Steve Rigby, the founder of Oldham-based 3Cs Chess Club over forty-six years ago, has been awarded the British Empire Medal in the 2025 King’s New Year’s Honours for services to chess and his work with young people in the community. He becomes only the thirteenth person in the country to have received a national honour from the monarch specifically because of their involvement with the game of chess.
The honour has been granted to Steve just twelve months after he also received the national Points of Light award, the recipients of which are personally selected by the Prime Minister (then Rishi Sunak) for outstanding voluntary service within their community. On that occasion he was the first person to have had their work for the benefit of chess recognised in such a prestigious manner.
It was in 1978 that Steve, a former headteacher at a number of Oldham schools, founded the Children’s Chess Club of Oldham (now known locally, nationally, and internationally as 3Cs) along with fellow local teacher Roy Williams, after they were informed that many already established chess clubs were unwilling to accept children.
Therefore Steve and Roy agreed to establish an Oldham schools’ chess league, assisted by notable contributors such as Gareth Lewis, Brian Whitworth and Arthur Marsden, as well as other teachers interested in providing opportunities for Oldham children to compete in what was at that time considered a somewhat elite academic pastime. From this early schools’ league the Oldham U11 and later U9 teams were formed, both of which continue to represent the town to this day under the capable care of Dale James, himself one of Steve and Roy’s original group of players in 1978, and who became the first 3Cs player to win a British title when becoming the national U14 champion in 1984.
Although the U11s’ first match ended in a disastrous 23-1 defeat against a mighty Manchester team Steve and Roy were not discouraged, and worked to improve the team’s performance. The recruitment of experienced coach Phil Adams was a major step forward, together with the idea that the way to improve the children’s level of skill was to play against more experienced adults. To this day that is still the blueprint for the 3Cs club.
3Cs’ weekly club nights now attract youngsters from near and far, many of whom compete in events both nationally and internationally after having started to learn chess under Steve’s guidance. Indeed, one such player was a young Stephen Gordon, who has since progressed to become a grandmaster and English champion.
As well as encouraging youngsters to play chess, Steve Rigby also sees the importance of support given to them by parental involvement. As a consequence notable examples such as Tony Ashton, Alan Burke, Glyn Towse, John Walton, Andy Lewis, Tim Horton, Vic Pelling, Everson Correa and others have been seen playing in teams alongside their children, while Lorraine Towse and Rose Kaliski have provided valuable behind the scenes work.
In 2009 Steve was honoured by the English Chess Federation as the recipient of the President’s Award for Services to Chess. In addition, as a result of Steve’s often unnoticed hard work in always trying to improve the club, 3Cs have won the ECF’s Club of the Year award on three occasions; an honour which no other club in the country has ever been granted more than once since its inception in 1984.
Many of the youngsters Steve first nurtured now play regularly for 3Cs in the local adult league, resulting in the club having won the Manchester League in eighteen of its last twenty seasons. The 3Cs’ impressive roll of honour currently shows 39 of its young players as having represented England, 28 having become national champions at various levels, and 12 who have achieved master titles. However, it isn’t just success that Steve craves. He gets far more pleasure in seeing new young faces coming through the door on 3Cs’ club nights, and, in his words, ‘having a relatively small and unfashionable town in the world of chess like Oldham being able to compete at the highest level with others who have far greater resources.’
3Cs have also twice qualified for the European Chess Club Championships, yet while their opponents were often a mix of ‘imported’ players who were paid to represent their team, Steve gained pleasure in knowing that the 3Cs side had mostly come through the club’s own youth development system and were all genuine club members.
Furthermore, the 45th anniversary year of 3Cs in 2023 not only brought the club national publicity with an appearance on the BBC1 prime time television programme The One Show as well as becoming the first club to win the Manchester League eight years in a row, but also the ECF’s National Club Championship (the chess equivalent of the FA Cup), yet again with a full team of players who were products of the club’s junior coaching system.
Steve said of his new honour: ‘I am delighted to receive this award, not only for myself but also on behalf of the remarkable people who I have spent time sharing the same vision with, and who have all helped to make our achievements possible. That so many have supported the club’s inclusive nature to provide opportunities for all has been a great inspiration to me all my life.