The 82nd Club Championship gets under way tonight with publication of the Round 1 pairings. Fifty-one entries are listed and all have been circulated by Tournament Secretary, Mark Murrell:
Our club championship is one of the largest such competitions in the country well supported by our membership regardless of playing strength. Played at all moves in 80 minutes plus 10 seconds added for each move (there are two alternative time controls by mutual agreement). It is a Swiss tournament which means that each round you play someone different on the same score as you or as closest to it. The Junior Championship will be awarded to the highest placed junior (under 18 years of age as at 31 August 2026).
The Reigning Club and Junior champion is Ashwin GopiKrishna..
Links: Club Championship page | Vega tournament pages
This season is the 80th season the Club has enjoyed in Wanstead House. The move from Wanstead High School in Redbridge Lane West to Wanstead House was celebrated on 2nd October 1946 by a match between teams of members resident in Wanstead and those resident in Woodford. Wanstead won by 6½-5½. We have plans to celebrate our 80th year here with a similar match, 80 years to the day, on Friday 2nd October 2026, when the teams will be named after the Club’s co-founders, Roy Wagstaff and John Hunnable – teams to be selected by our Fixtures Secretary. In this picture of that original match in 1946, held in Roding Room, (though you might not recognise it!) Roy Wagstaff is standing in the background by the windows and John Hunnable is foreground right on the edge of the frame. Not great pictures of either, but the only one of the few we have which shows them both. More to follow nearer the time.
Since the Club moved to Wanstead House on its opening, it is also the 80th Anniversary of the Community Association when it opened at Wanstead House. Several members attended the Wanstead House 80th celebrations on Saturday 19 September.