August Chess News

Chelmsford Junior Chess Club continues to meet on Saturday mornings in between chess events at Brentwood School (see previous post!).

It was good to see some of our juniors playing their first Standard Play tournament (and in some cases their first tournament) at Brentwood School on 31st July and 1st August.

Congratulations in particular to our debutants and our prize winners.

George and Joshua (below) played one day of the Standard Play to warm up for the British Championships so a busy chess week for both of them.

Chelmsford Junior Chess Club is back open this coming Saturday (22nd) ahead of the 5th Brentwood Bank Holiday Rapid Play on Saturday 29th August.

Best Wishes

Robin Slade

chelmsfordjuniorchess@gmail.com

August Dates and WhatsApp

 

Chelmsford Junior Chess Club - Dates in August

Sat 1st Aug - Closed (Brentwood Standard Play Tournament)

Sat 8th Aug - Open as usual

Sat 15th Aug - Closed

Sat 22nd Aug - Open as usual

Sat 29th Aug - Closed (Brentwood Rapid Play Tournament)

Tuesday 4th August - Chelmsford Chess Workshops (at CJCC venue)

9.30am - 12.30pm Chess Foundations

1.30pm - 4.30pm Chess Superstars

Limited numbers. £25 per student. Book your place by emailing chelmsfordjuniorchess@gmail.com

All upcoming chess as always is on the live Google Doc

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-F8SAJkWRhlj01L4FwNFkfCeIj16YKNJ7WM4H-eckf4/edit?usp=sharing

CJCC WhatsApp Group - https://chat.whatsapp.com/FuhlWovOarpLKAi50AWoqM

Essex Chess Parent WhatsApp Group - https://chat.whatsapp.com/K88AtRj8QxkDGq8kTxh9tI

Best Wishes

Robin Slade (chelmsfordjuniorchess@gmail.com)

Southern Gigafinal

Well done Essex Junior and Chelmsford Junior Chess Club players who qualified for and played in the Delancey UK Schools' Chess Challenge Southern Gigafinal at Sandown Park Racecourse last weekend.

Special congratulations to Joshua from CJCC who qualified for the Terafinal at Blenheim Palace in October from the U10 Boys Section after a five-way play-off.

Fellow CJCC player Digby qualified for the Challengers with 5 wins from 7 games.

Joshua is pictured centre with his entry ticket and medal.

What a brilliant venue. Plenty of room for everyone and perfect weather to sit in the sunshine looking down on the Parade Ring.

Best Wishes

Robin Slade (chelmsfordjuniorchess@gmail.com)

Facebook

Chelmsford Junior Chess Club now has a Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2060120884591450

Please also follow Essex Juniors on Facebook to help stay informed about upcoming chess

https://www.facebook.com/essexjuniorchess

Follo these links to find out about what tournaments are running in the summer holidays.

https://essexjuniorchess.co.uk/tournaments/

https://www.englishchess.org.uk/events/

Above is the Wessex Auditorium at Brentwood School ahead of last summer's tournaments.

Best Wishes

Robin (chelmsfordjuniorchess@gmail.com)

Chelmsford Summer Tournament 28th June

It was great to see so many CJCC players taking part in the Essex Junior Chess Association Summer Tournament in Chelmsford last Sunday.

It was particularly nice to see some making their tournament debuts alongside our more experienced players. I managed to gather most of them for a club photo.

This was the final EJCA Grand Prix tournament of 2025/2026 which combine to decide our County Champions. 

Particular congratulations to our new Under 9 and Under 11 Essex Champions.

William (above) is the Essex Under 9 Champion. This is particularly impressive as William is in Year 2 so two years younger than some of his competitors.

Digby (on the left below) is the new Essex Under 11 Champion. He is pictured at the club with Essex Under 11 runner-up Joshua and last year's Under 11 Champion Vidwath.

Digby will be joining Vidwath at KEGS in September.

KEGS and Brentwood School took part in the English Chess Federation National School Finals in Nottingham just ahead of the Chelmsford tournament.

Over half the KEGS and Brentwood players were current or former CJCC players. It was great to see both schools perform so well on the national stage.

Best Wishes

Robin Slade

chelmsfordjuniorchess@gmail.com

Chelmsford Tournament, Club Dates and Holiday Workshop

The Chelmsford Summer Tournament on Sunday 28th June is fast approaching. 

