Chess Success

There is no doubt that these are record-breaking numbers but success on the national stage also requires close collaboration between the school, the parents, the chess coaches and – most importantly – the players themselves. Take a look at the winners of national school chess competitions over the past few decades and you will almost exclusively find a list of highly prestigious southern-based schools such as King’s College, The Hall, Westminster Under, Haberdashers’ Aske’s, Wetherby and Twickenham Prep. Breaking into the chess elite requires hard work and dedication but luckily, our brilliant players have that in abundance. Hallfield is now widely regarded as one of the strongest schools of chess excellence in the country and certainly the best outside of the M25.

The clubs are run by FIDE Chess Master and former British U21 Chess Champion, Nick Thomas, who is aided by the English Chess Federation’s Director of Junior Chess Alex Holowczak. Approximately one-third of the Warwickshire County chess teams are Hallfield players and we are the current IAPS U11 and U13 Team Chess Champions, a title we have held continuously since 2018. In recent years, we have been English Chess Federation U11 team champions and each year one or more Hallfield players represent England at European or World Junior chess events with success.