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.

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.

Best of luck to everyone in 2024. May all of your pawns be promoted to Queens!

Merry Christmas to all of our members, followers, and anyone that has supported us during 2023!

Snodland Chess Club has entered Snodland Church of England’s Christmas Tree Festival 2023. There are around 30 trees inside All Saints Church (near Snodland Station) and the festival is open Friday 15 December 4pm – 7.30pm, Saturday 10am – 5pm, and Sunday 2pm – 4.30pm.

I wont have much time to update the site between now and the weekend so just a quick post to whet your appetite with what’s coming up…..

• Snodland CC’s very own “room” on the playchess server, allowing our members to join for free and play online against other club members, completely free.
• The Candidates starts this week.  With Carlsen (Our selected top player watch subject) not playing, I will take a closer look at Vladimir Kramnik’s tournament.
• Book Review – Jeremy SIlman’s Complete Endgame Course. (This has recently been purchased by the club).
• Tactics Time 2.  Not much response from the first one – please let me know if you want to continue to see these……
• Great Games from Chess History – Robert Fischer Vs Bent Larsen
• The Rapid Play entry form will be available to download shortly.
• A few surprises