To help prepare our students to compete beyond Chess Rising Stars, we are delighted to announce the return of our Online Grand Prix.

This term, our free Grand Prix tournaments are to be held on our lichess team page. Chess Rising Stars students, parents, and friends are all welcome to take part.

The tournaments will alternate between five rounds of 10+5 and seven rounds of 5+3. 

Prizes

Trophies to be awarded in various categories (e.g. Top Girl, Rating prizes and Overall Champion). Your top 5 scores from the 6 Grand Prix events will count towards this.

A selection from the Chess Rising Stars library

Schedule

The online chess tournaments will take place on Sundays at 4 pm (GMT) in the Spring Term 2025:

  • 26th January = Warm-Up
  • 2nd February = Grand Prix 1
  • 9th February = Grand Prix 2
  • 16th February = Grand Prix 3
  • 2nd March = Grand Prix 4
  • 9th March = Grand Prix 5
  • 16th March = Grand Prix 6

Fair Play

To ensure the integrity of the Chess Rising Stars Online Grand Prix tournaments, we will use the lichess cheat detection system alongside the observation and judgment of our experienced coaching team.

Register Now

Drop us a message on the Chess Rising Stars lichess team page or an email to london@chessacademy.uk to get involved.

Chess Rising Stars London Academy Begins to Showcase our Rising Stars

This is the start of a new feature where we will introduce our Rising Stars.

Student Profile – Aden K.

Aden was still in Year 1 when he joined the Chess Rising Stars London Academy in April 2020. Since then he has been on a mission to prove that age doesn’t matter one bit in chess. Aden continues to impress us with his enthusiasm and desire to improve. He loves to get involved during group lessons and is quick to share his ideas with the class.

For now, tournament chess has moved online and Aden has enjoyed many successes. Perhaps the highlight so far was a 5th place finish in the London Junior Chess Championship Finals U8 section, whilst still U7. We are looking forward to seeing his continued progress when over the board chess returns.

Kent Junior Chess Association have benefited from Aden’s services in the National Association finals at both U9 and U11. Of particular note was the gold medal Aden won for a 5/5 performance on board 12 in the U11s. A formidable achievement given he can continue to play in this age category for another 4 years!

Aden has taken part in our online clubs, camps and the in-person Chelsea Chess Club. He quickly built a reputation as a sharp tactician who loves opening traps. Plenty of our students have fallen victim to Aden’s sneaky Stafford Gambit! We think this is partly why his EvenSturdyAlmond account on ChessKid has become widely feared with its 70% win rate.

Together with his coach, Maria, Aden has been building a collection of his best games. We hope that one day they will make for an excellent opening chapter to his first chess book! Here is one of our favourites:

White: Aden (1768)
Black: AdiMit (1948)

Aden’s Best Game

Selected Achievements:
2021

Barnet Junior Individual Championships U7, 4.5/6, 3rd
ChessKid UK Championships U8, 5.5/7, 9th=
Delancey UKCC, U8 Blitz Final 6.5/11, 3rd placed U7
Junior Masters Summer Cup U7 Finals, Bronze medal
Junior Masters Holiday Cup U7 Finals, Bronze medal
NATC, Representing Kent, U11 Finals 5/5, Board 12 Gold medal
Reached a lichess rapid rating of 1900

2020

LJCC U8 Finals, 5/7, 5th out of 79
Reached a lichess rapid rating of 1800

We look forward to more achievements to come from Aden!

November News

We are keen to share Chess Rising Stars London Academy’s upcoming Christmas and New Year chess courses with you.

Online Chess Camp

The 24th Chess Rising Stars Camp will be held online between Monday 18th and Wednesday 20th December, 9am – 12 noon. Beginners, intermediate and advanced players are all welcome. Our online holiday camp returns by popular request after the success of our Summer Holiday Online Club. Secure your spot with our Early Bird registration discount.

Christmas Tournament

Embrace the festive spirit with our Christmas Online Chess Tournament on Saturday 9th December from 10:00-12:30 using lichess.org! The tournament will also incorporate our 9th Girls’ Online Chess Tournament. Entry is open to all Chess Rising Stars students, parents, coaches and friends.

Spring Term

Be the first to mark your calendars with the Spring Term dates for all of the Online Chess Clubs and our prestigious Chelsea Chess Club. Chess Rising Stars clubs will have 9 weeks of lessons across the term and a week off for half-term. As usual, spaces are limited across our chess clubs and allocated on a first come, first served basis.

Chess Rising Stars teacher GM Marian Petrov was selected to coach the Bulgarian team at the FIDE World Youth Olympiad tournament in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

Registration is now open for all of these fantastic courses. If you’d like more details, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Mar 07, 2025

Easter Chess Camp

We’ve had a very welcome week of sunshine in London – a sure sign that Spring is on the way. Naturally, you will be thinking about what your kids can do during the Easter holidays next month and Chess Rising Stars are here to help!

Our Easter Online Chess Camp will be held between 7th and 9th April. It’s our 30th camp since 2020 and, once again, will be taught by our experienced online coach Savvas Manelidis.

Lessons will have a mixture of tuition, friendly games and an internal tournament with trophies posted to the winners! Our Online Chess Camp acts as an ideal companion course to our small-group Online Chess Clubs. We also welcome students who are current members of our in-person school chess lessons, the Chelsea Chess Club and Wimbledon Chess Rising Stars for some extra chess in their Holidays.

Time: 9:00-11:30 am
Age: 6 to 14
Number of children: 4-10 per group

7th, 8th & 9th April 2025

£25 per individual day
For bookings dated on or before 31st March 2025

£25 per day only when the whole camp is booked in advance
£35 per individual day from 1st April