News at 3...cs
3Cs were very prominent in the December 2023 issue of the English Chess Federation's monthly newsletter "Chess Moves".
A five-page article (pages 39-43), including several photographs, tells the story of 3Cs' formation and history while also detailing how the club has maintained an ongoing conveyor belt of young talent for many years.
Pages 47-48 report on Steve Rigby's recent "Points of Light" National Honour while pages 4-5 feature the recent British Blitz Championship where 3Cs' International Master Andy Horton became the 2023 English Blitz Champion.
The December 2023 newsletter can be seen by clicking on the following link...
3 December 2023
Having moved to Welshpool near the England-Wales border since his retirement, 3Cs' founder Steve Rigby has now created enough interest in that area to start another chess club, to which 10 people arrived for its first week. Steve is also hoping to attract more members by having been in touch with the "University Third Age" (U3A) who assist in helping retired people to stay active by learning a new skill or taking part in a new hobby. 3Cs are themselves helping the new club by having provided chess sets, boards, etc.
July 2023
9 year old James Kaliski, one of the current group of up-and-coming 3Cs' young players. displayed his skills on the open-air chess set in Manchester city centre, receiving plenty of praiseworthy comments from people who stopped to watch as he took on adult opponents.
Yes, James won and was even rewarded with free ice cream courtesy of a vendor who was delighted that James has attracted a large crowd near to her van on such a hot afternoon.
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7 May 2023
Congratulations to 3Cs' Rebecca Correa (pictured right) who has passed the exam to become a Level 1 chess arbiter.
Rebecca is our second female member to achieve the honour, following Crystal Ashton's success last August.
8 January 2023
The website of another chess club has claimed it to be probably the most diverse in the country by having members from 6 different countries.
3Cs won't claim such a record without being certain but our current membership includes people from Albania, Bangladesh, Belarus, Brazil, China, France, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Japan, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, Ukraine, plus all the four nations of the British Isles.
3 September 2021
It's always good to see past players return to the fold at 3Cs and we've recently had two prodigal sons reappear at the club, namely Jonathan Miller and Andy Lewis.
As with many people looking for something to keep themselves occupied during the recent pandemic, Jon rekindled his interest in chess by playing for the 3Cs' online team and recently made his first visit back to 3Cs' headquarters for over thirty years (albeit in a different location to when he last attended).
Andy was a product of the 3Cs' junior coaching set-up, achieving International honours for England in 1991 and then continued to play for the club for many years. His son Aaron has now taken an interest in chess and therefore he and Andy recently attended the club for the simultaneous display by Grandmaster Stephen Gordon.
The left-hand photo shows Jonathan (right) finding out if his chess skills have been retained over the years in a game against Mikhail Ali, while Andy (middle) keeps a watchful eye on Aaron and wonders how long it will be until son eventually beats father.
Andy's return also provided an opportunity for a "Back to the past" encounter versus Adam Ashton (right photo).
Both Andy and Adam came through the 3Cs' junior system and had previously been teammates and opponents to each other on many occasions even in their pre-teen years.
Click on any photogrpah to see enlarged images.
26 May 2022
The 3Cs' production line of chess talent appears set to continue in the future, with the latest young player to show their skill being 3 year old Eliane Correa, seen here playing with her dad, Everson.
Eliane already knows how to set up a board and the names of the pieces, while her brother and sister, Edward and Rebecca, are also established players with the club and regularly play on the 3Cs' Junior 4NCL team.
25 April 2021
Below are photographs of our updated match room which includes new carpet, extra shelving as well as a new projector screen and several more books donated by author Aiden Woodger. Click on any photo for a larger image.
20 November 2020 A 3Cs' WORLD RECORD ???
A story in "Chessbase" magazine has highlghted a game in Iceland in which a 10 year old girl played against an opponent aged 102. However, it is unclear if this was a competitive match. Other such "friendly" matches have also taken place where many years seperate the two players although a 3Cs' match in 2004 has undeniable proof of such an age gap in a competitive encounter.
On Thursday 11 November 2004 3Cs played Heywood in the Bury & Rochdale League with one of the individual games featuring Mitchell Burke (aged 11 years, 346 days) against Antonin Weleminsky (aged 96 years, 158 days) - being a difference of 85 years, 177 days !
Antonin of Heywood won that game although just 14 days later the same two teams met in the league's cup competition, with Mitchell again facing Antonin and gaining revenge with a win for 3Cs.
We await to see if anyone can provide evidence to surpass 3Cs' place in the history books.
19 December 2019
3Cs held their pre-Christmas evening at which they also played their "local derby" Manchester League matches involving 3Cs 1 v 3Cs 2 in "A" Division as well as the 3Cs' 6th and 7th teams facing each other in the rapidplay league ("F" Division).
With pizzas, chessecakes, apples pies and a variety of other fayre on offer, the photos seem to indicate that not everybody's mind was actually on the chess.
Click onto any of the photos (below) for a larger image.
27 June 2019
The ECF have announced the winners of their annual awards including the "Website-of-the-Year" which has deservedly been won by the Battersea chess club ... www.batterseachessclub.org.uk
The Battersea club actually held a simultaneous exhibition earlier in the season featuring 3Cs' very own Grandmaster, Stephen Gordon, as can be seen via their advertisement for the event.
So, as well as a Grandmaster, it seems as though we also have our own Mona Lisa !
