The Chess Society is a chess club for members of the University to play friendly games, improve their chess, or play competitively! We welcome students and staff at the University to join and participate, and we are the country's largest University chess society. The Society are the holders of the ECF 2019 Club of the Year Award, as well as 3-time British Universities' Chess Champions (2018, 2017, 2002).
Video Transcript
Weekly Chess (Taran)
We welcome players of all abilities, and run a beginners course for anyone that’s never played before. We host weekly social clubnights, and give everyone the chance to represent the university in league chess (which will also be online this year). We also hope to bring you some extras, including Grandmaster guests & charity events.
Socials (Maria)
Outside of the chess events mentioned, we also plan to have a lot of fun socials, such as going out to eat, bowling, laser tag, bar crawls & pre-drinks for party nights out if clubs hopefully re-open!
Events and Opportunities (Ben)
We organise loads of events throughout the year – we have our own Warwick Rapidplay event, and we also organise lots of trips to other tournaments, the highlight of which is the British Universities Chess Championships (where we sent 9 teams last year!) We also volunteer with our Chess in Schools programme, where we teach chess to kids in local primary schools. We even have a 5 a side football team, which won our league last year, so there’s loads to get involved with!
What we offer?
1. Weekly Clubnights
Our weekly clubnights are for all members to play friendly games and enjoy a relaxed evening once a week, with anything from standard chess to exchange chess tournaments. Clubnights run during all three undergraduate terms of the year and are held every Thursday from 7.30pm to 10.00pm in the Oculus building (alternative online arrangements are being made for term 1). Please check our Facebook page, sign up, or email us to double check! If you've never been before, you can show up anytime during the year!
Clubnights are usually followed by an optional social at 10pm, where we play pool and have drinks at the Terrace Bar in the Student Union.
2. Learning and Improving
If you are a complete beginner, the Society offers a FREE Beginners' Course. The sessions run alongside clubnights, and provide a chance to learn with players at a similar level. This course will last through term 1 and will be given by various members of the exec of strong playing ability (this year we will aim to run this online).
For those who already know some chess, or are proficient, the experienced members, Captains and Exec are always happy to give advice and guidance.
3. Competitive Chess
The Society offer a wide range of competitive chess opportunities for members.
Each Tuesday evening in Term 1 and 2, the Society plays in the Coventry & District Chess League (online for the forseeable future). The Society fields 5 teams across 3 Divisions, giving all of our members the chance to play for the university!
We still hope to run the Warwick Uni Rapidplay in term 2, which is entirely student-run and has cash prizes for successful players.
We also play in several major national competitions. Our most important event of the year is the annual British Universities Chess Team Championships (BUCA). In the last few years Warwick have sent in more teams than any other university (a record 9 teams), with a huge amount of success! Warwick have been the British Champions in 2002, 2017 and 2018, leading to our qualification for the European Championships in 2017, and 2019! Warwick were 10th in Europe in 2017, and then, in 2019, we came 13th.
In addition to BUCA, we also regularly have players competing in major events around the country, including the prestigious London Chess Classic, and the Bristol Congress, with several of our members even arbiting at these events.
4. The Annual Uni Rapidplay
The annual Warwick University Rapidplay is our very own FIDE and ECF rated event, held at the University - open to both University players and members of public. It was first launched in 2017 and attracts players from all across England, and even international players from as far as Australia!
5. Online Chess
This year, to adjust to current circumstances we are expanding our online chess opportunities! It's super easy to get involved, with both platforms lichess and chess.com being completely free. We will initially be holding our weekly clubnights as Lichess Arenas with various quick gamemodes such as blitz, bullet, and crazyhouse. We are also hoping to hold frequent online tournaments with all welcome! We will be playing in both the Coventry District online league, and online 4NCL so there are still plenty of opportunities to play for competitive teams.
We are always working on exciting new projects, recently venturing into streaming & commentary of our key matches for members to follow the action!
6. Social Events
We have a wide range drinking and non-drinking socials each term, catering for eveyone. We will be constantly finding opportunities to organise these within the government's guidelines, so look out for quizzes, meals out, and hopefully bowling later in the term.
In the past we have held several Laser Quest socials, pub crawls, entertaining nights at Kasbah and Skool Dayz, and club meals to name just a few!
7. Warwick Chess in Schools
The Society has a long-standing relationship with the Coventry Chess Academy, one of the most successful junior chess clubs for under-teens in the Midlands. Many of our current and former members volunteer at the Academy.
On Friday lunchtimes we also send a team to teach chess to children at Grange Farm Primary School. Recently, we have taken chess to Templars Primary School too. Our outreach events are great to earn teaching experience, clock up volunteering hours for your HEAR report, and also just to have great fun!
We are delighted to be funded and supported by Warwick Volunteers.
NOTE - This year volunteering in person will likely be postponed until the second term, however we still hope to reach out to local juniors & schools through virtual coaching.
8. Chess Masters - at Warwick!
For the past few years the Society has invited Super GM Anish Giri to give a Simultaneous Display to our members, as well as British GM Keith Arkell. These events have been a great experience for all members involved, with many of our members even managing to grab some shock results!
We have also had Simultaneous Displays in the past from IM Ameet Ghasi (British Blitz Champion), FM Peter Batchelor, CM Peter Williams, and Dimiter Daskalov. The Society has also hosted several Chess Talks, inviting both internal and external speakers.
We will aim to organise more GM Simultanious Event this year when possible.
9. Football Team
The Chess 5-a-side Football team was set up in 2018, to compete in the termly, intra-university Sunday sports league. Last year we fielded two teams, with the A-team winning their league! As always, all abilities are more than welcome!
10. Our Sponsor
We are currently sponsored by Optiver - a world leading, multi-national, securities trading firm. Optiver has sponsored us since 2016, and we are very proud of this relationship. Within chess, Optiver is also known to sponsor super Grandmaster Anish Giri. Look out for their career and graduate opportunities, as well as when they are on campus!
For More Information about us
Please feel free to join our Facebook group here, or visit and like our Facebook page here. You can also keep up to date by following our Instagram & Twitter accounts - both @warwickchess.
If you have any questions, please contact the society by messaging our Facebook Page or by emailing us at su276@warwicksu.com.
Contacts
Executive Committee 2021-2022
Co-Presidents: Ziad Fakhoury & Chun Chiu
Vice President (Competitive Chess & External Affairs): Jonathan Fowler
Vice President (Casual Chess & Internal Affairs): Vikas Sajanani
Vice President (Publicity & Communications): Callum Doherty
Treasurer: Maria Giselle
Chairman: Taran Jina
Social Secretaries: Elvire Det & Liam Rai
Womens' Chess Officers: Mimansha Maheshwari & Vash Ravi
Outreach Officer: Ben McHugh
Online Chess Director: Jack Nolan
Training and Development Officers: Anuman Goel & Simeon Bott
Tournament Director: (TBC)
Captains:
Div 1: Joe Varley
Div 2: David Maxen
Div 3: Tom Campbell
5-a-side Football: (TBC)
Society Constitution:
(Read here)