News

Displaying 51-60 of 289 result(s).

Silver trophies for the Kent U11 Girls' Team

The Kent U11 Girls had a fantastic result at the EPSCA Final on 24 March 2018 at Cheney School in Oxford.  

The team finished 2nd out of the 12 counties taking part.  The runners-up position behind Barnet was secured through some determined and consistent play.  

After scoring 9/12 in Round 1 to lie 1st equal, the girls consolidated with 8/12 in Round 2 leaving them just 0.5 ahead of Berkshire in 3rd. A spirited 8.5/12 in Round 3 was enough to win the silver trophies. 

Particular congratulations go to team captain, Radha, and to Eleanor, Krisha and Hollyann who all won all their games. Well done also to our reserves who gained valuable experience for the years to come.  
The full team was: Radha Ratnesan, Roxolana Chaban, Stefania Iosub, Vaidehi Varma, Anya Srivastava, Zara Pepper, Laura Holmes, Eleanor Colesmith, Krisha Kamat, Teodora Iosub, Hollyann Reeves, Georgina Bruce, Scarlet Watson, Violet Davies & Sophia Ciobotaru.  

Thanks to all the parents who drove to Oxford and supported the girls over a long and tiring day and to GM Chris Ward whose wise counsel and inspirational talks spurred the girls on to their terrific result.


Andrew Bruce -  Team Manager - Girls' U11

All GO for GP6 at Harris Academy Beckenham

Just to confirm that GP6 on Sunday 4th March is still going ahead. 

We have been in touch with the school, Harris Academy in Beckenham, and all is fine for our event.  
Also, the weather forecast for Sunday is showing higher temperatures and no wintry weather. 

(Obviously if there is a serious deterioration in the weather conditions before Sunday then we will post any changes both here and on the KJCA facebook page and twitter feed - but this is very unlikely)

We look forward to another successful GP tournament and welcoming all our young chess players to a full day of chess and fun with friends.

Regards
KJCA 

Success for the Kent teams at the ECF U18 County Championships

Congratulations to the Kent U18 Open team for winning the ECF County Championships for the second time running.

This year the event was held in Grantham, Lincolnshire, and it took the form of a two-round standardplay tournament.  There were two sections, U18 Open (12 Boards) and the U18 Minor (6 Boards). Kent entered a team into both sections.

The young players taking part were:  Freddie Hand, Aditya Verma, Mikey Watson, Jacob Watson, Aurideep Nayak, Shlok Verma, Saahil Bansal, Ben Barton, Eoin Moore, Nikhil Chidipothu, Lakshya Lokwani, Orla Dorman, Ciaran Brightley-Davies, Marius Kobler, Iris Davies, Roxolana Chaban and Scarlet Watson.

It was an early start for the long journey to Grantham, with the majority of the Kent squad meeting to travel together on a mini-coach.  After a smooth run up the A1 and a short struggle to find somewhere to park at the venue, all arrived in the team room ready for the first-round battles.

Unfortunately, due to illness, players had dropped out the previous evening and one of our squad was unable to come along at the last minute. So, some of the players were moved up a board and some of our younger players got the chance to play, but sadly we still had to default the bottom board of the minor team. 

However, with smiles and enthusiasm all the Kent players stepped up to the challenge and we soon had some great results coming in.  

After round one the Open team were equal first with Sussex, with Surrey just behind – so it was still all to play for and could go either way.

The Minor team also achieved a fantastic score in the first round and stood on 4 out of 6 points which was a credible third place. 

The second round brought tensions and excitement as the scores slowly came in and we tried to calculate who would be the winning county. Every game and every half point counted.  All the county teams had strong players and there were some quality chess on many boards.  It wasn’t until the final games finished that the very close result was guaranteed.


The final results in the Open section were: 

1st - Kent  - 16.5 points

2nd - Sussex - 16 points

3rd - Surrey - 15 points

4th Hertfordshire - 9.5 points 

5th equal -  Leistershire and Suffolk  - 7.5 points.


The final results in the Minor section were: 

1st - Norfolk - 9 points 

2nd - Yorkshire - 8.5 points

3rd - Kent  -  7 points  (from 5 out of 6 boards) 

4th - Nottinghamshire - 5 points

5th - Surrey - 2 points

6th -  Hertfordshire - 1.5 points.

