The English Primary Schools Chess Association, EPSCA for short, was founded in 1967 to “advance the education of primary school aged children in England and Wales by teaching, supervising and developing the playing of chess.”
Amongst other activities, it runs annual team events for counties or county strength associations for Under 11, Under 11 Girls and Under 9, and also for school teams at Under 11 and Under 9.
EPSCA Inter-Association Championship
Associations are organisations approved by EPSCA which organise primary school chess in defined geographical areas; they include many county associations, but also include a number of strong club-based organisations. Inter-association championships have been contended at Under 11 for the BH Wood Trophy since 1967, at Under 9 for the Peter Ackroyd Trophy since 1977 and at Under 11 Girls since 1984. A Grand Prix was instituted in 2001 by IM Mike Basman, for the team doing best over all the Inter-Association Championship events in that year. (The winner in that first year was Richmond…)
Each of the championships is run over two stages, a zonal stage and a national final. Each event is held as a three round Jamboree. Jamboree pairings are a type of team pairing system used in England for events in which there are too many players and too few rounds to be accommodated by team
Swiss pairings; the pairings tables (devised by Clifford Hilton), which are used can be found at https://www.englishchess.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/roundRobinPairings.pdf.
The zonals normally take place annually in March, the finals in April or May. The age limits are relative to the Academic Year; in other words, the players must be under the stated age before the 1st of September in the previous calendar year.
The U11 events are held over 20 boards with 4 reserves, whilst the U11 Girls and U9 events are held over 12 boards with 4 reserves. Reserve players may be substituted on any of the bottom four boards of the teams in any round with the approval of the Tournament Controller.
All the games are ECF rapidplay rated. The time control is normally 40 minutes each plus 10 seconds per move in the U11 and U11 Girls, and 30 minutes each plus 10 seconds per move in the U9.
When not substituted into the main team, reserve players play in a separate reserves tournament of three rounds, the games also being ECF rapidplay rated.
Success at the EPSCA Inter-Association Championships
Richmond has been successful over the years in the EPSCA Inter-Association Championship, winning on the following occasions:
- Under 11 ‒ 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2017, 2018 (tied with Kent)
- U11 Girls ‒ 1988
- Under 9 ‒ 1989, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2008, 2019 (tied with Barnet), 2023, 2024
- Grand Prix ‒ 2001
Richmond Juniors has also happily hosted various zonal and final events.
We are putting together a record of Richmond Junior’s participation in EPSCA Inter-Association events, which can be found at: /history-of-richmond-at-epsca-inter-association-events. This is currently incomplete, research is ongoing and this record will be updated as more is found.
Eligibility for Richmond Juniors teams
Within the EPSCA Inter-Association Championships, Richmond Juniors is responsible for selecting teams of primary school children who live or go to school in the following London Boroughs:
- London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham
- London Borough of Hounslow
- Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea
- London Borough of Merton
- London Borough of Richmond upon Thames
- London Borough of Wandsworth
A number of London boroughs contiguous with the Richmond Juniors area are unassociated within the EPSCA structure. Young players from these Boroughs are free to play for Richmond Juniors if they wish. Boroughs to which this applies are Ealing, Brent, City of Westminster, Lambeth, Croydon and Sutton.
Finally, a player may qualify for a Richmond Juniors team, even if they reside and go to school in an area of another association, provided they can demonstrate that they have “significant ties” to Richmond Juniors. The simplest way in this case is to ask permission from the other association. There is an appeals process should permission not be granted, but Richmond Juniors has never exercised that process.
Richmond Juniors general policy when asked by another association about a child with “significant ties” to that other association is permissive. We prefer not to stand in the way of a child and his or her chosen affiliation.
2025 EPSCA Inter-Association Championship
Dates for the 2025 EPSCA Inter-Association Championship have been set as follows:
- Under 9 Zonals ‒ Saturday 8 March. Richmond will be taking part in the East Zonal in Essex. The venue will be: Moulsham Junior School, Princes Road, CHELMSFORD. CM2 9DG. 5 teams will take part: Barnet, Essex, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, and Richmond. 3 teams will qualify.
- Under 11 Zonals ‒ Saturday 15 March. Richmond will be taking part in the East Zonal, which will be hosted at the Marylebone Hall of the University of Westminster, 35 Marylebone Road, LONDON. NW1 5LS. 4 teams will take part: Barnet, Essex, Kent and Richmond. 3 teams will qualify from this zonal.
- U11 Girls Final ‒ Saturday 22 March. The venue will be: Cheney School, Cheney Lane, Headington, Oxford OX3 7QH. 6 teams will take part: Barnet, Essex, Kent, Oxfordshire, Richmond and Wey Valley. Sussex may also participate.
- Under 11 Final ‒ Saturday 29 April. The venue will be: Bolton School, Chorley New Road, BOLTON BL1 4PA.