It is the final leg of the Essex Junior Chess Association Grand Prix and split into age groups. Please ask if you have any questions.

The details and online entry are via Tournaments – Essex Junior Chess Association

No chess club on Saturday 27th June because it is Brentwood School Speech Day. This photo is from last week.

All upcoming chess as always is on the live Google Doc

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-F8SAJkWRhlj01L4FwNFkfCeIj16YKNJ7WM4H-eckf4/edit?usp=sharing

There are two Chelmsford Junior Chess Club workshops on Tuesday 4th August. You will see the details for these on the Google Doc.

Best Wishes

Robin Slade (chelmsfordjuniorchess@gmail.com)

Club Dates

Below are some club dates to remember:

Sat 30th May - We are in the smaller hall off the car park rather than the main building for this week only - so don't panic if you find our normal room empty!

Sat 6th June - Closed (Brentwood School Open Day)

Sat 13th and 20th June - Open as usual.

Sat 27th June - Closed (Brentwood School Speech Day)

We are then open all through July although closed on 1st Aug.

This week we looked among other things at a neat finish by Digby against me.

Digby had the white pieces and had played a lovely attack. I was hoping to draw but after 30NxB, QxN  31Qe8+, Qf8  32Rh8+ I had to resign.

Shrimath enjoying his game with George

Daniel and Ani - both just 4 years old - playing each other.

Best Wishes

Robin Slade (chelmsfordjuniorchess@gmail.com)

Chess in Central Park in Chelmsford

Thanks to the patient persuasion of Russell White, we now have 3 beautiful chess tables in Central Park.

They are by the lake next to the cafe. The pieces are in the cafe so just pop in and ask if you want to borrow them for a game.

Russell and I had a game this week and did an interview with BBC Essex to help promote the tables.

Russell (who works for the City Council and organises the adult chess club in Chelmsford) will be organising a special chess event at the tables soon.

Best Wishes

Robin Slade (chelmsfordjuniorchess@gmail.com)

Club Dates, County Success, Communication and Upcoming Tournaments

Chelmsford Junior Chess Club is closed on Saturday 6th June, 27th June, 1st August and 29th August but otherwise open across the summer. 

There are also 2 chess workshops on Tuesday 4th August.

It has been great to see so many CJCC players part of the Essex U9 and U11 teams. 

The Essex U9s finished 7th in their National Final.

The Essex U11s finished 2nd in their National Final - https://essexjuniorchess.co.uk/epsca-u11-finals-2026/

The Essex U11 Girls Team retained their National Championship.

Upcoming across the board and online tournaments are always on the regular Google Doc link

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-F8SAJkWRhlj01L4FwNFkfCeIj16YKNJ7WM4H-eckf4/edit?usp=sharing

There is a CJCC WhatsApp group to help you stay informed about club news and dates which you can join via https://chat.whatsapp.com/FuhlWovOarpLKAi50AWoqM

Also an Essex Chess Parents WhatsApp group for wider chess information. https://chat.whatsapp.com/K88AtRj8QxkDGq8kTxh9tI

Full details and entry links of upcoming tournament can be found at https://essexjuniorchess.co.uk/tournaments/

Sunday 31st May - Essex Megafinal - 2026 Essex Megafinal | Delancey UK Schools' Chess Challenge

Sunday 28th June - Chelmsford EJCA Summer Tournament (details to follow)

Fri 31st July/Sat 1st Aug - Brentwood Summer Holiday Standard Play.

Sat 28th Aug - 5th Brentwood Bank Holiday Rapid Play

For full venue and other CJCC information, please email but skeleton details are below.

Chelmsford Junior Chess Club meets on Saturdays from 9.15am to 12.15pm in Christ Church in London Road (CM2 0AW).

We meet (with the odd exception) every week. 
The younger club (school years 1 to 5) meet from 9.15am to 10.45am. 
The older club (school year 6 and above) from 10.45am to 12.15pm.
There is flexibility within the group ages.
The cost is £5 per child with the sessions a mix of playing and coaching.

Best Wishes

Robin Slade (chelmsfordjuniorchess@gmail.com)

Sat 11th April and Easter Chess Workshops

Our regular Saturday morning club started again today and we are open every Saturday through April and May.

