The fifth GP for the season was held on Sunday 3^rd March 2013 at Dulwich College with 97 participants competing across four sections.

Top two for each section were:

U9: 1^st equal Navieinaah Haridas, Edward Cross, Robert Akeya-Price and Ben Barton (5 / 6),

U11: 1^st Emily Green (5.5 / 6), 2^nd equal Alejandro Ito-Aramendia and Thomas Hooper (5 / 6),

U14: 1^st equal Jackson Wen and Alexander Selway (4.5 / 5),

U18: 1^st Girinath Haridas (4.5 / 5), 2^nd Rohan Bansal (3.5 / 5).

There was an excellent showing from many schools, with a special mention to large contingents from Amherst in Sevenoaks and Dulwich Prep London. It was good to also welcome so many first time players.Some superb games of chess were played at all levels and this reflected on the excellent training being provided across Kent by our wonderful team of coaches and parents. 

Many thanks to Dulwich College for accommodating us and also a big thanks to the large number of parents who helped before and on the day.

Our next Grand Prix will be held on Sunday 14^th April at The Schools at Somerhill, Somerhill, Tonbridge, Kent, TN11 0NJ, another beautiful venue. This event doubles as the Secondary Schools Championship and starts at 9 am. This will be the sixth GP out of eight for the 2012/13 season. As usual you can enter on line and we hope to see many of you there once again.

Also we wish our Kent teams the best of luck over the next few weeks.

KJCA

Well done to all the Kent juniors who took part in the Wiltshire and West of England Championship in Swindon on 16th and 17th of February 2013.

Of particular note, Girinath Haridas won the Under 12 Championship with 5 points from 6 rounds, with Anantha Anilkumar joint second with 4.5 points. Anantha was joint winner of the U11 section.

Robert Akeya-Price finished third in the U9 section and Jessica Wen was awarded the controllers prize for the best game in her section.

A big well done to all the children who sat the KJCA's Institute of Chess examination held at Barming Primary School on Sunday 3rd February 2013.

The results are listed below and the certificates will be presented at the start of the KJCA Grand Prix tournament at Dulwich College on Sunday 3rd March 2013.

Level 5: Coach – GM John Emms: 3 candidates

Distinction: Michael Green, Kartik Velayudham, Jackson Wen

Level 4: Coach – GM Chris Ward: 10 candidates

Distinction: Xavier Chitnavis, Henry Kerr, Gaurav Kocher

Merit: Nii-Akwei Carty Bing-Pappoe, Thomas Gardner, Emily Green, Alex Thompson, Isaac Willats, Charlotte Wistow

Pass: Emily Wistow

Level 3: Coach – WFM Ros Kieran: 22 candidates

Distinction: Jay Chitnavis, Ryan Malik, Aurideep Nayak, Sachin Wadhwani, Jacob Watson, Hanrui Xue

Merit: Nikhil Chidipothu, Sebastian Davies, Swastik Grover, Navieinaah Haridas, Dennis Ivin, Jacob Scarse, Rishi Sharma, Mikey Watson

Pass: Ella-Marie Barnes, Aditya Jain, Samuel Lord, Neelansh Mishra, Abirami Muthukumar, Aria Sharma, Isabelle Wistow

Level 2: Coach – Robert Maguire: 9 candidates

Distinction: Oliver Dobson, Oleg Gaidai, Kai Hussein, Zafar Khan-Bourne, Aaron Malik, Mikayel Suvaryan, Suriya Velayudham

Merit: Fred Donaldson, Shazia Khan-Bourne

Level 1: Coaches – Robert Maguire and Gary Titmas: 6 candidates

100%: Costas Nomikos

Distinction: Haris Nomikos

Merit: Alice Dobson, Alice Himsworth, Gregory Ivin

Pass: Iris Davies

This was the fourth GP of the season was held on Saturday 9th February 2013 at Gravesend Grammar School with 52 participants competing across four sections (with a combined U8 and U9 section and a combined U14 and U18 section). This event also doubles as the KJCA Primary Championship and medals were awarded to all attendees in the primary championship sections (U11 and below) as well as our prestigious permanent trophies. 

Top two for each section were:

U9 / U8 combined: 1st Justus Genthe (6 / 6), 2nd Mikey Watson (5 / 6), with Nevieinaah Haridas as top U8 (4 / 6) and Saahil Bansal second (3.5 / 6)

U10: 1st Gaurav Kocher (5.5 / 6), 2nd Ryan Malik (4 / 6),

U11: 1st Francesco Bernardini (5.5 / 6), 2nd Ronit Nair (5 / 6),

U18 / U14 combined: 1st equal Rohan Bansal and Anantha Anilkumar  (4 / 5).

As well as the more familiar schools, it was good to welcome a sizeable contingent of players from Anthony Roper Primary School, some playing in their first ever KJCA tournament. 

Many thanks to Gravesend Grammar for accomodating us and also a big thanks to all the parents who helped before and on the day.

Our next Grand Prix will be held on Sunday 3rd March at Dulwich College, Dulwich Common, Dulwich, Kent, SE21 7LD starting at 9 am, which will be the fifth GP of the 2012/13 season. As usual you can enter on line or by sending an email to Sue Maguire at  sue.maguire@btinternet.com. 

KJCA

Well done to all our Kent juniors who played in the 19th South of England Championship at Yateley Manor. 

Particular performances of note were:

Robert Akeya Price won the under 7 section with a perfect score of 6 out of 6. Navieinaah Haridas finished 3rd in the same section. 

Jessica Wen won the under 15 open section with 4 out of 5. Michael Green finished fourth in the same section. This section was a combined under 13s, 15s and 16s. 

