English Junior Coaches and Organisers Association (EJCOA)

EJCOA National Youth Championships starts in January!

Chess & Bridge is one of the main sponsors of the EJCOA National Youth Championships Finals, and the learning partner of EJCOA. Please take a look at our Recommended Books & Software at Chess & Bridge.

The Nottinghamshire Chess Foundation (NCF) is also a main sponsor of the National Youth Championships Finals. The NCF provides financial support and grants to develop and improve chess participation and achievement in the Nottinghamshire area.

Upcoming EJCOA National Youth Championship Zonals

View the full Zonals list »

View full details of the EJCOA National Youth Championships »

Welcome to the English Junior Coaches and Organisers Association website. This association has been set up to provide a focal point for junior organisers and coaches. This association is the largest professional association in the chess world in England.

The coaching and organisational structure in England for junior coaching are as follows:

The 5 largest junior tournament organisers and coaching associations in England are:

1) Chess in Schools and Communities (CSC). This is a charity that provides chess coaching in state schools. It provides curriculum lessons and after-school clubs, also providing chess sets for the schools’ use

2) English Primary School Chess Association (EPSCA). The main event the organisation runs is the National Schools U9 and U11 team championships. A flagship event that starts in zonals in January, then has three semi finals, and a final in July consisting of 8 teams. There are also individual events that allow for norms to be achieved, which allow you to qualify for the EPSCA England team.

3) London Junior Chess Championships (LJCC). This is an individual tournament that runs from August to December. It is in age group sections of U8, U10 , U12, U14, U16, & U18/U21. The U8, U10 & U12 age groups have to qualify for the final in December. There is a major final and a minor final for U10s and U12s. In U8, you need 4 points to qualify for the final. In U10 and U12 you need 3.5 to qualify for the minor final and 4.5 for the major final. All ages over 12 go straight to the final.

4) United Kingdom Chess Challenge (UKCC). This is an individual event that runs in schools. The school winners qualify for the regional final called the megafinal. The winners of this go to the gigafinal, which is the semi-finals. The last stage is the terafinal.

5) Professional coaching organisations. These are organisations that hire coaches to work in schools. There are many of these in existence. A list can be found later in the website.

6) Individual coaches. There are hundreds of coaches who either work for someone else or work alone either in schools or one-to-one in person or online. A list of these coaches can be seen on the English Chess Federation Registered Coaches list.

7) Junior only chess clubs. There are numerous of these in the UK. Such organisations offer training for children and / or graded games as well as a forum for meeting new friends. A list by region can be found on the club page of our website.

The coaching and organisational structure in England for Adult coaching are as follows:

The majority of coaches in England mainly teach children, as this is where there is large demand for coaching. There is limited adult coaching in comparison with junior coaching

1) Individual adult coaching. This tends to be undertaken generally by stronger chess-playing coaches, generally due to the adults who request coaching often being at a reasonable level already.

2) Club coaching. There are sporadic examples of clubs hiring a coach for the occasional training session. These tend to be one-off occasions, rather than a weekly occurrence as is the case with junior coaching.

The intention is that through working together we can share ideas about how to teach both adults and children, as well as organising events for adults and children.

By working as an association we can find synergies with the hundreds of organisers and coaches, and hopefully in the long term make a dramatic change to the levels of coaching and the resulting levels of improvement of all players, including coaches, and potentially make an impact on the international stage by generating many more future GMs.