About Us
Club Chess
Members Internet Chess
Fees
County Chess
Privacy Policy
In the beginning
Hertford Chess Club had various homes in the town centre in the 1970’s and 80’s before disbanding. It reformed in 1991 in the Hertford Club, recommended to the founders John Foster and Fred Portch by Bowen Wells, MP for Hertford and Stortford. It has remained there ever since and meets in the first floor Chauncy Room from the middle of September until the end of May (the chess season) from 7.45 pm on Tuesday evenings. Fred was President from 1991 until 2012 and took the unusual step of avoiding competitive play in favour of welcoming and encouraging new arrivals. Our ethos remains to encourage both social and competitive chess, and our current membership is around 30 players.
Club Chess
Visiting Hertford Chess Club isn’t daunting. Its players vary in strength from International Master (IM) at one end down to Woodpusher – weak club player – at the other. The simple thing they all share is a love of the game: the sheer joy of a battle over the board in convivial company and surroundings.
Although most of our members are involved in competitive chess, you are welcome to come down on a Tuesday night and just play socially. A competition game of chess can last a whole evening, unless you ‘blunder’ in which case you can retire to the bar. Social games are usually played at a faster rate – for fun.
We currently have 4 teams in the Herts Chess Association league; an U120 league (this one is grade limited); another team in the Herts & District league, and we enter 4 teams in the knockout competition. Many players play in more than one team. Most of the season hinges on our teams hosting or visiting other clubs in the area to compete in these league and competition matches. All players earn a grade, a measure of their chess ability, and this determines their place in a team. A summary of the club’s Honours can be found here.
The Hertford Chess Club Championship, a competition for its members only, runs each year. There's four divisions and this season, 2022 - 23, 25 players have entered.
There are at least two social evenings a year where those who want to (most of us) visit a local pub or restaurant. Some members occasionally organise a trip to a special chess event e.g. The London Chess Classic, where there’s the chance to appreciate the world’s top Grandmasters.
Members Internet Chess
28/05/20 Hertford Chess Club now plays online with lichess.org. At the moment this meets at 7.45 pm on Thursday evenings for a club blitz competition lasting typically 60 to 75 mins.
Players can also arrange online games between themselves.
Several club players are also participating in the newly created '4NCL Online Chess' competition.
Fees
Adult members pay £50 to join the Hertford Chess Club and there is an additional £18 to join the English Chess Federation (ECF). You must be an ECF member if you play more than 3 competitive, i.e. graded, games a year. A visitor, a potential new member perhaps, to the club can play socially free of charge for up to a whole season as an incentive to get to know both us and the game. We are open to junior members (14 to 18 yrs) by invitation.
County Chess
In April there is an annual weekend chess congress in St Albans. Up to 200 players are attracted to this. The county runs 3 teams, U160, U140 and U120. These matches, held on a Saturday or Sunday, are against other county teams such as Essex, Kent, Norfolk, etc. Up to 16 players comprise a county team and the winner(s) go on to the national final stages.
Want to know more?
Please contact the Secretary (Andrew du Boulay) or President (Alan Brewis) for more information.
Privacy Policy
Hertford Chess Club is a chess club playing at Lombard House, Bull Plain, Hertford SG14 1DT. The Hertford Chess Club is committed to protecting and respecting the privacy of its members.
This policy is in response to the legislation entitled General Data Protection Regulation [GDPR] which came into force on the 25th May 2018.
What data do we collect
Hertford Chess Club collects personal information data on its members including some or all of: name, email address, telephone number and postal address.
How your information is used
The personal data is held by the relevant officers of the club for the following purposes, namely to:
- Obtain payment of membership fees to fund the operation of the Club.
- Register members to play for Hertford Chess Club in competitions organised by the Hertfordshire Chess Association (HCA). Personal information sufficient to run HCA events is held on a competition database, e2e4 Chess Results and is available, via password protection, to all members.
- Submit results of matches played to the HCA and thence to the English Chess Federation (ECF) for grading purposes. The HCA Privacy Policy can be found at the HCA website and the ECF Privacy Policy at the federation website.
- Communicating with members for the purposes of running the chess club, including selecting and organising teams and other chess events. Email addresses may be freely shared between chess club members for these purposes.
The club will hold personal data for as long as a person is a member and for a reasonable time afterwards.
Who can access information?
Unless required by law, personal data will not be shared with any third party, other than to satisfy the above collection requirements.
Rights
Members can ask for a copy of the data we hold about them.
Should any member have any unresolved complaints about the way we process your personal data, you have the right to make a formal complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
Review of this policy
Our privacy policy will be kept under review and we will place any updates on our webpage Hertford Chess Club. This privacy policy was last updated on 11th June 2019.
If you have any questions about this policy, please email Andrew du Boulay, Secretary of Hertford
Chess Club on Andrew du Boulay.
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