{"id":36614,"date":"2025-07-19T00:41:53","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T00:41:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/?p=36614"},"modified":"2025-07-19T00:46:40","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T00:46:40","slug":"chessfests-across-england-this-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/chessfests-across-england-this-summer\/","title":{"rendered":"ChessFests across England this summer"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"36614\" class=\"elementor elementor-36614\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-d38c750 e-flex e-con-boxed wpr-particle-no wpr-jarallax-no wpr-parallax-no wpr-sticky-section-no e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"d38c750\" data-element_type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-1921c11 elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"1921c11\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"724\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Trafalgar.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full wp-image-36619\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Trafalgar.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Trafalgar-300x217.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Trafalgar-768x556.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-f69bec4 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"f69bec4\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><strong>ChessFest Trafalgar Square<\/strong><\/p><p>A huge thank you to everyone who came to Trafalgar Square on Sunday for ChessFest 2025. Over 20,000 visitors enjoyed a range of fun, family-friendly chess activities:<\/p><ul><li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Our troupe of actors put on four fabulous performances, re-enacting the famous Evergreen Game.<\/span><\/li><li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Some of England&#8217;s top chess stars (Nikita Vitiugov, Mickey Adams, et al) took on all-comers in simultaneous games.<\/span><\/li><li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Many thousands of blitz games were played in our Challenge the Master tent.<\/span><\/li><li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">England junior stars Bodhana Sivanandan and Supratit Banerjee defeated their counterparts from North America in a live\u00a0match.<\/span><\/li><li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Grandmasters Gawain Jones and Matthew Sadler delivered an amazing queen sacrifice to win a blindfold consultation game.<\/span><\/li><li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">CSC tutors delivered hundreds of free lessons to players of all standards\u00a0in one of two teaching tents.<\/span><\/li><li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">A game of giant blitz chess between two masters turned out to be as much a test of physical speed and stamina as chess ability.\u00a0<\/span><\/li><li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">FunMaster Mike and his\u00a0team entertained all the ChessKids with two Puzzle Rush competitions.<\/span><\/li><\/ul>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-121b1ff elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"121b1ff\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Trafalgar-02.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full wp-image-36621\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Trafalgar-02.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Trafalgar-02-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Trafalgar-02-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-ff80483 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"ff80483\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><strong>ChessFest Portishead<\/strong><\/p><p>New for 2025, ChessFest opened in the Somerset coastal town of Portishead on Saturday 12th July. ChessFest truly took over the whole town for the day:<\/p><ul><li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Zone 1 &#8211; Casual Chess\u00a0<\/strong>at Aqua.\u00a0Visitors enjoyed a game of chess with brunch and coffee in this great restaurant on Portishead Marina. The chess was still carrying on 3 hours after ChessFest had finished!<\/span><\/li><li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Zone 2 &#8211; Elite Chess\u00a0<\/strong>on Parish Wharf. International Master Chris Beaumont took on four players simultaneously while blindfolded!<\/span><\/li><li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Zone 3 &#8211; Kids&#8217; Zone\u00a0<\/strong>outside Portishead Leisure Centre<strong>.<\/strong>\u00a0ChessKid\u2019s FunMaster Mike who ran\u00a0activities for children of all ages.<\/span><\/li><li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Zone 4 &#8211; Schools&#8217; Competition<\/strong>\u00a0at Portishead Primary School (9am-11am). Children from across the town took part in an outdoor tournament.\u00a0<\/span><\/li><li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Zone 5 &#8211; Ark of Angels<\/strong>\u00a0in Jubilee Park. 32 adults and children took the place of chess pieces in two live performances.