Double LJCC Champion
After what felt like an hour of refreshing our phones, the round 9 pairings were finally published and confirmed our expectations. Aden will have the black pieces against Advait on top board and only a win will be sufficient to share the U12 Major title.
The pair had played to an exciting repetition before Christmas with the same colours, after Aden had sacrificed a Rook to open up Advait’s king. So what will we get this time?
The fearless Rxh3+!!How Did We Get Here?
We can all agree that any five-year-old who can play chess is undoubtedly impressive! In October 2021, we shared a profile with Aden’s chess journey since joining Chess Rising Stars while he was still in Year 1. Aden has grown up a lot and his chess certainly hasn’t stopped improving.
In the centenary edition of the London Junior Chess Championships (LJCC), the Finals were split over two weekends. Over twenty Chess Rising Stars students attended the U10/U14 weekend in Marylebone. It was a pleasure to visit them all on Saturday and soak up some of the atmosphere.
Aden was playing up 3 age categories in the U14 Major and stormed to 5.5/6 beating four higher rated opponents along the way, for his first national title. A remarkable achievement for the 22nd seed in the tournament.
U14 Major ChampionRound 9
After Christmas it was the U8/U12 weekend in Harrow, which brings us back to Advait v Aden. If Aden felt nervous, he didn’t show it – that was left to the parents and coaches! The opening followed their previous game but mass-exchanges led quickly into an endgame.
A long positional battle ensued but this time Aden came out on top after 88 moves. A well-deserved victory for the new double LJCC champion.
U12 Major ChampionAden will return to the Elite Club in the Spring Term to resume his training. We are very much looking forward to continuing to work on chess with him!
ECF Membership: A Guide for Parents
At Chess Rising Stars, we frequently receive enquiries about English Chess Federation (ECF) membership. To assist parents and new players, we have created this comprehensive guide.
Here you will find everything you need to know about ECF membership, including categories, benefits, common issues, and essential tools.
To register and manage your membership, visit the ECF Just Go portal.
Membership Categories Explained
ECF membership is divided into four categories: Supporter, Bronze, Gold, and Platinum. Below is a summary of the benefits that each offers:
Supporter (£12)
- Access to ECF online members clubs and events on chess.com and lichess.
- Free online rating of results in all ECF rated online events.
Bronze (Adults £20, Juniors £6)
- Free rating of results in club competitions, leagues and county championships.
- The right to elect representatives to present the views of individual members to the ECF Council.
Gold (Adults £35, Juniors £12)
- Free rating of results in club competitions, leagues, county championships, congresses and FIDE-rated standard play tournaments.
- The right to elect representatives to present the views of individual members to the ECF Council.
Platinum (£77)
- As per Gold plus a print copy of the ECF Yearbook each year.
Currently, juniors can register for their first year for free by selecting the ‘Free Junior Gold’ membership category.
All of the above categories are eligible for the various benefits and discounts available here.
Chess Rising Stars can be selected as your ‘Nominal Club’ and you will appear on our ECF Rating list.
Registering for Tournaments
Many in-person tournaments will have an ECF membership requirement. Alternatively, you will be asked to pay an additional game fee on top of your entry fee.
Each rating database profile will have a membership number and a grading code. When registering for a tournament you will be asked for one or both of these. You can find them either on the ECF Rating Database or through your Just Go account.
ECF membership is also a requirement for rated online team competitions. Chess Rising Stars compete in both the Junior 4 Nations Chess League Online (J4NCLO) and 4NCLO events.
The ECF Rating Database is updated monthly to include results from these events.
Our Chelsea Chess Club reached Level 2 of the ECF Development Pathway schemeTroubleshooting
When entering tournaments, ensure to provide the exact same spelling of your name and surname. This avoids multiple rating profiles being created. If you have had this problem, then emailing – and requesting a merge will combine the profiles.
If you are adding two or more children to the ECF membership database at this time, make sure you choose a username for each of them in turn, rather than accepting the default (your email address) as each subsequent child added will otherwise trigger a ‘username already in use’ dialogue box.
ECF Tools
Membership Portal
Rating Database
Club Finder
Calendar
Development Pathway
Ready to join the ECF and start playing chess tournaments? Click here to register and explore all the benefits today!
Wimbledon Chess Rising Stars
Launching in January 2025, our new junior chess club will be open to children of all chess levels, ages 7+, with a mixture of chess lessons, friendly games and an internal tournament with plenty of prizes for the winners!
Lessons will be taught by our expert coaches, including FIDE Instructor CM Tom Villiers, who are passionate about developing young talent. We will also support more experienced children who intend to compete in chess tournaments and team matches.
It is exciting to expand our chess club provision and offer an in-person club at a new venue. William Morris House is an 8-minute-walk from South Wimbledon underground station and a 14-minute-walk from Wimbledon station.