Congratulations and thanks to each and every player for their great chess games, everyone got a score to add to the totals.  Also for their general positive attitude and team spirit throughout the event. It was a pleasure to spend time with everyone on the day. 

Also to GM Chris Ward for his advice and support during the run-up to the event, and thanks to Gary Dorman for his help on the day. 

The Kent teams rely on the support of all the parents and carers who bring the young players to the events and it is much appreciated.

Finally, thanks go to Neill Cooper - ECF manager of secondary chess, Lincolnshire chess and the King School, Grantham for a very well run, friendly and relaxed tournament.


Jo Wildman – Team Manager


 




Results from the Institute of Chess exams - Spring 2018

The results achieved at the KJCA’s Institute of Chess examination session, held at Sevenoaks Primary School on Sunday 18 February 2018, are listed below.

 

The certificates will be presented during the afternoon of our KJCA GP6 tournament at Harris Academy, Beckenham on Sunday 4 March. 

 

Many thanks to the coaches this season who were: GM Chris Ward, GM John Emms, Adam Bukojemski, Alexis Harakis, William Jones, Rob Maguire, Conrad Allison, Jacob Watson and Mikey Watson. 

 

Level 5: 2 candidates 

 

Distinction:   Thomas Crawley-Boevey 

 Yong Gui Wang 

 

Level 4: 13 candidates 

 

Distinction:  Dmitry Belousov 

Egor Chernyshov 

Arjun Jadhav 

Shaurya Mehta 

Vaidehi Varma 

 

Merit:              Nour Ajili 

Sebastian Cazac 

Kyle Karaman 

Yifan Luo 

Oliver Poulter 

 

Pass:              Sanuvi Amarakoon 

Abhigyan Bagchi 

Ander Curley 

 

Level 3 23 candidates 

 

Distinction: George Allen 

Mateusz Bazan 

Zeno Burns 

Oli Garrett 

Mark Hodovanets 

Adi Lovlekar 

James Shum 

Adi Srivastava 

Noah U-King-Im 

Vincent Uong 

Scarlet Watson 

 

Merit:              Mitullesh Engarshal 

Krisha Kamat 

Sajana Pathirana 

Danidu Perera 

Teo Saunders 

Aaron Shum 

Sophia Wang 

 

Pass:              Anjola Adekoya 

Alana Patel 

Alisha Patel 

Kevan Pussella 

 

Level 2: 11 candidates 

 

100%:             Alex Mo 

 

Distinction:   Grace Allen 

Felix Coker 

Sean Duffy 

Rishi Ruparellia 

Matthew van Vuuren Cassar 

Pavan Sai Yalamanchi 

Ryan Yuan 

 

Merit:             Samuel Evans 

 

Pass:              Luna Yi 

 

Level 1: 4 candidates 

 

Distinction: Misha Agrawal 

Laurie Yorke 

 

Merit:              Rhea Agrawal 

Maxwell Grant 

 

Many congratulations to everyone on great results

 

Please note:  If any young students (who attended at least 2 of the coaching days) would still like to take their exam there will be an opportunity at the team coaching day on Sunday 18th March 2017. Anyone wishing to do this should email webmaster@kjca.org to confirm,  and will need to be at the venue between 11am – 2pm.  

 

 

Newsflash - Success for James and Shreyas at the West of England Championships

NEWSFLASH .... Well done to all Kent Juniors playing at the West of England tournament this weekend (17-18th February 2018).   A big congratulations from all at KJCA to:  


James Merriman for winning the U12 Championships

Shreyas Royal for winning the U14 Major section


More details and photos to follow .....

ECF Girls' SE Rapidplay - Full report

Kent Junior Chess Association (KJCA) were delighted to host the  ECF SE Girls’ Rapidplay Championships at Bromley High School on Sunday 15th October 2017.

