57 children took part in the new Leicestershire Junior Championships at Holywell School in Loughborough on Saturday 7^th December, playing 5 rounds of 20 + 5 rapid chess to determine the Leicestershire Champions at Under 9, Under 11, Under 14 and Under 18

The venue was excellent for this event, and many thanks to the support from Holywell School to let us use their school for this event. I am hopeful that with such an excellent turnout this competition can become a regular event in the calendar.

In the Under 9 section, Omswaroop Kotti crowned an excellent return to chess with 5 wins out of 5 taking the title of Under 9 Overall and Boys champion. Konstantinos took clear 2^nd place and Mason clear 3^rd place. The best placed girl was Wing Ying Lai, taking the title of Leicestershire Girls Under 9 champion

The Under 11 section had an excellent 28 competitors, and was very hard fought with tie breaks being required to separate some of the competitors. Aadharshini and Zara were clear leaders going into the last round, with Aadharshini eventually coming out on top In a hard fought last round battle to take the title of overall under 11 and girls champion. Zara was runner up in the girls and Vishaka took the 3^rd place medal. In the boys section tie breaks we required with three boys finishing on 4 points. Zayn Patel took the title of Boys Under 11 champion on the tie break (Sum of Opponents Scores). Reidan Minhas and Tilak Patel (also both on 4) took Silver medals and Srijit took bronze medal.

In the Under 14 section, Tara Tamilselvan continued her excellent form from the World Cadets tournament to take clear first place with 5 out of 5, taking the title of Leicestershire Under 14 overall and girls champion. Yvon van Neerven took the silver medal and Dayani the bronze medal in the girls section. In the boys section rising star Ted Ronald took the title of Leicestershire Under 14 Boys champion with 4 points, Swetark took the silver medal on tie break from Bobby Sun (both 3.5 points)

The Under 18 tournament was very hard fought with time scrambles taking place in nearly every round. At the end Alex Shen took the title of Under 18 overall and boys champion with 4.5 points, on tie break from Sathsara. Arav and Gauthier shared the bronze medal (both with 3 points)

Under 9 Results – https://leicestershirejuniorchess.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/U9-Results.pdf

Under 11 Results – https://leicestershirejuniorchess.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/U11-Results.pdf

Under 14 Results – https://leicestershirejuniorchess.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/U14-Results.pdf

Under 18 Results – https://leicestershirejuniorchess.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/U18-Results.pdf

45 children from 7 schools were represented in the inaugural Market Bosworth Primary Schools chess tournament that took place on Friday 15^th of November. The children played 5 games against children from other schools over the course of the morning, competing for Bronze, Silver and Gold medals for their schools.

The schools represented were Scalford Primary, Church Hill Primary, Congerstone Primary, Desford Primary, Leicester Grammar School, Fairfield Preparatory School and Leicester Preparatory School.

After a morning of hard fought chess, Scalford Primary finished in 3^rd place with 10.5 points, Church Hill Primary in 2^nd place with 11 points, and Leicester Grammar and Fairfield shared the gold medals both with 13 points.

Many thanks to Market Bosworth School for offering to host this event.

Each year we are planning to hold similar tournaments in the Autumn and Spring terms!

24 children from around the county represented Leicestershire in the inaugural Midlands County Team Championships which were held at Nottingham High School on Saturday 16^th November.

The children all acquitted themselves brilliantly over the day, competing against children from Warwickshire, Oxfordshire, Nottinghamshire, Shropshire and Northamptonshire. Due to their efforts the Under 9 team won bronze medals for finishing in 3^rd place overall. The Girls went one step better finishing in 2^nd place overall winning silver medals and a team trophy!

Under 11 Team

The team started brilliantly with an excellent 4 – 4 draw with the highest rated team Oxfordshire (top board rated 1950!) and then a strong 8-0 against Worcestershire. We were perhaps unlucky to them be paired against the strong Warwickshire teams meaning that we played the Gold, Silver and Bronze winning teams during the day.

Special mentions for Zara Mehta for transferring from the girls team to take on the daunting top board job (including opponents with ratings of 1917 and 1762).  Our top joint top scorers were Chris Rufus Pons (1200 performance) and Finbar Millen (1100 performance) with 3 wins each

Under 9 Team

With 7 members of the team unrated before the start I was unable to predict how we would do, and the team but in a brilliant performance to finished in 3^rd place overall. This included a 4.5 – 3.5 win over the strong Oxfordshire side and a 4-4 draw with the Warwickshire Under 9 team

Our top scorers were Advait (top board and a 1032 rating performance), Dillon with 3 out of 4 and Oskar with a perfect 3 out of 3! The team all showed great team spirit throughout and I am very confident all the children who played for this team will go onto represent Leicestershire for many years to come.