Below are some photos from this morning. There was a wide range of ages and it is always great to see the older juniors helping the younger and/or less experienced ones.

Nikolai (3) and Zachary (4) both came down with their older brothers.

Two of our younger players - Ani and Zachary

  

The chess workshops over the holidays were fun. 

Thank you to George and Olga who shared their chess skills and played in such good spirit. Above is a photo of their team simul at the end of the afternoon session.

George (Essex U18 Champion) comes down most weeks to help me run the club while Olga (former British U16 Girls Champion) first came down when she was very young.

Best Wishes

Robin Slade (chelmsfordjuniorchess@gmail.com)

CJCC - Closed Date Reminder

CJCC is closed on Saturdays 28th March and 4th April. We will reopen on Saturday 11th April.

It was great to welcome back so many of our players who represented Essex U11s at the National Finals last weekend.

Here are most of our Essex U11 players. Digby, Joshua B and Jacob have their trophies as part of the Essex A team that were National Runners-Up. 

Ezara, Eva, George, Shervin, Joshua M (plus Anthony who arrived later) were part of the Essex B team.

7 of the Essex U11 players plus Adi getting ready for their own tournament.

Ayanda and Rika playing with Ethan and Ani behind them early on at the club.

Best Wishes

Robin Slade

chelmsfordjuniorchess@gmail.com

CJCC players at Brentwood Junior Open

The 10th Brentwood Junior Tournament had a record entry and was the biggest junior tournament in Essex for many years.

Over 140 players took part including over 40 from CJCC. It was the first tournament for some and it was great to see so many playing.

Among our trophy winners were Sachith (U18 Minor winner), Aarav (U18 Minor third place), Digby (U11 Open winner), William Dawson (U11 Open third place), Samaren (U11 Minor winner) and Jayden (U11 Minor runner-up).

Here are three of our trophy winners  -  KEGS students Aarav, Rahul and Sachith.

The crosstables from the tournament are at Chess-Results Server Chess-results.com - The 10th Brentwood Junior Tournament and a few photos of CJCC players are below.

Ani - the youngest player in the tournament.

Ethan on the left facing James with Arjun and George on the next table

William vs Didgy at the top of the U11 Open

U18 Minor winner Sachith facing the camera

A selection of prize winners. Many CJCC players among them.

Best Wishes

Robin Slade

chelmsfordjuniorchess@gmail.com

Closed Dates, Easter Workshop and Club Photos

Chelmsford Junior Chess Club is open on Saturday 21st March but will be closed on Saturday 28th March and Saturday 4th April.

We reopen as usual from Saturday 11th April.

There are two half-day CJCC workshops on Tuesday 7th April with a mix of coaching and match play.

9.30am - 12.30pm Chess Foundation

1.30pm - 4.30pm Chess Superstars

Limited numbers. £25 per child. Bookable in advance via chelmsfordjuniorchess@gmail.com

There are some recent club photos below. 

Best Wishes

Robin

chelmsfordjuniorchess@gmail.com

Photos

We had a chess celebration at the club today after the success of all our players who played for the Essex U11 team and who did so well at Colchester last weekend.

No photos of all our trophy winners but some random photos below.

The next junior tournament in Essex is at Brentwood School on Sunday 8th March

Events & Results | British Chess

My iPad got kidnapped for a selfie

Siyon and Samaren photo bombing

Malhar thinking hard against Joshua in our mini-tournament

Too many cooks trying to set the clock

Best Wishes

Robin (chelmsfordjuniorchess@gmail.com)

January 2026

CJCC returned on Saturday 10th January. It was great to see so many players back at the club.

Joshua (x2), Jacob and Digby organised a tournament for the younger players while George, Jim, Arianna and Tekshan were there to help everything run smoothly.

Sophie too excited to sit down while Eva seems to be playing without any chess pieces.

Great interest in the final first round match of the tournament.

We have two Essex Junior tournaments coming up in Essex (Colchester on 25th Jan, Brentwood on 8th March). 

Entry details for both are here - https://essexjuniorchess.co.uk/tournaments/

Best Wishes

Robin (chelmsfordjuniorchess@gmail.com)