The MetroWest Chess Club

Take a look and see what our club has to offer for the tournament player

Well attended & active

We have a membership of about 120 players with an average attendance of 55 in each event. Because of this strong attendance, most of our events have two or three sections, to tighten competition at the top and provide some relief at the bottom.

Slow, not fast, time control

We've picked our time controls so that we can be as slow as possible and hopefully get you home before midnight. We've shaved an hour off the typical 2-day tournament time controls to fit the game between 7:30 and 11:30 PM. At 40/90 and SD/30 we believe there's enough time to play a quality game.

A wide range of skilled players

Most of our players fall within a range of 1100 to 2000 with a few Masters who attend regularly to gobble up the aforementioned players for lunch and walk away with the prize money. To see a complete list of who is playing at the club, visit our web site at www.MetroWestChess.org

Results posted to the Web

One of the features that our players seem to really enjoy is that they can check results the next day on our web site. We even put up projected pairings for those who'd like to see whom they might be paired against the next round.

Computerized pairings

We use computer pairing software to give you fast, accurate and consistent pairings every round. We've been doing this for several years and we know what we’re doing.

Watching our own time control

The round starts 7:30 PM. While we sometimes miss our goal of starting every round on time, we make it more than we miss. If you give us a ten-minute leeway, our percentages go way up. Round 1 is still our worst round but we're getting better as more of our players show up earlier to get registered. We hate to turn players away.

A great facility for playing chess

We can easily accommodate 40 boards and have a good-sized skittles room. Many people have commented that we have one of the best club sites they have ever seen. The site is Non-Smoking.

Supporting top players

It's not easy at the top so we try to make things attractive to strong players. Masters (over 2200) have free entry for all events. We believe that Chess benefits by supporting the top players and that our members benefit by having them play at our club.

Regular, on-going tournaments

Since we meet only on Tuesday nights, we play one round of a tournament per week. Up to two half-point byes are available per tournament so that if you have to miss a round, you’re still in the running to place. Many of our members have busy schedules that don’t let them get to the Club every week. Once you’re entered, if you can’t make a round, all you have to do is call the Clubs answering machine by 7:00 PM on the night of play and you won’t be paired for that round.

Members' only Study Group

We've established a "Study Group" that meets at 6:30 PM. We have a collection of Experts and Masters who provide analysis of games submitted by our members. Each week an annotated game is reviewed in a group class setting. This gives our class players a chance to learn from each other as well as obtain valuable insight from the Experts and Masters.

Members' tournament discount

As a general rule of thumb, our members pay $5 less per tournament than non-members. With membership at only $30, you only need to play in six events during the year to make back your fee.

Members' only Library

Our library has over 100 books as well as a collection of Chess Videos that members may borrow.