The British Chess Educational Trust honours Westminster Under School for outstanding achievements in Chess with rare national award.

We were delighted earlier in the year to be nominated for this extremely rare national chess award, first presented in 1911. The British Chess Educational Trust aims to honour schools and junior chess clubs who “have shown outstanding achievements or enthusiasm in chess”.

The award citation references Chess being a very active part of the school community, and Westminster Under School’s recently achieved outstanding results such as in 2022 winning the EPSCA’s National Primary School Chess Championships for both the Under 9 and the Under 11 sections. Also, our participation in the national U19 finals – the first ever prep school to do so. Further note was made of our whole school inter-House chess competition, the various after school chess clubs, our willingness to host major competitions rounds, our chess booklet, and previous visits by Grandmasters, as well as our regular celebration of chess players.

We heard at the very end of last term that the Trustees had met and decided that Westminster Under School was to be awarded, for the first time in our history, this most prestigious honour. This is a wonderful acknowledgement of the work of Mr Coleman, Mr D’Costa, Mr Hodgson, and of course the boys and parents.

The school was presented with a magnificently inscribed wooden chess board, a set of chess pieces in a beautiful solid wood box and a chess clock.