Girnath Haridas finished second in U12 closed section with 4 points out of 5. Anantha Anilkumar finished joint 4th in the same section. 

Emily Green finished joint third in the under 11 open section .Francesco Bernardini finished joint fourth in the same section. 

Rohan Bansal finished fourth in Under 16 closed section.  

All the results can be found on clicking the following link.

http://results.tournamentdirector.co.uk/

Well done to all the KJCA players who took part in the London Junior Chess Championships 2012!

We had some excellent results in the U12 section. Girinath Haridas and Anantha Anilkumar finished with 7 points out of 9 coming joint first along with two other players. They both did not lose a single game .The medal tally was not decided until Girinath finished his last round which was a very close nail biting game. It went to the last seconds of the allowed time and ended in a draw. This resulted in four players sharing the top prize. 

Girinath Haridas was crowned the Under 12 London Junior Champion and was chosen after he edged Jake Liang on the sum of opponents score. 

Anantha Anilkumar tied with Koby Kalavanan for the leading under 11 prize. 

Jackson Wen finished with 6 points which included an impressive win against the top seed.

Emily Green did very well and was awarded the SCCU under 11 Girls Champion. 

Congratulations to all who participated as qualification to these events alone is tough. Securing victory is an excellent achievement. 

Well done to all!

The fantastic, festive, fun-filled Friends & Family function held on Sunday 9^th December was thoroughly enjoyed by all as the KJCA welcomed not just the regular KJCA junior players, but also many parents, relatives and friends alike.

With GM Chris Ward hosting the event, the emphasis was on having fun, eating, chatting, eating some more and of course playing some chess, followed by a little more eating.

There were still some great and interesting performances by many, but most notable were as follows:

- Best Junior Player: Jackson Wen who won all his games (5/5) with Andrew Gambier and James Mao on 4 points out of 5

- James Mao was awarded the best adult player on tie-break.

- The Wen / Scott family won the prestigious KJCA best family trophy, a trophy already brimming with many famous names from the KJCA annals dating back to 1990.

Many thanks must go to GM Chris Ward for his fabulous hosting skills, Sue Maguire for making the event happen and also to Amherst School for once again opening their doors to the KJCA.

The second GP of the season (also a London Junior Qualifier) was held on Saturday 27th October at Newstead Wood with 60 participants competing across 4 sections.

Section winners were: U8: Dennis Ivin (5 / 6), U10: Kiran Shiatis, Mikey Watson and Mikayel Suvaryan (5 / 6), U12: Kartik Velayudham (5 / 6), U18 / U14 (merged): Conrad Allison and Anantha Anilkumar (4.5 / 5).

The next KJCA event is the training day to be held on 17th November at Sandhurst Primary School. The next GP will be on 19th January 2013 at St Olave's School.

National Youth Chess Association Under 18 Championship, held at the Matthew Arnold Academy, Northampton on Sunday 23^rd September 2012.

An early start to the day did not deter the determination and enthusiasm of our 8 player squad, with a 07.30 start from Eltham College on a cold September morning. 

With team spirit welded and a resolute spirit, the first round saw the team take an early lead of 2.5 points after Round 1, with a score of 7/8. The second round proved to be tougher, with a team score of 5.5/8 and now 1.5 points ahead of South Wales. A final push in the last round and another consistent 5.5/8 saw our team cruise to victory, ahead of second place Sussex and Manchester by 3.5 points, a margin rarely seen at this level of competitive chess.

Congratulations to the whole team on a well-deserved victory. Kent have been close to first place in previous years, but not won this tournament since 2005, so a fitting end to the NYCA Under 18 chess ‘careers’ of both Victor Jones and Conrad Allison. Special mention also goes to Rohan Shiatis, the youngest player in the squad and playing on board 2, which is no mean achievement.

Team members in alphabetical order were KJCA U18s: Conrad Allison, Rohan Bansal, Alexei Davies, Victor Jones, Simon Leung, Raunak Rao, Rohan Shiatis and Patrick Smith.

Perfect scores of 3/3 were recorded for Victor Jones (Beths Grammar and Lewisham Chess Club), Conrad Allison (St  Olave’s Grammar School and Petts Wood Chess Club), Rohan Bansal (Dulwich College and Lewisham Chess Club) and Simon Leung (Harrow School).

Tony Rao

Under 18 Team Manager

National Youth Chess Association under 14 Championship

On the same day, in the U14 competition, our young team came a solid third with 25.5 points. Most of our players were under 12 but that did not deter our players from scoring 8.5 points out of a maximum of 12 in the first round. After the first round we were in second place 1.5 points behind Sussex. We consistently scored 8.5 points in the next two rounds as well but South Wales surged ahead with scores of 11.5 and 9.5 in those two rounds to finish first with 29.5 points. Sussex came second with 28.5 points 

Congratulations to all the players. 

The team in board order were Arul Gupta, Girinath Haridas, Alex Selway, Jackson Wen , Francesco Bernardini, Jessica Wen, Zakary Warsop, Michael Gilbert, Michael Green, , Joelle Hakim, Emily Green, and Isabelle Gilbert.

Jackson Wen (Sevenoaks), Jessica Wen (Sevenoaks), Michael Green(Simon Langton Boys Grammar) and Emily Green ( Goodnestone Primary )scored 3/3 

Anantha P P Anilkumar

KJCA Teams Manager

Isabelle Gilbert from Ashford in Kent has been selected and is due to be attending the World Youth Chess Championships, playing in the U10 girls section, representing England.

We wish Isabelle and the England team every success. Their progress may be followed on:

http://www.wycc2012.com/