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

42 children took part in the first face to face rapidplay of the year at the Oak Centre in Braunstone.

In the Kings section new member Jack Pilley took first place with a perfect 4 points out of 4, and we look forward to Jack representing Leicestershire in junior and adult competitions throughout this year. Adam Kerbel and and Sophie Mehta both scored 3 out of 4 with Adam taking the 2nd place medal on tie break

14 players contested the Rooks section, with Yvon putting in a great performance to finish top with a perfect 5 wins out of 5. Sathsara and Zara both finished with 4 points out of 5 taking the 2nd and 3rd place medals.

19 children (!) took part in the busy Knights section, with new players putting some excellent performances. For many of the children this was their first competition and we were impressed with how they kept their concentration throughout the day. David finished in first place with 4.5 points out of 5, well done David. Srijt and Neel both scored 4 points out 5 taking the 2nd and 3rd place medals.

Thank you to all the children who took part, and we will look to the next rapid play in December!

The LRCA is staging a 5 round Leicestershire Online Rapidplay on Saturday 1st May with Open, U1700, Junior U1300 and Junior U1000 sections. The time control for the top 3 sections is 15 mins + 10 secs with the 1st round at 1pm (the Junior U1000 section begins at 10am with a 10mins + 5sec time control). Fide International arbiter Adam Raoof will be running the tournament on the Tornelo platform https://home.tornelo.com/ and all players will take part in a zoom call whilst games are taking place as a fair play measure.

You can enter at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/leicestershire-online-rapidplay-tickets-148486554281 and the entry fee is £5
Any queries should be directed to competition organiser Alan Agnew tel 07434 286893 / email alanagnew_uk@yahoo.co.uk

42 children took part in the Leicestershire Junior Online Championships on Saturday 20th February. All games were played using the Tornelo chess platform with Fide arbiter Adam Raoof present to help ensure fair play.

Congratulations to Lindsay Pyun who as well as winning the U13 section also takes the title and trophy for Leicestershire Junior online champion 2021 with a score in of 4.5/5 in the combined U13 and U18 section!

Amelia Ahmad topped the U9 section and Joshua Tang won the U11 section both with perfect scores of 5 out of 5. All children in the first 3 places for their age category won trophies. In the event of any tied scores trophies were awarded according to the Buchholz tie break system (sum of opponents scores)

U9

1. Amelia Ahmad 5/5
2. Mikhail Tyukin 3/5
3. Yvon Van Neerven 3/5

U11

1. Joshua Tang 5/5
2. Sophie Mehta 4/5
3. Adeeb Syed 4/5

U13

1. Lindsay Pyun 4.5/5
2. Noor Datoo 3/5
3. Anant Kapoor 3/5

U18

1. Sasha Kerbel 4.5/5
2. Ashish Singh 4/5
3. John Moughtin-Leay 3/5

Best placed U18 girl – Rameen Masood – 3/5