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

Sep 05, 2025

6th Chess Rising Stars 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 to be held on our lichess team page. Chess Rising Stars students, parents, and friends are all welcome to take part.

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

Callum representing the National Chess Junior Squad at the Glorney Cup

Schedule

The online chess tournaments will take place on Sundays at 4 pm (GMT) in the Autumn Term 2025:

  • 28th September = Warm-up
  • October, November and December = 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.

Chess Rising Stars at the Terafinal

The 2023 Terafinal was held in Blenheim Palace and three Chess Rising Stars students met the high standard necessary to qualify to compete. We are now delighted to report on their successes in this distinguished tournament.

Sheng, Ashwin and Aden are all members of our Elite Online Chess Club. We established this club back in 2021 to support those children who were looking to compete in tournaments and team matches beyond Chess Rising Stars. Their hard work over several years has culminated in this triple achievement.

After a gruelling weekend of 11 rapidplay games, Sheng was crowned the U10 Girls Champion, Ashwin finished in 3rd place overall at U10 and Aden in 7th. We are proud of their efforts and are confident this is just the beginning of their junior chess success.


Our students with their prizes

From an original pool of over 10,000 children across the UK, just 60 had achieved the results necessary to reach the Terafinal. October 2023 marked the first time that Chess Rising Stars students had managed to reach this last stage of the UK Chess Challenge. Good things come in threes!

You can read more about our U10 Girls Terafinal Champion here.

2023 Terafinal Qualifiers – Three Chess Rising Stars in the U10s

Our chess calendar remains busy with the next major tournament already in our sights – the London Junior Chess Championship in December. LJCC Qualification tournaments are being held across the UK and registration is now open. We are confident of building on our Terafinal experience and putting in another strong showing.

May 27, 2024

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.