Our adult membership currently stands at just over 40 players. We are the largest chess club in Herts, but that doesn’t stop us from being one of the friendliest as well. We are always on the lookout to welcome new members. Our venue offers spacious, comfortable conditions, and a bar.
As part of our recruitment drive this year, we invited IM Paul Littlewood to give a simultaneous display one night before the start of the season. This was a big success, not just in terms of the chess (he had to work hard for his points!) but also helped us to pick up some new members.
Nowadays the club plays most of its matches under the auspices of the Herts League. There are currently 15 clubs in the league, providing about 50 teams of 5 players, in 7 divisions. St Albans has 7 teams; these are in divisions 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, and 7. We therefore cater for the complete spectrum of players; our members’ grades run from 198 to 28. The Herts League also runs a knockout competition in 4 sections (Open, U150, U125 and U100). Our U100 team won their final (against Watford), and the Open team are hoping to repeat this result (against Hertford). This year we decided to enter the National Club competitions, after an absence of a few years. Our Minor (U125) team did not fare too well, but the Major (U160) team has just managed to qualify for the final!
In 1999 / 2000 we started a junior section, the St Albans Early Knights, which now has a membership of about 25. They play friendly and internal competition games, as well as qualifiers for Mike Basman’s UK Chess Challenge. The stronger juniors also play in one of our Herts League teams. This year we have instituted a coaching scheme for juniors (and adults!) with IM Lorin d’Costa.
In 1951, a Mr Cheshire of Watford Chess Club presented a board to be played for annually between St Albans and Watford. In more recent years Watford have tended to have the better of the encounters, typically over 20 boards, played before the start of the League season in October. However this season we got our revenge!
Our internal Club competitions have taken place annually since 1900, when the first trophy (the Silver Rook) was purchased. The most frequent recorded winner of the trophy is Jeremy Fraser-Mitchell (9 times and counting), although Norman Lavers won it frequently during the late 1950’s and 1960’s, so may have won it more often.
The club organises a very successful weekend congress, the weekend before Easter, which typically attracts about 200 people. The congress celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2007. One of the reasons for its success (besides of course the control team of St Albans members!) is the venue at St Albans Boys School, next to the Abbey Gateway. Not only does this provide good playing conditions, it is also very conveniently located for the amenities (i.e. pubs!) in the town centre.
A recent initiative by the club has been the playing of international matches. The first of these were on the 9th and 10th of February 2001, in Amsterdam. The trip was an outstanding success and we have gone on to visit Dublin, Amsterdam twice more, Rome twice, Barcelona, Brussels, Den Haag and Berlin. Now the tourists are eagerly anticipating next year's trip!!! We have also entertained a team from De Uil (Hillegom, The Netherlands), and conducted a telephone match with CREB (Brussels).
St Albans Chess Club members not only play lots of chess, they also are involved with chess organisation. Three of the officials of the Herts Chess Association (including the Treasurer and Open match captain + Herts congress organiser) are St Albans members, as are approximately half the helpers at the Herts Megafinal. The St Albans congress has already been mentioned. And finally, there is “Il Capo”, whose duties with the ECF prevent him from playing as much chess as he would like!
