Junior Chess

Latest Junior News

UKCC Northern Gigafinal: Adithya Vaidyanathan wins under 12 boys

13 Jul 2025. FM Stanley Badacsonyi (Middx) was first with 6½ ponts, undefeated from seven games in the under-18 Boys. Top scoring Midlander was Sathya Vaidyanathan (Warks) on 5 points. Sophie Mehta (Leics) and Tashika Arora (Oxon) were top scoring under-18 girls with 4 points each. Best scoring Midlander girl in the under-14 tournament was Matthea Zhao (Lincs) with 4 points and the higest scoring Midlander in the Boys competition was Tom Junde He (Warks) In the under-12 Boys, Adithya Vaidyanathan (Warks) triumphed winning all 7 games. Top scoring Midlander in the under-12 girls was Zara Mehta (Leics) on 4 points. In the under10s Reeya Ashok (Staffs) was top scoring Midlander with 4 points. The top Midland under 10 boy was Yang Tan (Birmingham) with 5 points. Top Midland boys in the under-8 were Mason So (Leics), Jason Hu (Birmingham), Harrison Condron (Leics), Aariyan Mandair (Birmingham) and Priyanash Deshmane (Derbys) all with 5 points. Top under-8 Midland girl was Ada Etchells (Shrops) with 4 points. The event was played at Wright Robinson College, Manchester and chief arbiter was IA Alex Holowczak.

Solihull Junior tournaments

29 Jun 2025. There were three under-18 and four under-11 tournaments at this event. The under-18 A tournament was won by Karen Kukreja with a clean sweep of five victories. First place in the B tournament was shared by Markas Mykhnenko (Bishop Challoner Sch), Alfie Dixon (Bishop Vesey's Sch) and Harvir Najran (King Edward VI Sch) all on 4 points and from from Birmingham. Jo Bava (Coventry Chess Acad, Warks) won the C tournament with 4½ points. First place in the premier under-11 tournament was shared by Mohanaditya Poluru (Newport, Shrops) and James Palmer Brown (Warwick) won 4½ points. The B tournament by Shisha Tarihalkar (Leamington, Warks): she won all her five games. Jason Kapoor (Our Lady & St Joseph Prim Sch, Nuneaton, Warks) won the C tournament with 4½ points. The D tournament saw two players on 4½ points: Theodore Ablaxy (Clifton Hampden, Oxon) and Alexander-George Rusu (Hallfield Sch, Warks). The event was organised by IO Alex Holowczak and played at Light Hall School, Shirley, Solihull with just over 100 competitors. See full results.

English Schools Chess Championship

26 Jun 2025. Three schools, two from Birmingham and one from Nottingham, qualified from regional competitions for the finals held at Nottingham. The highest placed with three match points from King Edward VI Camp Hill Sch for Boys placed 16th out of 30 teams with three match points. The tournament was won by Hampton School, Surrey.

MIdlands teams at the ECF Team Chess Challenge finals

24 Jun 2025. Teams had four boards and players had a 10 + 2 time control and the event was held at Nottingham University. The British TCC was for secondary pupils, The Junior Team Chess Challenge was for pupils in years 7 and 8. The Primary Team Chess Challenge was for pupils in year 6 and under.

British TCC. Twenty two teams qualified for the national finals at Nottingham University. Five Midlands schools reached the finals. The highest placed was King Edward VI Camp Hill Sch for Boys, Birmingham, in fourth place with 13 points. Nottingham HS scored 9½ points, Leicester GS 8 points, Nottingham HS 'B' 5 points and Derby Moor Spencer Acad 1 point.

Junior TCC. Only two Midlands schools qualified for the finals with sixteen teams taking part: Haberdashers’ Adams Sch, Shrops and King Edwards Sch, Birmingham. Haberdashers scored 12 points and were placed second below Westminster Under Sch. King Edwards Sch team scored 11 points and was sixth.

Primary TCC. Fairfield Prep Sch, Leics won the competition with 16½ points and Broseley CoE Primary Sch, Shrops on 6 points was placed eleventh out of the twelve finalists.

Shropshire Junior winners

5 April 2025. The under-18 competition was won by Christian-Gabriel Dragan (Staffs) with 5 points. In the under-14 section there was a tie between Muhammed Qadri (Shrops) and Torrin Anderson (Lancs) both of who scored 5 points. Constantine Popov (Wales), Kirill Prokofjevs (Derbys) and Saswin Thiruvarudchelvan (Lancs) each scored 5 points. Kian Abrabov (Kent), Ollie Rackham (Warks) and Clara Deng (Waales) each scored 5 points. in the under-8 tournament. Over a hundred players took part in these 6-round competitions played at Charlton School, Wellington, Shrops and organised by Christopher Lewis, Dan Hilditch-Love, Chris Hankey and Rob Green.

