About the club
A free chess club for 6–16 year-olds, run by volunteers at Ferndown Library every Saturday morning.
This free club was created for juniors from 6 to 16 years old, catering for players at every level — from complete beginners to medium and strong club players. It gives young players an inclusive place to develop their skills and enjoy the game at their own pace.
It is organised and run by Graham Morris and Jon Catchpole, with the aim of expanding the number of tutors so the club can cater for its more advanced players too.
Two sessions, 10am–12 noon
An hour per child works best — that’s when concentration is at its sharpest — so families drop in for whichever session suits.
A short lesson, then a game against someone of a similar standard, so what has just been taught gets used straight away.
Chess clocks and notation are encouraged, with time controls to suit each player’s level.
Competitions and activities
Internal competitions are always popular, and the club plans to run several kinds:
- Ladder
- Knockout — run before as ‘Climb the Mountain’
- Hand & Brain
- 960 chess
- Puzzles
- All-play-All Round Robin
The club also hopes to arrange matches against other junior clubs in the area, such as Bournemouth and Southbourne.
Just playing games without learning is repetitive and cannot improve play — so it matters to learn, practise and play in equal measure.
Every Saturday, at Ferndown Library
The club meets every Saturday morning at Ferndown Library, from 10am until 12 noon, and runs throughout the year except during designated holiday periods.
It has the use of a dedicated room upstairs, just for the chess club, by kind permission of Dorset Council — for which the club is extremely grateful.
Full directions, parking and the library’s own phone number are on the find us page.
The volunteers
The club is run entirely by volunteers.
Graham has taught junior chess for over eight years, across the Ferndown, Bournemouth and Poole clubs. He holds a current DBS certificate.
The club keeps growing, with more members joining every week. If you would be willing to help with coaching on a regular Saturday morning, it would be very welcome — please get in touch.
What a child gets out of it
Parents often ask what a child gains from chess beyond the game itself. A few of the things the club sees most often:
- Concentration. Holding a plan in mind for a whole game, and noticing when the position has stopped matching it.
- Thinking ahead. Every move is a small decision whose consequence arrives several moves later.
- Problem solving. No two positions are quite the same, so there is nothing that can be learned by rote.
- Maths. Counting attackers and defenders, and weighing what a piece is worth, is arithmetic with a reason to get it right.
- Patience, and losing well. Everybody loses games. Learning to look at why, without it spoiling the morning, is the most useful habit chess teaches.
- Company. The club mixes ages and abilities, and a game gives two children who have never met something to do together.
It is free to join, and a child is welcome to come along and try it without committing to anything.
Safe, and DBS certified
Graham holds a current DBS certificate. The club takes the safeguarding of the children who attend seriously, in the room and on this website.
The club’s safeguarding policy is published and in force. It names the safeguarding lead, sets out the position on photographs, and explains how to raise a concern — including routes that do not go through Graham. It also explains how to ask for a photograph to be taken off this website, which the club will do on request and without asking why.