Kent Junior Chess Association

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Successful season for young Kent trio - Shlok, Shreyas and James

Our Kent Juniors are doing wonderfully well this season with our tournaments receiving fantastic attendance and our teams in various competitions doing brilliantly.

It feels wrong to single anyone out for additional praise but there can be no denying the impact that the three youngsters above have had on the National stage.

From left to right, Shlok Verma has won plenty of prizes this year including becoming the London U-8 champion and topping the U-8 EYGP courtesy of an excellent 5/5 in their most recent event. He has been selected to represent England in the forthcoming European U-8 Championship.

Shreyas Royal has accrued loads of trophies and titles too including the British U-8 and London U-10. He has been selected to represent England in the World U-8 championship in Brazil although would greatly appreciate any contributions on https://www.gofundme.com/fund-for-international-chess-tourna to help make that happen.

James Merriman won the British U-10 Championship and in topping the EYGP in that category has been asked to represent England in the World U-10 championship, completing a hat-trick of prestigious invites for Kent.

It is unprecedented to have three U-9s on the top three boards in an U-11 team as Kent have and we wish them the best of luck alongside the rest of the Kent players in the forthcoming EPSCA final.

It would however be a lovely gesture if any ECF members could support them by at least considering nominating/voting for them in the ECF player of the year awards. When I see who has received this award in the past, there is no doubt that our trio should receive backing given their successes and amazing progress over the last year.

The first round of balloting is on https://britchess.wufoo.eu/forms/ecf-player-of-the-year-2017-ballot-1/ and you voting would mean a lot.

Good luck everyone!

GM Chris Ward

Winning Kent U9 team - EPSCA National Champions 2017

Congratulations to all the Kent U9 team for winning the 2017 EPSCA U9 Finals and becoming the National Champions for the second year running.

The finals were held at Nottingham high school on Saturday 22nd April. Everyone knew it was going to be a long day, starting before 7am and including travels by road, rail, underground and even on a tram.

There were 18 teams who had qualified for the finals and the competition was tough.

Despite the long journey, the Kent team were ready to take on all opponents. All the young players lived up to expectations and were determined to build on the high standards set last year (when the team won the title with 33/36 points).

All started very well, with the team scoring an excellent 11/12 in both the first and second rounds. This meant that Kent went into the final third round with a 2.5 point lead over nearest rivals Wey Valley.

However, to everyone's delight, the improving pattern continued and our last round was a clean sweep – 12/12 - wins on all boards!

All the rounds had some close games which could have gone either way, but the Kent players kept their nerves, maintained focused, increased concentration levels and eventually managed an overall victory.
Our strong finish gave Kent a clear first place, leading the runners-up by 6.5 points.

The final scores were:

1st – Kent 34/36
2nd – Wey Valley 27.5/36
3rd equal - Warwickshire and Richmond 24.5/36

Congratulations also to the players who were on the reserve boards, they all played some quality chess and special mention for Yifan Luo, who won the reserve tournament.

The reserves also completed a clean sweep of 4/4 wins in the last round of the tournament complementing the 100% score across the whole team.

The full team were: Shreyas Royal, James Merriman, Shlok Verma, Stakhey Sedykh, Arthur Chikovsky, Dennis Dupuis, Roxolana Chaban, Herb Balaam, Nour Ajili, Aneesh Sagar, Ismail Longia Zaidi, Artemiy Shkuratovskyi, George Allen, Yifan Luo, Max Bell, Amit Aryan Sanka

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 U9 team, the future for these promising young players looks bright. Well done to everyone.

The full results can be viewed at: http://www.oxfordfusion.com/epsca/#results

Kent Under 11 Team Wins EPSCA Zonal

Congratulations to the Kent Under-11 team who won the EPSCA U11 Zone East, which took place on 18th March at Mount Grace School, Potters Bar.

Kent fielded a very young team that included many players who will still be eligible to play in future years. The tournament was played with an excellent spirit throughout and contained lots of high-quality and fighting chess.

The team started positively and seized an early lead by scoring an excellent 16½ points in the first round. The second round also went very well, with Kent scoring 16 points to increase their lead over their nearest rivals. The final round proved to be much closer between all the teams, but Kent’s tally of 13½ points was still the highest score of the round and it secured an overall victory.

