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All set for the new season - GP1 at Tonbridge Grammar on Saturday 29th September

The first GP tournament of the new season will be held this Saturday, 29th September, at Tonbridge girls' grammar school.

This event is also a LJCC qualifier for U8, U10 and U12.

For our older players we have the popular U18 minor and U18 major section.

Please go to: http://www.kjca.org/event/188 to register.

If you plan to come along, please register before 7pm the day before the tournament (Friday 28th).

We are delighted to again have Tonbridge girls' grammar as the venue for this tournament. Please ensure that you and all young players are respectful of the school venue, grounds and equipment at all times.

Catering will be provided by the school catering staff in the IBarn, this is located just opposite the playground. Please consume food in the IBarn and do not take food into the playing hall. There will be a selection of hot and cold drinks, snacks, sandwiches and sweet treats for sale. Please try and support the catering facilities as all profits go directly to the school. The school has asked that no takeaways should be ordered onto the school grounds and your rubbish must be taken away.

Please also note that there is limited parking available at the school and that we need to be respectful of local residents if finding alternative spaces.

Looking forward to welcoming all our young chess players to the new season.

KJCA AGM - Sunday 7th October at Sevenoaks Primary school

Kent Junior Chess Association, Annual General Meeting

Sunday, 7th October 2018 at 1.30pm (during CD1)
At: Sevenoaks Primary School, Bradbourne Park Road, Sevenoaks, Kent TN13 3LB

We are pleased to announce that the KJCA AGM will be held at 1.30pm on Sunday 7th October 2018. This will be during our coaching day 1 which is being held at Sevenoaks Primary School.

KJCA provides first class regular tournaments and coaching days in Kent and South East London. We also have a long and proud history of success at county team events, winning many national titles across all junior age groups. Many Kent juniors also go on to achieve great individual success at national events such as the British Chess Championships and are also selected to represent England juniors at International tournaments.

The KJCA is run by a voluntary committee and relies on the dedication of parents and volunteers.

If you are able to give some of your time, even if it is just for a few hours at the various KJCA events, it is very much appreciated and will help us to provide chess opportunities for children and young people.

Please do let us know on secretary@kjca.org or come along to the AGM to find out more.

Dates for your diary: GM led Coaching Days / Institute of Chess Exams for 2018-19 Season

Our popular GM led Coaching Days are back for the 2018-19 season.

These sessions follow the Institute of Chess levels and syllabus and there is the opportunity to do exams at CD2 (levels 1 and 2) and CD4 (levels 3, 4, 5) if your child would like to take them. The dates and venue are:

CD1 - Sunday 7th October - Sevenoaks Primary School, Bradbourne Park Road, Sevenoaks, TN13 3LB

registration 9.30am - finishes approximately 4.30pm.

CD2 - Sunday 11th November - Sevenoaks Primary School, Bradbourne Park Road, Sevenoaks, TN13 3LB

registration 9.30am - finishes approximately 4.30pm.

CD3 - Sunday 20th January - Sevenoaks Primary School, Bradbourne Park Road, Sevenoaks, TN13 3LB

registration 9.30am - finishes approximately 4.30pm.

CD4 - Sunday 24th February - Sevenoaks Primary School, Bradbourne Park Road, Sevenoaks, TN13 3LB

registration 9.30am - finishes approximately 4.30pm.

Please note CD4 - unfortunately this date clashes with the popular West of England junior championships in Swindon. However, it is very difficult to find another suitable date. If this clash affects any of our young players, then we will offer an additional session / date for those that want to take their institute of chess exam. More details nearer to the time and when we know the numbers affected.

For more detailed information and FAQ's about our Coaching Days, please go to: http://www.kjca.org/site/page?view=training

The updated Registration pages will be live later this week. Watch this space .......

Please note:

Provided your son or daughter achieved a merit or distinction at the previous level you sat, we are happy for you to move up and register for the next level. If you obtained a ‘pass’ at any level, then clearly there are good things that have been taken on board but we recommend that you re-take that course to help you get to grips with all of the topics involved. Moving up ‘too soon’ only leads to further problems down the line and it really isn’t fun when too much material is going over a child’s head.

