Niamh Bridgeman is a 12 year old girl from Lancaster, Lancashire. She’s a member of the England Junior Chess Team and is aiming to raise funds to help her attend the World Cadets Chess Championship in Santiago De Compostela, Spain between the 3rd and 16th November 2018. This is the world championship for chess players aged 12 and under.

Niamh has been playing competitive chess since the age of 8. She lived in South Australia between 2010 and 2015, and in 2015 Niamh attended the Australian Junior Chess Championship, where she finished 3rd in the Under 10 Girls’ Championship. On returning to the UK, she has gone on to win the British Under 10 Girls’ title in 2016.

She now regularly competes in high level junior and adult competitions. For example, in 2018 she has competed in the Prague Open, where she won a prestigious best performance prize. In July this year she competed in the Glorney Cup in Glasgow as a member of the England Under 12 Junior Team. England competed against teams from the Netherlands, France, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, eventually finished 2nd by the closest of margins. Niamh won the team’s best performance medal with an undefeated 4.5/5 points.

The World Cadets Chess Championship is the pinnacle of junior chess. We estimate the cost of attending the event to be approximately £3000. Unfortunately the English Chess Federation do not fully cover the costs to attend international championships, and the costs in the main are carried by players parents. We are therefore aiming to start fundraising to assist with the cost of attending this event in Spain.