Hallfield School champion

4 Mar 2025. Nineteen players took part in the Birmingham school’s 7-round rapidplay tournament. Cao Handuo won all seven games to take the title.

WCM title for Shambavi Hariharan

Feb 2025. Young Derbyshire player Shambavi broke the 2000 rating ceiling to gain the FIDÉ Woman Candidate Master Title. She is a member of Derby Chess club and has played competitive chess since the age of eight.

English Schools Under-9 Championship Nottingham Zonal

9 Feb 2025. Hallfield (Edgebaston, Birmingham) School A team won with 21 points and their B team was second on 14 points ahead of Nottingham HS teams A and B and Fernwood A and B. See full results.

West Shropshire Zonal winners in Shropshire Primary Schools Championship

6 Feb 2025. St George’s A were first with 10 match points followed by St Mary’s A on 8 points. Ten teams from 4 schools competed. See full results.

Warwick Junior Open

1 Feb 2025. Nearly 150 competitors played in the eight five-round tournaments inthis event. The under-18 A tournament was won by Adithya Vaidyanathan (KE Camp Hill Sch, Birmingham) with 4½ points The B tounament was won by Sara Khan Kundan (Lancs) with 5 points, and the C tournament by Omar Khan (KE Camp Hill Sch, Birmingham) also with 5 points. There were three under-11 tournaments. The premier A prize was shared by Krish Gandhi, Babu Abhinandan (St Augustine, Warks) and Handuo Cao (Hallfield Sch, Birmingham) who all score 3½ points. The B tournament was won by Nandan Chintapalli; the C tournament by Arjun Patel (Bloxwich Jun Chess Acad, Staffs) with 5 points, and the D tournament by Divith Puppala (Finham Primary, Coventry, Warks) on 4½ points. The under-9 tournament was won by Aatman A Ragunandan (Oasis Acad) with 5 points. The event was organised by Alex Holowczak and played at Warwick Schools Foundation, Warwick. See full results.

K Edward VI High School for Girls Edgbaston play in National Semi-final

26 Jan 2025. Although 45 teams competed in the ECF National Schools Semi-final at St Catherine's School Guildford, only one was from the MCCU area. The girls from Edgbaston finished 11th with 9½ match points. King Edward’s highest scoring player was Diah Patel who won 4 of her 5 games. See full results.

Telford Zonal winners in Shropshire Primary Schools Championship

29 Jan 2025. Newport Junior A team was first with 9 match points followed by Broseley C with 7. Eight teams from three schools took part at Broseley CE Primary School, Telford.

Derbyshire Junior County Knights

14 Feb 2025. Three players tied on 4 points: Zayne Patel (Leics), Kirill Prokojevs (Derbys) and Aadharshini Amduhavel (Leics) with Elizabeth De Bono (Notts) top scoring girl player on 3 points. Theevent was organised by Alan Kennedy (Oxon) and arbiter was John Shaw (Derbys).

Birmingham & District Junior Chess League Blitz

24 Jan 2025. In the Open tournament, King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys, Birmingham team dropped one game point only over six rounds to take first place on 12 match points. King Edward VI Five Ways, Birmingham were second on 10 match points. In the under-13 tournament, King Edward’s School A were in first place on 101 game points ahead of King Edward’s School Aston on 87 game points. Eighteen teams from nine schools competed in the Open tournament and eighteen teams from seven schools at played in the under-13 tournament at Bishop Vesey School, Sutton Coldfield, Warks. See full results.

South Shropshire Zonal winners in Shropshire Primary Schools Championship

16 Jan 2025. The St Laurence Kings team were first with 9 match points.

East Midlands GP results

14 Dec 2024. Benjamin Humphries (Notts) won the under-14 competition with 5 points from five games and Nadia Prokofjeva (Derbys) was second on 3 points. Samuktha Vijayendra (Notts) won the under-12 6 points and Rohan Babu (Notts) won the under-11 with 6 points. Three players tied with 4½ points in the under-10 tournament and Alikhan Kudaibergen (Notts) had the best tie-break. Adam Amirthanathan (Notts) won the under-9 tournament winning all his games as did Scarlett Sanderson (Cheshire & N Wales) who won the under-8 tournament. This rapidplay event attracted over 50 players and was held at Nottingham High School organised by Ed Jones helped by Hambel Willow and John Swain as arbiters.

