Chess Classes for Kids in Leicester: Clubs, Venues and Fees

The main in-person routes for children in Leicester are junior clubs rather than commercial academies. Leicestershire Junior Chess runs a coached Saturday club in Braunstone, Anstey Junior Chess Club has a weekly Thursday session in Anstey, and Evington Youth Club offers a low-cost Saturday chess club in Evington. Further out, Market Harborough Chess Club accepts juniors free for friendly games. A note on who wrote this: ChessWize publishes this guide, teaches online only and has no centre in Leicester. It appears once below, clearly labelled as the online option, and is not part of the local listings.

The online option: ChessWize

ChessWize, the academy that publishes this guide, is an online-only chess academy for children. It has no centre in Leicester, so it is not one of the in-person options in this guide. Classes are taught live over video by a coach, and a child keeps the same coach every week.

ChessWize at a glance

Format

Live classes over video with a coach: small groups of up to six children, two-on-one with a sibling or friend, or one-to-one.

Ages and levels

Ages 5 to 15, from first moves to tournament preparation. Children are placed by how they play, not by age alone.

Language

Taught in English or Hindi.

Coach

Same coach every session — no rotation.

Class times

Booked in Leicester time. The weekly time is chosen when you book the free demo, and it stays with the same coach.

Class length

30 to 60 minutes, depending on the class type.

Price in GBP

Group classes ≈ £2.95, two-on-one ≈ £4.32, one-to-one ≈ £7.86 per class. A starter pack of 8 classes is ≈ £19.65. Our prices are set in Indian rupees. If you pay from outside India, checkout shows and charges the amount in your local currency; local figures on this page are estimates as of 2026-09-29.

Siblings

10% off a second child, 15% off a third.

First step

A free 30-minute demo class that doubles as a level check, so placement is settled before you pay anything.

Parent updates

Weekly WhatsApp report for every student.

Missed classes

Cancel with at least 4 hours of notice for a free make-up; sessions missed without notice count as delivered and are not refundable. Tell us in advance to pause for exams, holidays or travel and keep your remaining sessions.

Refunds

Monthly plans receive a full refund within 48 hours of enrolling.

Track record

1,000+ students coached; rated 5.0 out of 5 from 21 Google reviews (as of 8 July 2026).

Price per class: ChessWize and in-person options priced in this guide (GBP)

Format	ChessWize (online)	In-person, as published
Group class	≈ £2.95	£5: Anstey Junior Chess Club (£5 per session)

In-person figures are each provider's published price, worked out per class in this guide's cost section. Class length, group size and what is included differ, so compare those too.

Full terms: refund and cancellation policy.

Online tends to fit when

• the weekly drive is the thing that keeps breaking the routine
• your child needs a coach at their level, not the nearest batch
• cost per class matters more than the clubhouse

In-person tends to fit when

• your child will not sit in front of a screen for a whole class
• a strong club or academy is a short drive away
• playing other children across a real board is the main goal

Online chess classes for Leicester families: class times and prices →

In-person chess classes and clubs in Leicester#

• Leicestershire Junior Chess – Saturday Chess Club — The Oak Centre, Braunstone. For junior players; the club sorts children into three ability groups called knights, rooks and kings. The club meets most Saturday afternoons for two hours: the first hour is group coaching and the second is game practice. Once a month there is an informal four-round Swiss lasting about three hours, free for members and £6 entry for guests. The club also enters children in national junior team events and county competitions. Membership fee: no fee published on its site (checked 3 October 2026). Enquiries go to Alan Agnew, whose contact details are on the club page.
• Anstey Junior Chess Club — Anstey Methodist Church, Anstey. Run by Anstey Chess Club, which says it has more than 20 active junior competitors. The page describes the session as designed for young players who have already made progress, while also saying complete beginners and improvers will find a supportive environment, so check with the club before you book. Every Thursday, 6pm to 7pm, led by junior coaches Alan Agnew and Ben Vaughan. Fee: block sessions, which the club says work out at £5 per session. There is a waiting list, so register interest with Ben or Alan first.
• Evington Youth Club – Chess Club — The Common, Evington, Leicester LE5 6EA. A registered charity youth club whose Saturday programme runs chess alongside basketball, pool and table tennis. The event listing says the programme welcomes children from all backgrounds and abilities, beginners included. Every Saturday, 11:00 to 12:30. Fee: £3 contribution per child. This is a social youth club session rather than a structured chess course; the site does not say who leads the chess.
• Market Harborough Chess Club — Market Harborough Conservative Club, The Lilacs, Fairfield Road, Market Harborough LE16 9QQ. A general club, not a junior class: its membership page welcomes new members of any age or ability and says experienced players often give tips to newer members. Club night is every Tuesday from around 7pm to 10.30pm, so it suits older children who can manage a late evening with a parent. Fee as published: juniors no charge for friendlies, £20 for league chess (the page does not state the period for the junior league fee). All members must also join the English Chess Federation.

These are listed in no particular order, and inclusion is not an endorsement.

