About Us

The Friendly Club!

The St George Chess Club prides itself on a diverse membership with a range of chess abilities. Since our inauguration in 1966, we have fostered 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.

Meeting place: St George Leagues Club, 124 Princes Highway, Kogarah NSW

Meeting time: 7:30pm Tuesday nights (finishing time changes depending on the nature of the tournament being played, although games rarely go past 11:00pm)

Join the CHESS Club

Joining the club is very simple – just come to our  rooms at the St George Leagues Club! There is no application form, but you will need to pay our very economical annual membership fee.

Membership: $25.

Online payments: Please make the payment using a direct bank transfer to our CBA account:

BSB: 062-126
Account: 0090 0863
Account Name: St George Leagues Club Chess Club.

Please ensure you quote your name on the deposit reference, and, once submitted, send a confirmation email to boanmark@bigpond.net.au

Adult club members, and at least one parent of a junior member, must also join St Georges Leagues Club (join here).  Associate membership prices are only $2-3/year.

Membership entitlements: Entry into all of the St George tournaments that do not offer cash prizes:

      • The St George Club Championship
      • The St George Swiss Tournament
      • Big Boards tournaments (versus Norths)
      • St George Internal Teams Tournament
      • Numerous shorter tournaments such as the Club Lightning Championship.

St George runs at two least additional tournaments that are open to all-comers, and do offer cash prizes. Accordingly, all participants in those tournaments must pay an entry fee:

      • The St George Summer Open: $50 entry
      • The St George Summer Open Lightning: $10 entry

Who can join?   Everyone – this means that all juniors are welcome!

If you are new to chess (either adult or junior) we suggest that you either come along and play some social (non-tournament) games. There are almost always at least a few people looking for some friendly games on Tuesday nights! Or you play in a couple of our shorter tournaments, such as the allegro (15 minutes each a game), rapid (20 minutes + 10 seconds per move each) and lightning (5 minutes each, or 3 minutes plus 2 seconds increment), before you enter one of the longer format tournaments.

Coaching for Juniors

The NSW Junior Chess League offers a Coaching Clinic at the start of every school holidays. Check out their main site, and keep an eye on their Coming Events link to see if any clinics are due in the next few months.

For ongoing coaching, the Sydney Academy of Chess has many online and in-person offerings. They  run more than fifteen clubs just for juniors, the closest to us being the Hurstville Junior Chess Club, located in Carss Park.

At St George, we have a growing group of juniors, but there is no formal coaching at the club at this point.

Graham Saint
President of St George Leagues Club Chess Club

Other officebearers of the club:

Club Captain: Charles Zworestine

Vice-President: Peter Swinton

Treasurer: Mark Boan

Secretary: Stephen Manwarring

Webmaster: Geoff Hyde geoffjhyde@gmail.com

General Members: Malachi O’Donoghue, John Parissis, Ken Eldridge, Richard Eccles, Sait Buzgan.

History of the Club

The St. George Leagues Chess Club was established at an inaugural meeting chaired

by Laurie Doust, Manager, St. George Leagues Club and Foundation President, John Kellner on the 22 February 1966, following considerable work by the first club Secretary Ted Popplewell.  The first chess night was held on Tuesday 8th March 1966.