10 May 2021
An interesting comment on a national chess forum regarding the size and quality of clubs in England
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QUESTION:
"Suppose a wealthy individual wanted to set up a European Super Chess League and desired to include the top four clubs by size/strength, which English clubs (not teams) would be vying to apply?"
ANSWER:
"Three C's for starters, I would think. Both strong in considerable depth and absolutely genuinely the product of a single club. Harder to think otherwise without knowing precisely how tightly you want to define clubs."
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The answer was from somone with no connection to the club ... as can be seen by them referring to the club as "Three Cs" instead of "3Cs". However, it's always good to know that the club is thought of in such high regard throughout the country.
2 April 2021
Halifax-based chess author Aiden Woodger has again presented a collection of books towards the 3Cs' library following on from a similar donation he made in September 2018 after being impressed with how 3Cs allow their junior members to borrow books free of charge from their library and then just return them whenever they have found any information which may be of use to their chess development.
Aiden has written books on many various aspects concerning the game of chess and is shown presenting his donation to 3Cs' founder Steve Rigby who had travelled across to Yorkshire in order to personally thank Aiden for his support of the club.
8 June 2020 (Update)
After having also won 14 February and 8 March, "Three Cs" had a long lay-off due to the health criisis but eventually ran again on 8 June ... and won !
That made it three wins in a row and also four victories and two as runner-up in its last six races.
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7 February 2020
"Three Cs" winning yet again ..... on the horse racing track !!!
A race at Southwell today was won by a horse named "Three Cs"
Out of the 10 runners "Three Cs" was only 7th favourite yet ran home to win by 3.5 lengths at odds of 12/1.
Pictured is the race result - showing that Three Cs' jockey wore chequered colours - the only one in the race to have done so !
3 December 2019
Edward Jackson made his England debut in Estonia playing in the European Rapid and Blitz Youth Championships, competing at under-14s' level and scoring 4.5/9 in both events, while he also played for England "A" in the team competition and was his side's top scorer with 5/7. His performances also gained Edward a total of 184 FIDE rapidplay rating points.
Edward (in the cap) is shown at the Championships with some of his England colleagues. (Click on any of the photos for a larger image).
19 September 2019
Andy Horton has now had his name added to the 3Cs Roll of Honour board at the club in recognition of his recent achievement in gaining the title of International Master.
The board shows one other International Master - Stephen Gordon, who went on to achieve the ultimate title of Grandmaster - while also inscribed are the names of six FIDE Masters, one Candidate Master and 36 England Internationals.
19 July 2018
The club had a pleasant surprise at their recent club night with the visit of former player Karen Bradley who gained International honours in 2000 and also won the British Girls' under-15 and under-16 Championships both in the same year of 2002. Karen visited in order to donate some of her chess books to the 3Cs' library and is photographed above next to the 3Cs' British Championship Roll of Honour at the club on which she is named.
6 April 2018 UPDATE TO PREVIOUS ARTICLE (See 23 Nov 17 below)
3Cs received a surprise visitor at last night's weekly club night. Maurice Richards from Cornwall, who had donated over 50 chess books to 3Cs after reading an article about the club in "Chess" magazine, was in Oldham visiting his in-laws over the Easter holidays and came to the club with father-in-law Frank Bolger.
The club were delighted to have the opportunity to thank Maurice in person for his generous donation while he was also very much impressed with the organisation of the club and especially the enthusiasm for chess both from those behind-the-scenes and especially from our young players themselves. Maurice and Frank will always be welcomed to the club whenever he visits Oldham anytime in the future.
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23 November 2017
After reading an article concerning 3Cs in the October 2017 edition of "Chess" magazine which mentioned that the club had its own chess library and that its' junior members were able to borrow books free of charge to assist with their chess development, Mr. Maurice Richards of Cornwall wrote to 3Cs offering to donate many of his own books to the library in order to further help the club's young players.
Mr.Richards has a connection with Oldham in that his in-laws live in Springhead and on a visit by them to Cornwall they collected well in excess of 50 books which they then delivered to our headquarters. The books include many classic chess publications which will be extremely useful to our young players.
Pictured in the centre of the back row is Frank Bolger (Maurice Richards' father-in-law) along with 3Cs' officials Phil Adams and Dave Monaghan as well as some of the club's young players.
3Cs wish to thank both Mr.Richards for his kind donation as well as his in-laws, Carol and Frank Bolger for their part in making the delivery.
8 January 2018
Click onto the link below to see an article in tonight's Manchester Evening News which features 3Cs and especially Yaoyao Zhu (known to all at the club as Crystal Ashton) along with her daughters who are also among our up-and-coming young players.
3Cs wish to thank Beth Abbit of the Manchester
Evening News for her work in publishing this story.
23 November 2017
A new addition to the trophy room at 3Cs is a specially commissioned honours board featuring a list of all the club's British Champions at various levels as well as club members who have been President of the Manchester Chess Federation. Pictured are 3Cs' founder Steve Rigby (right) along with the club's chief coach Phil Adams, himself on the board as a former MCF President.
The board, which matches an exisiting one already on display at 3Cs showing the club's International players, was once again produced by "CSG Sign Makers" of Welshpool, who have actually donated it free of charge to the club in recognition of 3Cs' achievements in promoting junior chess and producing regular quality youth players.
3Cs are very grateful to "CSG Sign Makers" for their kind donation.