Outdoor ‘ChessFest’ Comes To London’s Trafalgar Square
After more than a year of lockdowns and restrictions on over-the-board chess, London will enjoy its biggest-ever outdoor chess event on Sunday July 18: ChessFest, in the city’s iconic Trafalgar Square.
The square is not just London’s most famous public space, named for the naval battle won by England’s most famous admiral, Horatio Nelson (whose statue sits atop a giant column in the square). It is also traditionally the place where Londoners go to celebrate New Year’s Eve, hold public rallies, and meet up with family and friends for a stroll around the city.
Trafalgar Square is also just around the corner from the historic chess venue Simpson’s in the Strand, where 19th-century chess masters did battle with swashbuckling gambits over coffee and cigars, and Howard Staunton, the England World No. 1 of the 1840s, held court.
So it is fitting that from 11am to 6pm on July 18, thanks to the efforts of the event’s organisers, UK charity Chess in Schools and Communities, and sponsor XTX Markets, Trafalgar Square will be the stunning backdrop for ChessFest, an event that aims to offer chess in all shapes and sizes to the public.
Wide range of chess activities
As well as casual games for the public and simultaneous displays by Grandmasters, there will be free lessons from professional chess tutors for everyone from absolute beginner up, and the chance to play in the Unofficial World Giant Chess Championship – all free for everyone who wants to come along.
Adding to the fun, there will also be an Inter-City Chess Challenge match via live video linkup from Trafalgar Square, where a team of schoolchildren will represent London against a team of schoolchildren from Liverpool in northwest England, where a satellite ChessFest event will be staged in the city’s Chevasse Park. As well as a conventional chess match, the competition between the two city teams will include Chess.com's Puzzle Rush.
Among the other attractions on Trafalgar Square will be a ‘Battle of the Prodigies,’ which will pit London’s Shreyas Royal against New York’s Tani Adewumi in a live internet match.
The charity is hoping ChessFest will encourage a whole new audience of budding chess players (many of whom will have taken up the game online during lockdown) to enjoy an afternoon of chess over a board, with friends and friendly banter.
Inspired by ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’
ChessFest is also being staged to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the publication of one of the best-loved stories in children’s literature, Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass,’ who starred in a chess game of her own in the book.
An ‘Alice’-themed chess game will be re-enacted on Trafalgar Square on a giant chessboard, with 32 professional actors each playing the part of a chess piece.
As part of ChessFest, Chess in Schools and Communities will be taking 120 children from schools where it teaches children on guided tours of a ground-breaking new exhibition running at London’s V&A Museum, entitled, ‘Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser’.
Everyone’s welcome!
ChessFest will be the first major public chess event in the UK since the start of the pandemic in spring 2020, as Chess in Schools and Communities’ traditional London Chess Classic – normally staged at Kensington Olympia in early December – was unavoidably postponed in December 2020 due to Covid restrictions.
After what seems to many of us like a far-too-long break from OTB chess, ChessFest could also be just the ‘shot in the arm’ that we all need to get out there and play some chess again. It certainly looks set to be a great day out and a giant advertisement for our game.
For any Chess.com readers in the London area who wish to take part, feel free to just turn up – no pre-registration is required. Come with your friends, and enjoy a great day of chess outdoors!
For more information about ChessFest, go to:
https://twitter.com/ChessFest2021
or write to: info@chessinschools.co.uk
FIDE Master Tim Wall is the director of the Northumbria Chess Masters, one of the UK's strongest international tournaments, which is being held this year at the Marriott MetroCentre, Gateshead from August 26-30.
