Coventry Chess Academy

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Coventry Chess Academy

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A new initiative providing chess coaching for schoolchildren in years 1 to 6.

The Coventry Chess Academy (CCA) is a social enterprise supported by the University of Warwick in partnership with UnLtd and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). We offer a range of chess activities including high quality tuition, friendly games, tournaments with prizes and much more! All abilities and backgrounds are welcome, from complete beginners to budding grandmasters, whether you want to play for fun, improve your game or reach the top. VENUE: Cheylesmore Community Centre, Arundel Road, Cheylesmore,
Coventry, West Midlands, CV3 5JX

WHEN: 10am – 12pm every Saturday morning

FEE: £4 per session

DIRECTOR: Paul Lam

11/10/2026

It was another action-packed day of chess, starting with the second round of 4NCL Chess!🇬🇧♟️ Warwickshire Select went down to British chess giants Wood Green, but not before the Bears🐻 pushed the big favourites all the way. FIDE Masters ‘Tactical’ Tom Junde He and Jude ‘The Juggernaut’ Shearsby were outplayed by International Masters Jonah Willow and Harriet Hunt, but it was not all doom and gloom for the Bear’s young stars. Finlay Bowcott-Terry (no longer a junior, but definitely still youthful!😁) had another fine result, drawing comfortably against International Master Maciej Czopor with the Black pieces. Woman FIDE Master ‘Extraordinary’ Elis Dicen had much the better of a creditable draw against Grandmaster Ketevan Arakhamia Grant. It’s not every day that you can say you beat the former World number 4😮, but that’s exactly what Warwickshire junior chess legend FIDE Master Adithya Vaidyanathan did against Grandmaster Jon Speelman. Speelman had been nursing a negligible edge when, with absolutely tonnes of time (an hour to Adithya’s 11 minutes) he grabbed a poisoned pawn and that was that. A special mention must also be spared for International Master Araz Basim Mohammed Al-Saffar, a very welcome newcomer to the team. A chess journey which started in Iraq has made its way to the UK and despite inactivity and a big rating deficit, he crushed Grandmaster Matthew Wadsworth with the White pieces.

Adithya’s top board spot in the 2nd team went to Candidate Master Billy ‘The Kid’ Fellowes🤠 for today. After yesterday’s brilliant showing, Bill was having a stinker against fellow CM and junior talent Avyukt Dasgputa, only for the latter to make an absolutely diabolical blunder, handing our man the win on a silver plate! You're entitled to one every now and then!😅 As Roy ‘The Baddest Great Grandpa on the Planet’ Watson👴 would say, ‘Praise the Lord!’.😂😂😂 Caissa was not however shining on Akshath. He should have had two successive CM scalps as highly-respected coach Rob Willmoth found himself in a most disgusting opening position, only for Akshath to, in shades of yesterday, let him back in the game with a most unfortunate exchange, before going wrong in a level opposite coloured bishop endgame.

The final word of the day however goes to our club’s youngest members, many of whom were out in force in the Birmingham Junior Open, organised by the one-and-only Alex Holowczak. There was a terrific turnout and some fantastic results. In U18 Group A, ‘King/Coach/Curator/Arbiter/Legend’ Gregory Kornilovich added another medal to his growing collection with 3/5🥉. Taking home silver with 3.5/5🥈 and joint-second place was Jason ‘You Know’ Hu, despite still being in primary school! In U18 Group C, Sebby Shelton won another medal, taking home bronze🥉 for a fine achievement. The winner of the section with an impressive 4.5/5 was Divith ‘The Punisher’ Puppala AKA ‘The Silent Assassin’.🥇

