Eccles Chess Club has been named the chess club of the year for the entirety of the North West by the Manchester and North West England Prestige Awards.
The club won the distinguished award after winning the Greater Manchester and Stockport leagues.
Eccles Community Chess is a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting the joys and the benefits of playing chess.
After the club was honoured, founder Barbara Farrar said she was delighted and hopes the club can dominate the regional chess scene for years to come.
She said: “Obviously, we were over the moon and delighted.
“We were informed that we were nominated by the Prestige Awards. They had looked at the recent reviews that we received for the community work we’ve been doing and they looked at the recent success of the club.
The Prestige Awards congratulatred us and said they hope this will be useful promoting chess in the community in the future.
Looking towards the future and wanting to improve the quality of chess and their successes, Barbara said: “This year, we’re going into the Bolton League and the Warrington League to see if we can swoop across the North West by being the strongest Chess Club.”
It’s clear to see that this has been a tremendous journey of growth. Accordinng to Barbara, the club started from only three players, but today has over 70 paid members and is now the only chess club in the UK that has a high street venue.
Matches had been played at Barbara’s house for the last five years and felt it necessary to move into a dedicated space, just for chess.
Despite the meteoric rise of Eccles Chess Club, the organisation still relies on fundraising to carry out improvement work to their venue.
The new obstacle for Barbara is acquiring funding for a high street shutter to improve the venue. The shutter required costs in the region of £3,500 and Barbara has arranged for a community chess event to take place on February 1st 2026 to try and raise funds towards this.
More information about the fundraising event and Eccles Chess Club is availible here.
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