Waterloo Chess Club has a long and proud history as one of Merseyside’s foremost chess clubs. Founded in 1903, the club has hosted chess at various locations throughout the Waterloo and Crosby area for over one hundred years and has, at times, enjoyed periods of great success. We participate in regional competition under the governance of the Merseyside Chess Association (MCA) and can boast of being multiple times winners of the Division 1 championship, most recently in 2003, the centennial year of the club.

Currently, the first team competes in the MCA Division 2, and the second team was promoted to the third division after winning the division 4 title in 2026. Many of our players are also active in the competitive chess scene nationally, for example we had several members participating in the British Chess Championships held in Liverpool in 2025.

Over the years, the club has been home to several noteworthy players, including International Master, Gary Quillan; the author Thomas John Beach, who wrote on the subject of chess improvement alongside Col. Hugh O’Donel Alexander (famed for his work decoding the enigma); also, Dr Alan Ludgate, former Irish Champion, who was immortalised in Leonard Barden’s book ‘Play Better Chess’, featuring his historic defeat to the 11-year-old Nigel Short, a future Grandmaster.

Waterloo has also played host to a variety of chess occasions and the odd prestigious visitor, most notably World Champion José Raúl Capablanca, who performed a simultaneous exhibition at the club in 1919 in which Waterloo’s two top players (a father and son, both mathematicians) were able to score wins against the Cuban great. Given Capablanca’s incredible record in simultaneous displays, this was a remarkable result.