In U11 Group A, ‘Super’ Shrisha Tarihalkar showed her class and was the outright winner with an excellent 4.5/5.🥇 Second to her, with 4/5 for silver🥈, was her good friend Riyaan ‘The Baby-faced Assassin’ Garnsworthy. He only lost one game to Shrisha and won all the rest against some of the best primary school players in Warwickshire. And lest we forget, Riyaan is still only SIX years old!😲 In U11 Group C, Ansh ‘Vishy’ Anand took home another well-deserved bronze medal.🥉 In U11 Group D, Dan ‘The Man’ Doss🥇 and Stas Kisiel🥇 were among the joint winners with 4/5! This was a particularly outstanding achievement as it marked the first time that either guy has won their section. In U11 Group D, the joint-winner was Advaith Shivakumar with a superb 4.5/5.🥇 Advaith has come on leaps and bounds in such a short time and this result is testament to his enthusiasm and efforts.

Congratulations to each and every CCA star⭐️ who competed today! From those who matched battle-hardened Grandmasters blow-for-blow to those of you making your tournament debut in the U9 section, we’re so proud of each and every one of you!👏👏👏

10/10/2026

It was another very enjoyable Coventry Chess Academy session today!😃 More Mysterious Mates, The Triple Maze and Studies of the Day were on the chess menu and enthusiastically devoured by members, although nobody scored 100% as they got caught out by some fiendish numbers selected by CCA Director Paul Lam. Not Coach Amalson though, who took about 10 seconds to spot what will no doubt keep some members up late at night! The CCA is a club which sets high standards both on and off the board, and Arty Vuscan Palade, Ansh ‘Vishy’ Anand and Isaac Pratt were our ‘Helpful Heroes’ of the day.😊

Only one chess master was in the house, but the reason for this was weekend 1 of 4NCL Chess, the British National Chess League,🇬🇧♟️ which saw a number of our superstars competing in Dudley on behalf of the mighty Warwickshire Select AKA ‘Simply The Bears’.🐻♟️ It was quite the event as the Black Country played the most unlikely host to former CCA visitor and superstar Grandmaster Anish Giri (who won all his games against us in a simultaneous some years ago, bar a youthful version of Coach David Phillips who scored a memorable draw).😲 Anish showed the difference between a Super GM and a ‘regular’ GM by making a strong and experienced opponent in Alexander Cherniaev look like a rank amateur.

The Warwickshire 1st team kicked off their second successive season in the top flight of British chess against White Rose. The Yorkists gave it their best shot, but it was battle in vain as Warwickshire romped to a crushing 6.5-1.5 victory.🥳 The club’s good friend Finlay Bowcott-Terry did an absolute demolition job on a very good player in Thomas Carroll, who found his position in such ruins out of the opening that he was reduced to offering material in desperation for counterplay; efforts which were comfortably neutralised by Finlay en route to a crushing 27-move victory.🔥 Another familiar face in the form of FIDE Master ‘Tactical’ Tom Junde He was on top against Candidate Master Andrew Dunn when the latter blundered into a mating combination (Tom’s NOT the kind of opponent you want to do this against!) and immediately resigned. Candidate Master Billy ‘The Kid’ Fellowes🤠 took on Scottish FIDE Master Andrew Burnett and left the board as red as the battlefield at Falkirk. Unfortunately for him, it was Burnett’s blood which was spilled, in copious amounts.⚒️🩸🩸🩸⚒️ Billy played a nicely controlled game and, with the pressure increasing on both the board and the clock, his experienced opponent broke down, allowing Billy to finish off with a nasty flurry of punches. FIDE Master Jude ‘The Juggernaut’ Shearsby had played a fine game, expertly simplifying to a good knight versus bad bishop endgame, but then turned down a timely KUFTE as coined by the late, great Mike Fox. The position was still highly unpleasant though for White and, though it took a while, our man eventually got the job done, taking home a deserved win. Woman FIDE Master ‘Extraordinary’ Elis Dicen was on top against Nadia Jafarally, but a bad exchange cost her the advantage and the game fizzled out into a draw.

