CRS Academy's work recognised by the English Chess Federation

Chess Rising StarsOctober 7, 2023

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.

Tags: English Chess Federation

CRS London Academy

Aug 19, 2025

Rising Stars Online Chess Club

We are creating a new ‘Rising Stars’ club to upgrade our online chess club provision for the new academic year. This group will be part of our Sunday Online Club programme and act as a feeder for the ever-popular Elite Club. It is designed for juniors who are already competing in local and regional tournaments, to support their preparation and help them to take their next steps.

The Sunday Online Club is already our busiest with three weekly teaching groups. The new Rising Stars Online Club will ensure that children who are looking to one day take part in national or even international-level tournaments receive the knowledge and training that they will need.

EJCOA U12 Boys Champion

Why Choose Chess Rising Stars?

Since 2020, Chess Rising Stars has taught hundreds of children in our online chess clubs. Our global community of chess learners has grown to over 500 members on lichess.

Our expert coaches will offer real-time feedback during our private tournaments and follow this with game analysis. We will support each student in gaining an understanding of their current strengths and weaknesses and how best to train in-between lessons.

Through our strong links with experienced local tournament organisers in the London-area, plus in national championship events, we encourage our students to take part in suitable competitions. We communicate regularly with parents to share these opportunities.

We also offer our students an opportunity to represent the Chess Rising Stars teams in both the J4NCLO and main 4NCLO. You can find out more about this later in the article.

Individual Achievements

Our Elite Club members have succeeded at both the national and international level:

• Double 1st place at the LJCC Finals in the U12 and U14 Major sections.
• 1st place in the U12 Boys category of the EJCOA National Youth Finals.
• Two members were selected for the EPSCA South West England team, plus one for the South East England team, to face Wales.
• Elite Club members reached the Terafinal of the UK Chess Challenge and returned as 3rd and 7th place finishers.

LJCC U14 Major Winner

Elite Club

As the Elite Club moves into its fifth season, we are delighted to announce a new Lead Coach, GM Martin Petrov. Martin has been a popular guest coach since Summer 2024 and we are excited to extend his role. Martin’s lectures have included demonstrating his recent win against GM Alexei Shirov from the Bundesliga and explaining when to apply AlphaZero-inspired plans to push our a- and h-pawns.

This club has a limited number of spaces and these are available by invitation only. From September 2025, students at our new Rising Stars Online Club will be assessed for promotion to the Elite Club at the end of each term.

You can follow our progress through our News, Achievements and Top Students pages.

We always welcome parents contacting us, if you would like your child to be considered for a place in this prestigious group.

Team Achievements

Our strongest juniors represent Chess Rising Stars in two major online team competitions:

• Since registering our first team back in 2022, we have achieved many successes in the J4NCLO and are 7-time Divisional champions and 3-time runners up.
• Back-to-back promotions in the main 4NCLO in 2025: Division 5 runners-up in our first season, followed by winning Division 4.

Chess Rising Stars Representing the National Chess Junior Squad in Frydek-Mistek

Please do consider joining one of Chess Rising Stars’ upgraded Online Chess Clubs when we restart in September 2025!

We look forward to hearing from you and would be happy to help answer any questions you may have.

CRS London Academy, UK Chess News

Jan 30, 2024

Chess Rising Stars Online Grand Prix

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

You can find our free Grand Prix tournaments on our lichess team page this term. Chess Rising Stars students, parents and friends are all welcome to take part.

Each tournament will have 5 rounds of 10+5 and points will be tallied across the 6 Grand Prix events. We have chosen this time control to mimic the playing conditions in the Junior Four Nations Chess League Online (J4NCLO).

Prizes will be awarded based on the number of entries and will be confirmed at a later date. Your top 5 scores from the 6 Grand Prix events will count towards this.

The online chess tournaments will take place on the following Sundays at 4 pm (GMT) in the Spring Term 2024:

28th Jan = Warm-Up

4th Feb = Grand Prix 1

17th Mar = GP 6

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

The Chess Rising Stars London Academy team hope to see many of you there.

CRS London Academy, UK Chess News

Mar 12, 2024

Easter & Summer Chess Courses

After a busy and productive Spring Term at our academy, Chess Rising Stars are now accepting bookings for the below courses taking place over the Easter Holiday and Summer Term:

Easter Holiday Chess Camp

Our Online Chess Camp will take place during the Easter Holiday. The camp will have a mixture of chess lessons, friendly games and an internal tournament with trophies posted to the winners. Lessons will take place from 9:00 – 11:30 am on 8^th, 9^th and 10^th April.

Summer Chess Club Dates

The Summer Term Chess Club dates have been published for our Online Clubs, Chelsea Chess Club and Chelsea Chess Club for 5-7 year olds. All of our clubs will run for 10 weeks, with a break for half-term.

Chess Rising Stars Grand Prix

The final round of the Chess Rising Stars Online Grand Prix will take place this Sunday at 4 pm on lichess. There is free entry for all Chess Rising Stars students, parents and friends. Our popular online tournament series is coming to an end (for now) but we are already planning for its return!

Grandmaster Coaching

There will be a new guest coach for our Elite Chess Club lesson on Sunday 24th March. We have booked GM Martin Petrov (not to be confused with Marian!) to demonstrate his best games to the class. Martin will become the 3^rd Grandmaster to have coached at the club since its creation in 2021.

Please do get in touch if you would like to register your child.

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