We strive to be a friendly, successful and inclusive chess club, organising both competitive and social chess events.
We welcome people who love chess, regardless of age and level of play. We have members with Master titles and members who are near-beginners; we have members who are children and members who are long retired; we value them all, along with everyone in between!
We suggest that juniors also consider our partner club Barnet Knights, as they offer an environment which may be more tailored to their needs. We take great pride in the way young players are included in our events, as and when they are ready!
We have won the Middlesex League nine times, and been runners-up twice, since 2009. See our roll of honour.
In 2022, we were proud to celebrate the 75th anniversary of our founding in 1947!
Full details of our activities, such as club nights, tournaments and league teams, may be found here.
We hold a club night most Thursdays from 7:30pm to 10pm. There are occasionally weeks where we have to move or skip it, especially over the summer and winter holiday periods, so please check our event calendar, which will also tell you what else is going on each evening.
Our home venue is Cumberland Lawn Tennis Club, 25 Alvanley Gardens, London NW6 1JD (map), which is five minutes' walk from Finchley Road & Frognal Station. We meet in the Ramus Room, which is upstairs to the left of the main entrance.
The venue has a very reasonably priced bar and restaurant, and we encourage Hendon members and visitors to make use of it!
The Cumberland Club does not permit its members, guests or visitors to bring in and consume on site food and drink purchased elsewhere. The only exceptions to this rule are refreshments to be consumed during the course of play (for example, bottled water). No alcohol purchased off site may be consumed at the Club.
We welcome walk-in visitors, and are happy for people to attend as social guests or spectators once or twice before deciding whether to pay for membership. We try to make sure someone is on hand to welcome first-time visitors, especially on evenings with social chess.
If you’re new, please come up to someone and let them know you’re interested in learning more about the club; they should hopefully be able to point you in the right direction!
Once you apply for membership, you should start receiving emails inviting you to play in league matches and other events.
When you become a member of the club, you will be eligible to attend as many club nights as you like, to enter any of our member-only events, or to receive the member discount for our open events. Please see our event calendar for further details.
Here is a list of articles likely to be of interest to people new to over-the-board chess, and/or to the chess club scene in London.
The current Officers of the Club may be found on our contact page.
The club recognises the importance of child safeguarding: we have a written policy which may be found here.