The Warwickshire 2nd team went down to Barbican 4NCL, but a special mention should be spared for Advaith’s big brother and Warwickshire junior chess legend ‘Coach’ Akshath Shivakumar. He completely outplayed talented young Candidate Master Junyan Hu (no relation to our Jason!) in the opening and middlegame, only to slip up as the game descended into a topsy turvy battle. However, Akshath kept his nerve, showing his growing maturity, and scored a deserved consolation win for ‘The Bears’.

Well done to everyone for all their efforts today👏👏👏 and fingers crossed for tomorrow!🤞

05/10/2026

It was another great Coventry Chess Academy session at the weekend!😃 We were delighted to welcome back Shrayanshi, James ‘Goldfinger’ Palmer-Brown☝️ and club legend Candidate Master Billy ‘The Kid’ Fellowes🤠, who presented his brilliant win against Grandmaster Milosz Szpar on the demo-board.😍 Staying Alive and Development were also on the chess menu and, as always, some fantastic worksheets and contributions were produced. Billy recently made a little piece of history as he joined the Warwick Sporting Hall of Fame😮, the first person to be recognised in this way on account of his chess achievements. Then in other big news, we are absolutely delighted to announce that Anish ‘The Beast’ Bijibilla will be playing once again for ENGLAND🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿♟️, this time in the WORLD U7 Chess Championships😲😲😲 taking place later thus month in Roquetas de Mar, Spain.🌍♟️🇪🇸 This is an outstanding achievement and no doubt Anish’s experience in the World Cadets U8s in Georgia, where he scored a very creditable 5.5/11 against children up to a year older, will serve him well.

Congratulations Anish!👏👏👏 We’re so proud of you and know you can do club and country proud once again.

27/09/2026

It was great to see everyone at another fun-filled Coventry Chess Academy session yesterday!😃 Tricky Combinations, The Initiative and Endgame Mates were on the chess menu and lapped up by members. We welcomed back Coach David Phillips and also club legend Dhairya ‘The Real Deal’ Pandya who led his group quite brilliantly,👏 in a manner which put most pro coaches to shame. Riyaan ‘The Baby-faced Assassin’ Garnsworthy showed off some unbelievable calculation skills for someone so young (Riyaan is still only six years old!), everyone learned the new word ‘BLAM’ and the standard of play in training games just gets better and better, with five-year-old Rohan Loganathan impressing once again. Team England’s Jason ‘You Know’ Hu has already shown he can smash 2000 rated opponents while still in primary school, but he has not taken down CCA Director Paul Lam yet. However, he came close in the last 10 minutes of the session when he took on Paul in blitz! Jason won a pawn with a simple (by his standards) tactic to leave Paul staring at a miserable position and defeat in the face, but he managed to drum up enough kingside counterplay to outhustle Jason and win. The way Jason is improving, Paul won’t get away with it for long!

Two of our titled stars, FIDE Master Jude ‘The Juggernaut’ Shearsby and Candidate Master Billy ‘The Kid’ Fellowes were not in attendance, but they had a good reason as both were playing in the Birmingham qualifier of the 2026 English Chess Federation UK Open Blitz Chess Championship.♟️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Peter ‘The Lexicon’ Li, ‘Super’ Shrisha Tarihalkar and ‘Dynamite’ Diah Patel also bravely entered and faced overwhelming odds in some of their games, but still scored plenty of points between them. Jude did not play in the final round, but still finished eighth overall which included drawing with the tournament winner, Grandmaster Ameet Ghasi. The club’s good friend National Master Finlay Bowcott-Terry finished in sixth overall, drawing in the final round with Billy who was fifth overall and defeated the strong Chinese International Master Wang Hao.🔥 Further afield, Anish ‘The Beast’ Bijibilla, aged seven, started like a train in the AlphaChess Blitz with 4/4, beating opponents rated 1417, 1476, 1801 and 1761.😮 Though he fell away in the second half, it couldn’t take the shine off a remarkable run.

