Well done to all the KJCA players who took part in the London Junior Chess Championships 2012!

We had some excellent results in the U12 section. Girinath Haridas and Anantha Anilkumar finished with 7 points out of 9 coming joint first along with two other players. They both did not lose a single game .The medal tally was not decided until Girinath finished his last round which was a very close nail biting game. It went to the last seconds of the allowed time and ended in a draw. This resulted in four players sharing the top prize. 

Girinath Haridas was crowned the Under 12 London Junior Champion and was chosen after he edged Jake Liang on the sum of opponents score. 

Anantha Anilkumar tied with Koby Kalavanan for the leading under 11 prize. 

Jackson Wen finished with 6 points which included an impressive win against the top seed.

Emily Green did very well and was awarded the SCCU under 11 Girls Champion. 

Congratulations to all who participated as qualification to these events alone is tough. Securing victory is an excellent achievement. 

Well done to all!

The fantastic, festive, fun-filled Friends & Family function held on Sunday 9^th December was thoroughly enjoyed by all as the KJCA welcomed not just the regular KJCA junior players, but also many parents, relatives and friends alike.

With GM Chris Ward hosting the event, the emphasis was on having fun, eating, chatting, eating some more and of course playing some chess, followed by a little more eating.

There were still some great and interesting performances by many, but most notable were as follows:

- Best Junior Player: Jackson Wen who won all his games (5/5) with Andrew Gambier and James Mao on 4 points out of 5

- James Mao was awarded the best adult player on tie-break.

- The Wen / Scott family won the prestigious KJCA best family trophy, a trophy already brimming with many famous names from the KJCA annals dating back to 1990.

Many thanks must go to GM Chris Ward for his fabulous hosting skills, Sue Maguire for making the event happen and also to Amherst School for once again opening their doors to the KJCA.

The second GP of the season (also a London Junior Qualifier) was held on Saturday 27th October at Newstead Wood with 60 participants competing across 4 sections.

Section winners were: U8: Dennis Ivin (5 / 6), U10: Kiran Shiatis, Mikey Watson and Mikayel Suvaryan (5 / 6), U12: Kartik Velayudham (5 / 6), U18 / U14 (merged): Conrad Allison and Anantha Anilkumar (4.5 / 5).

The next KJCA event is the training day to be held on 17th November at Sandhurst Primary School. The next GP will be on 19th January 2013 at St Olave's School.

National Youth Chess Association Under 18 Championship, held at the Matthew Arnold Academy, Northampton on Sunday 23^rd September 2012.

An early start to the day did not deter the determination and enthusiasm of our 8 player squad, with a 07.30 start from Eltham College on a cold September morning. 

With team spirit welded and a resolute spirit, the first round saw the team take an early lead of 2.5 points after Round 1, with a score of 7/8. The second round proved to be tougher, with a team score of 5.5/8 and now 1.5 points ahead of South Wales. A final push in the last round and another consistent 5.5/8 saw our team cruise to victory, ahead of second place Sussex and Manchester by 3.5 points, a margin rarely seen at this level of competitive chess.

Congratulations to the whole team on a well-deserved victory. Kent have been close to first place in previous years, but not won this tournament since 2005, so a fitting end to the NYCA Under 18 chess ‘careers’ of both Victor Jones and Conrad Allison. Special mention also goes to Rohan Shiatis, the youngest player in the squad and playing on board 2, which is no mean achievement.

Team members in alphabetical order were KJCA U18s: Conrad Allison, Rohan Bansal, Alexei Davies, Victor Jones, Simon Leung, Raunak Rao, Rohan Shiatis and Patrick Smith.

Perfect scores of 3/3 were recorded for Victor Jones (Beths Grammar and Lewisham Chess Club), Conrad Allison (St  Olave’s Grammar School and Petts Wood Chess Club), Rohan Bansal (Dulwich College and Lewisham Chess Club) and Simon Leung (Harrow School).

Tony Rao

Under 18 Team Manager

National Youth Chess Association under 14 Championship

On the same day, in the U14 competition, our young team came a solid third with 25.5 points. Most of our players were under 12 but that did not deter our players from scoring 8.5 points out of a maximum of 12 in the first round. After the first round we were in second place 1.5 points behind Sussex. We consistently scored 8.5 points in the next two rounds as well but South Wales surged ahead with scores of 11.5 and 9.5 in those two rounds to finish first with 29.5 points. Sussex came second with 28.5 points 

Congratulations to all the players. 

The team in board order were Arul Gupta, Girinath Haridas, Alex Selway, Jackson Wen , Francesco Bernardini, Jessica Wen, Zakary Warsop, Michael Gilbert, Michael Green, , Joelle Hakim, Emily Green, and Isabelle Gilbert.

Jackson Wen (Sevenoaks), Jessica Wen (Sevenoaks), Michael Green(Simon Langton Boys Grammar) and Emily Green ( Goodnestone Primary )scored 3/3 

Anantha P P Anilkumar

KJCA Teams Manager

Isabelle Gilbert from Ashford in Kent has been selected and is due to be attending the World Youth Chess Championships, playing in the U10 girls section, representing England.

We wish Isabelle and the England team every success. Their progress may be followed on:

http://www.wycc2012.com/