Chess at Chalkhill Success: 'The junior sessions are at full capacity and for the first time ever there is now a waiting list!'

 

Guest post by Anthony Fulton Willesden & Brent Chess Club General Secretary and Junior Coordinator   In March 2020 life in the UK experienced a situation it hadn’t done so for generations. COVID-19 hit UK shores in February and by March the UK went into the first of many lockdowns. Over the next two years, life changed as lockdown meant that the many social activities individuals would partake of ceased as family, friends and even strangers were unable to interact. However, due to Skype, Teams, Zoom, and other such platforms, many of these activities were able to proceed virtually. A foreseen consequence was the impact lockdown would have when these activities moved from the physical sphere to the virtual (bricks vs. clicks). Many organisations, i.e., businesses, sports clubs, etc. faced challenges as if they were unable to migrate to the virtual, since the period of lockdown would be unknown there could be no guarantee that when life returned to ‘normal’ that they would continue to exist. These were the circumstances in which the UK lived including Willesden & Brent Chess Club (WBCC).   When the pandemic ended and life began to return to normal WBCC recognised they were a club in crisis. In fact they were a club in crisis prior to the pandemic. Ironically, lockdown was ideal for the club as the period was used to review how they operated and if they were to return they had to ‘build back better’. The club resumed its services at Cricklewood Community Library on 10th January 2022 and took what at the time was the risky decision to set up a second night, based at Chalkhill Community Centre, Wembley from May 2022. It was a risk as throughout the club’s history (1946 to date) they had traditionally operated one night a week from their historic base Willesden Municipal District, including after 1965 when London Borough of Brent formed with the merging of Willesden and Wembley Urban District. For a small not-profit-organisation this placed a huge demand on resources, both financially and in terms of personnel. It was accepted that the venture of two nights a week should be tried as at the time they had nothing to lose and everything to gain. Should it prove unsuccessful the club could retrench by returning to its spiritual home and accept it could no longer be a competitive club, just be a social one providing opportunity for like-minded people to meet.   It must be noted that one reason WBCC chose to set up at Chalkhill is because they sought to expand their chess presence in the borough and to ensure that both North and South Brent were properly serviced. By establishing a base in Wembley, it meant that this part of Brent had a formal chess presence for the first time since 1956 after the demise of Wembley Chess Club - for further details see A History of Chess in Brent at either Brent Archives (Willesden Green Library) or on www.willesdenchess.wordpress.com Therefore if the club was to be successful they had to focus on building capacity from a low base in the area.   The three years at Chalkhill have been somewhat parlous with September 2022 to December 2023 being a critical period as it seemed as though the project was doomed to failure, Attendance was low, at times the number of tables outnumbered the adults who were present after the junior session! This though appeared to be the nadir as January 2024 began to see a turnaround which has carried through into the current season (2024-25).   The junior sessions are at full capacity and for the first time ever there is now a waiting list!  The number and strength of attending juniors has influenced the club to enter junior specific teams into competition. The number of attending adults has increased to the point where we now have teams participating in the Middlesex League and Hillingdon League.   The decision therefore has proven to be a masterstroke! As with any new venture, the first few years are indeed a struggle but to be fair to the club, as stated, chess had not really been a force in the Wembley area after 1956ca with the demise of Wembley Chess Club and the reluctance of the old Willesden Chess Club to focus on in its historical base, despite assuming the name ‘Brent’ in its title! By persevering and showing resilience, the club has begun to grow from strength to strength. The club has ambitions to continue growing in this vein, it may prove challenging to accommodate all the juniors wishing to attend and possibly adults if there numbers continue to grow but the beauty of being at Chalkhill Community Centre is that there is plenty of space within which the club could expand into subject to the other activities that take place. We certainly look forward to continuing welcoming new, existing and even former members.   The club has had its struggles during its history, none more so than the past decade where they have had to relocate twice after their long-time base, Scout House, was sold and their replacement, Willesden Working Mens Club, decided to convert its upper floors to flats. We are therefore grateful to both Cricklewood Community Library and Chalkhill Community Centre for allowing us to re-establish firm roots. We must also be thankful in receiving the Love Where You Live Grant (June 2022) which allowed us to help build our capacity, we can safely say that the funds received helped tide us over the tricky period so gave us time to bed down.   Chess in Wembley, and Brent specifically, appears to have a future as apart from our weekly sessions we:
1.     Main session in Allen Suite
a) Have held two of our Brent Junior Congresses (BJCC) at Chalkhill Community Centre (BJCC23 & BJCC24). [Note our first post pandemic was BJCC22 at Stonebridge Hub.]