It is not a race to see who can get through all the exams as quickly as possible and rather all about discovering and understanding different aspects of the game that can be applied when they sit down and play their matches, and also about a relaxed and fun environment where children can learn and enjoy their chess.

We really want our coaching days to be fun but by the same token we don’t want anyone spending a day listening to things that they already totally understand. Specifically, with regards to levels 1 and 2 and new arrivals to the coaching days, boys and girls will be assessed on the first morning of attendance to check they are in an appropriate group.

Levels 1 and 2 are two day courses (with exams sat at the end of CD2 and CD4), there will be a choice of permutations to attend. If your child is a beginner but you feel may be a quick learner and were hoping to join level 3 next season, then for example level 1 in CDs 1 and 2 with the intention of doing level 2 in CD 3 and 4.

We will ensure that the test are accessible to all that want to take them and appropriate adult assistance will be available, however there is absolutely no compulsion to take an exam should a child feel unprepared or anxious.

Our coaching team are all looking forward to more successful Coaching Days and welcome lots of young chess players.

See you all soon

Grandmaster Chris Ward

Dates for your diary: GP Tournament dates for 2018-19 Season

Hope that all our young chess players and their families are having a fun and relaxing summer.

The new academic year and chess season is just around the corner and we have been busy getting all organised. Please see below the dates and venues for all the GP Tournaments.

Looking forward to welcome everyone to all our events thoughout the new season and if any parents or carers are keen to get more involved, please do contact us.

GP 1: Saturday 29th September, 2018

Tonbridge Girls Grammar

Deakin Leas, Tonbridge TN9 2JR

GP2: Sunday 21st October 2018

Bishop Justus

Magpie Hall Ln, Bromley BR2 8HZ

GP3: Sunday 18th November 2018

Bullers Wood

St Nicolas Ln, Logs Hill,

Chislehurst BR7 5LJ

GP4: Saturday 5th January 2019

Cornwallis Academy

Hubbards La, Maidstone ME17 4HX

GP5: Sunday 17th February 2019

Sevenoaks School

High St, Sevenoaks TN13 1HU

GP6: Sunday 3rd March 2019

Hayesbrook School

Brook St, Tonbridge TN9 2PH

GP7: Sunday 14th April 2019

Chislehurst Girls School

Beaverwood Rd, Chislehurst BR7 6HE

GP8: Sunday 2nd June 2019

Bromley High School

Blackbrook Lane, Bromley BR1 2TW

If you feel your school, college or other venue might be able to host future KJCA events please contact our secretary, Kathryn Woodward, to discuss this further on: secretary@kjca.org or speak to her at one of the tournaments.

Kent U9 become 2018 National Champions and secure overall Grand Prix

Congratulations to all players and supporters of the Kent U9 chess team on winning the 2018 EPSCA U9 Finals and becoming the National Champions!

It has been an absolute privilege to manage a team of very talented Kent players throughout this year. I can truly say that thanks to our wonderful group of parents and children we played as one team, supporting each other through some very tough games and celebrating our wins together!

This year the finals were held in Birmingham on Saturday 28th of April. Most of the team travelled up on the train in the morning, practising some openings and tactics on the way.

There were 16 teams from across the country who had qualified for the finals and the competition was tough. The U9 team had finished second in the semi final to Richmond and we expected it to be a very close event throughout the day.

The day started from some training and last minute tips from GM Chris Ward.

After the first round of play, Kent were second with 10 points, trailing Richmond in the first place by 0.5 points. Warwickshire were not far behind in the third place with 9.5 points.

The second round brought some adjustments to the positions of the top 3 teams. Kent and Warwickshire moved into the first place with 19.5 points and Richmond dropped to the third with 18 points.

We expected the Finals to be close but they were even closer than we expected! The first place was decided in the very last game of the tournament. Warwickshire and Richmond finished their games first and were both on 27.5 points. Kent had 27 points but with one game still in play, the very last game in an empty sports hall of the Grace Academy in Solihull. Our fate depended on the newest member of the team Raffi French, who was playing Adhritt Seth from Barnet. It was a very close competitive game but Raffi played very calmly and came out victorious with Adhritt losing on time. Kent retained their National crown!

