Fun at the Friends & Family Tournament

The KJCA Friends & Family tournament was held on Sunday 11th September at Sevenoaks Primary School.

Hosted by GM Chris Ward, the event attracted several parents, first-time and experienced young players and even encouraged the Sevenoaks Town Mayor, Andrew Eyre and the Town Clerk, Linda Larter, to come along and try out their chess skills.

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

This event is a team effort – with the best ‘adult’ score (age 14 and over) added to the best junior score (under 14). Teams were competing for the prestigious KJCA Friends & Family trophy which goes back over twenty years. Chris also gave out some individual prizes for a variety of achievements throughout the day.

To add to the excitement, the final round also included a four-board simul with the highest graded players –  Ximan Mao, Mikey Watson, Jacob Watson and Patrick Burns pitting their chess knowledge against the outstanding skills of GM John Emms.

The best scoring junior on the day was Mikey Watson with 4.5/5

The best scoring adult was Jenny Dorman with 4/5

There was close competition for the overall trophy but the best team and winners of the Friends & Family trophy for 2016 was the ‘Watson Wizards’ with a score of 8 out of 10 and just beating the ‘Dormanators’ on the final tie-break.

For more photographs of the day, please visit our KJCA facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/kentjuniorchess/?hc_ref=NEWSFEED

Thanks to everyone who came along and made it such a fun opener to the KJCA chess season.

The juniors all enjoyed both the chess and the football and fun in-between rounds and, hopefully, the adults were inspired to get more involved and play chess more often.  Thanks also to our Sevenoaks Town council guests Andrew Eyre and Linda Larter for getting involved.

Finally thanks to GM Chris Ward for expertly hosting the tournament and GM John Emms for playing the simul.   Also to all our KJCA volunteers who ensure that events and tournaments can go ahead and that the day goes well …. despite the afternoon appearance of Sevenoaks orchestra J  The lunch was organised by Jo Wildman, with help from Iulia Oprea, Andrew Bruce and Emma Holmes on the day, and Kath Barton delivered the equipment.  

Thanks also go to Sevenoaks Primary for use of their venue.