Gibraltar Junior International August 2014

Congratulations to all the Kent Juniors who travelled to the 4th Gibraltar Junior International at the Caleta Hotel on the famous rock, on the weekend of the 23rd / 24th of August. Many rounds of serious chess were played, interspersed with master classes by the visiting GMs and many other fun activities such as a Dolphin tour, rock safaris and daily swimming sessions in the sea.

Overall there were around 100 players from the UK, Spain, Azerbaijan, Czech Republic, Belgium, Portugal, USA, Morocco, Russia, Latvia and Gibraltar.

There were just two sections, U12 and U16. Anantha Anilkumar KCM played in the U12 section along with Robert Akeya-Price, an U9, whilst Jackson Wen KCM, an U13, played in the U16 section along with Michael Green. All four the Kent juniors played extremely well.

Bobby finish with a superb 4 points out of 6 in the under 12 and also did extremely well in the blitz tournament.

A big well done to Anantha though, who jointly won the Under 12 section along with three other players, scoring a fantastic 5 points out of 6, with no losses.

Full results for the U12 can be found on:  http://www.gibraltarchesscongress.com/junior/crosstable_u12.htm

Michael was one of the leading players in the U16 section and was playing against the top board in the last round. Unfortunately a loss brought his position to equal 5th overall but still one of the top England players in the section.

Despite his age, Jackson did extremely well playing in tough group with players up to three years older than him and finished with a creditable 3.5 points.

The full results for the U16 can be found on:

http://www.gibraltarchesscongress.com/junior/crosstable_u16.htm

In the open blitz, Anantha and Michael both finished just outside the medal section with 6/9 and also both managed a fantastic draw in the simul with the visiting grand masters.

http://www.gibraltarchesscongress.com/junior/blitz_xtable_2014.htm

A big thank you to the managers of the National Junior Squad Glynis and Ian for giving the squad members an opportunity to play in this excellent event and also for looking after them so well.

We hope to see other Kent squad players making use of this opportunity to play at the event next year. If there is enough demand we may try and send a squad from Kent to compete next year.

KJCA