The full team list was:

Shreyas Royal, Shlok Verma, Roxolana Chaban, Xirui Mao, Ismail Longia-Zaidi, Yifan Luo, Max Bell,

Makariy Shkuratovskyi, Raffi French, Teo Saunders, Roshan Rao, Rohan Pasari, Arman Tengayev,

Oli Garrett, Ryan Nguyen, Zeno Burns, Joshua Moisey

Overall Grand Prix Success

It has been a very successful season for all Kent teams with the wins for U18 mixed, U11 mixed and silver trophies for U11 girls team, securing overall Grand Prix for Kent. The Grand Prix trophy and shield were received by our U11 and U9 board #1 player Shreyas Royal and GM Chris Ward.

The team celebrated the win by emptying the shelves of sweets at Birmingham International and binging on the train back.

This success could not have been possible without continuous and tireless support from all the parents and carers. Many thanks to you all for bringing the children along to both the Zonal and the Final competitions.

We are very grateful to our GM Chris Ward who coached the U9 team and travelled with us to the Zonal event in Richmond and to the finals in Birmingham as well.

The full U9 results are available at Oxford Fusion website

Taras Chaban - Kent U9 Team Manager

Kent U11 team crowned EPSCA National Champions 2018

Congratulations to all the Kent U11 team for winning the 2018 EPSCA U11 Finals and becoming the National Champions.

The finals were held in Birmingham on Saturday 21st April. Most of the team travelled up on the train in the morning.

There were 15 teams from across the country who had qualified for the finals and the competition was tough. The U11 team had finished second in the semi final to Richmond and we expected it to be a very close event throughout the day.

The day started well with Kent scoring 15.5 points from 20 in the first round ending a point behind Richmond on 16.5 with Cambridge third on 14.5 points.

The second round followed a similar pattern with both Kent and Richmond scoring 15 points Going into the last round Richmond were leading Kent in second place by one point.

The last round was a tense affair with Kent players winning their first twelve games before dropping two and half points in the next seven games. The Richmond players had finished scoring 16.5 which meant Kent needed to win the last game to win the event on a tie break.

The last game was a very complicated but a determined effort from Radha Ratnesan who managed to turn it into a win for Kent in the last minute of allocated time. Radha showed great courage and resilience having been behind earlier in the game.

Final Scores:

1) Kent 48/60 2) Richmond 48/60 3) Cambridgeshire 41/60

Kent won the event on tie break as they had more decisive results (less draws more wins)

The reserve team also played alongside the main event. Our four Kent players demonstrated some great chess to also win the reserve tournament with a score of 11/12. A fantastic performance.

The full team were Shreyas Royal, James Merriman, Shlok Verma, Eoin Moore, Stakhey Sedykh Rahda Ratnesan, Martin Camacho Tupper, Artemiy Shkuratovskyi, Lev Mann, Roxolana Chaban, Yong Gui Wang ,Nour Ajili ,Shaurya Mehta ,Xirui Mao, Mateus Bazan, Aneesh Sagar, Ismail Longia- Zaidi Danny Oprea, Dmitry Belousov, Stefania Iosub, Evan Veitch ,Harry Chauhan Edward Ellam and Tom Heard

Many thanks to our team manager, John Merriman and to GM Chris Ward and GM John Emms for their coaching, guidance and support throughout this season.

We also appreciate the efforts from all the parents and carers, who brought the children along to both the zonal and the final competitions and continuously support their chess.

With another great result from our U11 team, the future for these promising young players looks bright.

Well done to everyone.

The full results are available at: http://www.oxfordfusion.com/epsca/TeamsOverall.cfm?EventID=121

GP7 at Sevenoaks School on Sunday 15th April

Just a reminder that the KJCA GP7 tournament is this coming Sunday 15th April at Sevenoaks School, High St, Sevenoaks TN13 1HU

It would be great to see our young chess players to the event and hope that it will be a fun day of chess and meeting up with friends.

