Welcome to the Home of UK Junior Chess
Competitions, lessons and coaching programmes for junior chess players of all ages whether complete beginner or international standard.
School Competition 2025
School Chess Tournament
Enter the UK Chess Challenge and introduce your students to the world of tournament chess.
With our lovingly made “Tournament in a Box” you have a ready made seven week warmup tournament programme that is easy to deliver and super-popular with the students who love the prizes and fun format.
About Us
We’re Sarah and Alex Longson and we run the UK Chess Challenge. We are family run business aiming to raise a generation of children with superpowers of critical thinking, confidence, resilience and empathy by helping them learn and play chess.
We live in Cheshire with our two young children Isabelle and Tobias. We met at a chess tournament (of course) in Gatwick 2011.
Sarah is legal graduate and former British Ladies Champion and member of the English Ladies international team. Many of her students have gone on to win national and European titles and represented the national team. Sarah is our Head Coach and personally oversees our classes.
Alex is a qualified accountant and manages the back office processes and writes our bespoke training material. He is a FIDE Master and former England junior international.
What Our Customers Are Saying
Don’t just take it from us, let our customers do the talking!
” I really like the quizzes! I have learned a lot about positional play from the classes and I like the tournaments too.
Chess has taught me to persist even when things get difficult. ”
Merlin” My favourite part of the chess lessons are the quizzes.
Chess has helped me with my concentration and I’ve made lots of friends through chess”
Isla“I really enjoy helping out in the UK Chess Challenge clubs – I’ve done a live stream commentating on a blitz tournament and played a simul against some of the other students ”
ForkPower
Parents – What We Offer
Delancey UK Chess Challenge
The UK’s largest chess competition – for young chess players of all ages and abilities. In-person and online events available.
Group Coaching & Programmes
Lessons and coaching for aspiring young talents. Introducing the ‘Academy’ – part of the official England Junior Development Pathway.
121 Coaching and Mentoring
Get your personalised assessment, training plan and follow-up coaching sessions whilst working directly with Sarah.
Chess Academy
Our flagship training programme for players from novice to international level. Players are grouped into 5 experience levels with regular tournaments and classes led by some of the UK’s most experienced trainers, including Grandmasters, International Masters and our Head Coach Sarah. Academy Alumni include World, European, British and UKCC Champions!
About the Delancey UK Chess Challenge
The following video, which was kindly produced by our sponsors Delancey, includes highlights from one of our events and interviews with players and organisers.
Resources for Parents
Top 10 Tips For Chess Parents
Whether you are a non-playing parent or know a thing or two about chess one thing is the same - being a chess parent is a challenging role. Knowing how best to support your child and help them get the best out of themselves whilst dealing with the inevitable highs and...
read more
Chess Learning Personas – Which one is your child?
Everyone learns in a different way and the last thing we would try and do is foist our own preferences onto another individual. Chess is no different and what worked for one player doesn’t necessarily mean it will work for another. In this spirit we have...
read more
The Rising Tide of AI – Chess and Computers
A history of chess computing and a look into the future Deep Blue was intelligent the way your programmable alarm clock is intelligent. Not that losing to a $10 million alarm clock made me feel any better Chess has been an important hurdle in the...
read more