KENT U11 team - EPSCA National Champions for the second year running

Congratulations to all the Kent U11 team for winning the EPSCA 2019 EPSCA U11 Finals and becoming the National Champions for the second year running.

The finals were held in Birmingham on Saturday 30th March. Most of the team travelled together on the train in the morning.  Sixteen teams from across the country qualified for the finals and the competition was expected to be tough. Last year Kent had won the event on tie break after finishing on equal points with Richmond and we expected another very close event throughout the day.

The day started well with Kent scoring 17 points from 20 in the first round ending in equal position with Richmond, with Oxfordshire third on 16 points.

The team pushed on with a strong 16.5 points in the second round. Going into the last round Kent were leading Richmond in second place by one and half points. What was interesting about the second round was that the Kent team lost 3 games at the start of the round and then went on a fantastic run in the final 17 games dropping only 1 draw

Momentum continued into the final round with Kent wins gaining the team 18 from the first 19 points and then losing the final game to finish on a marvelous 18/20. The other leading teams could not match this final round burst and final scores were 1) Kent 51.5/60 2) Richmond 48/60 3) Oxfordshire 44.5/60

The reserve team played alongside the main team event playing some great chess to win the reserve tournament with a score of 11/12 across four players in a very convincing performance.

The full team were Shreyas Royal, James Merriman, Shlok Verma, Dennis Dupuis, Stakhey Sedykh, Lev Mann, Mateusz Bazan, Raghav Vaiyda, Roxolana Chaban, Artemiy Shkuratovskyi,Nour Ajili, Ismail Longia- Zaidi,Shaurya Mehta , Aneesh Sagar, Oli Garett, Xirui Mao, Amit Aryan Sankha,Yifan Luo, Teo Saunders, Rohan Pasari, Roshan Rao, Makariy Shkuratovskyi ,Arman Tengayev and Ankit Gaekwad.

Many thanks to GM Chris Ward and GM John Emms and to our team manager John Merriman 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.

Winning this national event two years consecutively is a great achievement for Kent Junior Chess and the future for these promising young players looks bright. Well done to everyone.

For full results go to http://www.oxfordfusion.com/epsca/

Success for Kent U18 and U14 teams at the SCCU Jamboree

The Kent U14 and U18 teams competed in the recent SCCU Janboree which was held at Barnet on Sunday 17th March. 

Kent Girls U11 team at the National Finals

Congratulations to the Kent U11 Girls’ team that played in the EPSCA Inter County Finals on 23 March 2019 at Grace Academy in Solihull.  

New club for 11-18 year olds - Wednesdays at House in the Basement, Stag theatre, Sevenoaks

A new chess club, aimed at 11-18 year olds, will be held at House in the Basement, Stag theatre, Sevenoaks on a Wednesday evening from 5-7pm.

Kent U9 Team take second place at the ESPCA East Zonal

Well done to all our the U9 team for a great second place in the EPSCA East Zonal 2019. 

Some great results and quality chess from our young team, all of whom contributed to the overall scores.

Also a big thanks to team manager Ben Luo and coach GM Chris Ward for their work and inspiration throughout the day. 

Thanks also go to all the parents and carers for taking their kids to the event and their continued support to help them enjoy and develop their chess.