12th Grand Master Chess training camp with GM Chris Ward and GM John Emms

Wednesday 22nd July, 10am to 4pm (registration at 9:30am)

At St. David’s College, Justin Hall, Beckenham Road, West Wickham, BR4 0QS

GM Chris Ward and  GM John Emms, will head a group of four coaches which will work with small groups of children to improve their chess awareness and skill in a fun environment.

We aim for small groups of about 10 so that we can dedicate enough attention to   everyone, from experienced county players to beginners. Children will be divided in four skill groups according to ECF rating and chess experience.

The cost will be £35 per child per day (£30 per child if booking 2 or more siblings).

There are only 40 spaces available; to reserve a place for your child book online at

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/12th-junior-grand-master-chess-training-camp-tickets-17663168011

If reserving spaces for siblings, please pay the full price online and collect your discount on the door.

For any information or query, please e-mail Luca@yukobiba.co.uk or call 07932279446

Venue: St. David’s College, Justin Hall, Beckenham Road, West Wickham, BR4 0QS

Our GP 8 was held on Sunday 28 June 2015 at Newstead Wood School. This was one of the closest and most thrilling finales to a GP season we at the KJCA have witnessed for a very long time, with the U9, U11 and also the primary schools section finely balanced and many trophies and medals still to be decided.  

In the U9s there have been five different leaders throughout the season (Navieinaah Haridas, Max Wilkinson, Jai Singh Chaturvedi, Ciaran Brightley-Davies and Yong Gui Wang KCM) and going into the final just 5.5 GP points separated the top five with Yong Gui Wang KCM narrowly leading the way from Sasmit Neogi, with Max Wilkinson, Saahil Bansal and Ciaran Brightly-Davies very close behind.

The U11s has seen an immense see-saw battle between the top two throughout the season with little between them going into the final, Ximan Mao KCM narrowly leading from Kiran Shiatis KCM, with an equally mighty battle taking place behind them for third between Nikhil Chidipothu, Mikey Watson and Viktor Jamroz.

Congratulations to all 100 who attended this final, making it our third highest participated tournament of the season.

The top three in each section on the day were:

U9: First Eoin Moore (6/6), second equal Alexander Hodgson and Misha Lello (5/6) with Alexander taking the second place trophy and Misha the third place trophy on the performance tie breaker.

U11: First Shahjahon Saidmurodov (6/6), second equal Dominic Coates, Mason Graves-Brown, Alexander Levin and Yong Gui Wang KCM (4.5/6) with Yong Gui winning the second place trophy and Dominic the third place trophy on the performance tie breaker.

U14: First Aurideep Nayak (5/5), second Charlie Metcalfe KCM (4/5) and third equal Orla Dorman, Annalise Hansen, Aditya Jain and Alex Thompson (3/5) with Aditya winning the third place trophy on the performance tie breaker.

U18: First Rohan Shiatis KCM (4.5/5), second equal Anantha Anilkumar KCM and Haolin Zhao (4/5).

Top Primary School: Claremont Primary School

Top Secondary School: St. Olave’s Grammar School

Full cross tables can be found on: http://www.kjca.org/result/101

Overall GP results for the 2014/15 season

This event also concluded the GP championships for the 2014/15 season which is made up of eight GPs which started back in September of last year. We have been round to some fantastic venues across the year, Rosemead School, Gravesend Grammar, Dulwich College, Sutton Valence, Schools at Somerhill, Sandhurst Primary, Sevenoaks Primary, Barming and Newstead Woods, together with three impressive and exciting new venues to our GP calendar, Bullers Wood, The Judd School and The Skinner’s School. We are extremely thankful to each and every one of these schools for accommodating us.

To qualify for a seasonal prize, a player must have played in at least four of the seven previous KJCA GP events throughout this year and also played at this GP final. In the event of a tie on overall GP points, players are separated based on the average GP points scored over the season, the GP Points scored in the GP Final and finally the total GP points scored across the whole season.

It was fantastic seeing not only so many new faces but also so many regulars, with the largest number of loyalty awards being given out to players who have managed to come to every single KJCA GP event this season. We have also had record numbers of participants this year with an average of just over 96 players per tournament, compared to an average of 83 last year and 63 the year before that.

