Welcome to 3Cs Chess Club ...
Founded 1978
As seen on BBC1's "The One Show"
3Cs Chess Club
St.Edward's RC Parish Hall
Spring Lane, Lees, Oldham, OL4 5AJ
Thursdays 7pm - 9pm
Click these links for 3Cs contact details ....
.png)
The next 3Cs club night is this Thursday 27 March 2025 (7pm)
2025 King's New Year's Honours - Stephen Rigby - British Empire Medal
Steve Rigby, the founder of 3Cs in 1978, was awarded the British Empire Medal in the 2025 King's New Year's Honours for services to young people in the community, especially for his involvement with chess and Rugby League. Steve is only the thirteenth person in the country to receive one of the monarch's national honours in recognition of their chess activities while he was also coach of the Oldham junior schools' Rugby League team when they played at Wembley Stadium in the curtain-raiser prior to the 1984 Challenge Cup final.
Click on the following link for further information and various media reports of Steve's honour ...
Last update 1.55am Tue 25 Mar 2025
Thank you all for your support of the club.
Recent updates:
Welcome (Sponsors)
News (3Cs On Tour)
News (Junior Events)
Fixtures (Main page)
Future Events (Main page)
Honours (Steve Rigby BEM)
Honours (ECF Awards)
Coaching (Main Page)
Coaching (Quotes 1)
Puzzle Board (Main Page)
Puzzle Board (Daily Puzzle 1-6)
3Cs CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP
Thursday 3 April 2025 (7pm)
Open-age and Junior Competitions
Open to all 3Cs members
FREE ENTRY
Please register your entry with John Walton jofrawal@btinternet.com
Welcome to 3Cs' website
Click on the relevant heading at the top of this website to view the main page of your required section. Alternatively just place your cursor over the heading to reveal a drop-down box giving further options and then click on the one you want.
3Cs, or to use its official name "The Children's Chess Club of Oldham", is dedicated to providing the opportunity for local youngsters to learn and play the game of chess.
The club is recognised as one of the most successful production lines of young talent throughout the country, with both the club itself and many of its individual members having gained major honours at local, regional, national and international level.
3Cs WEBSITE SPONSORSHIP
This 3Cs website now has a new sponsor, namely "Annie's Tearoom", Lodge Mill, Townley Street, Middleton, which we hope our members will support in the same way they are providing their help towards our efforts in promoting chess to young boys and girls. A new initiative is that we are also looking for sponsors for each page of the website and which can now be seen by clicking on the link below. Anyone wishing to sponsor a page (£30 for the rest of 2025) should tell a club official at one of our weekly club nights.
3Cs' Forthcoming Matches
Manchester Chess Federation
Tonight
Wedenesday 26 March (7.30pm)
A Division
3Cs 1 v Bolton 1
Monday 31 March (7.30pm)
B Division
Blue Club 1 v 3Cs 2
2024 ECF "Club of the Year"
2024 saw 3Cs win the English Chess Federation's "Club of the Year" award for the third time - having also received the honour in 2006 and 2014 - while no other club throughout the country has won it more than once since it was first presented in 1984.
Click this link for details of all the 3Cs awards ...
BREAKING NEWS :
Our fourth team lost 3.5 - 2.5 away to Blue Club 3 in C Division of the Manchester League
with wins by Claire Kerton and Ved Boganadham together with a Karl Moorcroft draw
providing the individual game points for 3Cs.
Mo Rohman gained the first section win of his career with success in the u-1500 section
of the Darnall & Handsworth (Sheffield) rapidplay event, finishing with an unbeaten score
of 5.5 / 6 after starting as 7th seed out of 31 entrants. In the u-1900 section 12 year old
Ved Boganadham, who began as the 21st seed out of 23, finished equal 3rd, scoring
4 points out of 6 as well as winning a rating prize.
