2 November 2025: special coaching event
We used the first floor of The Red Berry Cafe at Bangor marina to run a 3 hour coaching session on the morning of Sunday 2 November 2025. Armed with volunteer Club Masters to analyse the games of teenagers on a one-to-one basis, allowing tailor-made coaching for upcoming chess stars. Each youngster brought the annotation along from 2 recent classic games. Each Club Master played through the moves one-by-one, asking the player about their ideas and the Club Masters offered insight to help improve their play. We covered the following chess openings: the Queen’s Gambit Declined, the French Defence and the Jobava London. Our thanks to Club Masters Brendan Jamison and Edward Khanzharov for volunteering their time for free. The feedback was fantastic and we hope to run more sessions like this in the future.
These outreach events are made possible thanks to a grant from the National Lottery Community Fund 2025-2027
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23 October 2025: special newcomer event
We hired the Avril Morley Room to run a special blitz event for 20 newcomers/beginners (while 44 of our regular club members were playing in the main hall at our regular Thursday club session).
We awarded medals to 6 children: Champion: 12 year old Reuben McClean, 2nd: 13 year old Charlie Murphy, 3rd: 15 year old Seren Winstanley, Junior Champion: 13 year old Antoni Ostradecki, Junior 2nd: 13 year old William Swann, Junor 3rd: 8 year old Sawyer Harpur.
These outreach events are made possible thanks to a grant from the National Lottery Community Fund 2025-2027
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11 October 2025: special children’s event
For the first time in the club’s history, we held a County Down Junior’s tournament with 17 trophies for children aged 7 to 17. This was a fantastic opportunity for local children to mix with children from all across Northern Ireland and much further afield in the Republic of Ireland. We had 80 people attend [58 players attending, 2 arbiters and 20 parents/grandparents/older siblings]. One of the most beautiful aspects of the day was to see so many friendships between children of different nationalities. It was a joy to see so many children from the Indian community and they contributed a massive amount of joy and enthusiasm, 5 of whom won trophies. Another notable statistic was 20% of the children were from Ukraine (who had fled their home country during the full-scale war that erupted in 2022), 4 of whom won trophies at the end of the day.
These outreach events are made possible thanks to a grant from the National Lottery Community Fund 2025-2027
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10 October 2025: special chess event for newcomers/beginners
On the evening of Friday 10 October, we made a special booking of the hall to hold a small event with 18 players, with an emphasis on newcomers/beginners. They got the opportunity to play some of the more experienced players in an 8 round blitz tournament. 13 year old Charlie Murphy (from Greenisland) won the award for Best Newcomer. Meanwhile fellow teenager Reuben McClean won the Intermediate trophy. Adult winners were: Owen Dumigan (Holywood) in 3rd place with 6/8, Richard Proctor (Bangor) in 2nd place with 6/8 and the champion was Alan McBurney (Bangor) with 6.5/8
These outreach events are made possible thanks to a grant from the National Lottery Community Fund 2025-2027
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17 September 2025: teaching tournament organising at Washingbay Community Centre, County Tyrone
Bangor Chess Club’s President travelled to Washingbay Community Centre on the shores of Lough Neagh to teach the method for organising small all-play-all chess tournaments. The Washingbay Club Director Jelmer Hania was very thankful for the tournament hand-outs and guidance on how to run the events for local Coalisland players, which he hopes to carry forwards throughout the chess season. The trail run was held in the cafe at Washingbay Centre and was filled with local players of all ages and all abilities, from schoolchildren to adults.
These outreach events are made possible thanks to a grant from the National Lottery Community Fund 2025-2027
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12-13 September 2025: inter-cultural chess with players from local Indian community
We hired the smaller Maxwell Hall in Groomsport to hold two chess events over Friday 12th and Saturday 13th September. It was a special mix of players from Bangor Chess Club and our local Indian community who live throughout Northern Ireland.
