Edinburgh Civil Service Chess Club

15/05/2026

Online entry for Edinburgh Congress at this link -

* £2 discount for CS members/Students/Unemployed/Over 60s Titled Players in the Premier Section: 50% discount for FMs : Free for GMs and IMs, if entry received before 31 May 2026 via the on-line contact form here. Junior discount £10 - all main sections. Junior is under 18 at the start of the tour...

01/05/2026

First team surprised a few teams in the Premier with two wins and two draws to finish with a creditable 5th. The play off with the 2nd top in the division below has been declined so we will be playing in the Premier again next season. This is the first time we have had back to back seasons in the Premier for at least 20 years!

01/05/2026

Allan McDiarmid finally won the Spring Lightning after narrowly missing out on previous play offs!

01/05/2026

Someone pointed out the Lewis chessman on the banks of the Water of Leith near Canonmills. Apparently been there for 2-3 years but only visible at certain times when there is less vegetation! (I believe there is a 2nd piece also on the WOL somewhere)

12/03/2026

Congratulations to Edinburgh West 1 on winning the Allegro League.

13/02/2026

Better results for both civil service teams last night. Edinburgh West 1 extend lead over Musselburgh 1 to 1 point. Our first team move closer to EW1 by ½ point. (Didn't help we defaulted on bottom board twice!)

Two matches left and EW1 still favourites.

EW1 to play - Wandering Dragons and Bank of Scotland
MUS to play - Bank of Scotland and Edinburgh 2
CS1 to play - Corstorphine and Edinburgh 1

28/01/2026

Two lads turned up at the chess club on Monday night and started playing each other on a free board. I took a brief pause in my game v club champion to get them set up with others playing shorter games. After my game finished (a win hurrah!) I spoke to them and asked them if they were local and looking to join a club. Turns out they had searched Google maps to find a chess club open on a Monday and found us. They then drove an hour up from the borders. (near the English border)

Unfortunately no local clubs for them and they wanted a change from playing each other. They enjoyed it and might pop in occasionally!

Maybe if Dunbar gets started again this might be an option.

Glad now I took the effort to register our club officially with Google maps 👍

25/01/2026

Aberdeen Chess Congress 2026

The Bon Accord Chess club is delighted to announce the return of the Aberdeen Chess Congress

The Congress will take place on the 10th-12th of April 2026.

It will be a 3 day Event with 3 sections.

Sections: Open | Major (1800) | Minor (1400)

Time Controls: 90 minutes with 30s increment from move 1.

The Congress will take place at Curl Aberdeen.
Eday Walk, Aberdeen AB15 6LN

More Details on link below:
https://congress.org.uk/congress/738/home

09/01/2026

Edinburgh West 1 scored heavily against both civil service teams to move ahead of Musselburgh in the Allegro League. Starting to look like a two horse race between EW1 and Musselburgh.

12/12/2025

Well done to Musselburgh who scored heavily again to push further ahead in the Allegro league. Civil Service 1 move up to 2nd place but will rely on other teams to take points off Musselburgh since we are not scheduled to play them!