Congratulations to the Kent Girls U11 Team who played superbly to secure 2nd place at the EPSCA Inter-Association Championship on 18 April 2015 in Fairford, Gloucestershire. 

The team of: (1) Navieinaah Haridas; (2) Mahuaa Verma; (3) Annalise Hansen; (4) Orla Dorman; (5) Aria Sharma; (6) Charlotte Bruce; (7) Radha Ratnesan; (8) Mihika Verma; (9) Abirami Muthukumar; (10) Rhea Venkata; (11) Isabelle Wistow; and (12) Iris Davies, scored a magnificent 28.5/36 to finish 2.5 points behind Barnet and 1 point ahead of Nottingham.

It took time for the team to warm up, managing to score 8/12 in the 1^st round to leave the team in 6th place. However, following a rousing lecture from team coach GM Chris Ward, the girls bounced back with 10/12 in the 2nd Round.  This could so nearly have been 12/12 but, with other teams faltering, Kent ended the Round in joint 2nd place.  There was, though, only 1 point separating 2nd from 6th.  Another fine performance in the 3rd Round saw Kent score 10.5/12 to finish in clear 2nd.  However Kent had not been able to claw back the 3.5 point lead Barnet had built up from the 1st Round.

A hard day's chess for all the girls but their hard work was rewarded with a fine result.  Well done all.

Andrew Bruce

Kent Juniors Viktor Jamroz and Kiran Shiatis do well in Adult Tournament!

Congratulations to two of our Kent juniors Viktor Jamroz and Kiran Shiatis who both performed fantastically well at Adult Chess Congresses over the Easter break.

Viktor took part in the St Albans Chess Congress on 28^th and 29^th March. This was Viktor’s first ever adult chess congress and he finished a superb third in the U120 section, scoring 4 points from 5 games against opponents who were all graded much higher.

Viktor receiving his prize for 3rd place

Kiran took part in the Southend Chess Congress on 4^th and 5^th April and finished a hard fought, first position, outright, in the U120 section, scoring an unbeaten 4.5 points from 5.

Kiran receiving his prize for first place

These adult chess congresses are long play tournaments. This  means that not only are you playing against vastly more experienced players who are often three times your own size, but that each game could go one for over three hours. As such every single game demands a huge amount of concentration and continual focus – not easy when you are still a junior. For two of our Kent juniors to come third and first in such tournaments, is a huge achievement. Congratulations to both Viktor and Kiran!!. 

Congratulations to our superb young Kent U11 team which fought hard and took equal first place on points with Barnet at the U11 EPSCA Zonal and qualifying for the final in style. Unfortunately, we narrowly missed out by one win to Barnet in the tie break and had to settle for silver medals.

The EPSCA U11 Zonal was hosted by Northampton at the splendid Malcom Arnold Academy on Saturday 21^st March 2015 with 10 county teams all competing for a place in the EPSCA final and to be awarded champions of the EPSCA East Zone.

Despite the drizzly weather, the team spirit of Kent’s youngsters was bright and cheerful. We commenced the day full of enthusiasm and anticipation, eager for the team talks which were led on this occasion by Rohan Shiatis KCM. It was a team with a valuable balance of experience and youth; many playing for Kent for the first time; each player conducting themselves with good grace and maturity. It was a day to truly make us proud to be a part of Kent Junior Chess.

Right from the go, it was clear that our players were not just there to qualify for the final but to have a real go at taking the East Zone title. With a solid 15 out of 20, we were second equal after the first round with Barnet, Herts taking the lead by half a point. Northants and Richmond were fourth equal on 11.5 points. Our reserves scored a sound 3 points from 7.

Following wise team building words from Rohan, the team upped their game in the second round and scored a strong 16 out of 20, taking our overall score to 31. Barnet scored 16.5 in the round putting them on 31.5 overall and so taking a narrow half point lead into the last round. Herts had dropped to third with a total of 29 points but were still close behind, Essex had moved up to fourth with 25.5 points. Our reserves scored a superb 5 points from 7 taking their total to 8.

The team fought hard in the last round, increasing their tally and scored the best single round score of the day with a superb 18 points from 20, taking our total to 49. After three gruelling rounds and over 300 hard fought games, the title decider went down to one of the last matches to be finished on the day, Kent Board 2 against Barnet Board 2. It could not have been closer and the two players battled hard but could not be separated on the board, finally agreeing a draw. With Barnet scoring 17.5 points in the final round, it meant the two teams were tied on 49 points apiece, with Herts third on 42.5 points and Essex fourth with 36 points.

The EPSCA rule books came out. The tie break went down to the team with the most number of wins on the day and Barnet narrowly pipped us by a single extra win.

Our reserves scored 4 points from 7 in the final round taking their total to 12 points, also narrowly missing out to Barnet. There were strong performances by all of the reserves, but special mention to David Dallakyan who scored 3 out of 3.

The final scores were as follows:

Kent and Barnet 49, Hertfordshire 42.5, Essex 36, Northamptonshire 31.5, Richmond 28.5, Suffolk 19.5, Newham 18.5, Cambridgeshire 17.5 and Leicestershire 8.5.

Congratulations to each and every one of our team members, as they all played their part in securing this hugely credible result for the county.

The team was as follows:

Ximan Mao (Team Captain), Ranesh Ratnesan, Rajeiv Ratnesan, Kiran Shiatis, Haolin Zhao, Mikey Watson, Bobby Akeya-Price, Aryan Narayan, Nikhil Chidipothu, Viktor Jamroz, Huseyin Gueriane, Charlie Metcalfe, Mahuaa Verma, Annalise Hansen, Orla Dorman, Navieinaah Haridas, Ben Barton, Alex Garfield, Oliver Dobson, Freddie Nunn, Adit Bhavesh, Kimball Catling, David Dallakyan, Moad Shamekh, Sam Cartwright, Thomas Crawley-Boevey and Aditya Jain.

A huge thank you to all the players, parents, supporting siblings, Rohan Shiatis KCM (for his inspirational words), GMs Chris Ward and John Emms, our team managers Andrew and Krishna Shiatis, all the great coaches working hard behind the scenes in Kent, the team at Northampton led by Nigel Mapletoft, EPSCA and all the great volunteers at the KJCA who help to keep the Kent Juniors consistently strong!

Full results will be published on:

http://www.oxfordfusion.com/epsca/index.cfm

We look forward to the final to be held on Saturday, 9^th May 2015.

Best wishes

Andrew and Krishna

U11 Team Managers

Congratulations to the KJCA U9 team who came third in ESPCA Zonal qualifying tournament at Richmond on March 14. Nine counties contested the event with top five qualifying for national finals in Northampton on Saturday April 25th.

Strong performances in the first round meant the team scored eight and half points out of twelve lying  two to three points behind the leaders

In both the second and third rounds the team scored seven and half points to finish on 23.5 points in total , finishing in third place behind winners Barnet 31 and Hertfordshire 29. 

Highlights of the day were  Haolin's extraordinary endgame win against a very strong player from Barnet in round 1 and some great performances in the reserve tournament where Mason, Haran and Suriya all scored 3/3. 

Congratulations to all the children who all put in a lot of effort in with some great results. The team were:

Haolin Zhao, Robert (Bobby) Akeya-Price, Yong Gui Wang, Saahil Bansal, Ciaran Brightley-Davies, Sasmit Neogi, James Merriman, Arjun Javagal, Radha Ratnesan, Jai Singh Chaturvedi, Mihika Verma, Max Wilkinson, Mason Graves-Brown, Dominic Coates, Theodore Panchev, Misha Lello, Suriya Velayudham, Madhav Suraj and Haran Subrahmaniyam.