Kent’s winning score was 46 points (from 60 games), Barnet came second with 41 points, and Cambridge came third with 36½ points. At the end a double success was celebrated, as Kent’s board 21-24 players also won the reserve section.

Kent’s winning team were: Shreyas Royal, Shlok Verma, James Merriman, Saahil Bansal, Lakshya Lokwani, Eoin Moore, Ciaran Brightley-Davies, Stakhey Sedykh, Arthur Chikovsky, Navieinaah Haridas, Dennis Dupuis, Dominic Coates, Theodore Panchev, Suriya Velayudham, Jai Chaturvedi Singh, Danny Oprea, Tyler Roberts, Aaron Dhillon, Iris Davies, Harry Chauhan, Dmitry Belousov, Evan Veitch, Roxolana Chaban and Geremia Gover.

Congratulations to all the Kent players for their success, a deserved reward for their hard work, focus, fighting spirit and positive attitude throughout.

Special thanks go to team manager, Robin Davies, for his organisation of the team before and during the event, to GM John Emms for his training and encouragement, and also to all the parents for their wonderful support.

Great performances at the EPSCA U11 Girls' Finals

On Saturday 26 March 2017, Kent's U11 Girls' team travelled to Orleans Park School in Twickenham for the EPSCA Girls' Final.

Following a successful training day the previous Sunday run by GMs Chris Ward and John Emms, the team arrived in good spirits.

However, the quality of the other 15 county teams was emphasised in the 1st round as Kent could only muster 5.5/12 (+ 3/4 in the Reserves) leaving us down in 10th place.

Following an inspiring team talk and some much needed lunch, the team returned to the playing hall and secured a magnificent 8.5/12 in the 2nd round (although the Reserves struggled to 1/4).

Even better was to follow, with Kent scoring 9.5/12 in the 3rd Round. This left Kent in 6th place, albeit only 1.5 points off the four counties that all tied for second position. Congratulations to the Sussex team who finished in a convincing first place.

Well done to All the Kent players who put in a fantastic effort to improve their scores in each round and played some great chess. The reserves also had a good day and ended up in 3rd place in their tournament.

The girls who played were: Navieinaah Haridas, Radha Ratnesan, Iris Davies, Roxolana Chaban, Samantha Mercer, Diya Choudhary, Neya Iyer, Eleanor Colesmith, Josie Marshall, Laura Holmes, Vaidehi Varma, Hollyann Reeves, Sanuvi Amarakoon, Georgina Bruce, Anya Strivastava, Scarlet Watson

It is not fair to single out individuals as this was a real team performance where every player scored at least 1 point, but mention must go to Iris, Roxolana and Laura who all had perfect 3/3 records.

Thanks, as ever, to GM Chris Ward for his inspiration and enthusiasm at the Final. Also to Andrew Bruce, for his work as team manager and Taras Chaban, who was board steward on the day.

Full results are on: http://www.oxfordfusion.com/epsca/

Top place for the U9 team at the EPSCA Zonal

Congratulations to all the players in the KJCA U9 team who came first in EPSCA Zonal tournament at Chingford in Essex on 11th March 2017

Eight counties contested the event with the top five qualifying for the national finals, to be held in Nottingham in April.

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

Team was very consistent scoring a strong 9.5 ,9 and 10 points in rounds 1,2 and 3 respectively for total score 28.5 points and an excellent first place in the tournament.

Richmond were second (26 points), third were Essex (23), Hertfordshire fourth (20.5) with Barnet fifth (19.5).

The Kent reserve players also did very well winning the reserve tournament.

Big congratulations to all the young players who all put in a lot of effort to get such great results.

The winning team were:

Shreyas Royal, James Merriman, Shlok Verma, Stakhey Sedykh, Arthur Chikovsky, Denis Depuis , Raghav Vaidya, Nour Ajili, Herb Balaam, Ismail Longia Zaid, Roxolana Chaban, Aneesh Sagaar , Artemiy Shkuratovskyi, Xirui Mao, George Allen, Yifan Luo, Max Bell, Amit Aryan Sankha

Finally thanks to all the parents and carers who brought our young players along to the tournament and supported the team.