Girls Team

I was a bit nervous that transferring Zara over to the Under 11 team would cause the girls team to struggle, but they performed brilliantly to finish in 2^nd place overall and take the 2^nd place trophy! Again the girls showed brilliant team spirit throughout, and I was really impressed about how they showed maturity in selecting the team for the last round themselves with Rayshali very unselfishly offering to take the reserve spot for the last game.

All the girls finished with positive scores over the day, and special mention for Aadharshini who finished with a perfect 5 out of 5 and a 1789 rating performance!

You can see detailed results here

Girls teams – https://chess-results.com/tnr1061189.aspx?lan=1&art=83

Under 9 team – https://chess-results.com/tnr1061190.aspx?lan=1&turdet=YES

Under 11 team – https://chess-results.com/tnr1061192.aspx?lan=1&art=0&rd=5&turdet=YES

73 Children took part in the 2^nd Leicestershire qualification tournament for the EJCOA National Youth Championships held on the 17^th February at Fairfield school in Loughborough. The children played in three sections, under 8 and under 10 combined, under 12, and finally under 14, 16, 18 and 20 combined.

Detailed Results: U20/U18/U16/U14 , U12, U10/U8

The following children all qualified for the finals which are being held at Nottingham High School in July

Under 8

Under 10

Under 12

Under 14

Under 16

Under 18

Kirk Harrision

Under 20

John Moughtin-Leay

Many thanks to the arbiter team of Shaun, Richard, Paul Mottram, Ben, Sooraj and Jyothika who helped make the event run smoothly for all the children, and to Michael for providing the popular coaching sessions.

May 2023 Rapidplay

44 children took part in the May Rapidplay competition on May 20^th at the Oak Centre in Braunstone.

In the Kings section first place was taken by Alex with a perfect 4 wins out of 4. Laurence took clear seconds place with three wins and Aman took the bronze medal with 2.5 out of 4. Thanks again to Mr Gadhia for the help in running this section, and to Mr Boccetti for helping to register the players.

The Rooks and Bishops groups played in a combined section containing 22 players! Oscar came out on top with a perfect 4 wins out of 4. Six children were in a tie for 2^nd place with 3 points, with Srijit taking the silver and Reidan the bronze medal on tie break. Within this section three Bishops tied on two points. Jeeth took the gold, Zachary the silver and Dilan the bronze.

Twelve knights took part, with many of the children playing in their first competition! Ethan was the clear winner with 3.5 points out of 4. Aadya and Srija tied on 3 points, with Aadya taking the silver medal on tie break and Srija the bronze.

https://leicestershirejuniorchess.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Kings-Results.pdf

https://leicestershirejuniorchess.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Rooks-and-Bishops.pdf

https://leicestershirejuniorchess.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Knights-Results.pdf

16 Players and their families made the shorter journey this time to take part in the finals of the EPSCA county Under 9 championships at Nottingham High School on Saturday 22^nd April. The children had worked hard on their preparations, taking part in extra online lessons, and working hard with chesskid to help prepare themselves to play against the best players in the country. The top counties were able to field top board players with published grades of 1600 or more, meaning that these players were in the top 10 in the country for their age group.

As with the qualifiers the Leicestershire players showed excellent concentration and determination throughout, not allowing themselves to be disheartened if they had made a mistake and making good use of the time on their chess clocks. This was reflected in their improving score each round, and it was really pleasing to see at least 7 wins in the last round.

Overall Leicester finished in 11^th place, which I believe is our second-best result in the past ten years! I am very hopeful that this team will continue to progress in future years to even better things both in the under 9 and under 11 sections.

Special mention to top scorer Zara with three draws on top board. It was also great to see the reserves perform so well with everyone in this section achieving at least 50% which is another positive sign for the team moving forwards.

Many thanks to all the parents for their continued support, both with the travel and the long days. It was also great that local player and established junior coach Michael Green was able to provide excellent support over the day, whether this was fetching extra chairs or giving the children some fantastic advice over the day.

