Open-air giant chess set event, followed by free, friendly blitz chess!

On Saturday 8th June last year, we hosted our giant chess set launch event (purchased with funding from The Snodland Partnership), followed by some free, friendly blitz chess!

Starting at 1pm, 15-year-old IM Shreyas Royal (2586) played a rapidplay game on the giant set vs 14-year-old CM Stanley Badacsonyi (2347), followed by a rapidplay game vs 9-year-old Kushal Jakhria (2206). The giant set was then opened to general use.

IM Shreyas Royal

CM Stanley Badacsonyi

Read more about Shreyas Royal HERE

Many thanks to Lisa Hicks and Michael Base for their donation to help make this event possible.

Tiviakov scores 26-0 in simul!

We were delighted to welcome GM Sergey Tiviakov to Snodland for a “simultaneous display”…..which Sergey won 26-0 !

Congratulations to Volodymyr Mylovanov, who won a prize for the best game.

Many thanks to everyone who took part, and to Kent County Council for providing funding to purchase the chess sets that were used.

Photos from the event can be found here:

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Our 400th match

Tonight’s qualifying tie in the Mid-Kent section of the Harvey Cup against Hastings, will be Snodland’s 400th match as a club!

Our first match was held against Phoenix on Tuesday 25 April 2006, a friendly held at the Queen Charlotte Pub in Rochester High Street. In the subsequent 18 years Snodland only played Phoenix once more, in the 2010-11 season. Although Snodland lost its inaugural match 4-2 to Phoenix, the result was reversed in the second match – the final of the Stevenson Cup, as Snodland secured the club’s highest ever trophy in the Kent League following a 3.5-2.5 victory.

Over the years Maidstone have been Snodland’s most frequent opponents, at present the Snodland-Maidstone derby has been played 84 times. Our second most frequently played club are Medway, who we have faced over the board on 68 occasions. Five players have represented Snodland in over 100 games – Neil Miners, Rob Thompson, David Lettington, David Fowler and Peter Hickey have all reached over a century of ‘caps’, while the late George Hollands played for Snodland 93 times.

Snodland have played our 400th opponents, Hastings, 49 times, with 28 wins for Snodland, 19 for Hastings and 2 drawn matches.

A big thank you to Kent County Council!

We are delighted to announce that Kent County Council have awarded the club £1500 to buy new chess equipment after our successful bid for funding, which was supported by our local County Cllr Sarah Hohler.

In addition to new boards, pieces, and chess clocks, the funds have enabled us to buy coaching and chess training software.

This is a great boost for the club, as we look to expand the number of members and our engagement in the community!

Chess is for everyone, so we welcome anyone from complete beginner to Grandmaster!

Email snodlandchessclub@hotmail.co.uk for more details, or just turn up at the club on any Monday evening, from 7.30pm.