Essex Grand Prix

Hi everybody, sorry about the delay of this post I have been quite busy recently.

Anyway that's not the point. The point is to congratulate everybody who went to the final Grand Prix event at Saffron Walden. Everyone did really well and I hope you enjoyed the sunshine if you were there.

The main section of the blog is about the overall Grand Prix standings. Your best three scores throughout the tournament are totalled up and then turned into points. \You also get a trophy if you attend every one of the five tournaments. We had nobody winning this trophy, but we had some people winning some even bigger trophies...

In the Under 11's section, Ben came third
overall, very impressive considering he was a year younger than most of his opponents. Then, in the Under 14's we won three out of the four trophies. James came fourth, I (Scott) came second and Elliot come first, gaining many more points than anyone else. He must also be congratulated for winning that particular tournament, ending up on 6/6. Finally we had Angelo who won the Under 18 section, thanks to his rival not turning up.

Overall, this season as been pretty good for the knights. Next year will hopefully be even better. However, the downside is there are very few chess tournaments remaining. So make sure to keep practising throughout the holidays. And finally, if you hadn't done so already, please could you let Robin know if you will be likely to attend the club if it is run throughout the summer holidays. Hopefully I'll see you all at the club on Tuesday.



These are all the award winners in the Grand Prix. Most of our players are in the top right if the photo.
Thank you to the EJCA and Trevor Dickenson for this photo

                                

                                          Enjoy the sun,
                                                   Scott

European Schools Chess Championships

Hi all,

I am writing this from Kavala, Greece after the prize giving ceremony of the European Schools Championships, where I have spent ten days competing in the U15 section, together with three other England players (there were a total of twenty-eight players of different ages representing England).

Unfortunately, I did not have the best of tournaments, finishing on 4/9 along with two of my other England U15 team mates. We were pleased that one of us managed to break the 50% barrier, with Yang-Jian Zhou finishing on 5/9.

Our best result was Harvey Zhang, an U9, who came second in his section with 7.5/9. Zoe Varney (in the U15 Girls section) and Paul Calderon (in the U17 section) also received prizes for finishing in the top six.

Kavala is a lovely town near the island of Thassos, where we spent our rest day on the beach.

Below is a photo showing the England Team, me in my Knights of Chelmsford t-shirt and the town of Kavala.

Later this evening the England team will have a blitz tournament (all moves in 5 minutes), so hopefully I can do well in that!

See you on Tuesday,

Daniel

Chess at Camber Sands

Hi all,
Recently Josh C, Ben, Kieran, Tom, Ollie and Adam participated in the EPSCA semi-final at Pontins in Camber Sands. They gained a total of 13 points out of 30 coming 24th out of 34 against some very tough competition. They played the teams that came 2nd, joint 4th and joint 7th. Every team that they played ended up above them except Northbridge B, proving how hard the competition was. The scores were as follows;

Round 1: Moulsham 5-0 Northbridge B
Round 2: Moulsham 0-5 Westminster A
Round 3: Moulsham 2.5-2.5 Putney
Round 4: Moulsham 4.5- 0.5 William Patten
Round 5: Moulsham 1-4 Dulwich College
Round 6: Moulsham 0-5 North London Collegiate

(There was a reserve match each round which did not count towards the total score. For the full list of results visit the EPSCA website)
Ollie was top scorer on the main boards with three points and Kieran and Ben were both on 2.5.
A huge congratulations should go to the boys as they all played tremendously well despite the sub-standard accommodation, the seagulls and the noisy opposition playing cricket at 7 in the morning. We all had a brilliant time though, and a special thanks to Mr Pugh for his work with the team. once again, well done everybody and I'll see you at the club next week.

Scott

Pre-match team talk

 

From left: Ollie, Kieran, Josh, Adam, Tom, Ben

Ready to beat William Patten

After the prize giving

Simul Report

Hi all,

Yesterday IM Richard Pert played a simultaneous display against some of the stronger members of the club, scoring an impressive 7/8 (6 wins and 2 draws).

Scott and I were the only two to secure a draw against Richard, Scott holding his own in an equal rook ending and me blocking the position up and trying to play for the draw as black.

Colours alternated on every board (Board 1 was black, Board 2 was white, etc.) to ensure that there were equal numbers of people playing white and black. Everyone enjoyed themselves and I would like to thank Richard for organising the simul.

