ITV news visited the chess club at Fairfield School, Loughborough to report on the progress of Tara Tamilselvan. Tara, aged 9, has become the highest ranked player in the country for her age group.
Here is the link to the video: Nine-year-old chess player from Leicester has been ranked best in the country for her age group – Latest From ITV News
The Midlands Zone of the Under 11 County Chess Championships took place at Fairfield on Saturday 26th January 2026. Children from counties across the Midlands travelled to compete in teams over the course of the day. Parents, organisers and children were all very pleased with the excellent facilities at Fairfield.
At the end of the day Leicestershire finished in 2nd place, qualifying for the national finals in March for the first time in 8 years! There we many excellent performances over the day, and following children won all their games:
All our children performed excellently and made a strong contribution to Leicestershire’s excellent performance. We are looking forward to the national finals on 14th March.
https://s3.chess-results.com/tnr1333216.aspx?lan=1&art=20&snr=2&SNode=S0
57 Children took part in the recent Leicestershire Junior Championships which took place at Holywell School on the 22nd of November.
In the Under 9 section, Leonardo Condron was the clear winner with a perfect 5 out of 5 taking the title and trophy as Leicestershire Under 9 champion for 2025. With an excellent 3 points Mayra Prabhu was girls Under 9 champion
In the Under 11 section, Aadharshini Amudhavel was unbeaten on 4.5 out of 5 taking the overall under 11 championship and girls championship. Harrison Condron with 4 out of 5 was the boys champion, on tie break from Divy Patelia. The under 14 section was hard fought with 4 players finishing tied of 4 points out of 5. Srijit Choudhuri was the Under 14 Boys Champion, and Zara Mehta took the Under 14 Girls title.
Full Prize Winners
Under 14
Under 11
Under 9
Leicestershire entered teams at Under 9, Under 11 and Under 11 girls level at the recent Midlands Team Championships held at Nottingham High School on Saturday 15th November.
The Under 11 team finished a creditable 4th place, With victories over Shropshire, Staffordshire and Notts B. Top scorer was Divy Patelia with a perfect 5 out of 5. Reidan Minhas and Advait Khadse scored 3 out of 5 on the top two boards
Our strong Under 9 team was hoping to do well, and after a very close competition with Warwickshire (4 – 4 draw in their match) they came out as Midlands Champions via tie break. Warwickshire and Oxfordshire Under 9’s are regular qualifiers for the national finals so this was a really pleasing performance for our team. Leonardo Condron, Jason Kapoor and Omar Yunis all finished with a perfect 4 out of 4.
The girls team were also well matched with Warwickshire, and a great 3.5 – 0.5 result in their 2nd match with Warwickshire led to the girls also taking the title of Midlands champions! All the girls (Aadharshini, Sathya, Vishaka, Inishka and Mayra) put in a good performance on the day, and with Tara to add to this team we will hope to do well in the upcoming national finals.
You can see all the results here – https://s2.chess-results.com/tnr1295352.aspx?lan=1&art=0&SNode=S0
Please find link below to our junior schools, individual, and Leicestershire teams events for the upcoming academic year.
https://leicestershirejuniorchess.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Schedule-of-Events-2526.pdf
92 children took part in the Leicestershire EJCOA Zonal, again held at Fairfield School in Loughborough. The children competed in Under 8, Under 10, Under 12 and a combined Under 14 and 16 section for medal prizes, and to qualify for the National Youth Finals being held in Nottingham from the 11th to 13th July.
You can see the results of the sections below, and congratulations to our qualifiers listed below
Under 8
Top Boy – Leonardo Condron
Top Girl – Shrisha Tarihalkar
Under 10
Top Girl – Aadharshini Amudhavel
Top Boys – Kirill Prokofjevs, Edmond Du, Adam Amirthanathan, Sudarsan Prabhagar, Benedict Child
Under 12
Top Boy – Harri Singh Aujla
Top Girls – Shivani Patel, Vishaka Rajagopalan
Under 14
Top Boy – Everett Tsai
Top Girl – Nadia Prokofjeva
Under 16
Top Boy – Alex Shen
Full Results
Under 8 – https://leicestershirejuniorchess.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Under-8-Results.pdf
Under 10 – https://leicestershirejuniorchess.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Under-10-Results.pdf
Under 12 – https://leicestershirejuniorchess.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Under-12-Results.pdf
Under 14 and U16 – https://leicestershirejuniorchess.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Under-16-Results.pdf
Link to all results and final tables – https://4ncl.co.uk/j4ncl/weekend2_2425.html
The 4NCL Junior 2024-25 Team Championship took place on 7th and 8th of February featuring the Leicester Juniors teams.
Team Lineups
– Team A (Saturday): Sathsara, Ted, Alex, Tara
– Team B (Saturday): Madhav , Yvon, Aadharshini, Zayn
– Team A (Sunday): Ted, Oscar, Alex, Tara
– Team B (Sunday): Yvon, Zara, Aadharshini, Zayn
Championship Results
In an impressive display of skill and teamwork, the Leicester Juniors Team A emerged as the clear champions, scoring a perfect 5/5 wins. Top scorers were Tara with 5 out of 5 and Alex with 4.5 out of 5.
Congratulations to Leicester Juniors Team A!
The team’s outstanding performance earned them the top spot in the championship. Well done to Ted, Oscar, Alex, Tara, and Sathsara!
Team B’s Valiant Effort
Although Team B didn’t quite match Team A’s success, they still demonstrated great determination and sportsmanship throughout the tournament. Keep up the good work, Madhav , Yvon, Aadharshini, Zayn and Zara!