Staffordshire Junior Chess Championships

1 Dec 2024. Nearly a hundred players competed at Stafford Grammar School in this event organised by Jonathen Blackburn, NA Chris Lewis, Dan Turner and Chris Hankey. Sixteen-year-old Cristian-Gabriel Dragan (Staffs) was under-18 champion; Momin Khan under-16 champion; The under-14 champion was Oskar Jarzynski (Ruskin HS, Staffs) and Waylon Chan (NewportThe format was 15+10 rapidplay. See full results.

Warwickshire juniors play Oxfordshire online

28 Nov 2024. The counties played a two-round 24 board rapidplay match using lichess.org. Oxfordshire won overall with 27 points compred with Warwickshire’s 21. Oxfordshire won the first round convincingly, but Warwickshire narrowly won the second round. The event was organised by Alex Holowczak (Warks). See full results.

North Shropshire Zonal winners in Shropshire Primary Schools Championship

28 Nov 2024. Broseley A were first with 10 match points winning all their matches. Second placed was St Mary’s A. Eight teams from three schools competed at St Mary's CE Primary School, Shawbury, Shrops.

Birmingham & District Junior League results

22 Nov 2024. King Edward’s Sch A ran out winners on 8 points in a field of 14 teams from 9 schools. Bishop Vesey A and Hallfield were runners-up on 7 points In the under-13 ECF Schools qualifier team tournament, KE Camp Hill won with 10 points and Queen Mary’s GS Walsall were second on 8 points in a field of 18 teams from 11 schools. This five round team event was directed by Doreen Anderton (Staffs) with Alex Holowczak (Warks) and Matthew Carr (Staffs) as arbiters. See full results.

Birmingham Junior Open results

19 Oct 2024. Adithya Vaidanathan (KE Camp Hill Boys Sch, Birmingham) was first in the under-18 group A tournament with a perfect 5 points from five rounds. Marijka Mykhenko (KE Five Ways Sc, Birminghsm) won Group B with a 4½ score and there was a four-way tie in Group C: John Whyle (Q3 Acad, Oldbury, Worcs), Rohab Pinjari (KE camp Hill Sch Birmingham), Siyuan Li (KE Camp Hill Sch Birmingham) and Peter Li (Elite Chess) all of whom scored 4 points. There were four groups in the under-11 tournaments and winners were: Group A, Abhinandan Babu (4 points, St Augustine); Aarav Parekh (5 points, Hallfield Sch, Birmingham); Group C was a four-way tie between Anthony Tye (Hallfield Sch, Birmingham), Pavan Sunnar (Hallfield Sch, Birmingham), Matthew Cole (Dixie GS, Wellsborough, Leics) and Arthur McCumiskey (Harborne Primary, Birminham) on 4 points; and Group D was won by Adrian Tai (St Peter's CoE) with 4½ points. Group B The under-9 tournament was won by Aariyan Mandair with 5 points.

Midlanders at UK Chess Challenge Terafinals

13 Oct 2024. CM Jude Shearsby (Kenilworth, Warks) was highest placed Midlander in the under-14 competition and placed fourth with 8 points from 12 games. WFM Elis Dicen (Coventry Chess Acad, Warks) was highest placed under-14 girl player and placed 5-6th on 7 points. Billy Fellows (Warks Juniors) won the under-12 tournament with 9 points from 11 rounds and Adithya Vaidanathan (KE Camp Hill Boys Sch, Birmingham) was fourth on 7½ points. In the under-8 tournament Tara Tamilselvan (Leics) was third with 8½ points from 11 rounds. These rapidplay tournaments were organised by Sarah Longson and held at Blenheim Palace, Oxon and arbiters were Alex Holwczak, Matthew Carr and Emma-Jane Billington Phillips.

Do you want to play chess for England?

The English Primary Schools Chess Association Chess organises the England Under 11 Team and the England Girls' Under 11 Team. The England Girls' Under 11 Team is selected by its manager, based on performances at major tournaments run by ESPCA throughout the year. One of these events is being held in Nottingham (use "Junior Events" on the left menu) and others are in the calendar of ESPCA events. Use the next link to view The team selection procedure. If you would like to play chess for England and you are under eleven years old, ask your parents to contact Tim Walker, MCCU Junior Director.

Chess competitions for school children

Please click the "Junior Events" link on the left of this page for upcoming individual and team competitions

Organisers and coaches for junior players

Please use the "Junior Links" link on the left of this page to find junior organisers and chess coaches near you.