Founded in 1978 to promote and develop chess in Oldham Primary Schools and the surrounding districts. 3Cs    ( The Children's Chess Club) has grown since then into the largest and strongest junior chess club in the North of England.

Any child is given a welcome, although most are recruited from the Oldham Primary Schools League and join by invitation. For practical reasons, there is a ceiling of about 60 on our membership. There is a low-drop-out rate, since we encourage the children to keep attending when they reach secondary-school age.

The club has adult members of course, but these fall into one of these categories: ex-juniors who have now grown up; parents of juniors; player-coaches. Adults are made welcome on condition that they actively support the aims and ethos of the club, whose main focus is the development and welfare of the children.

Club Night:

Thursday 19:00 - 22:00

St Edwards RC Parish Hall, Spring Lane, Lees, Oldham

Wednesday, 19:30 - 23:00

St Edwards RC Parish Hall, Spring Lane, Lees, Oldham

The club currently has 5 teams in the Manchester Chess Federation

Since our foundation, Three Cs players have gained British Championships at various junior age groups.

Our best U11 players have been selected for the England U11 team and BCF/ECF representative teams for a number of years.

For many years our players provided the backbone of the Greater Manchester Junior teams at U12, U14 and U18 level playing in the NYCA events.

Our strongest players are regular members of the county adult team.

Three Cs has now relocated their club night to the new venue and as part of this move we have installed computers for our members use and also re-entered the 4NCL Chess League (Third Division) to enable our younger players the experience of playing in this international league. They will be able to call on our senior players to give them coaching and who will also be playing in the same team.

The clubs website will be updated monthly with results of how our players have been getting in the tournament's they have been playing in at home and abroad.

As a club participating in the 4NCL Chess League we were originally sponsored by Levy Gee and then Numerica unfortunately due to the loss of sponsorship in 2006-2007 we were unable to keep playing in the league due to high cost of running the team.

Some of our more experienced players have still participated in the 4NCL Chess League playing for other teams. During this time we are pleased to announce Stephen Gordon achieved his Grand Master title. We also hope that Adam Ashton may improve on his FIDE Master title and our new batch of players will reach these dizzy heights.

The teams playing in the Manchester and District Chess Association and Oldham Town Teams have been sponsored in the past by local company DCT Civil Engineering Limited

Appendix -

Why encourage children's chess?

Recent research in North America indicates the following benefits of junior chess:

• Chess fosters self-confidence and self-worth
• Participation in organised chess activities results in higher grades,
• especially in English and Maths
• It improves the ability to think rationally
• It builds team spirit while stressing the ability of the individual
• It teaches children that they are responsible for their own actions
• and must accept the consequences
• It allows girls to compete with boys on a non-threatening, socially acceptable plane
• It gives some children a world and companions away from their everyday problems
• It can dramatically improve attendance by becoming a most eagerly awaited school activity.

Phil Adams (3Cs & Numerica 3Cs Coach)

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