What in-person chess classes cost in Leicester#

Every figure here comes from the provider’s own page, with the unit as published:

• Anstey Junior Chess Club: £5 per session, paid in blocks. The page does not say how many sessions are in a block. As an illustration only, a block of 10 Thursday sessions would be 10 × £5 = £50.
• Evington Youth Club: £3 contribution per child per Saturday session. In a month with four Saturdays that is 4 × £3 = £12 per child.
• Leicestershire Junior Chess: £6 guest entry for the monthly Swiss, free for club members. No membership or weekly fee is published on its Saturday Chess Club page (checked 3 October 2026), so ask Alan Agnew for the current figure.
• Market Harborough Chess Club: no charge for junior friendlies; £20 for junior league chess, period not stated. ECF membership is required in addition.

The units differ, so these numbers cannot be lined up as a fair price comparison. A one-hour coached session at Anstey and a 90-minute mixed-activity session at Evington are different products. Anstey Chess Club says volunteers and coaches help run its junior programme, and Anstey already has a waiting list.

Free and low-cost options#

Evington Youth Club asks a £3 contribution per child for its Saturday session, and it is run by a registered charity (number 521447). For families who mainly want their child to play more games, Market Harborough Chess Club charges juniors nothing for friendlies. Leicestershire Junior Chess makes its monthly Swiss free for members, which gives members about three hours of tournament play each month, with no extra entry fee.

Tournaments and ratings for kids in Leicestershire#

The Leicestershire and Rutland Chess Association (LRCA) is the body recognised by the English Chess Federation (ECF) as responsible for chess in the city of Leicester and the counties of Leicestershire and Rutland, and it is affiliated to the Midland Counties Chess Union. Its clubs page lists 14 clubs, from Anstey and Braunstone to Thurnby and Wigston, which is where a teenager moves on to league chess. Its junior side is Leicestershire Junior Chess.

Recent junior events reported on the Leicestershire Junior Chess news page include:

• The Leicestershire Junior Championships at Holywell School, Loughborough, with 57 children playing in Under 9, Under 11 and Under 14 sections in November 2025.
• An Under 11 Midlands zonal in January 2026, where Leicestershire finished second and qualified for the national finals.
• Midlands Junior Team Championships in November 2025, with Leicestershire Under 9 and Under 11 girls teams taking Midlands titles.
• A primary schools tournament at Market Bosworth on 15 November 2024. The 17 November 2024 report said the organisers were planning similar tournaments in the autumn and spring terms.
• In August 2026, a Leicestershire junior won the British Under 10 title.

The club’s competitions guide explains that it runs county teams at U9, U11 and U18, enters the Junior 4NCL (a national team league), and takes part in the UK Schools Chess Challenge, where children qualify from school to a county Megafinal. Parts of that guide date from the 2019–20 season, so treat its specific dates as historical.

Ratings in England come from the ECF, not from individual clubs. The ECF’s rating FAQs explain that the system is based on Elo, that new players’ results include a dummy result, which the ECF says tends to stabilise population average ratings, and that juniors get a higher upwards k-factor because younger players generally improve. A rating built on few games is published as category P, meaning it should be read with caution. According to the ECF membership page, ratings are updated monthly and members’ games in ECF-rated over-the-board events are rated free of charge, depending on membership level. In practice, a child’s first rating comes from playing an ECF-rated event. Ask the organiser whether the event is ECF-rated before entering.

How we chose and checked these options#

We included in-person chess options for children that have a public page naming a venue in or near Leicester and a current schedule, fee or session date. Every fact on this page comes from the provider’s own page or an official chess federation page, opened on 3 October 2026. Fees are copied as published. Where this guide turns a monthly or session fee into a per-class figure, it shows the sum. The options are not ranked, and no provider paid to be listed. ChessWize, which publishes this guide, teaches online only and appears separately as the online option.

A coach’s checklist for choosing#

1. Match the session to your week. Leicester’s main options split between Saturday afternoon in Braunstone, Saturday morning in Evington and Thursday early evening in Anstey. The sessions are in Braunstone, Evington and Anstey, so try the school-run or weekend drive at the real time before committing to a weekly slot.
2. Ask how big the group is and how it is split. Leicestershire Junior Chess divides children into three ability groups; ask how many children are in your child’s group and how a child moves up from knights to rooks to kings.
3. Find out who actually teaches. Anstey names its junior coaches. Evington’s site does not say who runs the chess, so ask whether the session includes teaching or is mainly supervised play.
4. Ask for a trial session. Anstey has a waiting list and Leicestershire Junior Chess charges guests for its Swiss, so check whether a first visit is free or paid, and whether you can watch.
5. Check tournament support. If your child wants to compete, choose a club that enters children in county events and ECF-rated tournaments. Ask who handles entries and whether a parent needs to arrange ECF membership.

In-person or online in Leicester?#

Leicester’s in-person junior chess is cheap, well organised and closely linked to the county pathway. A child at the Saturday club in Braunstone is in the same system that runs county teams and junior championships, and that over-the-board experience is hard to match from home. The trade-offs are fixed times, travel across the city, limited places (Anstey already has a waiting list) and volunteer-led groups that may not give each child individual attention. Online lessons remove the travel and can be booked around family schedules, but they don’t offer the tournament atmosphere, the physical board or the friendships of a club. Plenty of families combine the two: a local club for play and competition, plus separate lessons for structured improvement. For a fuller comparison, see online vs offline chess classes.