GP6 Sucess at Tonbridge School

GP6 was held at Tonbridge School on Sunday 5th March 2017. The KJCA tournaments are getting very popular with lots of children and young people getting involved with chess. There were over 140 participants, both new and experienced players, across four age sections. The prizewinners in each section were:

U9: 1st Daniel Shek (6/6), 2nd equal Xurui Mao, Aneesh Sagar, Lev Mann, Dylan Paterson and Matthew Mc Loughlin (5/6)

U11: 1st equal Abishekdev Ramesh and Lakshan Siddarth (5.5/6), third Alexander Hodgson (5/6),

The U18 Minor and U18 Major were merged on the day. However, separate prizes were awarded:

U18 Minor: 1st equal Ben Barton and Lakshya Lokwani (4/5), 3rd equal Stakhey Sedykh, Eoin Moore, Roshan Gurjar, Ansh Batura, Ciaran Brightley-Davies, Dennis Dupuis, Raghav Vaidya and Marius Kobler (3/5)

U18 Major: 1st Mikey Watson (5/5), 2nd Orla Dorman (4.5/5) 3rd equal Jacob Watson and James Merriman.

The best scoring primary school on the day (top three raw scores from pupils at that school) was Eltham College Junior and the best scoring secondary school was The Skinners’ School.

To see the full crosstabs from the tournament go to: http://www.kjca.org/result/151

For more photos of the prizewinners and some general shots of the tournament please go to our facebook page at:

https://www.facebook.com/kentjuniorchess/?hc_ref=NEWSFEED

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

It takes a lot of work and willing volunteers to organise a large and successful chess tournament.
Thanks to Mikhail Sedykh for doing the Tournament Director and to GM John Emms and GM Chris Ward for coming along to support the tournament and help in the playing hall. Also arbiting and were John Merriman, Taras Chaban, Gary Titmus, Jo Wildman and Gary Dorman. Also thanks to Conrad Allison for coming along and setting up a coaching desk where he went through games and offered lots of help and advice to the children.

Other kind volunteers on the day were: Kath Barton for bringing along the equipment, Emma Holmes for her role as treasurer and also organising the catering, Kathryn Woodward and Gary Dorman for registration and prizegiving, and ALL other parents and carers who helped with the catering stall on the day. Also thanks to Samantha Metcalfe who organised all the lovely trophies for the prizewinners.

KJCA is run by volunteers to develop chess opportunities for children and young people in Kent and South East London. If anyone is interested in helping at our tournaments or behind the scenes, please do get in touch. We are currently keen for some additional help with catering supplies and bringing to the venue. Please contact us via webmaster@kjca.org or directly to Jo Wildman, current chair of the committee, on jowildman@hotmail.com or 07583337307.

Finally, thanks to Tonbridge School Events for use of the fantastic venue and facilities, and also to Irene and Marie for all there help with the prior arrangements and organisation.

Institute of Chess Exam results - Spring 2017

The results achieved at the KJCA's Institute of Chess examination session held at Sevenoaks Primary School on Sunday 19th February are listed below. Certificates will be presented at our GP6 tournament which will be at Tonbridge School on Sunday 5th March.

Many congratulations to everyone for all their hard work during the coaching days and examinations this season.

For those who were unable to attend coaching day 4 and would still like to take their examination, there is another opportunity on Sunday March 19th at Sevenoaks County Primary School. Please confirm your attendance by emailing on webmaster@kjca.org and arrive between 11am-2pm in order to have sufficient time to be able to take your exam.

Level 5: Coach – GM John Emms: 3 candidates

Distinction:

Charlotte Bruce

Merit:

James Holmes

Marius Kobler

Level 4: Coach – GM Chris Ward and William Jones: 5 candidates

Distinction:

Thomas Crawley-Boevey

Pass:

Laura Holmes

Adam Sameen

Shalini Subbiah

Angus Warne

Level 3: Coaches – Alexis Harakis and Rob Maguire: 23 candidates

100%:

Theodore Panchev

Distinction:

Herb Balaam

Feihong Huang

Ruilin Huang

Kyle Karaman

Yifan Luo

Joshua Moisey

Luke Penfold

Harry Saddington

Aryan Amit Sanka

Anya Srivastava

Merit:

