Four Nations Chess League Online
Chess Rising Stars has entered our first team in the Four Nations Chess League Online (4NCLO) for Season 10, starting on 10th September.
We’re excited to expand our team chess provision by entering a second online competition, aiming to build experience and squad depth for future over-the-board events.
Matches will take place on lichess on Tuesdays at 7:30 pm
As veterans of the junior league (J4NCLO) since 2022, we’ve claimed four divisional titles and two runner-up finishes. Now, Chess Rising Stars is ready to compete in the main league against adult teams. This will provide an extra challenge for our Elite Club and Adult Improvers students.
Don’t miss out. Join our squad this week to be part of this exciting opportunity! You can also follow our progress on the 4NCL website.
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.
Southern Gigafinal @ Sandown Park Racecourse
Over 700 players, including 18 Chess Rising Stars students, took part in the Delancey UK Chess Challenge Southern Gigafinal on 20th and 21st July. Sandown Park Racecourse was a fitting choice of venue for such a substantial junior tournament. We were treated to a massive tournament hall, plenty of room for parents indoors, plus outdoor space for the kids.
Chess Rising Stars coaches Maria, Chris and Vinay came along to support our students. It was a challenging tournament with 7 rounds of 15+10. We had entries in the U8B, U8G, U10B, U10G, U12B, U12G and U14 categories! From these were several exceptional achievements:
Aden scored 6/7 in the U10 Boys section, improving on his Northern Gigafinal score by 0.5. Aden managed to qualify for the Terafinal after winning a tense blitz play-off. It is the second year in a row that he has reached this prestigious tournament to be held at Blenheim Palace.
Tauyekel (U8B) and Noah T (U12B) both qualified for the Challengers with 5/7 each. Neither have reached that stage of the competition before and both are looking forward to tackling their next obstacle.
Up next in the UK Chess Challenge 2024 is the Online Gigafinal, followed by the Challengers and we conclude with the Terafinal – which is scheduled for October.
Gold at the EJCOA National Youth Finals 2024
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.
Summer Holiday Online Chess Club
Summer feels like it’s finally arrived here in London. 28℃ today and forecast to be even hotter tomorrow!
With the school holidays around the corner the Chess Rising Stars Summer Holiday Online Club is returning for its 3rd year.
The club is open to children aged between 6 and 14 of all chess levels. It’s an ideal companion course to our school and online clubs in term-time.
Lessons will have a mixture of small-group tuition, friendly games and an internal tournament. Prizes will be awarded at the end of the term for the tournament winners, as well as those who have shown particular improvement and enthusiasm.
Details for Parents:
Day: Sundays
Time: 10:30-12:00pm
Group Size: 6-12
Age: 6+
Coaches: Savvas Manelidis and WFM Maria Manelidou
Cost: £24 per single lesson
7-Lesson Discount: £18 per lesson
Confirmed Dates
July: 14, 21, 28
August: 4, 11, 18, 25
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!
Chess Rising Stars Online Shop
Chess Rising Stars Online Shop
We are delighted to announce that the Chess Rising Stars online shop is now open! You can find a superb selection of 21 new and unique designs on t-shirts, hoodies and hats available in both children’s and adults’ sizes.
Our shop is the latest addition to the Chess Rising Stars London Academy website, following the full update in March. We have worked hard to create a range of merchandise that reflects the fun and vibrant side of our chess community.
Since we started the Chelsea Chess Club back in 2019, our coaches have sported Chess Rising Stars shirts and now it’s finally time to extend this opportunity to our students as well.
Noah is our first happy customer, proudly showing off his new ‘Eat. Sleep. Chess. Repeat.’ t-shirt alongside his well-deserved trophy from the EPSCA U11 Team Finals.
Do have a browse and see what catches your eye.
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.
Chess Rising Stars Summer 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 on our chess team page. Chess Rising Stars students, parents, and friends are all welcome to take part.
Each tournament will have five rounds of 10+5. 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 later. 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 Summer Term 2024:
- 5th May = Warm-Up
- 12th May = Grand Prix 1
- 19th May = Grand Prix 2
- 26th May = Grand Prix 3
- 9th June = Grand Prix 4
- 16th June = Grand Prix 5
- 23th June = Grand Prix 6
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.
The Chess Rising Stars London Academy team hopes to see many of you there.
Grandmasters are now achieving their Titles at an earlier age than ever
The game of chess is witnessing a fascinating trend. New research by Chess.com shows that grandmasters are now achieving their titles at an earlier age than ever. Will the chess world see 10- or 11-year-olds becoming grandmasters in the next few years?
In the past year, we’ve seen a surge in children scoring extraordinary results. Records that would’ve seemed unbreakable only five to 10 years ago aren’t as shatterproof as we once thought, and it’s just a matter of time until they are broken again. “Child’s play” as some say.
Here are some examples:
- FM Faustino Oro (Argentina). Became the youngest ever 2300-rated player, at nine years and three months last year, and is the youngest ever to score an IM norm.
- WCM Bodhana Sivananandan (England). Won the World Youth Championship Girls under 8 in classical, blitz and rapid scoring 33/33, becoming England’s first youth chess champion in 25 years. She’s currently the world’s highest-ranked player under 9 years.
- Ashwath Kaushik (Singapore). Broke the record for youngest player to defeat a grandmaster in classical chess, one month after Leonid Ivanovic broke the previous record from 2012.
- Roman Shogdzhiev (Russia). Beat five grandmasters in the 2023 World Rapid & Blitz Championship.
The results appear to be a part of a new trend as shown by Chess.com research that looks at the age of players who secure the grandmaster title.
While the average age for players achieving the most prestigious title in chess was 30 between 1975-1979, it dropped to 22.8 between 2020 and 2024. The highest age for a new GM was 32.8 in 1977. More then four decades later, in 2021, the average age is down to a record low of 20.9.
10 players are currently pending approval for the GM title in 2024. The average age is down to 21.4, the second lowest to date.
Article source chess.com
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 8th, 9th and 10th 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 3rd 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.
Breaking Barriers: Growing The Game
The Chess Rising Stars Girls’ Online Chess Club is now into its second term. Supported by lead coach WFM Maria Manelidou, our active community of girls taking part in chess lessons continues to grow.
In its 2019 publication ‘Development of Women’s Chess – Progress Plan’, the English Chess Federation identified that “there will need to be cultural change at all levels of chess in England which will require engagement from clubs, counties, unions, schools and individual members”.
In support of this aim our club is free to enter for girls who already have chess lessons with us.
“Chess has played an important role in my life and I am keen to share that. I moved to Greece when I was a young girl but I didn’t speak any Greek. Joining the local chess club changed my life because chess has its own language. It helped me to make friends and become more confident.”
WFM Maria Manelidou – Founder at Chess Rising Stars London Academy
We are keen to promote and create opportunities for girls to play chess with us. Our Girls’ Chess Club Online is another step in this direction.