A big well done to all our members for their efforts this weekend, we’re proud of you all!👏👏👏

20/09/2026

It was great to see everyone at another very enjoyable Coventry Chess Academy session yesterday!😃 Members were delighted to see legendary coach Steve ‘Topsy’ Turvey back and we also welcomed Advaith’s big brother Akshath for work experience. Additionally, CCA superstar FIDE Jude ‘The Juggernaut’ Shearsby was back🔥, sending the average Elo shooting through the rooftop, and, as always, he was fantastic support and inspiration for everyone present. His good friend and fellow CCA legend Siddharth Nallameni also attended despite being extremely busy with both work and uni applications – what a guy.❤️ KMs from Summer Part 2, Roy’s Bishop Ending and Blunder-checking were on the chess menu and some excellent work was produced by members. Impressive contributions were made by the likes of Riyaan ‘The Baby-faced Assassin’, Anish ‘The Beast’ Bijibilla, ‘Awesome’ Anvi Prabhakaran, ‘Super’ Shrisha Tarihalkar and Handuo ‘The Hitman’ Cao. The standard of play in training games was even higher than last week and some notable results were achieved, such as Anish going 1-1 with King/Coach/Curator/Arbiter/Legend Gregory Kornilovich. The big boys clashed during Fun Time and nobody could take a point off Jude. The CCA Director came close, but then, in the final action of the session, blundered his queen horribly.😱🤦🤦🤦

Then today, there was a fantastic result for Anish in the Bucks qualifier for the London Junior Chess Championships (LJCC)♟️, one of the most prestigious junior chess tournaments in England which a number of our members have won outright in the past. Anish could well be on course to follow in their footsteps as he steamrollered the competition en route to a perfect 6/6 score😮 to qualify for the LJCC Major Final. Well done Anish!👏

13/09/2026

It was brilliant to see everyone back at the Coventry Chess Academy yesterday for our first session of term!😃 A very warm welcome back to all and to our new members, we hope you enjoyed the experience! CCA Director Paul Lam was pleased to share all the great news of members’ achievements over summer👏👏👏 and there were two special presentations to make. Club legend Zak Nahal was delighted to learn that he had won Paul’s Puzzle Prize from Chess Fest Coventry 2026. Our 2026 POTY, Team England's🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿♟️ Anish ‘The Beast’ Bijibilla had been battling over the board on the day of the CCA’s 13th Anniversary Celebrations, but was over the moon to finally receive the Richard Eaves Trophy!🏆 There was also more than one chess master in the room, as our very own Woman FIDE Master ‘Extraordinary’ Elis Dicen was in attendance as was big sister and fellow club legend ‘Incredible’ Imogen Dicen who did a great job in support of the CCA Director.

The Checkmate Challenge, Alignment and Summer Games were on the chess menu and members showed that they had barely lost a step, as some very impressive worksheets were produced and there were some great demo-board contributions from the likes of Jason ‘You Know’ Hu, Anish, Riyaan ‘The Baby-faced Assassin’ Garnsworthy, Ollie ‘Hack’em’ Rackham and Peter ‘The Lexicon’ Li. Members were stunned in particular by the brilliance demonstrated by ‘Super’ Shrisha Tarihalkar in one of her games from the 2026 British Chess Championship which led to her being crowned 2026 U10 British Girls Chess Champion.🇬🇧♟️

Considering the long break and the fact that we had fifty in the room, the silence during training games was very impressive; you could hear a pin drop in the room. It was so impressive to see our youngest and newest members manage the demands of playing in tournament conditions. Rohan Loganathan has only just turned five, but conducted himself like a young veteran! Fun time was very well deserved indeed and the usual variants were enjoyed by all, though the Director is not so sure about the merits of ‘Leaning Chess’.😂

Looking forward to another great term and year! With big plans in the pipeline and BIG news due to come out soon👀, hopefully 2026-2027 will prove to the best yet for our club and members!

