All Our Chessterdays ...
3Cs' memories of days gone by ...
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Miners Arts and Music Community Centre, Moston, Manchester.
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7 Nov 2002
Many players who began as juniors at 3Cs have continued to represent the club into their adult years. These photos show the variety of coaching sessions at the club, both for newcomers and for those who are still active within 3Cs in their latter years.
The photos show club founder Steve Rigby giving guidance to those beginning their chess career while Grandmaster Nigel Davies is seen passing on his knowledge to more experienced players, including Adam Ashton, Dale James, Cory Hazlehurst and
Phil Adams, all of whom still have involvement with the club 20 years later.
(Put cursor over any photo to stop carousel - Click on any photo for a larger image)
8 October 2009
The Mayor Oldham, Councillor Jim McArdle, unveiling the 3Cs' Roll of Honour while officially opening the club's current headquarters at St.Edward's Parish Hall
3Cs 1986 - Winners of Manchester League A & G Divisions and Hartley Trophy
Adults (l to r) - Stephen Wild, Stephen Rigby, Phil Adams, Roy Williams
Back row (l to r) - Anthony Lee, Paul Keech, David Walker, Paul Wilkinson
Middle row (l to r) - Oliver Shipp, Tony Cooke, Craig Cooke, Stuart Clarke,
Phil Whitworth, Chris Casserley.
Front row (l to r) - Andrew McCoy, Chris Higham, Martin Birch, Alan Walton,
Paul Walton, Dean Hamilton, Mark Gregory.
(Photograph courtesy of the Oldham Evening Chronicle)
Oldham Evening Chronicle - Monday 23 February 1981
Left photo - 3Cs'coach Gareth Lewis demonstrates a chess problem on a special board while fellow coach James Holland and members of the Oldham under-9s' team look on.
Right photo - The Oldham under-11s' team discuss tactics with their coaches. From left to right, Anthony Sykes, Stuart Clarke, Roy Williams (coach), Stephen Rigby (coach), Clifford Lowe, Dale James.
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A 1985 photo showing 3Cs' coaches Gareth Lewis (extreme right) and Brian Whitworth (centre, back row) with some of the club's earliest young players, most of whom from Leesfield school where 3Cs were based.
Several young players continue with 3Cs for many years, a fact highlighted by current first team player Alan Walton, who can also be seen in this photo on the back row next to Gareth Lewis.
Below is a article from "The Telegraph" in 1988 reporting the growing interest and success of schools' chess in the Oldham area.
In 2002 the National Junior Squad Championships were held at North Chadderton School, Oldham and in which 30 of the 160 players attending were from the local area - more than any other town in the country.
3Cs dominated the main under-21s event with Robert Taylor winning the Championship while Stephen Gordon and Paul Plant finished equal second.
The report shown below was in the Oldham Evening Chronicle.
The 3Cs' players shown are Jason Wright (top left, making his move), Stephen Gordon and Robert Taylor (top right), Robyn Smith (middle right and third from right on the bottom centre picture), Katie Martin (bottom right); Stephen Gordon (middle left and bottom left).
In 1984 Dale James became the first 3Cs' player to win a British title with victory in the under-14s' event. However, he had shown his ability two years earlier when aged just 12 he won the prestigious Lloyds Bank u-14 tournament in London.
Dale is pictured (far right) in a report of that event from the Manchester Evening News while another article about his success can be seen on the "3Cs v GMs" page of this website.
The "British Chess Magazine" from June 2016 including a report on 3Cs' Grandmaster Stephen Gordon's visit to play a tournament in Bangkok. Click on the page-expander in the bottom right corner for a larger view.
A look back to the late 1980s and 3Cs' chief coach Phil Adams (the one with the beard ... although a different shade these days), facing Phil Whitworth, another product of the club's youth system and who won the 1988 British under-16s' title as well as gaining International honours for England.
Phil Adams appears to be wondering why he again taught another youngster to play so well - and will using "The Stodge" be any good against this one ?
The newspaper article (below) from the Oldham Evening Chronicle in 1986 reports on the regular successes for the Oldham junior chess town-teams at various age-groups.
A report (below) in the Oldham Evening Chronicle on 7 July 2000 highlighting the success of the 3Cs' chess club. The players shown include Craig Bowyer, Thomas Dalton, Karen Bradley, Victoria Crompton and Sarah Robinson
3Cs were honoured in November 2010 with a visit to one of their club nights by the then President of the English Chess Federation, although most people knew him better from his regular appearances as a panelist on the television quiz show "Eggheads", namely CJ de Mooi.
The club had taken up CJ's offer of visting as many clubs as he could while in office and had therefore invited him to their presentation evening. CJ also took the time to play a few games against some of the 3Cs' junior players as well as actually providing some additional prizes of his own which he presented to several of the 3Cs' youngsters.
The photographs (below) show part of the 100+ attendance at the 3Cs' club as well as CJ in chess-playing action and presenting some of the trophies won by the club that year.
(Click on any photograph for a larger image)
3Cs take centre stage !
In 2012 three of our young players - brothers Jake, Daniel and Ben Manton - were asked to take part in a theatre performance which recreated the historic 1972 chess World championship encounter between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky.
3Cs v Berlin
An under-21s' German team from Berlin visited the 3Cs' club in 2010 as part of their tour to the North-West of England.
Despite having previously defeated a Greater Manchester side, the visitors found the 3Cs' youngsters - all of whom were under 16 - to be a much stronger proposition and with the Oldham team taking the victory.
A report is shown from the Oldham Evening Chronicle.
