Junior Chess

Latest Junior News

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.

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.

Midland players at the British

26 Jul 2024. Tara Tamilselvan (Leics) was the first Midlands winner of a tournament in the British Championships being held at Hull. She won the under-8 Rapidplay tournament with 6 points from 7 games in a field of 28 players.

Midlands juniors play in Glorney Cup tournaments

25 Jul 2024. Dillan Duke (Herefords) played board 3 in the U-18 England A team that won the Glorney Cup. He scored 3½ points in the five rounds. In the competition for the Robinson Cup for players under-14, Seneth Guarathne (Notts) played board 6 for England B team scoring 4 points from his 5 games. Adithya Vaidyanathan (Warks) played board 2 for the winning England team in the competition for the Stokes Cup. He won all five games.

Solihull Junior Open

23 Jun 2024. Dhairya Pandya (Warks) won the premier Under-18 A tournament with 4½ points from 5 rapidplay games. Alfie Dixon (Bishop Vesey's GS, Warks) won the Under-18 B tournament and Suleiman Abuelmaatti (Warks) won the C tournament with 3 points from 4 games. There were four under-11 tournaments and winners were: Kabir Chauhan in the premier A tournament with 4 points, Rashid Ilyas (Warks) 5 points in the B tournament, and Anthony Tye with 5 points in the D tournament. Three players shared first prize in the under-11 C tournment: Soumil Narkhede (Bucks) Sanchitha Saranan (Warks) and Jason Hu (Bluecoats Sch Harborne, Warks) all on 4 points. The event attracted a hundred players and was organised by IA Alex Holowczak at Light Hall School, Shirley.

Shropshire UKCC Megafinal

2 Jun 2024. Lindsay Pyun (Loughborough HS and Leics) won the under-18 tournament with 5½ points with Krishna Sawaroop top under-16 (Staffs and Wolverhampton GS) on 5 points. Oskar Jarzyski (Ruskin HS and Cheshire) with 6 points won the under-12 section. Runya Kenz Staffs and newcastle-u-Lyme Sch) was top under-11 girl. Rudi Bedford (St George’s Primary) won all his 6 games and was best under-10; Reeyu Ashok (Staffs and Newcastle-u-Lyme Sch) was highest scoring under-9 girl and Yang Tan (Warks and Bluecoat Sch, Birmingham) was top under-9 boy.

Worcestershire UKCC Megafinal

2 Jun 2024. Ruby Rastall (Worcs and Heart of Worcestershire Coll) won the under-18 Girls title. Diah Patel (Warks and K Edward HS) won the U-12 Girls title with 3½ points and Lottie Fraser (Worcs and Kings St Albans, Worcester) was Under-11 Girls champion. Lyra Hayward (Worcs King's Hawford, Worcester) was Under-10 Girls Champion with 1½ points. Ethan Twohig (Worcs and Northwick Manor Primary, Worcester) was Under-8 Boys Champion with 4 points from his six games.

Nottingham UKCC Megafinal

18 May 2024. Mohamed Abdi (Leics) was top under-17 boy on 4½ points; Jonah Tomsett (Notts) was top under 16 boy on 4 points; Eldars Gulijevs was top under-15 boy on 5 points. Sophie Mehta (Leics) was top under 14 girl on 5½ points; Alex Shen (Leics) top under 14 boy on 5½ points. Maxwell Raposo was top under-12 boy and Yvon van Neerven (Leics) was top under-12 girl.

Birmingham UKCC Megafinal

9 May 2024. Junde He swepta all aside wining the under-18 tournament as an under-14 player with 6 points. Karan Kukreja and Sathya Vaidyanathan (Warks and KE Camp Hill Sch, Birmingham) were top under-18s on 4½ points. Kanvansh Dhingra (Warks and Bishop Vesy Sch) washighest scoring under-12 on 4 points: Adithya Vaidyanathan on 6 points (Warks and Robin Hood Acad, Birmingham) was highest scoring Under-11; Akshath Shivakumar (Warks and Tudor Grange Yew Tree, Solihull) was top scoring under-10 Boy on 5 points; Lucas Zheng (Lakeside Sch) was highest scoring under-9 boy with 6 points.