We’re proud of all our players for their participation and enthusiasm. Bring on the next tournament!”
57 children took part in the new Leicestershire Junior Championships at Holywell School in Loughborough on Saturday 7th December, playing 5 rounds of 20 + 5 rapid chess to determine the Leicestershire Champions at Under 9, Under 11, Under 14 and Under 18
The venue was excellent for this event, and many thanks to the support from Holywell School to let us use their school for this event. I am hopeful that with such an excellent turnout this competition can become a regular event in the calendar.
In the Under 9 section, Omswaroop Kotti crowned an excellent return to chess with 5 wins out of 5 taking the title of Under 9 Overall and Boys champion. Konstantinos took clear 2nd place and Mason clear 3rd place. The best placed girl was Wing Ying Lai, taking the title of Leicestershire Girls Under 9 champion
The Under 11 section had an excellent 28 competitors, and was very hard fought with tie breaks being required to separate some of the competitors. Aadharshini and Zara were clear leaders going into the last round, with Aadharshini eventually coming out on top In a hard fought last round battle to take the title of overall under 11 and girls champion. Zara was runner up in the girls and Vishaka took the 3rd place medal. In the boys section tie breaks we required with three boys finishing on 4 points. Zayn Patel took the title of Boys Under 11 champion on the tie break (Sum of Opponents Scores). Reidan Minhas and Tilak Patel (also both on 4) took Silver medals and Srijit took bronze medal.
In the Under 14 section, Tara Tamilselvan continued her excellent form from the World Cadets tournament to take clear first place with 5 out of 5, taking the title of Leicestershire Under 14 overall and girls champion. Yvon van Neerven took the silver medal and Dayani the bronze medal in the girls section. In the boys section rising star Ted Ronald took the title of Leicestershire Under 14 Boys champion with 4 points, Swetark took the silver medal on tie break from Bobby Sun (both 3.5 points)
The Under 18 tournament was very hard fought with time scrambles taking place in nearly every round. At the end Alex Shen took the title of Under 18 overall and boys champion with 4.5 points, on tie break from Sathsara. Arav and Gauthier shared the bronze medal (both with 3 points)
Under 9 Results – https://leicestershirejuniorchess.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/U9-Results.pdf
Under 11 Results – https://leicestershirejuniorchess.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/U11-Results.pdf
Under 14 Results – https://leicestershirejuniorchess.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/U14-Results.pdf
Under 18 Results – https://leicestershirejuniorchess.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/U18-Results.pdf
45 children from 7 schools were represented in the inaugural Market Bosworth Primary Schools chess tournament that took place on Friday 15th of November. The children played 5 games against children from other schools over the course of the morning, competing for Bronze, Silver and Gold medals for their schools.
The schools represented were Scalford Primary, Church Hill Primary, Congerstone Primary, Desford Primary, Leicester Grammar School, Fairfield Preparatory School and Leicester Preparatory School.
After a morning of hard fought chess, Scalford Primary finished in 3rd place with 10.5 points, Church Hill Primary in 2nd place with 11 points, and Leicester Grammar and Fairfield shared the gold medals both with 13 points.
Many thanks to Market Bosworth School for offering to host this event.
Each year we are planning to hold similar tournaments in the Autumn and Spring terms!
24 children from around the county represented Leicestershire in the inaugural Midlands County Team Championships which were held at Nottingham High School on Saturday 16th November.
The children all acquitted themselves brilliantly over the day, competing against children from Warwickshire, Oxfordshire, Nottinghamshire, Shropshire and Northamptonshire. Due to their efforts the Under 9 team won bronze medals for finishing in 3rd place overall. The Girls went one step better finishing in 2nd place overall winning silver medals and a team trophy!
Under 11 Team
The team started brilliantly with an excellent 4 – 4 draw with the highest rated team Oxfordshire (top board rated 1950!) and then a strong 8-0 against Worcestershire. We were perhaps unlucky to them be paired against the strong Warwickshire teams meaning that we played the Gold, Silver and Bronze winning teams during the day.
Special mentions for Zara Mehta for transferring from the girls team to take on the daunting top board job (including opponents with ratings of 1917 and 1762). Our top joint top scorers were Chris Rufus Pons (1200 performance) and Finbar Millen (1100 performance) with 3 wins each
Under 9 Team
With 7 members of the team unrated before the start I was unable to predict how we would do, and the team but in a brilliant performance to finished in 3rd place overall. This included a 4.5 – 3.5 win over the strong Oxfordshire side and a 4-4 draw with the Warwickshire Under 9 team
Our top scorers were Advait (top board and a 1032 rating performance), Dillon with 3 out of 4 and Oskar with a perfect 3 out of 3! The team all showed great team spirit throughout and I am very confident all the children who played for this team will go onto represent Leicestershire for many years to come.
Girls Team
I was a bit nervous that transferring Zara over to the Under 11 team would cause the girls team to struggle, but they performed brilliantly to finish in 2nd place overall and take the 2nd place trophy! Again the girls showed brilliant team spirit throughout, and I was really impressed about how they showed maturity in selecting the team for the last round themselves with Rayshali very unselfishly offering to take the reserve spot for the last game.
All the girls finished with positive scores over the day, and special mention for Aadharshini who finished with a perfect 5 out of 5 and a 1789 rating performance!
You can see detailed results here
Girls teams – https://chess-results.com/tnr1061189.aspx?lan=1&art=83
Under 9 team – https://chess-results.com/tnr1061190.aspx?lan=1&turdet=YES
Under 11 team – https://chess-results.com/tnr1061192.aspx?lan=1&art=0&rd=5&turdet=YES