Nour Ajili

Sanuvi Amarakoon

Georgina Bruce

Sebastian Cazac

Ander Curley

Yash Makhija

Reuben Moisey

Aneesh Sagar

Sachin Subbiah

Olly Thwaites

Pass:

Timothee Menoumba

Ethan Patel

Level 2: Coaches – Chris Rice and Mikey Watson: 9 candidates

100%:

George Allen

Distinction:

Eira Collacott

Mitullesh Engarshal

Alana Patel

Danidu Perera

Kevan Pussella

Vaidehi Varma

Pass:

Tinaye Menoumba

Alisha Patel

Level 1: Coaches – Conrad Allison and Jacob Watson: 5 candidates

Merit:

Rylan Ntiamoah

Khushi Patel

Leon Pussella

Pass:

Sanuthi Herath

Top Tournament at Dulwich for GP5

GP5 was held at Dulwich College on Sunday 12th February 2017. This is always a very popular venue and this year was no exception, with over 150 participants across four age sections. The day was full to the brim with great chess games and fun times for all our young players.

Th prizewinners in each section were:

U9: 1st Luca Buanne (6/6), 2nd Aneesh Sagar (5.5/6), 3rd equal Roxolana Chaban, Nour Ajili, Lev Mann, Vincent Ji and Karl Peters (5/6).

U9 Girls prizes: 1st Roxolana Chaban, 2nd Lavinia Fear, 3rd Anya Strivastava

U11: 1st Lakshaya Lokwani (6/6), 2nd equal Aaron Dhillon, Navienaah Haridas, Arthur Chikovsky (5/6),

U11 Girls prizes: 1st Navienaah Haridas, 2nd Iris Davies, 3rd equal Laura Holmes and Eleanor Colesmith

U18 Minor: 1st Eoin Moore (5/5), 2nd equal Jack Chaudhury and Thomas Crawley-Boevey (4/5)

U18 Major: 1st Arul Gupta (4.5/5), 2nd equal Logan Fear, Orla Dorman, Ciaran Brightley-Davies, Shreyas Royal (3/5)

The best scoring primary school on the day (top three raw scores from pupils at that school) was Eltham College Junior and the best scoring secondary school was Westminster School.

For more photos of the prizewinners and some general shots of the tournament please go to our facebook page at:

https://www.facebook.com/kentjuniorchess/?hc_ref=NEWSFEED

To see the full crosstabs from the tournament go to: http://www.kjca.org/result/150

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

Organising such a large and successful chess tournament takes a lot of work and willing volunteers.

Extra thanks go to Mikhail Sedykh for doing the Tournament Director for the first time and ensuring that all the pairings and rounds run smoothly. Also to GM Chris Ward for his expert advice and support throughout the tournament and at the prizegiving.

Other kind volunteers on the day were: Simon Metcalfe for bringing along the equipment, setting up on the day and arbiting the U18 minor section, Mr Gupta for arbiting the U18 Major, John Merriman, Andrew Bruce, Jo Wildman and Richard Weekes for arbiting the U9 and U11 section, Emma Holmes for her role as treasurer and also organising the catering, Kathryn Woodward and Gary Dorman for registration and prizegiving, and ALL other parents and carers who helped with the catering stall on the day.

KJCA is a voluntary run organisation to develop chess opportunities for children and young people in Kent and South East London. If anyone is interested in helping at our tournaments or behind the scenes, please do get in touch. We are currently keen for some additional help with catering supplies and bringing to the venue. Please contact us via webmaster@kjca.org or directly to Jo Wildman, current chair of the committee, on jowildman@hotmail.com or 07583337307.

Finally, thanks to Dulwich College for use of the fantastic venue. It has become a tradition to hold our GP5 at Dulwich and it is now one of the most successful and popular of the season.

Triumphs for Kent Juniors at the South of England Championships and Junior Squad closed tournaments

Over the weekend of the 28th and 29th January, Yateley Manor is host to both the South of England championships (U7, U8, U9, U10, U11, U13 and U15) and the National Junior Squad closed tournaments (U12, U14 and U16 by invitation only).