Herefordshire UKCC Megafinal

5 May 2024. Dillan Duke (Hereford CC and Hereford Sixth Form Coll) won all six games in the Under-18 section of the Megafinal.

Elis Dicen shares First place at Dunn Memorial rapidplay

27 Mar 2024. Elis Dicen (Warks) shared first prize in the Open with 5½ points from seven games. The event was organised by Terry Walker and the arbiter was Matthew Carr and held at the Moseley All Services Club, Birmingham. See full results.

Shropshire Junior Congress

23 Mar 2024. There were outright winners in all sections: Under-8 Constantine Popov (WLS); Under-10 Adhruth Parlattaya (Warks) 6 points; Under-12 Arush Murthy (WLS) 5½ points; Under-14 Maksym Kryshtafor (UKR) 6 points, Under-18 Tanmay Madhusudhan (WLS) 6 points. Eighty players took part in this six-round rapidplay event organised by Chris Lewis at Charlton School, Wellington. See full results.

Birmingham Junior Open

23 Mar 2024. Tom He (Birmingham) won the elite Under-18 A tournament with 5 wins from his five games. The Under-18 B tournament was won by Samuel Thomas (Worcs) with 4½ points and the Under-18 C tournament by Oliver Johnson (Staffs). There was a three-way tie for first place in th Under-11 A tournamet between Abhinandan Babu (Warks), Amandeep Singh (Yorks), and Mattghw Chung (Warks) all with 3½ points. The B tournament also saw a tie: Zachary McKenzie (Warks) and Olver Silverman bothe scored 4½ points. Under-11 C was won by Dmitri Zographos (Wales) with 5 points and the D tournament was won by Beau Richards (Oxon) also with 5 poits. Over one hundred and twenty players competed in three Under-18 and four Under-11 tournaments at this rapidplay event organised by Alex Holowczak held at King Edward VI Fiveways School Birmingham. See full results.

Nottinghamshire championships

24 Feb 2024. The Under-11 tournament first place was shared by Robun Sykes (The Lane Prim Sch), Dylan Flanagan (Warwick Acad) and Reyansh Saxena (Wimbledon Chase Prim Sch) all scoring 5 points from 6 games. Advik Saxena won the Under-10 tournament with a clean sweep of 6 points. Harry Stanley (Carnarvon Prim Sch) and Aarush Gouni shared first with 5 points in the Under-9 competition. Albert Biermann (Nottingham HS) was sole first in the Under-8 ournament. Over forty player took part. See full results.

Coventry junior scores

18 Feb 2024. Gregory Kornilovich (Coventry Jun Chess Acad) shared first prize in the Coventry Minor tournament with 4 points.

Warwickshire Primary School Teams Final

3 Feb 2024. Hallfield School Birmingham just edged the finals with 4 points ahead of Blue Coat Harborne, Warwick, Solihull, St Gabriel’s, St Mary’s Catholic, Birmingham and Eversfield whose teams scored 3 points. Hallfield boards 3 and 4 Mark Tricoli and Hannah Okpo won all their games. Games were played with a 10min + 5 seconds time control and the tournament controllers were FA Chun Chiu and NA Sathya Vaidyanathan. See full results.

Birmingham Schools Blitz team tournaments

2 Feb 2024. King Edward School won on tie-break from King Edward School Camp Hill A. Both teams had 13 match points. Ten teams from seven schools took part in the Open section. In the under-13 team tournament, Bishop Vesey won with 13 match points just ahead of King Edward School A. Siyao Ou from King Edward High and Preesh Gandhi from King Edward School A, won all seven games. Arbiter were IA Alex Holowczak and NA Dipal Patel. See full results.

Warwickshire Junior Open congress.

