Kent Junior Newsround Update no. 19

The annual finals of the prestigious London Junior Chess Championships were held over two weekends in December 2014 (13-14th and 28-30th). Well done to all the Kent Juniors who travelled to Harrow to compete in this national level competition.

As always, the standard was very high and Kent players achieved some fantastic results - from the older players winning their sections to younger players competing at a national level for the first time. We do hope we have picked up all the names below, but if we have accidentally missed anyone or have made an error, please let us know and we will correct this as soon as possible.  

U8:  This section included an array of promising youngsters from across the country.

Well done to Yong Gui Wang and Sasmit Neogi who both scored 5/7 and ended up in equal fifth place.

Other young players representing Kent were Radha Ratnesan, Madhav Suraj, Suriya Velayudham, James Merriman and Laurence Madgett.

U10 Minor: Well done to David Dallakyan and Ciaran Brightley-Davies who both scored 5/7 and Kimball Catling with 4.5/7.

Also playing in this sections were Theodore Panchev, Sasmit Neogi, Suriya Velayudham, William Gough, Saahil Bansal, Radha Ratnesan, Mihika Verma, Haran Subrahmaniyan and Theo Moran.

U10 Major: In a very strong field, Bobby Akeya-Price and Ranesh Ratnesan played some quality chess on the top boards. Bobby had a great tournament finishing equal third on 5½/7 and with Ranesh just behind on 5/7.

There were also some great results from Viktor Jamroz with 4½/7 and Charlie Metcalfe and Huseyin Gueriane who both got 4/7. There were also good performances from Haolin Zhao, Dominic Coates, Oliver Dobson, Navieinaah Haridas, Oliver Dobson, Jai Singh Chaturvedi, Yong Gui Wang, Max Wilkinson, Efe Shimwell and Harry Chen.

U12 Minor:  Aurideep Nayak played some great chess in this section to reach the prize position of equal fourth with a score of 6.5/9.

Also achieving a great result was Huseyin Gueriane who got 5.5/9.

Other players in this section were Arjun Gobiraj, Charlie Metcalfe, Ciaran Brightley-Davies, Navienaah Haridas, Aditya Jain and Mikayel Suvaryan.

U12 Major: Once again the Major section included many high graded national players and the quality of chess was impressive. Well done to our Kent players who were playing on the top boards.

Mikey Watson got a great result of 6/9 and there were also strong performances from Bobby Akeya-Price, Rajeiv Ratnesan, Ranesh Ratnesan and Nikhil Chidipothu.

U14 Minor: Nikhil Chidipothu and Alejandro Ito-Aramendia played great games against older opponents in this section. They both achieved equal second place with a score of 4.5/6.

Also playing in this section were Aurideep Nayak, Aditya Jain and Mahuaa Verma.

U14 Major: This section included several high level national players. A great result for Kent player Kartik Velayudham, who came joint second with 4.5/6. Rajeiv Ratnesan was also playing.

U16: The quality and experience of the teenagers in this section was exceptional, so a fantastic result from Yasmin Giles who won with a score of 5/6.

Anantha Anilkumar also did very well, only dropping out of the prize positions in the last round.

Also playing were Michael Green and Haolin Zhao.

U18/U21/Open: This was a fiercely contested section which included two IMs and other very strong adult players. Kent players Girinath Haridas and Rohan Bansal were equal to the challenge and played very well to achieve joint second place with a score of 4.5/6. Girinath had all to play for in the last round and achieved a draw against Anthony Zhang who was the eventual winner of the section. However, as Anthony is not from the London area, Girinath received the London U21/U18 prize.

Also, playing in this section was Freddie Hand who achieved an early win against a player with a fide rating of 2074.

Christmas Congress U165 and U125: Kent junior Jacob Watson decided to challenge himself by playing up in the adult U165 section. He achieved three very good draws against adults with much higher ECF grades, one almost double Jacob's current level.

Also well done to Sholpan Namazbayeva, Bobby's mum, who played in the U125 section.

KJCA