It has been discovered that Chorlton 5 included an unregistered player in their Rapidplay Division match against 3Cs 6. Therefore, due to having won the two games he played, those points have been awarded to 3Cs, giving them a 4.5-3.5 win. Ved Boganadam and Noah Hicks had won games for 3Cs while Charlie Locke drew.
3Cs 3 gained an excellent 3-3 draw away to divisional leaders Eccles 3 in C Division of the Manchester League despite their opponents having a 200+ rating points per player advantage. Andy Lewis and James Marshall won for 3Cs with draws coming from Misha Tebelev and Claire Kerton.
Twelve 3Cs players (and a team manager) were part of all five Greater Manchester county sides (Open, u-2050, u-1850, u-1650, u-1450) who have won their Northern Union championships and therefore qualified for their respective national events later in the year.
Selected details from Phil Adams's latest 3Cs' Newsletter (10 March) can be seen on our main "Coaching" page. The full content of the fortnightly newsletter (available only to 3Cs' members) includes several tactic problems as well as up-to-date news of events both local and afar. If any current or former 3Cs' members do not receive the Newsletter but would wish to do so, please e-mail Phil at "phil1948a@hotmail.com"
3Cs 2 are through to the semi-finals of the Wahltuch Trophy after a 4.5 - 1.5 home win over Bolton 3. Kyle Pelling, Tim Hilton and Mo Rohman won for 3Cs while Phil Adams, Andy lewis and Marlon Espiritu drew. 3Cs 2 now face Eccles 2 for a place in the final.
Our third team returned to winning ways with an emphatic 5.5 -0.5 home win against Stockport 2 in C Division of the Manchester League. Individual success camne from Andy Lewis, Marlon Espiritu, Mohammad Rohman, Karl Moorcroft and Jonathan Miller while James Marshall drew his game.
3Cs 1 TO PLAY BOLTON 1 IN REYNER SHIELD FINAL
Bolton 1 won 3.5 - 2.5 away at Chorlton 1 in the second semi-final of this season's Reyner Shield competition, therefore qualifying to take on 3Cs 1 in the decider.
Should 3Cs go on to win the Reyner Shield they will equal the record number of trophy successes (20) by Bolton. However, whereas all 3Cs' wins have been in the last 28 years, Bolton first won the Shield in 1897 and have only done so once since 3Cs first lifted the award in 1998.
Photograph courtesy of Brendan O'Gorman
Click arrow to listen
ENGLISH CHESS FEDERATION MEMBERSHIPS
A relevant level of membership of the national governing body for chess in this country (ECF) is often required before being able to compete in events both locally and nationally, with such memberships covering a 12 month period.
Click this link for more details and also for when current memberships of 3Cs players expire ...
2024 ended in record-breaking fashion for 3Cs ... December 31 saw 153 hits on its website - the most ever in one day
NATIONAL AWARD FOR 3Cs' FOUNDER
In 2023 3Cs' founder Steve Rigby was personally honoured by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak who recommended him to receive a "Points of Light" award which is a National Honour bestowed upon individual volunteers whose efforts have made a difference to their community.
The Prime Minister's personal award is in recognition of the 45 years Steve has spent encouraging youngsters to play chess since forming the 3Cs chess club in 1978 and with Steve becoming the first person to receive the award for services to chess.
For more information, click on this link ...
3Cs Chess Club featured on the BBC1 primetime television programme "The One Show" on Friday 13 October 2023.
Photographs of the BBC filming at 3Cs HQ can be seen by clicking on this link ...
The BBC have kindly given permission for 3Cs to reproduce the broadcast on this website - the section involving 3Cs is therefore available for viewing by clicking the box below.
3Cs were very prominent in the December 2023 issue of the English Chess Federation's monthly newsletter "Chess Moves", including articles about the formation and history of the club; Steve Rigby's "Points of Light" award and our International Master Andy Horton becoming the British blitz champion.
Click this link for further information ...
