UK Chess News
Chess Rising Stars

Nottingham High School hosted the English Junior Coaches and Organisers Association (EJCOA) National Youth Finals 2024. This FIDE rated 3-day standardplay event required children to qualify, either by rating or through Zonal tournaments.

Chess Rising Stars London Academy was well-represented in the Finals. We had students competing in the U8, U10 and U12 categories.

Noah with his EJCOA U12 Boys trophy

Our outstanding result came from Noah, who achieved 4.5/5 to share 1st place in the U12s with WCM Ruqayyah Rida. His only draw was against a fellow Chess Rising Stars student, Callum, in round 3.

Noah won the U12 Boys category and continued his outstanding 2024 season in style. This national title is particularly impressive given that he has only been competing in chess tournaments since January 2023.

 

We are excited to follow Noah’s progress and will be looking out for all of our students in their Summer Holiday chess tournaments.

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CRS London Academy, UK Chess News
Nov 16, 2023

Learn Chess in London

Chess Rising Stars London Academy is creating the ideal new environment to help to introduce chess to younger children. We are delighted to announce that the Chelsea Chess Club for 5 to 7 year olds will start in January 2024.

Benefits abound as your child discovers the joys of learning chess in an interactive and enjoyable setting. No knowledge of chess is required, although we would suggest that without any chess background it would be best to join the club by week 3 of term.


Lessons are shorter than at our original Chelsea Chess Club and will be held in a smaller teaching group. The venue remains at Marlborough Primary School in Chelsea, where we have been based since 2019.

In 2023 the Chelsea Chess Club was recognised at Level 2 within the English Chess Federation’s Junior Development Pathway initiative. We are one of only eleven junior chess clubs across the country to achieve this status.

Once children have mastered the fundamentals of the game, and are feeling more confident about chess, then the Chelsea Chess Club would be the natural next step in their development.

Registration is now open for the Spring Term at the Chelsea Chess Club for 5 to 7 year olds

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UK Chess News
Apr 16, 2024

One Weekend Four Trophies

The Chess Rising Stars students had a busy weekend! We competed in rapidplay tournaments in Maidenhead and Oxford plus at the St Albans standardplay. 

At the Maidenhead Junior Congress two of our players played in the U11 section. They met in round 4 with and despite a win for Noah T, he finished 2nd overall with (5.5/7) and Aden came 1st, winning all of his other 6 games.

The English Junior Coaches and Organisers Association (EJCOA) National Youth Championships is a popular competition this year thanks to hard work of organisers across the UK. In the EJCOA Oxford Zonal, Noah B drew his first game but recovered to win the U12 section with 5.5/6.

A successful weekend for our Elite Club members as the Noahs each won a trophy and Aden picked up two! 

What’s Next?

The UK Chess Challenge starts this term with Megafinal tournaments taking place during May and June. In July it’s the EJCOA final in Nottingham, where we aim to continue our streak of success and make our mark on the national stage.

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UK Chess News
Jun 08, 2024

SW England v Wales – 26th May 2024

Match Report by Noah Bevis

I was really excited to be playing Board 1 for the SW England team in the fixture against Wales. It was my first fixture since being selected to join the England U11 team and it was brilliant to travel to Bristol with Aden, who is also a Chess Rising Star and my best chess friend.

Chris Strong, who is the team captain, met us when we arrived and showed us to our team waiting room where we were given our England t-shirts. I played a few friendly games against Aden and other members of the team to warm up. The atmosphere was quite exciting.

Each player played two standard-play games (60+10). I played Wales’s Boards 1 and 2, and Aden played their Boards 3 and 4 (as he was on Board 3) and our Board 2 played their Boards 1 and 2.

My first game, which was against their Board 1, was very rough as I made a losing mistake around move 20, but thankfully he could not punish my error. After that, it was very smooth for a while. Eventually, he got into time trouble in a complex position and ended up blundering a fork! He realised his mistake immediately and I smoothly converted the winning position that arose after that. Then there was a break between rounds for lunch and we took a whole team photo which was really fun!

I played some more friendlies before going in to Round 2. In this round, I played their Board 2. It was pretty even throughout because we both played very accurately. Like before, this opponent got into big time pressure in a key rook endgame. In the endgame he lacked technique and tried to rush to a draw. He made some poor choices in pivotal moments (admittedly, rook endgames are very hard!) which led to a resignation and that meant 2/2!

The final score overall was 10.5 England – 9.5 Wales in the U11s. Altogether, the day was a big success!

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