Off to a great start with GP1 at Tonbridge Grammar

Our first GP of the new season was held at Tonbridge Grammar School on Saturday 29^th September 2018.

As a London Junior Chess Championships (LJCC) qualifier we had lots of strong competitors across the younger sections of U8, U10 and U12.

It was also great to see lots of our older players entering the popular U18 Minor and U18 Major sections which included some high level, quality chess games.

The prizewinners in each section were:

U8: 1^st Bhavik More (5.5/6 and tie break 21.5) 2^nd David Cazac (5.5/6 and tie break 20.5), 3^rd Joshua Moisey (4/6 and tie break 23.5)

Qualifying for the LJCC U8: Max French, Johani Hackman and Lucas Oprea

U10: 1^st Makariy Shkuratovskyi (5/6 and tie break 23.5), 2^nd Teo Saunders (5/6 and tie break 22.5), 3^rd Lavinia Fear (4/6 and tie break 22.5)

Also qualifying for the LJCC U10 Major: Oli Garrett, Amelia Rees, Leo Chatterjee, Florian Brasch and Ruairi Isaacs.

Qualifying for the LJCC U10 Minor: Raffi French, Max Bell, Andy Lin, Devansh Strivastava, Amar Adatia and Roshan Rao

U12: 1^st Tashika Aurora, (5.5/6) 2^nd Lev Mann (5.5/6), 3^rd Lucas Downing (4.5/6 and tie break 23.5). Also qualifying for the LJCC U12 Major: Anwen Song and Shauyra Metha

Qualifying for the LJCC U12 Minor: Sen Patel, Mateusz Bazan, Ethan Bingzuan Li, Artemy Shkuratovskyi, Danny Oprea, Lucian Cox, Tom Heard, Yifan Luo and Nicas Lialiovici

U18 Minor: 1^st Eoin Moore (5/5), 2^nd Roxolana Chaban (4/5), 3^rd equal Atticus Fear, Yong Gui Wang, Lorcan Pritchard and George Anderton (3/5)

U18 Major: 1st Shreyas Royal (4.5/5), 2nd Logan Fear (4/5) 3^rd: Jacob Watson (3.5/5),

The full crosstabs can be seen at: http://www.kjca.org/result/188

Well done to everyone who played, from experienced England and county players to those at their very first chess tournament. We hope everyone enjoyed both some great chess games and spending time with your friends.

It always takes a lot of time and willing volunteers to put on a large chess tournament. Extra thanks to everyone who ensured that our GP1 tournament took place successfully and ran smoothly including:

Control & Arbiting team: Jo Wildman (ECF NA), Rejean Dupuis (ECF NA), John Merriman, Mikhail Sedykh, Andrew Bruce and Gary Dorman.

Results team: Ben Luo, Deepak More and Gary Titmuss.

GM Chris Ward and GM John Emms for coming to the tournament, help in the playing hall, prizegiving and all their continued support, advice and encouragement to our Kent junior players and their families.

KJCA Secretary: Kathryn Woodward for booking and liaising with the venue, ordering the trophies and medals all other administration work behind the scenes and support throughout the day.

KJCA Treasurer: Emma Holmes for overseeing all the finances and payments and support in the playing hall on the day.

Equipment Manager: Guy Barton – for bringing along all the chess equipment, setting up and then taking away and storing at the end of the day.

Tournament Registration: Gary Dorman and Orla Dorman - for smooth check-in of all the players and dealing with quieries and communications from parents and carers.

KJCA is run by volunteers to develop chess opportunities for children and young people in Kent and South East London. We are always looking for helpers and it is great to see some new faces supporting our work, please do get in touch if you would like to help out.

Finally, thanks go to Tonbridge Grammar School for use of the fantastic school venue and also to all the school catering team for providing good quality refreshments and the caretaker for his support on the day.