On Sunday, 12 July, ChessFest, the game’s annual celebration, returns to Trafalgar Square in central London and offers a unique opportunity for ordinary players and their children to experience top chess free of charge. Complete beginners are welcome and will receive helpful instruction from Chess in Schools and Communities tutors.
The action starts at noon and continues until 7pm. Throughout the day, experts including nine-time British champion Michael Adams, three-time champion Gawain Maroroa Jones, and many other international players will give simultaneous displays or be available for one to one speed games in the Challenge the Chess Master tent.
Visitors will also be able to play their own games, with hundreds of chess sets and boards available, including giant sets. Living Chess will be played by professional actors on giant boards. You can test your tactical skills on Puzzle Rush, or watch chess masters battle it out in a game of giant blitz, a test of skill and stamina.
England’s national coaches will be watching the simultaneous and blitz games and looking out for unknowns with the potential to reach the top. In 2021, Adams’s first simul opponent was a six-year-old, Kushal Jakhria, who resisted the champion with a skill beyond his years, and subsequently won world and European junior titles.
Much more information about ChessFest 2026 is available on the website. Trafalgar Square is easily accessible by public transport, with many bus routes stopping there and a tube exit from Charing Cross station. ChessFest is sponsored by XTX Markets, which also supports the annual London Classic.
If you cannot make it to Trafalgar Square, there will be other ChessFest events up and down the country in the next few weeks. Dates are Portishead 11 July, Hull 12 July, Liverpool 19 July, Coventry 25 July, and Lancaster 17 August.
ChessFest this year marks the 175th anniversary of the Immortal Game, which was probably played at Simpson’s-in-the-Strand in June 1851 just a five-minute bus journey from Trafalgar Square. The Immortal Game, won by Adolf Anderssen with a dazzling array of sacrifices including White’s queen and both rooks, is very well known, but in case you are unfamiliar with it here it is again in all its glory. The game will be reenacted as a Living Chess game during ChessFest.
England’s chess selectors have just announced the national teams for the 200-nation Olympiad at Samarkand, Uzbekistan in September. Open: Nikita Vitiugov, Michael Adams, Gawain Maroroa Jones, Luke McShane, Dan Fernandez. Captain: William Watson. Women: Lan Yao, Jovanka Houska, Bodhana Sivanandan, Harriet Hunt, Elmira Mirzoeva. Captain: Stuart Conquest.
Hopes for a strong England performance will be tempered by memories of the last Olympiad at Budapest 2024, where England’s open team were seeded eighth but finished 20th, while the women’s team were seeded 15th and ended up 27th. Additionally, this England open team is weaker than previously, since David Howell, who won an individual gold medal at Chennai 2022, has family commitments and also gives priority to his media career, where he is established as one of the world’s leading chess commentators. Fernandez, Howell’s substitute, was the 2025 Commonwealth Champion, and is the only under-30 in the ageing open team.
The England women’s team includes the nation’s five currently highest rated players, among them Sivanandan, who already made her Olympiad debut at age nine in Budapest two years ago. With its mix of youth and experience, this squad has the potential to pull off a positive surprise.
4031: 1 Ng6+! Ke8 (if 1…fxg6? 2 Qxe6+ Kf8 3 Qe7 mate) 2 Qxe6+! fxe6 3 Rxe6+! Bxe6 4 Re7 mate.
