UK Chess News
Chess Rising Stars

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.

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CRS London Academy, UK Chess News
Oct 13, 2021

Chess Rising Stars London Academy Begins to Showcase our Rising Stars

This is the start of a new feature where we will introduce our Rising Stars.

Student Profile – Aden K.

Aden was still in Year 1 when he joined the Chess Rising Stars London Academy in April 2020. Since then he has been on a mission to prove that age doesn’t matter one bit in chess. Aden continues to impress us with his enthusiasm and desire to improve. He loves to get involved during group lessons and is quick to share his ideas with the class.

For now, tournament chess has moved online and Aden has enjoyed many successes. Perhaps the highlight so far was a 5th place finish in the London Junior Chess Championship Finals U8 section, whilst still U7. We are looking forward to seeing his continued progress when over the board chess returns.

Kent Junior Chess Association have benefited from Aden’s services in the National Association finals at both U9 and U11. Of particular note was the gold medal Aden won for a 5/5 performance on board 12 in the U11s. A formidable achievement given he can continue to play in this age category for another 4 years!

Aden has taken part in our online clubs, camps and the in-person Chelsea Chess Club. He quickly built a reputation as a sharp tactician who loves opening traps. Plenty of our students have fallen victim to Aden’s sneaky Stafford Gambit! We think this is partly why his EvenSturdyAlmond account on ChessKid has become widely feared with its 70% win rate.

Together with his coach, Maria, Aden has been building a collection of his best games. We hope that one day they will make for an excellent opening chapter to his first chess book! Here is one of our favourites:

White: Aden (1768)
Black: AdiMit (1948)

Aden’s Best Game

Selected Achievements:
2021
Barnet Junior Individual Championships U7, 4.5/6, 3rd
ChessKid UK Championships U8, 5.5/7, 9th=
Delancey UKCC, U8 Blitz Final 6.5/11, 3rd placed U7
Junior Masters Summer Cup U7 Finals, Bronze medal
Junior Masters Holiday Cup U7 Finals, Bronze medal
NATC, Representing Kent, U11 Finals 5/5, Board 12 Gold medal
Reached a lichess rapid rating of 1900

2020

LJCC U8 Finals, 5/7, 5th out of 79
Reached a lichess rapid rating of 1800

We look forward to more achievements to come from Aden!

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UK Chess News
Jan 23, 2017

UK Chess Tournaments 2017: English Chess Challenge Qualifier

THE ENGLISH CHESS CHALLENGE SEMI-FINALS (ECC)
This is tournament was set up in 2001 to provide a tournament of its own type where ALL of CCF’s trainees (plus others who wish to enter) can take part with a properly accountable structure and where no legitimate qualifiers would be excluded from semi-finals and finals they had qualified for. Click the above link to go to the English Chess Challenge home page.

In most cases, pupils will qualify through a competition held in their school during the Spring Term. In addition, the CCF Junior Club runs a qualification event and these 2 open events are there for those at other schools who want the chance to qualify plus anyone that wants a 2nd or 3rd chance. Anyone qualifying twice provides another entry for others (usually players from their own school).

The finals are in age groups with boys and girls split:

UNDER 18 BOYS……..UNDER 18 GIRLS (Years 11-13)
UNDER 15 BOYS……..UNDER 15 GIRLS (Years 9-10)
UNDER 13 BOYS……..UNDER 13 GIRLS (Years 7-8)
UNDER 11 BOYS……..UNDER 11 GIRLS (Year 6)
UNDER 10 BOYS……..UNDER 10 GIRLS (Year 5)
UNDER 09 BOYS……..UNDER 09 GIRLS (Year 4)
UNDER 08 BOYS……..UNDER 08 GIRLS (Year 3)
UNDER 07 BOYS……..UNDER 07 GIRLS (Year 2)
UNDER 06 BOYS……..UNDER 06 GIRLS (Year 1 & below)

* School years are listed as a guide. Those who are not in the year their date of birth should put them in will be adjusted accordingly for the purposes of the competition.

Following the semi-finals in early June, we move onto the finals on the August Bank Holiday Monday.

A 7 round competition open to anyone under 18 on 31 August 2016. Everyone plays in one big section and the leaders boys and girls from each age group will qualify for the semi-finals.
English Chess Challenge Qualifier @ 84-90 Chipstead Valley Road, Coulsdon
Jan 29 @ 10:45 am – 6:00 pm
Contact: CCF Email: chess@ccfworld.com
Website

UK FIDE Tournaments Registered for 2017

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Chess Articles, 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

11th Feb = GP 2

25th Feb = GP 3

3rd Mar = GP 4

10th Mar = GP 5

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.

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