 

There were over 70 young girls from around the area taking part across five age-groups. The prizewinners in each section were as follows:

U8: 1st Yashasvini Sreeram 6/6, 2nd Siena Gurjar 5/6, 3rd Amelia Rees 4/6

 

U10: 1st Amaya MacDonald 5.5/6, 2nd Olga Latypova 5/6, 3rd equal Ashwini Haria-Skuse, Zoha Asraf, Lavinia Fear 4.5/5


U12: 1st Anum Sheikh 5.5/6, 2nd Elizabeth Finn 4.5/5, 3rd equal Georgina Headlong, Anika Roy and Abigail Weersing 4/5

 

The U14 and U15-18 sections were merged on the day. However, separate prizes were awarded:

 

U14: 1st Orla Dorman 4.5/6, 2nd Polina Shchepinova 4/6, 3rd Elizabeth Johnson 3.5/6

 

U15-18: 1st Laura Davidson 4.5/6, 2nd equal Elizaveta Sheremetyeva and Sarah Weersing 4/5

 

Full results and crosstabs can be found on the KJCA website at: http://www.kjca.org/result/167

 

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

It takes a lot of work and willing volunteers to organise a large chess tournament. A big thank you to Priscilla Morris, our chief arbiter, who did a fantastic job keeping everything under control and to Andrew Bruce who helped in the playing hall. Jo Wildman kept all pairing and results up to date as tournament director.  

 

Also, thanks to GM Chris Ward for his advice and expertise on the day. Other KJCA volunteers who made the day a success were Emma Holmes, Gary Dorman, Kathryn Woodward, Samantha Metcalfe, Conrad Allison and Mikey Watson for organising the extra activities, analysing games, refreshments, complimentary pizzas and ordered all the medals and trophies.  

 

The ECF help in the background was much appreciated. Thanks to Andrew Walker for setting up the online entries and advertising the details on the website, and to Traci Whitfield, Director of Junior Chess, for her continued support and work to develop junior chess.

 

Final thanks must go to Bromley High School for use of the fantastic school venue and to their Headteacher, Angela Drew, for coming along and presenting all the trophies and medals at the prizegiving and helping to promote girls’ chess at her school and in the local area.

News and updates ....

Well done to all our Kent Juniors who have playing in recent KJCA events and also all those who compete in national and other tournaments throughout the year - Including the recent West of England, London Juniors, Yateley Manor, Junior 4NCL, county team events and the Main 4NCL.


News, results, reports and photos from all recent KJCA tournaments and other national events will again be published on this website and on our KJCA facebook page as soon as possible. 


We have been working to resolve the online issues and thanks go to Sumitra Varma, Alexis Harakis, Vsevolod Belousov and Richard Ellison for all their time and technical expertise.


So ... .... watch this space for more details of the recent KJCA events and how all our talented Kent juniors have been getting on at tournament and events around the country.....

 



GP3 - This Sunday 19th November at Bullers Wood - Please note details on Parking

We look forward to welcoming all our young chess players to the KJCA GP3 tournament this coming Sunday 19th November at Bullers Wood School.  

There will be four sections, U9, U11, U18 Minor and U18 Major.

The venue is: Bullers Wood School, St Nicolas Lane, Logs Hill, Chislehurst, Kent, BR7 5LJ.

Please note: Due to changes in the layout at the school, there is unfortunately no parking in the school grounds on this occasion.

However, alternative parking is available on the surrounding roads such as: Park Farm Road, Westleigh Drive, St George's Road or on the main road Chislehurst Road which is fine for parking on Sundays.
Please ensure you arrive with a little extra time to be able to park on one of these road and walk into the school grounds. 

If coming by public transport then Chislehurst train station is a 15 minute walk from the school.

If your young chess player is planning to come along, please do register them as soon as you can at: http://www.kjca.org/event/164

European Youth Chess Championships - Full Report

The European Youth Chess Championships were held in September this year in Mamiai Romania. Mamia is a Black Sea resort close to Constanta. 

Our Kent players were Shlok Verma and Shreyas Royal in the U8 Open and Charlie Metcalfe in the U12 Open. 
The European Youth is one of the strongest Junior events with some of the worlds best players but especially from countries such as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Hungry, Poland, Russia and Ukraine. 

Shlok and Shreyas were the highest seeded England players and were contenders throughout the event. The level of chess they played was extraordinary and it is often easy to forget they are still U8s. Shlok won his last game to record a great 7/9. Shreyas also won his last game to finish on a wonderful score of 8/9, the joint highest score. A magnificent achievement by both our players and for Shreyas the Silver medal with 2nd overall and only on the head to head tie break. It has been some time since an England junior won a medal which makes his achievement all the more impressive.

The U12 Open was always going to be a tough event with the top seed rated 2351, (roughly 220 ECF.) Most of Charlie's games were over 4 hours with several close games going to the wire. Every point was hard won but he battled to a respectable 5/9, which included a satisfying win in his last game. 

