Plans are in place to turn Porthmadog into “a major chess centre”.

A club is being launched later this month and players are urged to attend the first meeting.

Anyone from the Porthmadog area who is interested in playing chess is welcome to an introductory meeting of a friendly new club, which will meet once a month.

Porthmadog Chess Club meets for the first time on Wednesday, 20 March at 7.30pm at the Royal Sportsman Hotel. It welcomes all ages and abilities at chess, from those who've never played before, to beginners who know the basic rules, and those who'd like to compete at league level.

Local author and chess enthusiast Mike Leaver is one of the new club’s founders. Explaining more about the club, he says numbers are limited to 35 due to the size of the hotel's lounge room and because the three founders only have six chess sets.

He added: “Whether you enjoy playing socially against real people or virtually against a computer, and whether you need to learn from scratch or prefer advanced tuition from experienced league players to progress your game, we aim to offer a friendly and informal atmosphere.

“Under-18s must be accompanied by an adult guardian because the hotel is a licensed premises. But if lots of children/teenagers do attend the first meeting, we might arrange separate family ones at Porthmadog Library.

“As we have little idea how many might attend – and at following ones during the third week of each month – we are asking anyone with a standard chess set to bring it along,”

Typically other chess clubs within an hour's drive of Porthmadog have around 20 regular members. Of these, many simply prefer to play casually to make friends, though some want serious matches against other clubs.

Mike said: “We hope to get the idyllic town of Porthmadog and its surrounding villages recognised as a major chess centre, which might eventually battle with Caernarfon, Bangor, and the like in the Gwynedd league.”