Here is a full list of results:
Richard 0.5-0.5 Daniel
Elliot 0-1 Richard
Richard 1-0 Angelo
Scott 0.5-0.5 Richard
Richard 1-0 James
Ben 0-1 Richard
Richard 1-0 Edward
Nadia 0-1 Richard

See you next week,
Daniel

More tournaments

Hi guys, yet anther post about tournament results. Everybody who has participated has done very well recently, and the club members have picked up 5 awards between them.
Firstly the Megafinal results. Angelo, Elliot, James, Josh, Tom, Ben, Nadia and Shazia all managed to qualify and now have the opportunity to play in the Gigafinal which will be held in Reading. This will take all the qualifiers of the Megafinals form the South of the UK and only the top three in each section will have a chance to qualify to the Terafinal, the final battle. Also, Ollie and Sebastian both should be mentioned after gaining three and a half points, only half a point away from qualifying.

Next the Colchester Grand Prix Event. we had 12 players participating; Our prize winners were Ben (1^st in the U11s), James (1^st in the U18 Minor with 6/6), Elliot (2^nd in the U18 Open), Nadia (best newcomer) and Shazia (rating prize). Our other players were Zahra, Gowsithan, Josh, Tom, Angelo, Luxathan and Scott (me). Everybody should be very proud of their results, at both tournaments.

Finally, a chess tip. Never eat too much junk food the day before a chess tournament. I found that out at Colchester, and lets just say I didn't feel the best. I hope to see you all at the club next week.

More Photos, The Essex Championship Trophy and Match Result

Hi all,

On Tuesday a match between the members of our club who go to Moulsham School and the others in the club was played. The rest of the club won a close match (4.5-2.5) and everyone enjoyed themselves. Here is the full list of results:

Ben 0-1 Elliot
Josh 0-1 James
Tom 1-0 Mernan
Kieran 0-1 Shazia
Ollie 0-1 Nadia
Adam 1-0 Ali
Ahmed 0.5-0.5 Sebastian

IM Richard Pert (one of our 'Knight Parents') also got presented with the Essex Championship Trophy for getting the highest score out of any Essex player in the Southend Congress. Below is a photo of Ivor Smith (the President of the Essex Chess Association) handing the trophy to Richard. Well done Richard!

Here are some photos from the day.

Top: Games from Moulsham match. Kieran and Tom from Moulsham nearest camera.
Bottom Left: Kieran. Bottom Right: Adam.

Top Left: Ahmed. Bottom Left: Joshua.
Right: SpiderBertie!

Top: Harry Saul and Ben with Richard Pert's trophy.
Bottom: Joshua and Sebastian with the trophy.

Top Left: Elliot. Top Centre: Shazia. Top Right: Ollie.
Bottom: Moulsham match - Shazia, Tom and Kieran.

Top: Edward and Daniel in foreground, Saul and Sebastian in background.
Bottom Left: David Gatheral. Bottom Centre: Nadia. Bottom Right: Sebastian.

Top Left: Josh. Top Centre: Ben. Top Right: Mernan.
Bottom: Moulsham match - Shazia and Kieran in foreground.

Top: IM Richard Pert (Essex Champion) and Ivor Smith (President of the Essex Chess Association).
Bottom: Richard Pert with Max, Nina and Essex Championship Trophy.

Top+Bottom: IM Richard Pert's coaching session with James, Elliot, Daniel and Mernan.

Top Left: Zahra. Top Centre: Ben and Harry. Top Right: Daniel and James.
Bottom: Max and Nina.

Top Left: Alice and Nina. Bottom Left: Sebastian, Ahmed and Akshay nearest camera.
Right: Phoebe.

Top: Daniel and Russell by the demonstration board.
Bottom: Nadia.

See you all soon,

Daniel.

Colchester grand prix event

Hi everybody, just a reminder about the Colchester Grand Prix (24^th May) entry forms which you need to fill out in order to enter the tournament. The link is Matches | Essex Junior Chess then click on the bottom entry form. It is £12 for all non-members of the ecf, and £10 for silver and gold members. The closing date for entry forms is Wednesday 12^th May so make sure to enter before then.

For those of you who don’t know about the Essex Grand Prix events, they are a series of five tournaments throughout Essex. The winner and runner-up in each section will receive a prize whether it be a certificate and trophy for the younger players or money for the older ones. Your scores are totalled up at the end so you can see where you are roughly in your age group. The tournaments are usually in Chelmsford, Basildon, Ilford, Colchester and Saffron Walden. You don’t have to attend every tournament and they are a good way to be recognised by county managers.

Hopefully I will see many of you at Colchester on the 24^th of May at St Teresa’s Catholic  Primary School (C03 9BE)