Leicestershire Juniors brought 5 teams to the Midland Team Championships, that were hosted by Notts at Nottingham High School on Saturday 8th February.

In the U11s (8 boards), Leicestershire finished 3rd on 9.5 pts behind Warwickshire (18 pts) and Notts (12pts). In an all-play-all format Leics were just beaten by Notts in the 1st round (3.5 – 4.5) but won against Northants in the 2nd round (5-3). Warks proved a tough assignment in the 3rd round and the team were well beaten 1-7. Madhav Eradi and Arav Ajaykumar both won their games in 1st and 2nd rounds.

In the 4 board U11 Girls event, Leicestershire secured 3rd place on 3.5pts behind Notts (8.5) and Warks (6). In an all play all format Leicestershire lost to both those counties but drew 2-2 against Northants in the 2nd round. On top board Lindsay Pyun won her games against Notts and Northants.

A developing U9 team (8 boards) finished in 4th on 4pts in a tough section, with Shashank Prasanth excelling to record 2 wins out of 3.

A U11 and U9 B team played the Notts B team in those two age groups. Notts, with a much larger pool of players unsurprisingly won both matches, but it was good to have so many Leicestershire players making their debut playing for the county. Martino Cresciani-Lombardo and Aman Das both recorded 2 wins out of 3 for the U11 B team and Sophia Hilmi won two of her games for the U9 B team.

Holywell School, which has a thriving chess club, hosted the February edition of Leicestershire Junior Chess’s Mini-Rapidplay Series on Saturday 1st February and there was an increased entry with both Holywell School players and Leicestershire Junior Chess Club members out in numbers.

All three sections were won or jointly won by pupils of the school who also attend the Leicester Saturday Chess Club. Lindsay Pyun, won 4 out of 4 to convincingly win the Kings Section. Sam Wakelin, surprised some of his older rivals to similarly win the Rooks section with 4 victories out of 4. Finally both Emjay Dyer and Aarav Mittal won 4 out of 4 in the Knight section and tied for 1st place, as having not played each other they couldn’t be separated on tie break.

Full results are below:

Kings

Rooks

Knights

December’s Leicester Junior Chess Mini-Rapidplay took place on Sat 14th December at Westleigh with 36 players in 3 sections and 3 first-time section winners

In the Kings , Alan Sharia won all 4 games to win the section.

In an interesting and tight Rooks competition, Adeeb Syed had a great competition remaining unbeaten and winning with 3.5/4

In the Knights, Anjal Masood won all her 5 games to convincingly head the section

Full Results: Kings, Rooks, Knights

Leicestershire were represented by an U18, U11, 2 U11 Girls Teams and an U9 team at the recent 4 Counties Invitational at Kenilworth School against Warwickshire, Oxfordshire and Northamptonshire.

The U11 team finished a fine 2nd to Oxfordshire with wins against both Warwickshire and Northants. Arooj Mahajan and Arav Ajaykumar both won all 3 games with Madhav Eradi scoring well with 2 wins and a draw.

In the U11 Girls, Northants were unable to field a team so Leicestershire chose to enter 2 relatively evenly balanced teams to give more players an opportunity to play at this level. A single Leicestershire might well have won the competition but even with a reduced strength ‘A’ team Leicester tied with Oxfordshire in 2nd on match points only just losing out on Tiebreak with game points. Lindsay Pyun was very dominant on board 1 winning all 3 games and Sophie Mehta on board 1 for the ‘B’ team had good claim to be the 2nd best U11 girl player in the competition given that she won 2 games apart from her loss against Lindsay.

In the U18s, Leicestershire drew with Northants (4-4) ond only narrowly lost to Oxfordshire 4.5-3.5 to finish in 3rd position. Sasha Kerbel had a notable competition with 2 wins and a draw in his 3 games.

In the U9s, the entire team were making their county team debuts as practically all last year’s successful U9 team have moved up to the U11 category. Consequently it was always going to be a tough competition for the new team as they were facing two very strong teams from Warwickshire (Northants didn’t enter a team) and one from Oxfordshire. To put it in perspective, in 2018 Warwickshire where 4th nationally and Oxfordshire 6th. The team finished as expected in 4th place but I’m sure will build on this as the year progresses.