The full results of the competition are available here https://www.oxfordfusion.com/epsca/TeamsOverall.cfm?EventID=169

A record 45 Players took part in the recent rapidplay at Braunstone on Saturday 1^st April.

In the Knights section Jeeth was the outright winner with a perfect 5 wins out of 5. Dilan took 2^nd place with 3.5 points just placing ahead of Dhruv on tie break.

In the Rooks section 23 players took part! New member Hamza was the clear winner with an impressive 5 wins out of 5 and will move up to the Kings section in the new term. Andy, Matthew and Shaylan all finished on 4 points, with Andy taking the silver medal on tie break. A big thank you also to Shaylan’s mum for the help with running this section!

In the Kings sections we managed to complete 4 rounds by playing the last round with a faster time control. Top Seed Laurence claimed first place with 3.5 out of 4. Yvon and Alex both finished on 3 points with Yvon taking the silver medal on tie break.

https://leicestershirejuniorchess.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Kings-April-2023.pdf

https://leicestershirejuniorchess.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Rooks-April-2023.pdf

https://leicestershirejuniorchess.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Knights-April-2023.pdf

12 children and parents made the long journey to Cheadle Hulme School on Sunday the 11^th of March to take part in the Norther Qualifier for the EPSCA junior county chess championships. The children played three games over the day against other children from Nottinghamshire, Manchester, Oldham, Wirral and Staffordshire.

Leicestershire were aiming to qualify for the national finals by finishing in the top four places. After some great fighting chess, the team easily qualified for the finals taking third place and now look forward to the national finals taking place on Saturday 22^nd April at Nottingham High School. This is a prestigious event with many of the top juniors in the country taking part!

The coaches and parents were really impressed with the concentration and fighting spirit shown by the children over the day, after having undertaken a long journey in the morning.

The results from the day are available here https://www.oxfordfusion.com/epsca/TeamsOverall.cfm?EventID=165

Special mention for Shavira and Finbar both finishing with a perfect 3 wins out of 3!

Thirteen children and parents made the trip to Kenilworth School on the 23^rd April to take part in the first Warwickshire Junior Team league event. 16 teams had entered from around the country, and Leicestershire were represented with one team in the 1^st division and two equal strength teams in the 2^nd division.

The 1^st division put in an excellent performance, with some of the other teams containing players who had played at international levels. They finished in a creditable 4^th place beating Manchester Grammar school on tie break. Yuvraj was the top scorer with 4 points over the day, showing excellent fighting spirit to comeback from an early mistake to turn the tables on his opponents. Sofia also played very solid chess, being the last to finish at least once and scoring 3 points on top board.

In the second division Leicester Junior 2 came back from a couple of early losses to be in contention for third place medals going into the last round. However, they were not able to overcome a strong Coventry team in the last round and finished in 5^th place overall. Top scorer and unbeaten in any of the team matches was Shaylan with 4.5 points out of 5.

Leicester Juniors 3 put in an excellent performance to finish in 3^rd place overall, with all the team members winning medals! Well done to Matthew, Jennifer, Shiven and Sia. All the team members put in good performances, and I was particularly impressed with Matthew’s concentration, making full use of his time on the clock to score an excellent 4.5 points on top board.

Well done to all the children who took part. There are plans to hold more of these events in the future and I hope to enter lots of Leicester teams moving forwards!

36 children took part in the December rapidplay on Saturday 11th at the Oak Centre. The Knights and Rooks played with a 10-minute time limit whilst the Kings played in a separate room at 15 minutes + 5 seconds per move.

12 children took part in the Knights section, playing 4 games in total. At the end there were 4 players tied for first place, with Edward Elliott taking the first place medal on tie break.

1^st Edward – 3 / 4

2^nd Aadav, Shika and Srijit – 3/4

13 players took part in the Rooks section, where we managed to complete 5 rounds of play. At the end there was a clear winner Aman Das with a perfect 5pts out of 5. Shey and David came 2^nd and 3^rd with 4 wins out of 5

1^st Aman – 5/5

2^nd Shey – 4/5

3^rd David – 4/5

The Kings played in the separate room, and this was a strong tournament with several the strongest players in the county taking part. At the end Musa Peer was the clear winner with 4 points out of 4. Jack was a close 2^nd and Laurence put in an excellent performance to finish in 3^rd place.

1^st Musa – 4/5

2^nd Jack – 3 / 4

3^rd Laurence 2.5 / 4

In each section there were medal prizes for the first three places