Posted on July 9, 2025

Liverpool will play host to the prestigious 2025 British Chess Championships 

Alongside a wider chess festival this summer, organisers hope to put on the strongest event in its 121-year history.

Britain’s top chess players will converge on Liverpool from July 31 to August 10. The English Chess Federation’s flagship annual event comes to the city for only the second time.

Liverpool’s landmark St George’s Hall will host a series of tournaments in the Great Hall showcasing the cream of Britain’s chess talent, including the Open and Women’s championships. The nearby Liverpool Holiday Inn on Lime Street will welcome amateur players for a weekend congress. The event will culminate in the crowning of new British champions across all age groups.

Alongside the competitive events, Liverpool will host a festival and social programme organised by the historic Liverpool Chess Club. It will include outdoor social chess, simultaneous displays, team events, chess masterclasses, a chess film festival, and a range of cultural events.

This will be the 111th British Chess Championships—a series that has run almost unbroken since 1904.

The last two British Chess Championships in Leicester and Hull attracted record-breaking participation, and numbers are set to climb even higher this year.

Chess is booming in the UK, with amateur involvement surging and elite players making waves internationally. In 2024, teenage sensation Shreyas Royal and Ameet Ghasi earned grandmaster titles, adding fresh firepower to England’s top tier.

The event is being put on by the English Chess Federation in partnership with Liverpool City Council and St George’s Hall, with support from the Chess Trust and the John Robinson Chess Trust.

Reactions

Liverpool City Council’s Cabinet Member for Health, Wellbeing and Culture, Councillor Harry Doyle, said:

“Liverpool has a long and rich connection with chess and it’s a hugely popular activity in schools and communities so we are delighted to be hosting the British Chess Championships later this summer.

“St George’s Hall, with its incredible architecture and acoustics, will offer the perfect backdrop, lending itself perfectly to quiet, focused gameplay, which is sure to result in a thrilling competition for contestants and spectators alike.

“This is yet another coup for Liverpool, as we continue to position ourselves as a versatile events city, and we look forward to working closely with the English Chess Federation and Chess In Schools and Communities to give a warm Liverpool welcome to the best of the best from the chess world.”

It is a welcome return to Liverpool, a city steeped in chess culture. Liverpool Chess Club, one of the oldest chess clubs in the world founded in 1837. Atticus Chess Club, based in the Cross Keys Pub in Earle Street, is also a former winner of the national club championships.

Nigel Towers, the English Chess Federation’s Director for Home Chess, said:

“2008 was recognised as a strong event with many titled players. However, we expect the return visit in 2025 to provide an even more competitive championship and one of the strongest British tournaments ever given the increasing numbers of active British grandmasters and international masters and the current generation of top-level juniors.”

Amos Burn, one of the world’s strongest chess players in the 19th century. He was a member of the Liverpool Chess Club from 1867 until his death in 1925. He served as its president for many years. Among the top players Liverpool has produced are four-time British Women’s champion Sheila Jackson, the 15th Correspondence World Championship winner John Carleton and International Masters Gary Quillan and Malcolm Pein, a former British junior champion. Nearby Southport has also produced two grandmasters in Nigel Davies and Stuart Haslinger.

Find out more about the 2025 British Chess Championships here.

Source: CultureLiverpool

Share Share Share Share Share