Longson is former British Ladies Chess Champion and represents England at Olympiads.
The first stage involves school chess clubs holding a qualifying competition to determine the strongest player for each gender-year combination, e.g. U-11 boys, U-9 girls.
For schools without chess clubs, there are alternative competitions called Last Chance Saloons that will also enable qualification to the Megafinal.
As with the Megafinal, each Gigafinal is held to determine the strongest player for the qualifying region within each gender / year combination.
The Ultimo / Ultima players from each Gigafinal qualify to enter the Terafinal Champions competition.