<\/span><\/li><\/ul>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-5469eb7 elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"5469eb7\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"573\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Portishead.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-image-36617\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Portishead.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Portishead-300x215.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Portishead-768x550.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-0ff0614 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"0ff0614\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Special thanks go to the CSC Bristol team for an amazing inaugural event. We know they are already planning for next year!<\/p><p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; vertical-align: baseline;\"><b><span lang=\"EN-US\" style=\"mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: #202020; mso-fareast-language: RU;\">Still to come&#8230; ChessFest Liverpool<\/span><\/b><\/p><p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;\"><span lang=\"EN-US\" style=\"color: #202020; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;\">ChessFest returns to Chavasse Park at Liverpool One for a fifth year on Sunday 20th July. <\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;\">Please join the event for:<br \/><br \/><\/span><\/p><ul><li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Free\u00a0chess lessons\u00a0for adults and children, delivered by CSC tutors<\/span><\/li><li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Social games\u00a0of chess on one of many boards across the park<\/span><\/li><li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Giant chess\u00a0games &#8211; a test of skill and stamina<\/span><\/li><li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Simultaneous displays\u00a0&#8211; take on a one of our visiting chess masters<\/span><\/li><li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Blitz\u00a0chess tournament &#8211; test your skills at speed chess<\/span><\/li><\/ul><p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span lang=\"EN-US\" style=\"color: #202020; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;\">Last year, over 1,000 people enjoyed a day of free, family-friendly fun at <\/span><a title=\"https:\/\/chessinschools.us9.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=b5b3ef6ad07c3c4b018a0e9e1&amp;id=47826e1219&amp;e=bfd5f6bf66\" href=\"https:\/\/chessinschools.us9.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=b5b3ef6ad07c3c4b018a0e9e1&amp;id=47826e1219&amp;e=bfd5f6bf66\"><span lang=\"EN-US\" style=\"color: blue; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;\">ChessFest Liverpool<\/span><\/a><span lang=\"EN-US\" style=\"color: #202020; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;\">. <\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;\">We hope to see you there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; vertical-align: baseline;\"><b><span lang=\"EN-US\" style=\"mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: #202020; mso-fareast-language: RU;\">Government announces funding for chess<\/span><\/b><\/p><p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom: .0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal; vertical-align: baseline;\"><span lang=\"EN-US\" style=\"mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: #202020; mso-fareast-language: RU;\">Just as our Trafalgar Square event was coming to a close, one of CSC&#8217;s highest profile\u00a0ambassadors, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves was\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">announcing<\/span><\/span><span lang=\"EN-US\" style=\"mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: #202020; mso-fareast-language: RU;\">\u00a0a huge boost to English chess: a \u00a31,500,000 financial package aimed at &#8220;<i>identifying, supporting, and elevating young people who have the potential to compete at the top level<\/i>&#8220;. The Chancellor, herself a junior chess champion, is a regular attendee at our events, and recently came to see a school from her Leeds West constituency take part in a CSC tournament in London, taking on eight of the players simultaneously while she was there.<br \/><br \/>This funding builds on a series of grants introduced under the previous government. On this week&#8217;s funding,\u00a0Rishi Sunak commented, &#8220;<i>Chess isn\u2019t just a great game. It also builds the kind of skills young people need to thrive in an increasingly complex and competitive world.&#8221;<br \/><\/i><br \/>We await more details of the new grants. Under the previous funding, 100 schools introduced chess lessons and chess clubs for their pupils, with 42 of these being delivered via\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: #202020; mso-ansi-language: RU; mso-fareast-language: RU;\"><a title=\"https:\/\/chessinschools.us9.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=b5b3ef6ad07c3c4b018a0e9e1&amp;id=4b7b98b9c4&amp;e=bfd5f6bf66\" href=\"https:\/\/chessinschools.us9.