The Oxfordshire Junior Squad Chess Club (Ojays) is a non-profit-making organisation that currently has weekly club meetings either in person or on Zoom.
These are by invitation only as a minimum standard of proficiency is required but please contact Andrew Varney if you would like to know more.
All times 6.15pm-8pm.
Ojays also holds special events from time to time such as internal tournaments and simultaneous exhibitions.
The key objectives of the squad are as follows:
To give county standard players a regular chance to play weekly chess at a suitable level and to learn from coaching sessions. In particular we feel there is a need to provide this for players who cannot find this at their school or at a local adult club.
To encourage junior chess in Oxfordshire to develop beyond the age of 11. Parents could view the squad as a stepping stone for their child to develop further before joining an established local chess club. We will also actively encourage and support interest to start new school clubs in primary and secondary schools.
The following players have been invited to join the weekly squad meetings:
- All players under the age of 11 who have represented Oxfordshire at U11 and U9 level.
- Older junior players who play or have played for one of the Oxfordshire county chess teams and who we believe will have a positive influence on the younger players.
- Other players who have shown potential to play at county level, especially if they are not able to find suitable regular chess or coaching elsewhere.
- Please note that we have a limit of 50 players for weekly attendance.
Management and Supervision
It is required that all attending children will have a parent or authorised adult present throughout the evening. We are not expecting to deal with any disciplinary issues and if we believe any child or parent is being disruptive to the club, we reserve the right to withdraw the invitation at any stage. However, we do not expect every parent to be present and we presume that car sharing will mean we will have approximately 1 parent present for every 3 or 4 children. Conversely, this may be a good opportunity for parents to get advice and ideas for their children’s chess development.Subscription
The subscription fee is currently £50 per term to attend on Fridays. Fees should be paid at the start of the term. The fees are used to pay for professional coaching, to provide equipment and resources and to reimburse the venues for some of their costs involved in hosting the club. Apart from much of the coaching and occasional special guests, the meetings will be run without payment by volunteers (the organisers) most of whom have children in the squad.Where a temporary membership fee for one-off special events (such as tournaments and guest appearances) is offered for those not signed up for the term, the membership criteria for invitation still apply.