2.     BJCC24 participants
b) Use Chalkhill Community Centre to host its home league matches, we now compete in three senior leagues (Middlesex League D2; Middlesex League F4, and Hillingdon League D3) and run three junior specific teams (Wembley Juniors, Willesden Juniors and a combined Willesden & Brent Junior team). The institution of junior teams has been a long held ambition but there were never sufficient numbers; it is good to see this ambition eventually come to fruition. [Note we are always looking for players to join our teams so if you’re looking to play more competitively do consider joining!]
3.     Hillingdon League Junior match - W&B Juniors (facing) vs.Harrow Juniors (30/10/2024)
4.     Middlesex League D2 match - WBCC (facing team) vs Hammersmith 2 boards 1-4 (30/10/24)
c) See that our junior session at Chalkhill is now at full capacity and we are now having to ask parents to go onto the waiting list. [Note there is still scope to attend the junior session on Monday at Cricklewood Community Library]
Finally, special mention must be made of an extra event the club will be holding this year at Chalkhill Community Centre, Brent One-day Secondary School Rapidplay Chess Tournament on 28th November 2024. For several years the club has been investigating the gap at chess at secondary level. Students who have a genuine interest are unable to develop or consolidate this interest as chess clubs either do not run or do not provide the level of challenge they seek. Quite often schools are even unable to allow students to learn chess as a skill under the Duke of Edinburgh programme as there is no-one with requisite skills to be a DofE Chess Assessor so another skill is learnt instead! Unfortunately, these students do not always then explore other options such as attending a local chess club so are lost to chess, they may return to chess as adults in their own right or when they have their own children but this tends not to be the case, so opportunity for these individuals to develop a lifelong love of the game is impacted at a critical phase of their life. As the pandemic showed, apart from people taking up chess for the first time online, many were returners to chess. This is not unique to Brent but chess in general as due to the demands and agenda of secondary schools leadership teams, chess tends not be considered anything other than a social activity, thus there is a lack of parity for chess as compared to other competitive activities such as traditional sports (athletics, basketball, cricket, football, netball, etc.), STEM clubs, Debating Clubs, Jack Petchey and a raft of other extracurricular activities that allow the young person to challenge themselves against their peers in other schools, locally and nationally. Many overlook the fact that chess likewise has its competitive element and in fact is academically beneficial. Who would not want students who as a matter of fact are able to think logically? Take ownership of their actions? Contemplate the consequences of their actions before they act? Etc. For readers of a certain age, it will be remembered in 1972 Grandmaster Robert ‘Bobby’ Fischer broke the Russian stranglehold on the World Chess Championship and opened the path to the current non-Russsian dominance through the likes of Vishy Anand and Magnus Carlsen to name but two!
As stated the club knew there was a gap but was never really in a position to tackle as apart from trying to discern which schools have chess as an extracurricular activity and how to form a working partnership, funding is an issue. Thanks to the ECF Grassroots Initiative, a scheme devised by the English Chess Federation on the back of the government investment in chess in August 2023, the club is now in a position to address this gap. Although chess is still not considered a sport in the UK unlike many other countries, with the government being prepared to invest in chess, especially trying to develop in deprived areas such as Brent, the club has jumped at the chance to try and raise chess profile in the borough further by hosting what is hoped to be the first of many secondary-specific events. Ostensibly it will provide competition for secondary aged students and to explore the possibility of instituting a formal competition amongst Brent Secondary Schools. If the latter comes to pass it means the club would have successfully revived the Willesden Chess League played by Brent Schools in the 1960s and 1970s. At present Wembley specific schools that are participating are: Ark Wembley, Lycee International, Preston Manor and Wembley High Technical College. At time of writing, it is thought that Ark Elvin will also be participating.   Onwards and upwards for Willesden & Brent Chess Club but more specifically for Chess in Brent!
Willesden & Brent Chess Club always welcomes new attendees no matter your playing strength, so if you do play chess or would like to learn do consider signing up! We also appreciate any volunteers to help with service delivery, so you can still be involved even if not a chess player!