We are pleased to announce the 2026 Hendon Chess Club Championship, which for the first time ever will be FIDE-rated!
In order to enter you must be both a member of Hendon Chess Club (£40 / £32 concessions - join here!), and a member of the ECF at Gold or Platinum level (join here). Provided you have both these memberships, the tournament is free to enter (only players who have paid their Club membership fees in full will be paired).
Click here to enter the tournament!
As you register you will be automatically added to the list here, and you should check your emails for confirmation. You can edit your registration using the link in that email.
Pairings and results will be available here throughout the tournament.
The tournament will be a six-round ECF-rated and FIDE-rated Swiss, played over six Thursday evenings:
This will be a standard-play tournament with a time limit of 60 minutes per player plus an increment of 30 seconds per move.
Each round will start at 7:15pm at our venue, The Cumberland Club (25 Alvanley Gardens, London NW6 1JD). This earlier-than-normal start time is to allow for the longer time limit required by FIDE rating regulations. Since our room booking starts only at 7pm, we would greatly appreciate as many people as possible arriving at that time to help us set up.
The default time is 30 minutes but we reserve the right to re-pair players at any time. The Arbiters will be Lance Leslie-Smith and Adam Raoof.
There will be a single section. The winner will be the Club Champion; the David Jones Cup will be won by the highest player rated under 1675 ECF.
In the event of a tie for any prize, tie-breaks will be applied in the following order:
Players who cannot play in all the rounds may request up to two half-point byes in any of rounds 1–5, and any number of zero-point byes, provided you notify adamraoof@gmail.com in advance. Pairings will be published on Wednesday evenings at 11pm the day before the round. If you give notice of a bye before then, it will be taken into account.
Players who do not already have a FIDE ID will be assigned one under the English flag. It may not be straightforward to change your country of FIDE registration later. If you would prefer your FIDE registration to be under a country other than England, please contact your national chess federation to obtain a FIDE ID before registering for the tournament.
Please note that due to the time limit used, players rated 2400 or above will not be able to have their games FIDE-rated (but they can be ECF-rated).