3Cs won the 2023 British Chess Educational Trust award for their outstanding achievement and encouragement of chess at junior level and is the most prestigious national honour specifically for the promotion of junior chess.
The club received an engraved chess board, boxed pieces and clock (shown below) while more details of the award can be seen by clicking this link ...
6 chess puzzles - updated every day - plus 3 "Play the Computer" options are available via the drop-down box of our main "Puzzles" page.
A photograph of new World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju has now been added to those of his predecessors in the 3Cs' Match Room which also features all the women's World Champions.
Therefore, while youngsters at 3Cs are coached how to play chess, the photographs assist in also teaching them its history.
The room also houses the club library as well as a projection screen, trophy cabinet and the 3Cs' Honours Boards.
_JPG.jpg)
_JPG.jpg)
3Cs' founder Steve Rigby alongside one of the club's coaches, Crystal Ashton.
Although now living near the Welsh border, Steve regularly attends the club and is still actively involved in much of the behind the scenes organisation for 3Cs.
As well as her coaching duties, Crystal also organises the 3Cs' Junior 4NCL team and has also recently passed an arbiters' exam.
_JPG.jpg)
3Cs' very own Grandmaster STEPHEN GORDON who joined the club while still at primary school and has since progressed to become one of the World's elite group of players.
The photographs above show Stephen in action (left) during the 2019 British Championships and also in conversation with Victor Korchnoi, one of the greatest players of all time.
Despite his talent often being sought by various teams both home and abroad, including regular appearances in the lucrative German national chess Bundersliga, Stephen continues to play for 3Cs.
He has twice won the English Championship, in 2007 and 2012, as well as the 2019 British Rapidplay title while in 2005 he triumphed over more than 1,500 other competitors to win the UK Chess Challenge title.
Away from the board Stephen has also excelled with his ability in promoting the game of chess and for several years hosted "The Full English Breakfast", a chess podcast often highlighting the lighter side of the game. He is also regularly in demand to provide expert analysis of games played at the very top level.
 |  |
|---|---|
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |
Images from 3Cs' club nights showing some of our junior members (above) and those with more experience (below).
 |  |
|---|---|
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |
Just a typical night at a local chess club ???
However, the photograph (left) is from a 3Cs' weekly club night and the "typical kind of members" include Grandmaster Stephen Gordon (seated) as well as International Master Andy Horton (second left) and Women's International Master and six times French women's champion Sophie Milliet (third left).
Also in the picture are Helal Ahmed (extreme left); Michael Tebelev (third right) and head coach Phil Adams (extreme right).
_JPG.jpg)
Much of the 3Cs' success for several years is due to many of its juniors continuing to play with the club in their later years ... with this photo providing such an example.
From left to right, Dale James, Andy Lewis and Adam Ashton, all began playing chess for 3Cs while at junior school and are all still involved with the club.
Founded in 1978 to promote and develop chess in Oldham Primary Schools and the surrounding districts, 3Cs has grown since then into one of the largest and strongest junior chess club in the country. Any child is given a welcome, although most are recruited from the Oldham Primary Schools and join by invitation, while they are then encouraged to continue attending once they reach secondary-school age.
The club also has adult members of course who usually fall into one of three categories: ex-juniors who have since grown up; parents of juniors; player-coaches. However, any adults are also made welcome on condition that they actively support the aims and ethos of the club, whose main focus is the development and welfare of the children.
The overall achievements of the club have resulted in it receiving the English Chess Federation's "Club of the Year" award on three occasions - and being the only club throughout the country to gain the honour more than once - whilst in 2017 the club gained a place among the very best by qualifying to play in the European Club Cup, a feat they repeated twelve months later.
However, despite these successes locally, nationally and Internationally, both as a club and for many of its members individually, 3Cs' greatest satisfaction - and forever the main focus of the club - is still seeing local youngsters coming through the door on their weekly club nights (Thursdays 7pm - 9pm) to just enjoy learning and playing the game.