31/08/2026

We are delighted to report on an excellent result for the one-and-only Handuo ‘The Hitman’ Cao! Handuo was on holiday in China over summer, but still managed to fit in some chess! He played in the Shanghai slow rapid🇨🇳♟️ against opponents rated 1300-1600. China is a chess giant, with many dangerously underrated juniors, but Handuo scored a fantastic 4/5 for second place🥈, even bagging some prize money for his efforts.💷😃 Well done Handuo!👏👏👏

With the new academic year approaching, we have some brain-teasers for club members to shake off the dust! All the positions come from recent games played by Coventry Chess Academy members.⭐️⭐️⭐️ Enjoy!

26/08/2026

It’s been another history-making day and the star of the show was none other than the one-and-only Candidate Master Billy ‘The Kid’ Fellowes!🤠 Today the Coventry Chess Academy legend faced the top seed at the Mind Sports International, Grandmaster Milosz Szpar of Poland. Billy, still just fourteen years old, had of course already taken the scalp of legendary English GM John Emms in the Rapidplay at the weekend, but this promised to be an even tougher prospect on paper; having the Black pieces against a Grandmaster in his 20s and rated over 2500. In one of the great CCA results of all time, Billy upset the apple cart in a big way, outplaying Szpar in a manner which we are more accustomed to from Grandmasters facing weaker players, for an excellent clean scalp!🔥🔥🔥😲😲😲 Wowowow, what a tremendous result! Congratulations Billy, we’re all so proud of you!🤠👏👏👏

The game will be coming to a CCA demo-board near you at some point👀 presented by the man himself, but here’s a tiny taster to whet the appetite of our younger members. Billy has tied Szpar in knots and now collects the natural fruits of his labour, as natural as the smile on a baby's face as a famous chess player once said!👶 We’re confident that our guys and girls will see how he capitalised here. And for anyone who attended the British Chess Championship junior camp, we expect it won't take very long at all!

23/08/2026

We are delighted to report on more great results for the Coventry Chess Academy’s superstars!😃 Following on from his electrifying start at the Kingston International, ‘King’ Keatan Patel finished on a fine 5/9 at the Kingston Invitational, deservedly gaining rating points for his efforts. Then this weekend, a number have been in action in the very strong Mind Sports Olympiad Rapidplay.🧠🇬🇧♟️ FIDE Master Jude ‘The Juggernaut’ Shearsby (fresh off receiving a brilliant set of GCSE results!👏) had an indifferent day 1, but recovered well on day 2 to finish on 5.5/10. The club’s good friend and the pride of Warwickshire chess, National Master Finlay Bowcott-Terry, achieved the same score and convincingly toppled British chess legend Grandmaster Danny Gormally🗡️🩸 in round 3. The one-and-only Billy ‘The Kid’ Fellowes was our big hitter with 6/10. He drew with Grandmasters Matthew Wadsworth (who he was beating) and Eldar Gasanov and in round 4 beat another one of England’s most respected Grandmasters, John Emms.🔥😮👏👏👏

A big well done to all and all the best for the Mind Sports International Open starting tomorrow! Go get ‘em guys!💪

18/08/2026

There’s no stopping ‘King’ Keatan Patel right now!👑 The Coventry Chess Academy legend who, at the British Major Open just over a week ago, became the latest CCA star to qualify for the Main Event of next year’s British Chess Championships🇬🇧♟️, is on a roll on and off the chessboard! Keatan received a fabulous 4 A*s🌟🌟🌟🌟 in his A levels on Thursday and will be heading to his first-choice university later this year. Then yesterday, he beat experienced International Master Graeme Buckley in fine style at the Kingston Invitational for his first standardplay win against an IM.😁 It was very nearly two IM scalps in a row😲 as earlier today, legendary British IM Peter Large, one of English chess’ greatest servants, narrowly escaped with a draw against Keatan from a losing position. Well done Keatan and all the best for the rest of the tournament, you’re doing great!👏

Address

Cheylesmore Community Centre, Arundel Road, Cheylesmore
Coventry
CV35JX

Opening Hours

10am - 12pm

Website

http://coventrychessacademy.wordpress.com/

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