The Leicestershire Junior Chess Championships, a 6 round 20mins + 10 sec rapidplay competition, took place on Sunday 3rd July at Leicester Grammar School, which proved a popular venue. This year all sections were graded and entries were encouraged from outside the county as well as within. The result were strong fields in the U9s, U11s and U18s and competition was keen amongst the 73 entrants.
The U9 section was dominated by Daniel Chen (Leics) who won all 6 games. The next 5 players all scored 4 pts with three U8s occupying 2nd to 4th positions in the section with Sarthak Sanyal (Warks) leading the way. Jason LV (Leics) also on 4pts picked up the 2nd U9 award.
The U11 section was won convincingly by national junior squad member Armaan Gogia (Notts) who nearly managed a perfect 6pts, but for being held to a draw by Lavanya Maladkar (Notts) who finished 4th in the section on 4 pts but 1st U10, rendering the best girl award superfluous. Leicestershire’s Milly Kotecha made it 2 girls in the top 4 by finishing 2nd equal in the section and 2nd equal in the U11s with Gavith Dharmasena (Cambs).
The U18 section featured no less than 7 players graded over 120, so it was something of a surprise that Peter Mottram-Epson (only 10th ranked on paper) managed to finish on 5pts by virtue of a win in the final round to overhaul the competition leader Adam Bennett (Notts) who finished 3rd in the section but 2nd U13. 1st U13 and tied for first within the section was Shyam Modi (Leics) who was unbeaten throughout the entire day but had 2 draws within his points total.
Thanks are due to Bob Wallace, Andy Morley, Parag Kotecha, Ian Marsh and John Pattinson for running the competition in the playing hall and to Josephine Mottram-Epson, Marjorie Epson and Kath Haywood for manning the refreshments table.
The award winners were as follows:
U8s
1. Sarthak Sanyal (Warks) 4 pts
2. Tansei Ito (Barnet) 4 pts
3. Arjun Vadgama (Warks) 4 pts
Best Girl: Hafsa Syed (Leics) 2pts
Slow Starter: Dhian Shah (Leics) 3pts
U9s
1. Daniel Chen (Leics) 6 pts
2. Jason LV (Leics) 4 pts
3. Kian Dharmasena (Cambs) 4 pts
Best Girl: Lilli Szasz (Yorks) 3.5 pts
U10s
1. Lavanya Maladkar (Notts) 4.5 pts
2. Henry Andrews (Leics) 4 pts
3. Kian Dharmasena (Cambs) 3.5 pts
U11s
1. Armaan Gogia (Notts) 5.5 pts
2= Milly Kotecha (Leics) 4.5 pts
2= Gavith Dharmasena (Cambs) 4.5 pts
U13s
1. Shyam Modi (Leics) 5 pts
2. Adam Bennett (Notts) 4.5 pts
3. Aditya Munshi (Notts) 4.5 pts
Best Girl: Anita Somton (Notts) 3.5 pts
U18s
1. Peter Mottram-Epson (Leics) 5 pts
2. Thomas Blay (Leics) 3.5 pts
3. Stephen Matts (Leics) 3 pts
The detailed results can be found below: