ChessFest returns - 13th July

by ChessBase
5/28/2025 – There are fewer than eight weeks to go until ChessFest 2025, the annual chess extravaganza in Trafalgar Square, London. On Sunday 13th July 2025, 11am-6pm, the whole square will be taken over for a day of free, family-friendly chess activities. If you are in London, it's your chance to experience a full fun day of chess.
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The activities on Trafalgar Square on Sunday 13th July 2025, 11am-6pm, include:

  • Free chess lessons from a CSC tutor
  • Simultaneous displays by the top Grandmasters in the country
  • Giant chess sets
  • Speed chess galore in the Challenge the Chess Master tent
  • Living chess with actors, replaying famous games of chess on our giant board
  • Puzzle-rush: pit your wits against fiendish chess puzzles on ChessKid. 
  • Watch chess masters battle it out in  game of giant blitz, a test of skill and stamina. 

This year's ChessFest theme is The Wizard of Oz. Will Dorothy triumph over the Wicked Witch of the West? Will the lion hold his nerve on the same chessboard as the Wizard himself? Come along to find out.

Over 23,000 people attended ChessFest in Trafalgar Square last year. We want ChessFest 2025 to be even bigger! Please invite chess lovers everywhere to join us on Sunday 13th July:

  • schools - please include this flyer in your school newsletters
  • chess clubs - please circulate details of ChessFest to your club members
  • everyone - please forward this email to friends and family and spread the word on social media

Chess enthusiasts of all abilities are welcome, from novices to experts. Never played chess before? Not a problem - CSC tutors will be running free classes throughout the day for complete beginners.

We will be joined by many master players, including England internationals Mickey Adams, Gawain Jones, Nikita Vitiugov and Harriet Hunt. Come and test your chess skills against them in either a simultaneous game or over a blitz game in our Challenge the Chess Master tent. 

We'll be hosting challenge matches between the ChessFest in Trafalgar Square and other events around the country, with all the action broadcast on a giant screen at the foot of Nelson's Column. For a flavour of what to expect, please see this video of our 2024 event. 

No need to book - just turn up on Sunday 13th July for a full day of chess fun!

If you can't make it to Trafalgar Square, there are other ChessFest events being held around the country. Already confirmed are Liverpool (20th July) and Hull (13th July), but we expect more to be announced soon. Keep an eye on the ChessFest website for more details or follow us on social media for the latest news.

Here are visual impressions from last year's ChesFest for you.

Volunteer at ChessFest
 

We are looking for volunteers to help us deliver ChessFest 2025 in Trafalgar Square. Roles include:

  • encouraging members of the public to join in the activities
  • providing information to visitors on the programme of events
  • supervising the use of giant sets
  • helping set up and breakdown the event
  • assisting in the running of simultaneous displays

All volunteers receive a ChessFest t-shirt, refreshments throughout the day, and reasonable travel expenses. Sign up via www.chess-fest.com.

Trafalgar Square – How to get to ChessFest

Public transport is your best bet. The closest Tube station is Charing Cross, which goes right to Trafalgar Square. Additional nearby stations include Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus. If you’re traveling by mainline train, the Charing Cross station is a three-minute walk away. Many buses will take you there as well. Click here for a map.

ChessFest is indebted to their sponsors XTX Markets for supporting ChessFest since its inception, and without whose help they wouldn’t be able to put on the UK’s largest chess event.

XTX Markets is a world-leading algorithmic trading firm delivering quality liquidity across financial markets. The firm is also constructing a large-scale data centre with 650 Petabytes of usable storage and 25,000 GPUs in the research cluster.

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