Junior Chess is thriving in the UK and Bristol, and Downend Juniors is a great place to learn and develop.
Every Wednesday at 7.30pm the club is open for juniors to play other juniors or adults, providing an opportunity to learn and have fun. At least twice a month the junior organiser, Mark Morris, is available to offer expert advice or support. We also organise events like simultaneous games or tournaments across the year.
Simply bring your child (with a responsible adult for U16s) to the club.
Chess is both enjoyable and provides some great life skills. We encourage kids to set a goal, which can be as simple as to improve at this beautiful game, or to make progress as a competitive player. As juniors improve, they can play league chess (we have juniors in each of our 6 teams), or online chess where we have 2 teams in the national junior league. We also have good connections for players to represent regional and national level for the strongest players.
Latest News
12th July 2006
Carolus and Hector competed in the Under 12s in the Manchester gigafinal and did very well, scoring 5½ and 5 respectively from the seven rounds, which qualifies them for the two day Challengers event. In the under 10s Yaksh scored 4 so he just misses out on the next round this time.
13th June 2026
In the Bristol Megafinal we had some great results from our junior members.
In the under 14 section Alexis came 2nd with 5 points from 6 games and Vivaan scored a very respectable 3½ points. Newcomer Struan also did well, scoring 3 points in his very first tournament.
In the under 12s Hector also came 2nd with 5 points.
In the under 10s Yaksh had the best result with a perfect 6 from 6. Hector's sister Lydia also had a good event, scoring 3½.
Alexis, Hector and Yaksh qualify for the next round - the Gigafinal.
11th January 2026
Mark reports that our juniors did very well for Bristol and Gloucester in the Inter-County event yesterday where they were up against Devon, Somerset, Wiltshire and South Wales.
We won the Under 14s by a big margin, came first equal with South Wales in the Under 18s and finished second in the Under 11s.
Our five players all did well. That's Alexis, Carolus, Hector and Charlie, who are already well known from exploits in the League, plus Yaksh, who is a very keen Under 9!
A great performance, all round!
Last year we had juniors at the club winning Bristol and Somerset megafinals at U8, U10, U12, U14, and U18 levels, our best ever result. We also have 4 players who qualified from the regional finals to the national level.
We are lucky enough to have 2 former juniors who have reached master level and played in the recent British Adult Chess Championships, and who are still active club members.
We look forward to seeing you at the club in the future!
Mark Morris (Junior Organiser)