CRS London Academy
Chess Rising Stars

This October marked a significant milestone for our Chelsea Chess Club. We established it as our first independent junior chess club back in 2019 and have since grown to welcome over 30 children aged 5-12 each week.

Today the Chelsea Chess Club is one of only eleven junior clubs in the country to be recognised by the ECF Junior Development Pathway initiative.

We are proud to have attained Level 2 Status within the English Chess Federation’s Junior Development Pathway scheme. The recent competitive successes of our students, both individually and in team competitions, and the high quality of our website were highlighted by the ECF as contributing towards our successful application.

            “The English Chess Federation’s Junior Development Pathway is a new initiative by the ECF to create a structured and formal progression plan for junior chess players which incorporates existing coaches, junior clubs, associations and programmes”

ECF Juniors Website, Autumn 2022

This acknowledgment is a testament to the dedication of our coaches, the enthusiasm of our young chess players, and the support of parents within our community.

We are confident that the club’s journey doesn’t end here. We aspire to earn ‘Centre of Excellence’ status and are already working towards it.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed.

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CRS London Academy
Apr 19, 2025

ECF Rating Milestones

We’re careful when it comes to chess ratings. It’s easy to lose sight of improvement, focus on the number and forget what’s important: study, study, study (and have fun)!

With that said, we felt that two students crossing the 2000 rating barrier in the same month is worth celebrating. It’s a first for Chess Rising Stars and it happened twice in one month.

Entering the 2000s

Noah and James both achieved personal best standard ratings in the English Chess Federation’s April Rating List. Their new 2000+ ratings put them both comfortably into the top thousand ECF ranked players, including adults.

It was a great month across the board for Chess Rising Stars, as we now have five students ranked in the Top 20 in their age category on the ECF Rating Database.

Noah at the ‘Chess Talents Tournament’ in Frydek-Mistek

Near Misses

The alcohol-free champagne is on ice for Ashwin and Aden! They’ve both been making excellent progress and, with ratings in the 1900s, will surely join the 2000 club soon.

We’re proud of what our students have achieved and look forward to seeing what the May list brings.

Learn More

Track Chess Rising Stars progress on our ratings page

Check our comprehensive chess ratings guide for parents

Noah and James are both members of our Elite Online Chess Club

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CRS London Academy
Jan 06, 2025

4th Chess Rising Stars Grand Prix

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.

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CRS London Academy
Aug 08, 2024

Regency Chess Company Sponsorship

Chess Rising Stars are delighted to announce that The Regency Chess Company have generously offered to donate us a beautiful wooden chess set from their extensive range.

We are planning to award the set to our ‘2024 Chess Rising Star’. Students will be invited to write a summary of their chess achievements during the year. Then there will be an online vote to decide the winner.

The Regency Chess Company, a specialist chess retailer based in Frome, Somerset also sponsors the annual Frome Chess Congress. Established in 2008, their impressive selection of chess sets includes over three hundred different designs and a multitude of different materials. In addition to chess sets, they offer a range of Backgammon and Mahjong sets.

It is exciting to award such an exquisite prize and we anticipate contributions from many of our students, regardless of their chess level. We will contact parents to advise of this new award. Please do apply, even if you just started learning chess this year! Students will be encouraged to vote for those they feel have made outstanding progress.

Thank you to The Regency Chess Company for their support.

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