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=b5b3ef6ad07c3c4b018a0e9e1&amp;id=4b7b98b9c4&amp;e=bfd5f6bf66\"><span lang=\"EN-US\" style=\"color: blue; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;\">CSC&#8217;s Schools\u00a0Programme<\/span><\/a><\/span><span lang=\"EN-US\" style=\"mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: #202020; mso-fareast-language: RU;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ChessFest Trafalgar Square A huge thank you to everyone who came to Trafalgar Square on Sunday for ChessFest 2025. Over 20,000 visitors enjoyed a range of fun, family-friendly chess activities: Our troupe of actors put on four fabulous performances, re-enacting the famous Evergreen Game. Some of England&#8217;s top chess stars (Nikita Vitiugov, Mickey Adams, et al) took on all-comers in simultaneous games. Many thousands of blitz games were played in our Challenge the Master tent. England junior stars Bodhana Sivanandan and Supratit Banerjee defeated their counterparts from North America in a live\u00a0match. Grandmasters Gawain Jones and Matthew Sadler delivered an amazing queen sacrifice to win a blindfold consultation game. CSC tutors delivered hundreds of free lessons to players of all standards\u00a0in one of two teaching tents. A game of giant blitz chess between two masters turned out to be as much a test of physical speed and stamina as chess ability.\u00a0 FunMaster Mike and his\u00a0team entertained all the ChessKids with two Puzzle Rush competitions. ChessFest Portishead New for 2025, ChessFest opened in the Somerset coastal town of Portishead on Saturday 12th July. ChessFest truly took over the whole town for the day: Zone 1 &#8211; Casual Chess\u00a0at Aqua.\u00a0Visitors enjoyed a game of chess with brunch and coffee in this great restaurant on Portishead Marina. The chess was still carrying on 3 hours after ChessFest had finished! Zone 2 &#8211; Elite Chess\u00a0on Parish Wharf. International Master Chris Beaumont took on four players simultaneously while blindfolded! Zone 3 &#8211; Kids&#8217; Zone\u00a0outside Portishead Leisure Centre.\u00a0ChessKid\u2019s FunMaster Mike who ran\u00a0activities for children of all ages. Zone 4 &#8211; Schools&#8217; Competition\u00a0at Portishead Primary School (9am-11am). Children from across the town took part in an outdoor tournament.\u00a0 Zone 5 &#8211; Ark of Angels\u00a0in Jubilee Park. 32 adults and children took the place of chess pieces in two live performances. Special thanks go to the CSC Bristol team for an amazing inaugural event. We know they are already planning for next year! Still to come&#8230; ChessFest Liverpool ChessFest returns to Chavasse Park at Liverpool One for a fifth year on Sunday 20th July. Please join the event for: Free\u00a0chess lessons\u00a0for adults and children, delivered by CSC tutors Social games\u00a0of chess on one of many boards across the park Giant chess\u00a0games &#8211; a test of skill and stamina Simultaneous displays\u00a0&#8211; take on a one of our visiting chess masters Blitz\u00a0chess tournament &#8211; test your skills at speed chess Last year, over 1,000 people enjoyed a day of free, family-friendly fun at ChessFest Liverpool. We hope to see you there.\u00a0 Government announces funding for chess Just as our Trafalgar Square event was coming to a close, one of CSC&#8217;s highest profile\u00a0ambassadors, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves was\u00a0announcing\u00a0a huge boost to English chess: a \u00a31,500,000 financial package aimed at &#8220;identifying, supporting, and elevating young people who have the potential to compete at the top level&#8220;. The Chancellor, herself a junior chess champion, is a regular attendee at our events, and recently came to see a school from her Leeds West constituency take part in a CSC tournament in London, taking on eight of the players simultaneously while she was there. This funding builds on a series of grants introduced under the previous government. On this week&#8217;s funding,\u00a0Rishi Sunak commented, &#8220;Chess isn\u2019t just a great game. It also builds the kind of skills young people need to thrive in an increasingly complex and competitive world.&#8221;We await more details of the new grants. Under the previous funding, 100 schools introduced chess lessons and chess clubs for their pupils, with 42 of these being delivered via\u00a0CSC&#8217;s Schools\u00a0Programme.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":36615,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225],"regular":[],"sticky-post":[],"class_list":["post-36614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chess-news","tag-england"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36614"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36625,"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36614\/revisions\/36625"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36614"},{"taxonomy":"regular","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regular?post=36614"},{"taxonomy":"sticky-post","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sticky-post?post=36614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}