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 online application form, but you will need to pay our very economical annual membership fee of just $25. This covers you to play in nearly all our tournaments, and the fees we pay to various chess bodies so that your chess rating is recognised throughout Australia – and the rest of the world!
Membership: $25.
Online payments: Please make the payment using one of the two methods below:
1. 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.
2. Via Paypal
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:
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- 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.
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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:
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- The St George Summer Open: $50 entry
- The St George Summer Open Lightning: $10 entry
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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: Aaron Hu
Webmaster: Geoff Hyde geoffjhyde@gmail.com
General Members: Malachi O’Donoghue, John Parissis, Ramu Srinivasan, Richard Eccles.
History of the Club
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.