From a Kent perspective, this was another event that highlights the strength of Kent Junior Chess. We have England players across our age groups competing in a variety of international events which is testament to the KJCA. The high quality of the Kent coaching, the competitiveness of the Kent Junior events, the commitment of players, their parents and the volunteers at KJCA are all key factors that have helped all our juniors progress. 

Well done to Shlok, Shreyas and Charlie. 

All go for great chess at GP1

The first GP of the 2017-18 season was held at Tonbridge Girls’ Grammar School on Saturday 16th September 2017. 

 

As a London Junior Chess Championships (LJCC) qualifier we had lots of strong competitors across the younger sections of U8, U10 and U12. Also a combined U18 Minor and Major section gave our older players some good quality chess games.

 

The prizewinners in each section were:

U8: 1st  Alexey Lapidus (5.5/6), 2nd  Rohan Pasari (5/6), 3rd equal Yashasvini Steeram and Adi Srivastava (4.5/6).

Also qualifying for the LJCC U8: Joshua Moisey and Sofia El-Bachir

 

U10: 1st James Lindquist (5.5/6), 2nd equal Yifan Luo and Lev Mann (5/6).

Also qualifying for the LJCC U10 Major: Artemiy Shkuratovskyi, Kavin Thooran, Amit Aryan Sanka.   Qualfying for the LJCC U10 Minor: Dylan Paterson, Theo Kritzinger, Siena Gurjar, Lavinai Fear, Teo Saunders, Nour Ajili, Max Bell, Roxolana Chaban, Ismail Longia-Zaidi, Reuben Moisey, Sebastian Cazac.


U12: 1st (5.5/6) Denis Dupius, 2nd (5/6) Shahjahon Saidmurodov, 3rd equal Logan Fear and Stakhey Sedykh (4.4/6).  All also qualifying for the LJCC U12 Major.

Also qualifying for the LJCC U12 Minor were:  Yacine El-Bachir, Kirill Povarenkin, Roshan Gurjar, Ciaran Brightley-Davies, Dominic Coates and Samantha Mercer.

 

The U18 Minor and U18 Major were merged on the day. However, separate prizes were awarded:

 

U18 Minor: 1st Thomas Crawley-Boevey (3/5), 2nd equal Charlotte Bruce, Atticus Fear, James Holmes and Lorcan Pritchard (2.5/5)

 

U18 Major: 1st Jacob Watson (5/5), 2nd Mikey Watson (4/5) 3rd  equal: (3/5)  Orla Dorman, James Merriman and Eoin Moore


The full crosstabs are now published at: http://www.kjca.org/result/162


The top performing primary school at the tournament was The Pointers School and the top secondary school was Knole Academy.


For further photos of the prizewinners, please look at our facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/kentjuniorchess/?hc_ref=ARQ-F-n4L13XIHyWBnA-RtO-hkN7QH8nR7rngpne3cbWBCnJkR5N7PBsxYeMoPh9MG8

 

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

It takes a lot of work and willing volunteers to organise a large and successful chess tournament.


Extra thanks go to Mikhail Sedykh for doing the Tournament Director and GM John Emms for coming along to support the tournament and help in the playing hall.  Also helping in the playing hall were  John Merriman, Rejean Dupius, Cosmin Oprea, Gary Dorman and Jo Wildman.    

 

Other kind volunteers on the day were: Kathryn Woodward for booking and liaising with the venue and helping with registration, Cosmin Oprea for bringing along the equipment, Emma Holmes for her role as treasurer and also helping with registration, Samantha Metcalfe who organised the trophies and medals for the prizewinners and Conrad Allison who offered game analysis and training on the day.

 

KJCA is run by volunteers to develop chess opportunities for children and young people in Kent and South East London.

 

We are looking for some additional helpers to help out this season.  Please do consider it as our organisation thrives on volunteers and it is great to work together to create good events and opportunities for our children and young people.

 

Please speak to one of the team at our tournaments or contact us via webmaster@kjca.org or directly to Jo Wildman, current chair of the committee, on jowildman@hotmail.com or 07583337307.

Finally, thanks go to Tonbridge Girls’ Grammar School for use of the fantastic school venue and providing good quality catering in the sixth form block.