There were many new schools taking part this year, making this a particularly strong season, with a special mention to Elmhurst, Bishop Challoner, Caterham Preparatory, St. James Roman Catholic, Ashgrove, Steephill, Farnborough, Judith Kerr Primary, The Lady Eleanor Holles, Redhill, Blackheath Preparatory and Selling Church of England.

Thank you to all the excellent coaches who are working so hard at all these schools, feeding their children into our events and providing the talented youngsters which go on to represent Kent in the county championships and also in some cases their country. 

The winners of the overall U9, U11, U14 and U18 sections are awarded with our Kent Candidate Master title (“KCM”) and have been added to the Roll of Honour List which can be found on the following link: http://www.kjca.org/site/page?view=about. These are as follows:

U9: First was Yong Gui Wang KCM with Neogi Sasmit second, Max Wilkinson third and Mihika Verma top overall girl. Max Wilkinson was top U9 with Saahil Bansal second, Yong Gui Wang KCM was top U8 with Neogi Sasmit second and James Merriman was top U7 with Stakhey Sedykh second.

U11: First was Ximan Mao KCM with Kiran Shiatis KCM second, Nikhil Chidipothu third - equal on points with Mikey Watson and Victor Jamroz, but third on tie break. Our website is not showing the correct result for positions 3, 4 and 5 at the moment, but we hope to fix this in due course. Mahuaa Verma was the top overall girl. Ximan Mao KCM was top U11 with Kiran Shiatis KCM second and Viktor Jamroz was top U10 with Charlie Metcalfe KCM second.

U14: First was Anantha Anilkumar KCM with Alejandro Ito-Aramendia second and Francesco Bernardini third. Anantha Anilkumar KCM was top U13 with Francesco Bernardini second and Alejandro Ito-Aramendia was top U12 with Aurideep Nayak second. (Picture included with the U18s below)

U18: First was Rohan Shiatis KCM with Mary Scott second on points and Alexander Selway KCM third.

Primary School: Claremont Primary School were champions for a second year in a row, with the Home Edders (Primary) and Warren Road very close behind in second and third respectively.

Secondary School: St Olave's Grammar were dominant winners and champions for the eighth year in a row, with Home Edders (Secondary) a superb second.

Full GP tables can be found on: http://www.kjca.org/site/page?view=GPTables.

Seasonal summary

This was a good season for our primary age group Kent Teams and all three produced some very strong performances.

Our young U9 mixed team came a valiant fourth in the EPSCA county finals back in April this year narrowly missing out on third place (full report can be found on: http://www.kjca.org/article/198).

Our young girls' U11 team came a fantastic second in their EPSCA event also in April this year (full report can be found on: http://www.kjca.org/article/196).

Our U11 mixed team came a superb first equal with Barnet in May this year after an intense, hard fought battle with them and Wey-Valley, two teams which significantly out graded our players on the day (full report can be found on http://www.kjca.org/article/202). Our winning U11 team has been recognised on our Roll of Honour list.

With these results the KJCA came a fantastic second in the overall EPSCA seasonal grand prix.

Our U12 came a fantastic second at the NYCA county event held in Telford in November 2014. (No picture available)

Our U13 Open team came a credible 3^rd in the ECF County Championships in June 2015 against some very tough opposition from both Middlesex and Sussex.

Our U14 Open Team also came third at the NYCA county event in Northampton back in September 2014.

We had three winners of the ECF run English Youth Chess Championship this year; Giranth Haridas became the U14 Champion, Haolin Zhao the U9 champion and Radha Ratnesan the U8 Girl’s Champion. All three have been added to our Roll of Honour list.

Dates for our GPs and coaching days are already on the KJCA and ECF websites. GP 1 will be held at The Judd on Sunday 20 September 2015 and we look forward to seeing you all there. To register please follow the following link: http://www.kjca.org/event/115

We also look forward to seeing many of you at the British Championships which start on 25 July 2015.

Thank you’s

We could not manage without the help and support of our volunteers, who work so hard at our events and behind the scenes. In particular, a special thank must go to the following:

All our committee members for providing direction and support to the KJCA.