These outreach events are made possible thanks to a grant from the National Lottery Community Fund 2025-2027
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3 September 2025: Cross-community event in County Tyrone
8pm to 10:30pm. 12 chess players from Bangor Chess Club attended this cross-community event at the Washingbay Chess Club in County Tyrone. Ranging in age from 9 upwards, it was a mix of children, adolescents, students, adults and pensioners. 32 players took part and the night was a great buzz. We distributed 10 trophies. The Under 19 Gold Cup was won by Oliver Mead from Whitehill in Bangor. The Under 16 Cup was won by Aharshi Banerjee (from India) who joined Bangor Chess Club last season and is one of the most talented 14 year olds in Northern Ireland. The Under 14 Cup was won by 9 year old Alex McKeown, an exceptionally gifted young player who travels from Belfast to all our events.
These outreach events are made possible thanks to a grant from the National Lottery Community Fund 2025-2027
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29 August 2025: Coaching for teenage chess players, Jamaica Blue, Bloomfield’s Shopping Centre, Bangor, County Down
4pm to 6pm. Attendees from the nearby housing estate of Whitehill, as well as Newtownards and central Bangor. The 2 hour session featured Club Master coaching through Q&A with each teen discussing challenging openings and we did group opening theory to solve the problems so everyone learned from the experience. Adolescent participants ranged in age from 14-18, with 3 adults present to lead the activity. The event was cross-community. After the coaching, attendees enjoyed casual chess in a relaxed environment.
These outreach events are made possible thanks to a grant from the National Lottery Community Fund 2025-2027
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28 August 2025: Community Cafe Chess, Bangor, County Down
10am to 12:15pm. Attendees from the housing estates of Whitehill and Kilkooley, as well as further afield with 2 players that travelled 90 minutes by car from Kilrea. We gathered at the original venue in Kilkooley at 10am but it was cancelled so we took our group of 10 chess players to The Red Berry Cafe at Bangor marina. Participants ranged in age from 15 to 71 and the event was cross-community with all attendees enjoying casual chess in a relaxed environment. We even had time to do a little coaching session as we played through a classical game with 2 of the attendees!
These outreach events are made possible thanks to a grant from the National Lottery Community Fund 2025-2027
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23 August 2025: Outside the Walled Garden at Bangor Castle Park, County Down
10am to 1:30pm. Attendees from the nearby housing estates of Whitehill and Kilkooley and the tonic fold in Bangor City Centre. Participants ranged in age from 9 to 71 and included a celebration of neurodiversity with several players with autism and ADHD excelling on the day, winning many games and enjoying the social interaction.
These outreach events are made possible thanks to a grant from the National Lottery Community Fund 2025-2027
July 2024: Outside the Walled Garden at Bangor Castle Park, County Down
This event was made possible thanks to a grant from the National Lottery Community Fund
July 2024: Londonderry Room, Ards Arts Centre, County Down
This event was made possible thanks to a grant from the National Lottery Community Fund
July 2024: Londonderry Room, Ards Arts Centre, County Down
This event was made possible thanks to a grant from the National Lottery Community Fund
July 2024: Londonderry Room, Ards Arts Centre, County Down
This event was made possible thanks to a grant from the National Lottery Community Fund
July 2024: Londonderry Room, Ards Arts Centre, County Down
This event was made possible thanks to a grant from the National Lottery Community Fund
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May 4, 2024:
We are over the moon to receive a grant from the The National Lottery Community Fund to help develop our community outreach activities where chess builds bridges, builds confidence, breaks down language barriers, cross-cultural, cross-community, attracts young and old in wonderful cross-generational activities, combats loneliness and isolation and is often described as a ‘happy place’ for those with ASD who adore attending our events and making friends for life.
Chess connects, it builds community, it creates a magic spark in the lives of so many. To the National Lottery, thank you for believing in what we do…
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Venue address: 44 Shore Rd, Rostrevor, BT34 3ET
The venue is a magical setting, overlooking the beautiful Carlingford Lough
and the wonderful Kilbroney Forest Park is behind our building.
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