Easter & Summer Chess Courses

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.

We have kept the successful Autumn Term format so there will be a warm-up in January, followed by weekly Grand Prix events held on Sundays. The tournaments will be 1-hour Arenas at the 5+3 time control. 

Schedule

The online chess tournaments will take place on Sundays at 4 pm (GMT) in the Spring Term 2026:

• 25^th January = Warm-up

• February and March = Weekly Grand Prix Arenas

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.

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 7^th and 9^th April. It’s our 30^th 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.

Details for Parents

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

Dates

7^th, 8^th & 9^th April 2025

Early Bird Discount

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

Cost

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

We are delighted to announce that our founder, WFM Maria Manelidou, has achieved the maximum tier in the ECF Registered Coaches Scheme.

The English Chess Federation updated its approach to coaching in 2021 and the Coaching Pathway was created to provide reliable information to those seeking chess lessons.

Congratulations to Maria, who joins a select pool of just twenty coaches in England to meet the requirements necessary for Level 4.

Maria’s proven track record of coaching national junior champions, at school team level and among individuals, plus Chess Rising Stars’ contribution to developing chess among young people were noted by IM Andrew Martin, the ECF Manager of Coaches.

As part of the registration process, the ECF reviews the coaches’ applications, including chess knowledge, skill level and previous experience. Coaches are then allocated to one of four tiers. Chess Rising Stars coaches Tom, Chris, Michael, Eric and Vinay are also registered coaches with the ECF.

Contact us to discover how you can benefit from our international-level coaching.