Our new junior chess club has limited availability and we will allocate spaces on a first-come, first-served basis via our online form below. Booking is open now and your child can be among the first to join us. Once this club reaches capacity, we will open a waiting list to add a second group.
Register today to secure your child’s spot at Wimbledon Chess Rising Stars.
Chess Ratings: A Guide For Parents
Chess ratings can be tricky to navigate with different organisations (ECF and FIDE) and categories (OTB or online, standard, rapid and blitz) so we’re here to help! This guide will give chess parents a feel for how ratings work and advise how to choose suitable tournaments for your children.
Before we continue, it’s important to stress that ratings are only one measure of chess progress. Focusing too closely on rating is likely to have the opposite of the desired effect and may well lower the quality of your child’s chess. Skill development and enjoyment naturally lead to improved ratings over time – play and study regularly and your rating will take care of itself.
Chess Federations
The English Chess Federation (ECF) and World Chess Federation (FIDE) each keep their own separate rating lists. ECF ratings are a good starting point for children and, for more advanced players, FIDE ratings form the basis for chess master titles.
ECF Membership
ECF membership is a must if you want to play rated games. There is free membership available for a child’s first year by selecting the ‘Free Junior Gold’ category. Chess Rising Stars is listed in the Clubs filter and can be selected as a Nominal Club on registration.
ECF Tournament Calendar
The vast majority of UK tournament organisers will list their events on the ECF site. Their tournaments are categorised by ECF and FIDE ratings filters plus for the time control. You can quickly find suitable local tournaments for either age or rating.
When starting out we would recommend contacting the organiser first to check if the tournament is beginner-friendly. For more experienced juniors, have the following prestigious tournaments in mind: Autumn Term = London Junior Chess Championships + Qualifiers, Spring/Summer Terms = UK Chess Challenge & EJCOA National Youth Championships, Summer Holidays = British Junior Chess Championships.
Time Controls
Tournament games can be played at standard/classical (slowest), rapid and blitz (fastest) timings. Typically a standard tournament will take a whole weekend, rapid tournaments will last a day and blitz are for an evening. Junior students tend to start out with rapid events and move to standard when they are more experienced and generally play more slowly. Players will receive separate ratings for each of the above time controls.
ECF Online Ratings
Ratings are further separated into over-the-board (OTB) and online categories. For example, Chess Rising Stars students compete in both the J4NCLO and 4NCLO online team competitions.
Rating Databases
ECF and FIDE ratings are both updated on the 1st of each month. On the databases below you can search by surname, club affiliation or age group:
ECF Rating Database
FIDE Rating Database
Chess Rising Stars Students
Further Questions
Please do drop us an email if we can support you further: london@chessacademy.uk
Global Chess League – London
Magnus Carlsen summed up the mood of many chess fans when he posted, “We’re not a serious sport unfortunately,” after a chaotic moment in the Global Chess League. The game between Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Vidit Gujrathi turned farcical when reaching a K+R v K ending without increment, as pieces were frequently knocked over in the frantic time scramble. To make matters worse, FIDE shared the “dramatic draw” video on social media, unaware that this mess could overshadow the event for the wrong reasons.
Magnus Carlsen post-match interviewDespite this misstep, drawing inspiration from the eSports community, chess clearly can host modern events that appeal to a broader audience with a focus on online streaming, fan engagement and fast-paced games. The Chess Rising Stars students and coaches who attended were made to feel welcome. Fresh off her win for Alpine SG Pipers in a fiercely competitive match, the legendary Hou Yifan was kind enough to take a photo with Chess Rising Stars founder, Coach Maria. Putting women centre stage, events like this are paving the way for the next generation, showing girls everywhere that they belong in this game.
Maria Manelidou and Hou YifanBehind the scenes, GMs Gawain Jones, David Howell, and Shreyas Royal contributed in supporting roles, but it was a disappointment for English chess that no local players were invited to compete. We hope the recently announced London Chess Classic, starting in November, won’t replicate this mistake and will stick to its tradition of including and promoting English GMs.
Hosting back-to-back major events, London is busy staking a claim as a global chess hub and we’re here for it!
Chess Rising Stars Autumn Grand Prix
Are you ready for an exciting series of online chess tournaments?!
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.
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
Trophies to be awarded in various categories (e.g. Top Girl, Rating prizes and Overall Champion). Your top 5 scores from the 7 Grand Prix events will count towards this.
Please note this a slight change from previous terms, as we are adding an additional tournament due to the longer term.
Chess Rising Stars students and coaches at the 2024 Mind Sports Olympiad
The online chess tournaments will take place on Sundays at 4 pm (GMT) in the Autumn Term 2024.
Tournament Schedule
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- 29th September = Grand Prix 1
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- 6th October = Grand Prix 2
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- 13th October = Grand Prix 3
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- 10th November = Grand Prix 4
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- 17th November = Grand Prix 5
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- 24th November = Grand Prix 6
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- 1st December = Grand Prix 7
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.
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!