- Under 9 Final ‒ Saturday 26 May. The venue will be: River Academy, 7 Richfield Avenue, READING. RG1 8EQ.
08/03/2025. Our U9 team qualified for the national final in 3rd, equal with Essex on 16 points from a possible 36 at the East Zonal at Moulsham Junior School (Chelmsford). The winner was Kent with 24½, with Barnet second on 23.
15/03/2025. Our U11 team qualified for the national final in 2nd with 36 points in a four team round-robin at the Marylebone Hall, University of Westminster. The winner was Kent with 44 points, Barnet qualified in 3rd place with 20½ points and Essex on 19½ narrowly failed to qualify.
29/03/2025. Our U11 team finished 2nd in the national final with 47 points from a possible 60 at Bolton School. The winner was Kent with 53½ points, whilst Oxfordshire came third with 43½. 11 teams participated.
2024 EPSCA Inter-Association Championship
20/04/2024: Our U11 team finished a disappointing 7th place from 15 teams at Malcolm Arnold Academy (Northampton), behind 1. Kent 51, 2. Barnet 45½ and 3. Oxfordshire 43, to whom congratulations.
20/04/2024: Our U9 team won the national final at Nottingham High School, and are national champions (for the eighth time), scoring 27 points from a possible 36.
13/04/2024: Our Girls team came a creditable 5th in the U11 Girls Final at the Cheney School, Oxford.
16/03/2024. Our U11 team came 3rd with 35 points from a possible 60 at the East Zonal at University College Senior School (Frognal), behind Kent with 45½ and Barnet with 37½. We therefore qualified for the national final.
09/03/2024. Our U9 team won the East Zonal with 30 points from a possible 36 at Chislehurst School for Girls (Essex), followed by Kent 26 and Essex 21. 6 teams participated, the other teams being Barnet, Hertfordshire and Hillingdon.
2023 EPSCA Inter-Association Championship
11/03/2023: Our U9 team won the South Zonal at Cantell School (Southampton), comprehensively with 30½ points from a possible 36 points, and have qualified for the national final. 6 teams took part: Hampshire, Maidenhead, Oxfordshire, Richmond, Sussex and Wey Valley.
18/03/2023: We came second in the South Zonal at Orleans Park School (Twickenham), with 45½ points from a possible 60 points, second behind Barnet with 51½. We have therefore qualified for the national final. 11 teams took part: Barnet, Berkshire, Essex, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Hillingdon, Kent, Oxfordshire, Richmond, Sussex and Wey Valley.
25/03/2023: Our Girls team came a creditable 5th in the U11 Girls Final at the Cheney School, Oxford.
22/04/2023: Our U9 team won the national final at Nottingham High School, and are national champions (for the seventh time).
UPDATE: 29/04/2023: We came third in the U11 Final at Nottingham High School, with 43 points from a possible 60 points, behind 1st Kent with 52 and 2nd Barnet with 49½.
National Primary Schools Chess Championship
The team events for the school teams are called the National Primary Schools Chess Championship (NPSCC). Normally the NPSCC takes place over three stages. There is a zonal stage, from January to March, in which schools attempt to qualify. In a normal year, more than 400 schools partipicipate in the zonal competitions. Then there is a semi-final stage, usually comprising two semi-finals held over a whole weekend at Pontins venues in Sussex and North Wales, and a one-day event held at Bristol Grammar School. The top three teams from each of the two weekend semi-finals and the top two teams from the one-day semi-final qualify for the Final. The final is usually held in the West Midlands, running as a team round-robin.
RJCC normally runs two or three NPSCC zonal events, and also encourages the schools it is active in to participate in the NPSCC.
NPSCC Zonal at Twickenham 2025
Richmond Juniors hosted a National Primary Schools Zonal at Orleans Park School on Sunday 2nd February. There were two age sections:
- Under 9 ‒ 1. St. Paul’s Juniors B 20½, 2. St. Paul’s Juniors A 17½, 3. Bishop Gilpin 15½, 14 teams participated. Details at: https://chess-results.com/tnr1110598.aspx.
- Under 11 ‒ 1. St. Paul’s Junior School A 24 points, 2. Hampton Hill A 17, 3. St. Paul’s Junior School B 15½ points, 13 teams participated. Details at: https://chess-results.com/tnr1110611.aspx.
NPSCC Zonal at Twickenham 2023
Richmond Juniors hosted a National Primary Schools Zonal at Orleans Park School on Sunday 26 February. There were two age sections:
- Under 9 ‒ 1. Vineyard School 19 points, 2. Beacon A 17, 3. Sheen Mount A 15, 10 teams participated. Details at: https://chess-results.com/tnr738608.aspx.
- Under 11 ‒ 1. Beacon A 18 points, 2. Mall School 17, 3. East Sheen A 16, 16 teams participated. Details at: https://chess-results.com/tnr738602.aspx.
- The results for the reserve boards can be found at: https://chess-results.com/tnr738793.aspx