London Chess Classic 2021

Incidentally, there will be expert commentary on the World Chess Championship games as part of the London Chess Classic.

Head to the Classic website for full details of all of the events on offer this year:

https://www.londonchessclassic.com

World Chess Championship: Magnus Carlsen vs. Ian Nepomniachtchi

The World Chess Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi starts today.

Carlsen, the defending champion, starts as the favourite, but I believe the match will be extremely close.

Find out more on the official website.

Training Day Tour 2021-22: Stoke Debut

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Our 2021-22 CSC Training Day Tour continues to gather pace. 

Following hard on the heels of the successful tour dates in London and Manchester, plus the online training day, it was time to strike out and plant the flag in a brand new area.

It was with great pleasure that I travelled to Stoke to link up with Regional Organiser Jonathan Blackburn for our first-ever training day for the area.

There is a groundswell of interest, thanks to Jonathan's efforts, and one which we are very keen to ignite.

It was dark when I arrived in Stoke and dark again when I left the following day, so I didn't get to do my usual walk around the city.

However, I thoroughly enjoyed working with the training day delegates at the excellent venue of the Tollgate Hotel and Leisure.

It was also very good to finally repay the compliment to Jonathan, as he had travelled all the way to Teesside for a training day back in 2017.

Here is a gallery from our very successful day, showing the delegates working hard and a rare glimpse of what can be found at a Stoke fish shop.

Thank you, Stoke! Hopefully we can have another training day as part of the 2022-3 tour.

Meanwhile, the tour takes me back to London in December and there are more dates to be announced very soon. Keep an eye on the tour page.

The Delancey UK Schools' Chess Challenge 2022

It has been confirmed that the Delancey UK Schools' Chess Challenge will return in 2022.

Sarah and Alex Longson worked wonders to keep the tournament going during the COVID lockdowns and, to the delight of children all across the UK, they even managed to switch the Megafinals and Gigafinals to the online world. The final round of the competition, the prestigious Terafinal, was played at Blenheim Palace in October.

Entries are now open for the initial, school-based phase of the competition. In fact, in an interesting break with tradition, all players can now enter the Megafinals, without having to achieve the formerly required 17 points in their own schools.

The school events can therefore be seen as excellent and essential tournament experience for children before they play in a Megafinal.

We are hoping to run a Megafinal on Teesside again, for the first time since 2019. The date is already pencilled in and further details will follow in due course.

Head here for further details on the the whole initiative, including plenty of free resources.

This is the page you need to enrol your school for the Delancey UK Schools' Chess Challenge 2022.