Full detailed results: U18s, U11s, U11 Girls, U9s

The November edition of the Mini-Rapidplay took place on Sat 9th Nov at Westleigh with a very healthy entry of 38 children.

In the Kings , Joshua Tang won all 4 games to win the section.

In the Rooks, Arav Ajaykumar won all 5 rounds for another clean sweep section winner with Catherine Lv a clear 2nd with 4 pts.

In the Knights, Will Jackson was very dominant also winning all 5 rounds. Relatively new member of the Saturday club Apostolos scored 4 pts in 2nd place.

Full Results: Kings, Rooks, Knights

Two Leicestershire juniors were represented in the English Girls Championships which were held over the weekend of 19th and 20th of October in Oxford.

Lindsay Pyun came second in both the U11 and U14 sections scoring 4.5 out of 6 in both comptetitions. Sophie Mehta came 4th (on tie break) in the U11 section also scoring 4.5 out of 6. A really excellent result for both girls, well done! The full results are available below:

U14s

U11s

Many of Leicestershire’s junior players competed in the annual competition that took place at Leicester Grammar School on Sunday 13th October and which has two junior only sections along with sections open to adults as well.

In a competitive Junior U80 section Alex Cimurs and Sophie Mehta’s finished joint 1st on 5pts (out of 6). Alex had a perfect record up to the 6th round and lead the field but Sophie managed to pull him back in round 6 when she one the final round game between the two.

In the Schools ‘Ungraded’ U25 section there was a strong showing from Holywell school pupils with Shashank Prashanth winning all his games to head the section and Sam Wakelin finishing 2nd on 5 points.

In the mixed/adult junior sections, Jason Lv scored a very creditable 3.5/6 in the U165s and Sashel Kerbel (U140), Lyndsay Pyun (U115), Joshua Tang (U115) and Kori Lee (U115) all scored 3 points in their respective sections.

Detailed Results: Open, U165, U140, U115, Junior U80, Junior U25

This season’s first mini-rapidplay competition took place on Saturday 14^th of September, with an excellent turnout of 34 competitors!

The Kings section was tied between Henry Powell and Lyndsay Pyun on 3 points out of 4, with Henry coming out just ahead on tie-break.

The Rooks section was very hard fought, with Garv Sehgal eventually coming out on top with 4 points out of 5, closely followed by Catherine LV and Arav Ajaykumar both on 3.5 points.

In the Knights section we had 7 new competitors! Nathan Phillips came out on top with an excellent 5 points out of 5. Aman Das was second with four points.

Please click the links below for the detailed results.

Kings

Rooks

Knights

Entries for this year’s Rapidplay at Leicester Grammar School are now open on this link.

The 6 round swiss ECF graded Rapidplay is promoted by the LRCA (Leicester and Rutland Chess Association) with Open, U165, U140, U115 and Junior U80 sections.

There is also an ungraded U25 ‘schools’ section for children (under 11 on 01/09/19) that would be ideal for less experienced junior players new to tournament play.

Please enter here.

Jason Lv, who last year won the George Winterton Cup for ‘Junior Team Player of the Year’ has been awarded the John Robinson Cup for ‘Most Improved Player’. In the last season Jason was invited to join the national junior squad and has seen his ECF grade rise from 108 to 146. Having won the County U120 championship in September 2018, Jason is currently well placed in this year’s County U160 championship with 1 game still to play (coincidentally against John Robinson!) and a chance to win the title.

Kajus Mikalajunas wins this year’s ‘Junior Team Player of the Year’ title and the George Winterton cup. Kajus was our top board U9 player last season and led possibly Leicestershire’s strongest ever U9 team to 2nd place in the Northern Zone and a fine 8th place nationally in the EPSCA county competition. Individually he also some fine performances in winning the Minor (U110) section at the Notts Rapidplay and the Kenilworth Open Junior U11 title.