Links
There is a separate list of local clubs.
Admin
British Chess Federation
www.bcf.org.uk
Administers chess in England, organises the British Championships.
English Chess Federation - Women and Girls
www.chessuk.com
This website aims to provide information on all aspects of women's and girls' chess - news, results, forthcoming tournaments and coaching events, All-England Girls Championships. Run by the ECF director of girls' and women's chess.
EPSCA
www.epsca.org.uk
English Primary Schools Chess Association - details of county ('inter-association') and schools tournaments at U9 and U11, and the England U11 team. Site can get rather out-of-date.
Southern Counties Chess Union
www.sccu.ndo.co.uk
Inter-county competitions, news, results, links, and healthily irreverent window into British chess politics.
Coaching
Chess for Schools
www.ChessForSchools.co.uk
2008 initiative to get chess sets into schools. All state schools in the county should receive 10 sets and boards in about September. Coaching resources etc available.
chessKIDS academy
www.chesskids.com
A superb website run by the famous Richmond Junior Chess Club, which offers full chess tuition right from learning the moves up to an advanced standard. All free!
English Chess Federation - Coaching Website
www.ecfcoaching.org.uk/
Set up and maintained by John Upham on
behalf of IM Andrew Martin, the ECF Manager of Coaching. Includes some interesting links to studies of chess in education.
Test Your Chess
www.testyourchess.com
Take the checkmate challenge! Suitable for children and club-strength adult players.
County Juniors
Berkshire Junior Chess
www.bjca.org.uk
Comprehensive website covering junior chess in Berkshire. Check out in particular the Saturday Afternoon Events, low-key tournaments on most Saturdays in the season.
Wey Valley (Surrey) Junior Chss
www.weyvalleychess.org
Wey Valley are usually right there at the top of the EPSCA events.
Wiltshire Junior Chess
www.wiltshirejuniorchess.co.uk
Keep up with our western neighbours. Look out for details of the high-class Wiltshire Junior Congress, usually in February / March.
Leagues
Four Nations Chess League (4NCL)
www.4ncl.co.uk
We've now got three Oxford teams! Follow the fortunes of Oxford 1 in division two, and of Oxford 2 and Oxford 3 in division four of the UK's premier league.
News
British Chess Magazine
www.bcmchess.co.uk
probably the most informative UK chess website. Full listings of forthcoming tournaments for both adults and juniors, reports on national and international chess news, and much more.
Play on-line
BFCC
www.bfcc-online.org.uk
The national governing body for correspondence chess. The BFCC Open now offers email as well as postal play. For full details contact Duncan Chambers (dc510@york.ac.uk)
ICCF
www.iccf.com
The international governing body for correspondence chess now offers play by server at correspondence time limits, as well as the established postal and email play. Want to know more? Contact Alan Rawlings (alanjc.rawlings@ntlworld.com)
Internet Chess Club
www.chessclub.com
The world's most popular internet chess club, with players ranging from beginners to grandmasters playing on it using the special software provided.
Tournaments
London Junior Championships
www.ljcc.co.uk
High-quality event played each December. Qualifying is necessary for the U12 section and below, at tournaments through the autumn.
Oxfordshire Schools Congress
www.geocities.com/oxoncong
Past results and (in the run-up to the next event) lists of entrants for this congress, which takes place in the Easter holidays. Also cross-tables from the trials for the Oxon U9 and U11 teams, and results of those teams in EPSCA competitions.
UK Chess Challenge
www.ukchesschallenge.com
The biggest chess tournament in the world, with 72,000 entrants in 2005! Submit entries via schools in January. Internal schools tournaments lead to county Megafinals in May and North and South Gigafinals in July. If your school plays in one competition, this should be it.