The KJCA Friends & Family tournament was held on Sunday 14^th October 2018 at Sevenoaks Primary School. 

Hosted by GM Chris Ward, the event was a great combination of quality chess, friendships and tasty pizzas.

With five rounds of chess and the pairings arranged by GM Chris, there were lots of tense battles, fun games and inter-generational clashes.

This tournament is a team effort – with the best ‘adult’ score (age 14 and over) added to the best junior score (under 14). Teams compete for the KJCA Friends & Family trophy which goes back over twenty years.  

To add to the excitement, three of the higher graded players - Mikey Watson, Jacob Watson and Patrick Burns played two rounds against the outstanding skills of GM John Emms.

The best scoring junior on the day was Declan Dorman

The best scoring adult (14+) was Mikey Watson

There was a close competition for the overall trophy and it went down to a tense last game. 

However, the winners of the Friends & Family trophy for 2018 was the Dorman Family.  

Congratulations to Gary, Jenny, Orla and Declan for their great chess on the day. 

Thanks to everyone who came along and made it such a fun event and a great introduction to new players and parents. 

The success of the day was down to GM Chris Ward for expertly hosting the tournament and GM John Emms for playing, adding up the final scores and his overall support for the event.   

Thanks also go to all our KJCA volunteers who work in the background to ensure that events and tournaments can go ahead and that the day runs smoothly.

Finally, thanks also go to Sevenoaks Primary school for use of their fantastic new school venue.

Our first GP of the new season was held at Tonbridge Grammar School on Saturday 29^th September 2018.   

As a London Junior Chess Championships (LJCC) qualifier we had lots of strong competitors across the younger sections of U8, U10 and U12. 

It was also great to see lots of our older players entering the popular U18 Minor and U18 Major sections which included some high level, quality chess games.

The prizewinners in each section were:  
 

U8: 1^st Bhavik More (5.5/6 and tie break 21.5) 2^nd David Cazac (5.5/6 and tie break 20.5), 3^rd Joshua Moisey (4/6 and tie break 23.5)

Qualifying for the LJCC U8: Max French, Johani Hackman and Lucas Oprea   

U10: 1^st Makariy Shkuratovskyi (5/6 and tie break 23.5), 2^nd Teo Saunders (5/6 and tie break 22.5), 3^rd Lavinia Fear (4/6 and tie break 22.5)

Also qualifying for the LJCC U10 Major: Oli Garrett, Amelia Rees, Leo Chatterjee, Florian Brasch and Ruairi Isaacs.  

Qualifying for the LJCC U10 Minor: Raffi French, Max Bell, Andy Lin, Devansh Strivastava, Amar Adatia and Roshan Rao  

 
U12: 1^st Tashika Aurora, (5.5/6) 2^nd Lev Mann (5.5/6), 3^rd Lucas Downing (4.5/6 and tie break 23.5).  Also qualifying for the LJCC U12 Major: Anwen Song and Shauyra Metha

Qualifying for the LJCC U12 Minor: Sen Patel, Mateusz Bazan, Ethan Bingzuan Li, Artemy Shkuratovskyi, Danny Oprea, Lucian Cox, Tom Heard, Yifan Luo and Nicas Lialiovici

U18 Minor: 1^st Eoin Moore (5/5), 2^nd Roxolana Chaban (4/5), 3^rd equal Atticus Fear, Yong Gui Wang, Lorcan Pritchard and George Anderton (3/5)

U18 Major: 1st Shreyas Royal (4.5/5), 2nd Logan Fear (4/5) 3^rd : Jacob Watson (3.5/5),
 

The full crosstabs can be seen at:  http://www.kjca.org/result/188  

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

It always takes a lot of time and willing volunteers to put on a large chess tournament. Extra thanks to everyone who ensured that our GP1 tournament took place successfully and ran smoothly including:

Control & Arbiting team: Jo Wildman (ECF NA), Rejean Dupuis (ECF NA), John Merriman, Mikhail Sedykh, Andrew Bruce and Gary Dorman.

Results team: Ben Luo, Deepak More and Gary Titmuss.

GM Chris Ward and GM John Emms for coming to the tournament, help in the playing hall, prizegiving and all their continued support, advice and encouragement to our Kent junior players and their families.

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.

Kent Junior Chess Association, Annual General Meeting

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.