Chris Ward GM, our Head Coach and John Emms GM for their coaching expertise and support throughout the year and also to Rohan Shiatis KCM for his coaching support at the U11 EPSCA Zonal.

Anil Anilkumar, our President.

Samantha Metcalfe, for all her hard, hard work with venue bookings and KJCA T-Shirts and together with Sarah Garfield for running our excellent catering service.

Simon Metcalfe, our secretary and committee coordinator.

Andrew Shiatis, our treasurer, tournament director and website and facebook updater.

Krishna Shiatis, our communications manager, trophy manager and tournament registration administrator.

Luca Bernardini in charge of our KJCA internet club (Chesskid) and our fantastic new flyer.

Lewis Cartwright for his help as new treasurer.

James Mao and Tarun Nayak for their web expertise and technical support.

Kris Jamroz for our KJCA scorebooks and with Gary Dorman for their assistance with running tournament director

Vijay Rupnath for his superb photographs.

Chris Ward, Anil Anilkumar, Luca Bernardini, John Merriman, Andrew Bruce, Michael Wistow, Krishna Shiatis, Andrew Shiatis and Jo Wildman, our team mangers and coordinators throughout what has been a solid season.

Richard Dobson and Paul Catling, our outgoing equipment managers and to our new equipment managers Piers Lello and Richard Wilkinson

There have been so many helpers throughout the year making it very difficult to mention everyone by name, but all the help you give to this volunteer organisation is truly appreciated.

Thank you to all the parents and children without whom we would not have such a great county chess organisation.

We hope you had fun at our events this season, that you have a relaxing summer break and look forward to seeing you all back in September!

See you all soon!

Best wishes from all at the KJCA.

Our seventh GP of the 2014/15 season once again attracted a fantastic turnout of 84 players participating across 4 sections. The event was held on Sunday 24th May 2015 within the beautiful grounds of Sutton Valance Senior School in the heart of the Kent countryside.

First of all a special mention and thank you to all the parents and children who volunteered their time to help out at the event – without your help and support we would not be able to function and run such  tournaments.

Pictures are courtesy of Vijay. Many of these have once again been published on our facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/#!/kentjuniorchess.

Congratulations to all the children who played at GP 7. Special congratulations go in particular to the top three and prize winners in each section:

U9: 1st equal Dominic Coates and Logan Fear (5.5/6), 3rd Shahjahon Saidmurodov (5/6), the first place trophy going to Logan on the performance tie breaker.

U11: 1st Thomas Crawley-Bovey (5/6), 2nd equal Charlotte Bruce, Siddharth Soni, Atticus Fear (4.5/6) with Atticus winning the second place trophy and Siddharth the third place trophy on the performance tie breaker.

U14: 1st Eoin O’Leary (5/5), 2nd Adit Bhavesh (4/5) and 3rd equal Annalise Hansen and Alex Thompson (3.5/5), Alex winning the third place trophy on the performance tie breaker.

U18: 1st equal Rohan Shiatis (4.5/5), 2nd Ximan Mao (4/5) and 3rd equal Kiran Shiatis and Anantha Anilkumar (3.5/5).

Top performing school groups were:

Primary: Claremont Primary School (55.3)

Secondary: St Olaves Grammar (59.6)

Full cross tables can be found on: http://www.kjca.org/result/100

Our next Grand Prix, GP 8, which is on 28th June is not only a standalone tournament with our customary prizes for each section, but is also the final GP of the 2014/15 season with many other prizes to be awarded. If you have been to at least four GPs during the season and play at our GP final you will qualify for an award based on your position in our GP tables. For further details and to enter this event please use the following link: http://www.kjca.org/event/101

It is extremely close in both the primary age group sections going into the final. In the U9 section, just 5.5 points separate the top five players and first and second are only separated by 0.4 points. The top two in the U11 section who have been battling it out all season, are only separated by just 3.6 points, and the two primary schools are only separated by 0.2 points with third and fourth places only a few points behind. So everything is still to play for at our final event.

