internal club competitions and participates in interclub tournaments. More information about the activities can be found from the calendar.
Club Games: 7:30pm Tuesday nights, Prince Edward Rooms, St George Leagues Club, 124 Princes Highway, Kogarah NSW
News
Intense Dragon-Fire Reported at Northern Sydney Chess Venue
Last Tuesday night, St George Chess Club won the first leg of the annual two-match contest against our traditional rival, Norths Chess. Travelling across the dark waters of Sydney Harbour, fifty Dragons landed in Cammeray, with the highest rated forty players paired against the Norths champions. It was a comprehensive victory to St George 23-17, appreciably more impressive than our one-point away match win from 2024. Last year, Norths came back to win the second home leg, also by a single point, thus leading to the first tie in this 38 year competition.
But can Norths come back against a six-point deficit? History tells us we cannot rest on our laurels – in 2011 Norths were 7 points down after the first leg, but won the second leg by 11 points to hold onto the John Kellner/Terrey Shaw Memorial Trophy. Come November we will welcome Norths to St George, so keep honing your chess skills, Dragons! Many thanks to Charles Zworestine for his hard work in drawing together such an excellent team! Full results, including boards 41-50, can be viewed here.
John-Stuart Plant and Arthur Huynh share the 2025 Club Champs Honours
The final night of the Club Champs was a somewhat unusual affair with only 24 games played, 10 of which were draws. The turn-up was the upshot of a sudden power blackout across the train network, and this might even have affected the Division 1 outcome: Jeremy Plunkett was unable to make it and thus handed Arthur Huynh the point that allowed him to catch up to John-Stuart Plant. The high proportion of draws is typical of final rounds, and was particularly pronounced in the higher-rated divisions – ‘grandmaster draws’ perhaps.
The Club Champs is always a highlight of the year, made all the more memorable by Charles’ epic newsletter coverage of every single game! The final epistle is in progress as I write, but in the meantime all the results and the tournament trophy winners can be viewed on the Results page! Congratulations to our new Club Champions, John-Stuart and Arthur, and to all the divisional winners!
Upcoming Events at St George & elsewhere
NSW Open: Play the Game of Kings on the King’s Birthday Weekend: June 6-9
After the rush of the the Doeberl Cup and the Sydney International, it’s just over a month to the NSWCA’s next big event, the NSW Open. Held in the Novotel West HQ at Rooty Hill, it is a seven round classical tournament (90 minutes + 30s increment per move). For full details and registration click here.
Registration now CLOSED for St George Club Teams Challenge June 10 – August 12
This is a 9-round team round-robin ACF-rated tournament, with games played under a classical time control: 75 mins each + 10s per move. There will be ten teams with five players in each. The Club Captain (Charles Zworestine) places the players into teams such that each team has, ideally, an equal chance of winning the tournament. Within any one team, the players are sorted (by their ACF rating) to play at Board 1, or Board 2, or Board 3, and so on. On any given night, if you have been designated, for example, as a Board 3 player, you will play a single game against a Board 3 player from one of the other teams.
Registration is now CLOSED for the tournament.