Please register as soon as you can at: http://www.kjca.org/event/181

Please note some of the arrangements we have made with the school:

We have use of the Solefields car park, which is in Solefields Road, opposite the entrance to the school. There are 60 spaces. Once parked, there is an underpass to walk across to the school buildings and Block D which is where our tournament and parents area will be.

Please do not use any other areas/spaces in the school complex to park your cars. KJCA will have parking attendants on hand to help out and ensure that we are using the correct part of the school grounds.

In between the chess rounds, please remember that parents and carers have responsibility for their children. Primary aged children should not be left alone, unless you have agreed direct responsibility of another adult / parent, and please ensure that you know where they are and that they are playing safely at all times.

There is a grassy area close to the tournament / canteen building. However, the school has asked that there are no footballs or ball games allowed in this area in case of any damage.

It is great that we have a venue such as Sevenoaks School for our tournament. It is a large and prestigious school and there are always a lot of different events and activities going on, as well as some school boarders and young people on site. Please ensure that everyone treats all facilities with respect and do not allow the children to wander into other areas of the school.

Looking forward to seeing everyone on Sunday

U10 title at the National Squad Championships for Shreyas

Congratulations to Shreyas Royal who won the U10 section of the National Squad Championships with a perfect score of 5/5.

Held over the weekend of 7-8^th April at Daventry Court Hotel, the National Squad Chamionship is an annual tournament that attracts the strongest young chess players in the country. It is also the final tournament of the season to achieve norms for the squad trials and so there is always a very competitive field. Full results can be found on the chess-results website at: http://chess-results.com/fed.aspx?lan=1&fed=eng

Other strong Kent junior players who took part in the tournament were:

Stakhey Sedykh, Suriya Velayudham, Ciaran Brightley-Davies, Saahil Bansal and Aurideep Nayak.

Well done to everyone who played.

Second place for the Kent U9 team at the EPSCA East Zonal

Congratulations to the U9 team who got second place at the recent ESPCA east Zonal.

Held at Richmond on Saturday 10th March 2018.

The full results can be found at: http://www.oxfordfusion.com/epsca/TeamsOverall.cfm?EventID=112

Kent U11 team take second place in EPSCA East Zonal

Congratulations to all the players in the KJCA U11 team who came second in EPSCA Zonal tournament at Bishop Justus School on 17th March 2018.

Ten counties contested the event, with the top six qualifying for the National Finals, to be held in Birmingham in April.

All the Kent team put in very strong performances through the day with lots of quality chess on offer.

The team scored 14.5 points in the first round, a fantastic 8.5 points in the second round to lead the event at that stage before falling back a little to score 13 points in the final round for a total 46 points. It was very close for the top places and the final results were:

Richmond 50 points

Kent 46 points

Essex 44 points

Full results can be found at: http://www.oxfordfusion.com/epsca/TeamsOverall.cfm?EventID=118

The Kent reserve players also did very well. Congratulations to Kent junior, Evan Veitch, who won the reserve tournament with an undefeated performance.

Big congratulations to all the young players below who all put in a lot of effort for a strong performance. The team were:

James Merriman, Shlok Verma, Eoin Moore, Denis Dupuis, Stakhey Sedykh, Martin Camacho Tupper, Artemiy Shkuratovskyi, Roxolana Chaban, Lev Mann, Yong Gui Wang, Nour Ajili ,Shaurya Mehta , Xirui Mao, Danny Oprea, Yifan Luo, Aneesh Sagar , Ishmail Longia Zaidi , Mateuz Bazan ,Dmitry Belousov ,Stefania Iosub , Harry Chauhan, Evan Veitch and Laura Holmes.

Thanks to all the parents and carers who supported the team.

The zonal was hosted by Kent this year, so an extra thanks to all who helped out on the day. There were lots of tasks to ensure all ran smoothly and our joint effort ensured a successful tournament that the young chess players, from all the county teams, enjoyed.

Finally, thanks to GM John Emms for his advise and coaching on the day and to GM Chris Ward for helping out at the event.

Also to Bishop Justus School for use of their great venue and their helpful lettings and caretaking staff.

John Merriman - U11 Team Manager