20 Jan 2024. Over 120 players competed in seven five-round rapidplay tournaments at Warwick Preparatory School, Warwick. In the top under-18 tournament, Junde He Tom (Kind Edwards Sch Five Ways, Birmingham) was first with 4½ points. Tounament B was won by Markas Mykhnenko (Bishop Challoner Sch, Birmingham) and Tournament C was won by Dhruv Mistry (King Edward Sch Aston, Birmingham) both players scoring 4½ points. The top under-11 tournament was won by Rudi Bedford (St George's Sch, Shrewsbury) with five wins. Zyne Patel (Fairfield Sch, Bromsgrove, Worcs) won the B tournament with 5 points. Reidan Minhas (The Pochin Sch, Leics) won the C tournament with 4½ points and Alexander Ursu (Oak Meadow First Sch, Wolverhampton) won the D tournament with 5 points. The event was controlled by Alex Holowczak.

Boxwich Junior Chess Academy

25 Nov, Ray Dolan reports. Trophies were presented to the club’s winners Amraya Johal, Aarov Sohi and Joss Le and founders Eunice and Ray Dolan received a present from the club. The academy has been running for over 13 years and over 400 children have played in it.

Warwickshire Primary Schools Championship

22 Nov 2023. Warwick Preparatory School won Zone 3 winning all their matches and ended on 8 points. Second was St Gabriel’s C of E Acad Rugby (6 points) and third placed was St Augustine’s Catholic Primary School (4 points). The winning zonal teams are: Eversfield Preparatory Sch Solihull, Hallfield Sch Birmingham, Solihull Jun Sch, St Augustine’s Catholic Primary Sch Warwick, St Gabriel’s C of E Acad Rugby, St Mary’s Catholic Sch Harborne, The Blue Coat Sch Harborne, and Warwick Jun Sch and they will play on Sat 3 Feb at Solihull.

21 Nov 2023. Solihull won Zone 2 with 14 points. Runners-up were Eversfield School on 7 points.

20 Nov 2023. Hallfield School won Zone 1, Birmigham, with 16 points ahead of Blue Coat Harborne. IA Matthew Carr was chief controller.

Staffordshire junior winners

19 Nov 2023. The winners were: Under-18, Joe Conway-Lees; Under-16, Dylan Cooper; Under-14 Aarav Sohi and Amraya Johal; Under-12 boys, Oskar Jarzynski; Under-11 girls, Diya Pillai; Under-11 Boys, Bobby Murray and Josh Le; Under-11 girls, and Ruya Kenz; Under 10 boys George Bowler; Under-10 girls Jocelyn Cheung; Under-9 boys Matthew Fish; Under-9 girls, Reeya Ashok; Under-8 boys Ethan Cole. The Staffordshire Junior Championships attracted nearly 140 competitors and were held at Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent organised by Jonathan Blackburn with MCCU President Eunice Dolan attending as a guest of honour.

Midland Juniors score at UK Chess Challenge Terafinal

15 Oct 2023. Elis Dicen and Tom Junde He from Warks scored 8½ points from 11 rounds and were placed equal first in the Under-12 tournament. Other high scorers were Adithya Vaidanathan (Warks) with 7 points in the Under-10 tournament; Kajus Mikalajunas 4th with 7½ points in the Under-14; and Karan Kukeja and Hayk Mesropyan (both Warks) with 5 points in the Under-18 tournament.

Birmingham Junior Open results

8 Oct 2023. Over a hundred junior players participated. There were four tournaments for under-11 players and three for under-18s. The winners of the U-18 tournaments were: Leonid Savinov (Solihull, Warks) and Raaghav Tirumalaikumar (Leics); Gregory Kornilovich (Coventry Chess Acad, Warks); Tom Junde He and Karan Kukreja (both Warks Jun). The under-11 winners were: Abhinandan Babu (Coventry, Warks) and Rudi Bedford (Shrops Jun); George McCumiskey (Mercia, Staffs); Adam Hazel and Yang Tan (Harbourne Blue Coats, Warks).

Juniors bow to experience at Anniversary Generation game

23 Sep 2023. To celebrate the 125th anniversary of the MCCU, Ray Dolan (CEO MCCU) organised a massive 28-board match between young and old players at the Rycroft Community Centre Bloxwich. Senior players showed that experience counts by winning 31½-23½. See full score sheet.

For older 2022-3 news click here.

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.