Kent Juniors at the Hastings International Congress

Well done to the Kent juniors who travelled down to the seaside town of Hastings to take part in the 91st Hastings International Chess Congress over the christmas and new year holidays.

The main section, the Hastings Masters, is a prestigious event in the chess calendar for adult players. It consists of 9 round FIDE rated long-play games and is held over 9 days. It attracts the best players in the country and beyond and there were forty titled players in the field.

Freddie Hand, played in this section, and scored a fantastic 4.5/9. He played some quality chess at such a high level, including draws with a fide masters in the first and eighth round.

Kent juniors also played in the weekend competitions.

Congratulations to Charlie Metcalfe who played some great chess in the weekend U120 section and ended the tournament in joint 1st place on a score of 4/5 from three wins and two draws against higher rated players.

Other Kent juniors played over the weekend were Ranesh Ratnesan and Aditya Verma who competed the Major section, getting 2.5/5 and 2/5 respectively.

Also playing in the U120 section were Alex Garfield and Shlok Verma who both scored 2.5/5. Radha Ratnesan played the first day and won one game. Radha Ratnesan played the first day and won one game.

Great chess from all our promising young players.