Chess at the Guildhall

The Old Library at the Guildhall played host to the 2026 City of London Schools Chess Tournament this week, run by CSC. Rarely do we get to play chess in such a grand setting or one better suited for a chess tournament: the children were greeted by statues of Queen Elizabeth I and King Charles I as they arrived at the venue.

Ten schools took part in the event, all of them part of the City of London’s Family of Schools. In total, 111 pupils competed, spanning Years 3-11. Chess, of course, has no respect for the age of the players, and the primary school pupils acquitted themselves extremely well, showing no signs of being overawed when they were paired with a secondary school opponent.

The standard of chess was extremely high, with some of the pupils really challenging our very strongest chess tutors in the warm-up lessons and games that preceded the tournament. The games, though competitive, were played in an excellent spirit of supportiveness with many displays of sporting behaviour. Our congratulations to all the players for making it such an enjoyable day.

In the final tally, City of London School took home the secondary school trophy while City Junior School, in their first appearance, finished top of the primary school competition. Many of the children received medals for their performance and every child took home some chess goodies to encourage them to keep up the game.

Our huge thanks to the seven employees of the London Stock Exchange Group who gave up a day of work to volunteer for the charity and provide invaluable help throughout the day. Thank you too to the team from the City of London Corporation, for organising the event and for supporting chess throughout their schools.