Current leaders of the GP tables after this event are as follows:

U9: Yong Gui Wang

U11: Ximan Mao

U14: Anantha Anilkumar

U18: Rohan Shiatis

Primary: Home Educated (Primary School)

Secondary: St Olave’s Grammar

Full GP tables can be found on: http://www.kjca.org/site/page?view=GPTables

Many thanks to Sutton Valance for accommodating us and for letting us use their beautiful school, and once again a big thanks you to all our volunteers.

We hope to see many of you at our GP final on June 28th.

Best wishes

KJCA

Congratulations to the following Kent Juniors at the recent Delancy Megafinals: 

1 - Victor Poracchia on becoming a Kent U11 Supremo champion having scored a superb 6 out of 6, on Saturday, 16^th the May 2015. This is an excellent achievement especially for someone who has only just started playing chess competitively within the last year.

2 - Suriya Velayudham on winning the U8 Megafinal and title of Supremo at Tonbridge on Sunday 17 May 2015.

3 - The KJCA juniors from Anthony Roper Primary School who took part in the Dartford UK Chess Challenge Megafinal U10 section. Well done to Alexander Levin, Charlie Edwards and Sam Lewington who tied for first place on 5/6, with Alex being awarded the Supremo title on count back. Well done also to both William Gough and Harry Phillips who join them in qualifying for the Gigafinal, which is the next stage of the UK Chess Challenge. Nice photo bombing by Emily Edwards and Elizabeth Gough!

4 - Theo Panchev on his excellent result at the UK Chess Challenge Megafinal U9 section winning the Supremo title with 5.5/6 and having to play an extra 7^th game tie-breaker.

5 - To the Kent Junior Supremos from the Dartford UK Chess Challenge Megafinal: James Merriman, Eoin Moore, Navieinaah Haridas, Orla Dorman, Francesco Bernardini and Girinath Haridas, and the qualifiers Declan Dorman and Shrey Choudhary.

6 - To the juniors from Amherst School, especially Iris Davies, Jamie Perry and Isaac Handley, who came 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively in their age groups and qualified for the next round, together with Simon Ralph, Oscar Watkins, Ben Forrester, Alex Ashley, Alex Hodgson and Indigo Morris (on 4/6). The following players just missed out on qualifying, but played really well: Harry Elliott, Freddie Watkins, George Anderton, Luke Peters, Daniel Record, Conrad Sykes, James Middleton, Oliver Thompson and James Vincent.

7 - To both Mikey and Jacob Watson on their respective 6 out of 6 in the U11 AND U13 sections at the Tonbridge Megafinal and their Supremo titles. Also special mention to Scarlet Watson (aged 4) who played in her first megafinal in the U7 section and scored a superb 1.5 points.

We wish all our KJCA juniors the very best of luck at the upcoming South Gigafinal which is due to be held in Reading on the 5^th of July.

11th Grand Master Chess training camp with GM Chris Ward and GM John Emms

At Langley Park School for Boys, South Eden Park Road, Beckenham, Kent BR3 3BP

Wednesday 27th  and Thursday 28th May: 10am to 4pm (registration at 9:30am)

GM Chris Ward and  GM John Emms, will head a group of four coaches which will work with small groups of children to improve their chess awareness and skill in a fun environment.

We aim for small groups of about 10 so that we can dedicate enough attention to   everyone, from experienced county players to beginners. Children will be divided in four skill groups according to ECF rating and chess experience.

The cost will be £35 per child per day (£30 per child if booking 2 or more siblings).

If booking for both days, the cost is reduced to £30 per child per day (£27.50 per day if booking two or more siblings for both days).

There are only 40 spaces available; to reserve a place for your child please e-mail Luca Bernardini luca@plantz.uk.com, with name, age, chess experience and ECF grade of your child if available, and which day you would like to book.

Alternatively, fill in the slip below and mail to: ACES, c/o Luca Bernardini, 44 Mooreland Road, Bromley, Kent, BR1 3RD

Venue: Langley Park School for Boys, South Eden Park Road, Beckenham, Kent BR3 3BP

__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Child Name: _______________________________________________________________

E-mail Address: ____________________________________________________________

ECF Grade: (if not available please indicate chess experience): _______________________

Days to book (please tick as appropriate)

Both days                                Wednesday 27th only             Thursday 28th only