Well done to all who participated in this national level tournament, which is part of the ECF junior grand prix and a junior squad qualifier. The competition is of a very high standard and there are lots of friendly rivalries between Kent juniors and other young players from around the country.

Special mention to the prizewinners-for their great results and well deserved trophies:

Yifan Luo: Second place in the U7 with a score of 5/6
Roxolana Chaban: Top Girl in the U8 with a score of 4/6
Shlok Verma: Joint Winner in the U9 with a score of 5½/6
Stakhey Sedykh: Joint Winner in the U10 with a score of 5/6
Shreyas Royal: Winner in the U11 with a score of 5/5
Ciaran Brightley-Davies: Joint Second in the U11 with a score of 4/5
Charlie Metcalfe: Third in the U12 Closed with a score of 3½/5 in a very strong section.

To see more photos, please go to our facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/kentjuniorchess/

A full list of ALL the Kent Juniors participating:
U7: Yifan Luo, Max Bell.
U8: Roxolana Chaban, Xurui Mao, Ismail Longia-Zaidi,
U9: Shlok Verma, Theo Lawson, Raghav Vaidya, George Allen
U10: Stakhey Sedykh,
U11: Shreyas Royal, Ciaran Brightley-Davies, Saahil Bansal, Kennan Kesterson, Dominic Coates
U12 closed: Charlie Metcalfe, Viktor Jamroz, Bobby Akeya-Price
U13: Orla Dorman
U14 closed: Aditya Verma
U15: no Kent juniors this year.
U16 closed: Emily Green

To see the crosstabs from all these sections, please go to https://www.southofenglandjunior.com/ and follow the links.

Hopefully the names of all Kent players who participated are above, but if we have accidentally missed anyone or made an error, please let us know and it will be corrected as soon as possible.

Overall a very good weekend for Kent juniors, well done to everyone who competed and to all the parents and carers for their continued support.

Victory for Bobby Akeya Price, Shreyas Royal and Shlok Verma - Full report from the London Junior Chess Championships 2016

The annual finals of the prestigious London Junior Chess Championships (LJCC) were held on the 14-15th December and the 28-30th December 2016.

Kent juniors scored some fantastic successes with special congratulations going to:

Bobby Akeya-Price who came joint first in the U12 major with a score of 7 and half / 9

winning both the London Champion and SCCU Boys Under 11 Champion trophies

Shreyas Royal who came joint first in the U10 Major with a score of 6/7

Winning both the London Champion and SCCU Boys Under 9 Champion trophies

Shlok Verma who came first outright in U8 section with a perfect score of 7/7.

As each year, a large group of Kent juniors qualified and travelled to Harrow to compete in this national level competition. The standards in all sections were very high, however each and every one of the Kent junior proved they were up to the challenge.

A full list of ALL the Kent Juniors participating in the LJCC were:

U8: Shlok Verma, Ismail Longia-Zaidi, Yifan Luo, Xurui Mao, Roxolana Chaban, Max Bell and Joshua Moisey.

U10 Minor: Timothee Menoumba, Anit Aryan Sanka, Evan Thomas Veitch, Dmitry Belousov, George Allen, Ismail Longia-Zaidi, Aneesh Sagar and Max Bell.

U10 Major: Shreyas Royal, Eoin Moore, James Merriman, Stakhey Sedykh, Shlok Verma, Raghav Vaidya, Danny Oprea, Arthur Chikovsky and Edward Ellam. ,

U12 Minor: Radha Ratnesan, Yong Gui Wang, Dominic Coates and Charlotte Bruce.

U12 Major: Bobby Akeya-Price, Charlie Metcalfe, Viktor Jamroz, Shreyas Royal, Dominic Holmes, Saahil Bansal and Stakhey Sedykh.

U14 Minor: Ciaran Brightley-Davies.

U14 Major: no Kent juniors this year.

U16: Ximan Mao and Orla Dorman

U18/U21/Open: Rohan Bansal, Jacob Watson, Ranesh Ratnesan and Mikey Watson.

To see the crosstabs from all these sections, please go to http://www.ljcc.co.uk and follow the link to tournament director. Hopefully the names of all Kent players participating are above, but if we have accidentally missed anyone or made an error, please let us know and it will be corrected as soon as possible.

Well done to everyone that took part and represented Kent juniors in style.