The 100^th British Chess Championship was held in Torquay over the two weeks from 28^th July and the overall British Title was won by GM David Howell (Britain’s youngest GM) with a superb score of 9.5 out of 11. Congratulations also to our very own GMs Chris Ward and John Emms scoring 7 and 6.5 respectively. 

It was good to see so many Kent Juniors out in force, many playing in their very first British Championships, pitting their wits against some of the best players from across the country.

Congratulations to our medal winners:  

Anantha Anilkumar, 2^nd in the Under 11s scoring 5.5 out of 7 and awarded the best game prize from all sections in the first week.

Girinath Haridas, 2^nd overall in the Under 12s (5 / 7), winner of the U12 Boys Championship, 3^rd in the U13s (4.5 / 7) and also 3^rd in the 5 day afternoon open (3.5 / 5).

Special mention goes to Freddie Hand, playing in his first British, coming a credible 6^th in the U11s only just missing out on a medal place by half a point and Arul Gupta, still an U12 and a seasoned National and International player, who came 4^th in the U14s.

Full results can be found on the following link: http://englishchess.org.uk/BCC/results-and-pairings/

A big well done also to all the Kent Juniors who attended: Nicholas Clanchy, Gautham Reddier, Jessica Wen, Michael Green, Jackson Wen, Emily Green, Jacob Watson, Francesco Bernardini, Gaurav Kocher, Ximan Mao, Mikey Watson, Robert Akeya-Price, Ryan Malik and Navieinaah Haridas.

Congratulations to two KJCA juniors; Conrad Allison and Jessica Wen:

We are currently in the process of finalising the locations for next year’s Grand Prixes and Training days. In the meantime, below is a list of dates to put in your diaries:

Grand Prixes:

GP 1 - 15^th September 2013 (London Qualifier)

GP 2 - 3^rd November 2013 (London Qualifier)

GP 3 - 1^st February 2014

GP 4 - 15^th February 2014 (KJCA Primary Championship)

GP 5 - 9^th March 2014

GP 6 - 13^th April 2014 (KJCA Secondary Championship)

GP 7 - 25^th May 2014

GP 8 - 5^th July 2014 (Grand Prix Final)

Friends and Family: 8^th December 2013

Coaching days:

CD 1 - 13^th October 2013

CD 2 - 23^rd November 2013

CD 3 - 18^th January 2014

CD 4 - 9^th February 2014

ESPCA Inter-Association Championships:

U9 Zonal - 8^th March 2014

U11 Zonal - 15^th March 2014

U11 Girls' Final - 22^nd March 2014

U9 Final - 26^th April 2014

U11 Final - 10^th May 2014

This was the final GP of the 2012/13 season, held on Sunday 14^th July 2013 at Sevenoaks Primary School, with many GP titles still in the balance and many trophies and medals to be awarded. The closest title was in the prestigious U18 section with just a 3.6 points gap between the top two, representing a mere half a point difference in the tournament result. This hard and closely fought battle between Conrad Allison and Rohan Bansal had been going on throughout the entire season and the finale itself did not disappoint; the result going down to the very last round and to virtually the very last game of the day. It was Conrad who won out in the end and many congratulations to him and to Rohan on a super season!

Also may we wish a fond farewell to both Conrad Allison and Victor Jones who will no longer be juniors next season and have represented Kent and played in the Kent Junior Grand Prixes for many, many years. We wish them the best and hope to see them as part of our coaching team in the years to come.

Congratulations to all 47 who attended this final; everyone settling down to pay some superb games of chess, despite the scorching heat outside. The top two in each section were:

U9: 1^st Giovanni Currah (6 / 6), 2nd Isaac Willats (5 / 6),

U11: 1^st Kiran Shiatis (5 / 6), 2^nd Mikey Watson (4.5 / 6),

U14: 1^st Francesco Bernardini (5 / 5), 2^nd Joelle Hakim (3.5 / 5),

U18: 1^st Conrad Allison (4 / 5), 2^nd equal Rohan Bansal and Victor Jones (3.5 / 5).

Top Primary School: Sevenoaks Primary School

Top Secondary School: Trinity

Full cross tables can be found on: http://www.kjca.org/result/52

As mentioned above, this event also settled the GP championships which had been running all season long. The winners of the overall GP for 2012 / 13 are as follows:

U9: Kiran Shiatis with Mikey Watson second and Navieinnah Haridas as top overall girl. Alexander Levin was top U8 and Navieinnah Haridas top U7. Congratulations also go to the U9’s for winning the EPSCA county U9 final back in April this year (full report can be found on: http://www.kjca.org/article/59)

U11: Anantha Anilkumar with Francesco Bernardini second and Emily Green as overall top girl. Alejandro Ito-Aramendia was top U10. The team finished a very credible 5^th in the EPSCA county U11 event held in May and our young girls’ team came 8^th in their event.

U14: Alexander Selway with Joelle Hakim second and overall top girl. Alexander Selway was also top U13 and Joelle Hakim top U12. Well done to our U13 open and minor teams who did brilliantly well at the ECF county championships in June, finishing 4^th and 2^nd respectively.

U18: Conrad Allison with Rohan Bansal second and top U15. Mary Scott was top overall girl and James Maguire top U17. Congratulations to our U18 team who finished third at the ECF county championships.

Primary School: Cumnor House with Dulwich College Junior second. It was fantastic seeing so many new faces and new schools taking part throughout the season, with a special mention to Crofton Junior, Sevenoaks Primary, Anthony Roper, Cheriton Primary, Cage Green Primary and Edgebury Primary. It is through the coaches at these schools which provide the talented youngsters which not only play in the KJCA Grand Prixes, but also go on to represent Kent in the county championships and also their country. Many of our young juniors have been selected to represent England during the year, well done to Robert Akeya-Price, Jessica Wen, Girinath Haridas, Rohan Shiatis, Anantha Anilkumar, Nevieinah Haridas and Rohan Bansal.

Secondary School: St Olave's Grammar with Dulwich College Senior second.

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

A big thank you to Sevenoaks Primary School for accommodating us and providing such a superb venue for our final event of the season.

A special thank you to:

·         Sue Maguire for all her hard work throughout the season and for arranging each of the 8 events, our coaching days, the catering and everything else she does for the KJCA.

·         Chris Ward GM for his coaching expertise and team support throughout the year.

·         Anil Anilkumar, our president and for bringing all the teams together in what has been another winning season for Kent.

·         Our friendly, hardworking, treasurer, tournament director and report writer Andrew Shiatis.

·         Our communications manager Krishna Shiatis.

·         Neeraj Grover for his web expertise and for setting up our KJCA internet club

·         And to all the parents, helpers, team managers who volunteer their time to help support the children and each of our events.

We hope you had fun at our events and that you have a relaxing summer break. We look forward to seeing you all again next season. We will post the dates of our GPs and coaching days on the KJCA and the ECF websites as soon as possible.

KJCA

With the U13 Major team finishing 4th on 11 points, just 1 point behind third placed Surrey A at the ECF Jamboree on 30th June 2013, this meant that Kent was the only county to be within the top 5 across all 3 tournaments at this championship. This is a huge credit to the strength and depth that Kent has consistently maintained over the past 6 years.

The U13 Major team comprised;

Arul Gupta, Girinath Haridas, Alexander Selway, Francesco Bernardini, Anantha Anilkumar, Freddie Hand and Karthik Velayudham.

The team performed well in both the first and third rounds with 4 and 4.5 points out of 6, but a poor second round meant the team fell just short of a medal position.

Anil Anilkumar

Team Manager