Fresh from the fun of Christmas festivities, some of the top Kent juniors travelled back to Harrow to participate in the second weekend of the London Junior Chess Championship Finals.  

This part of the competition included the U8 Final, where Kent was represented by Navienaah Haridas, Robert Akeya-Price and Anika Roy who all played some quality games and finished in the top half of the tables.

The U12 Major is one of the most prestigious and hard fought competitions in the junior chess calendar. After three days of intense games, Freddie Hand came out victorious with an outstanding score of 8 out of 9 points, not losing any games along the way.  Winning the tournament outright is a fantastic achievement.

Also playing quality chess in the U12 Major section were Ximan Mao, Francesco Bernadini, Nikhil Chidipothu, Emily Green and Mikey Watson.

The U12 Minor section saw great performances from Aurideep Nayak, Guarav Kocher and Alejandro Ito-Aramendia who all gained good results.

Michael Green played some strong games in the U16 Section and Girinath Haridas once again showed his chess skills by competing in the U18/21 Open.

The Harrow Christmas Congress was taking place at the same time and Jacob Watson played in the U125 Minor section, competing against both experienced adult players and chess parents practising their own skills.

Once again our talented Kent juniors showed they are among the best players in the country. Well done to everyone that took part.

To see the cross-tables of the event go to:  http://results.tournamentdirector.co.uk/

A huge well done to all of you who sat their Level 1 and Level 2 exams. The Institute of Chess report and results are shown below:

The results achieved at the KJCA’s Institute of Chess examination session held at Sandhurst Primary School on Saturday 30 November 2013 were as listed below. The certificates will be presented at the start of the KJCA Coaching Day at Sevenoaks Primary School on Saturday 18 January 2014.

Level 2: Coach – Robert Maguire: 11 candidates

100%:            

Huseyin Gueriane

Distinction:  

Kimball Catling

Francois Denaro

Matthew Dubery

James Holmes

Amjad Khan

Saajid Khan

Charlie Metcalfe               

Merit:             

Jai Singh Chaturvedi

Pass:

Iris Davies

Laura Holmes

Level 1: Coach – Robert Maguire: 5 candidates

Distinction:  

Jacob Bund

Theodore Panchev

Pass:

Sophie Dubery

Suraj Meenaxi

Alfie Metcalfe

Well done to all the Kent Juniors who took part in the first weekend of the London Junior Chess Championship Finals, held at Harrow on the 14-15^th December.

Kent did very well in the U10 sections.  Big congratulations to Nikhil Chidipothu, who won the U10 Minor section with an impressive 6.5 out of 7, not losing any games.  Also in the U10 Minor section were Charlie Metcalfe and Kimball Catling, playing in their first national level tournament, and gaining 4 and 2.5 points respectively.

The U10 Major section included very strong competitors from around the country. Mikey Watson played quality games against the top graded players and ended up joint third with a score of 5.5 out of 7. Other Kent players in this section were Navieinaah Haridas, Alexander Levin, Ximan Mao and Siddharth Soni.

Girinath Haridas was flying the flag for Kent in the U14 majors, with a great result of joint third on 4.5 out of 6. This section also saw some strong performances from Anantha Anilkumar and Freddie Hand.  

Joelle Hakim and James Elgar also played well in the U14 Minor section.
 
Other competitions on the day included the Harrow Junior U12, where Emily Green achieved a great score of 4.5 out of 6, coming joint third and qualifying for the major final. Also playing in this section were Danyal Warsop and Jacob Watson.  
 
Finally, Zakary Warsop played in the Northwick Park Major, competing against many experienced adults.  

Great to see so many talented Kent Juniors competing at such a high level, and doing well in this prominent tournament.

To see the cross-tables of the event go to:  http://results.tournamentdirector.co.uk/

If there are any other pictures you would like us to add to the website please send them to webmaster@kjca.org

Report by Jo Wildman

It all began as a non-eventful Friday and a call out of the blue from ECF Director Lawrence Cooper for available U11s to play for England. A few emails later and our Saturday was booked as Kiran Shiatis was selected for the England team in a two round tie against Slovenia. This would be Kiran’s first England cap.

With mixed feelings of anticipation and trepidation we arrived at Kensington Olympia - home of the London Chess Classic - very excited about the day ahead.

The fun and games were not yet over. With many of the Super 16 GMs wandering the floors, we bumped into Mikey Adams GM (England no 1) in the lift, who congratulated Kiran on England’s fine win, followed then by Keith Arkell GM who was due to play the number 1 seed in the Open FIDE that afternoon. The children then spent some time watching Nigel Short GM, Hikaru Nakamura GM, Boris Gelfand GM and Fabiano Caruano GM and listening to some of the scintillating commentary by Danny King GM and KJCA’s very own Chris Ward GM.

Kiran then noticed Gawain Jones GM inviting all passers-by to play a 5 minute blitz game against him for charity. Kiran rose to the challenge and commenced his game in a surreal moment just as his older sister Vishal sat down to play opposite Judit Polgar GM only several feet away. Although it ended Shiatis Family 0, GMs 2, Kiran was hooked.

He quickly managed to secure a game against David Howell GM, closely followed by Alexander Baburin GM. Rohan also managed to get a game against Gawain. The Shiatis Family put up a good fight, reputations were on the line, but unsurprisingly we were finally beaten 5 – 0 by the GMs.

It was a truly amazing day, meeting and making new friends, one that all three of our children will never forget, especially Kiran who was proud to have represented his country and secure his first win for England.

Thank you to all the friendly GMs for their willingness to play, to Malcolm Pein IM and his team for putting the Classic together, a superb advertisement for Chess. We can strongly recommend making a visit there to all chess playing children and parents – if not this year, then definitely for the next.

Many thanks also to the Slovenian chess team, their parents and organisers, in particular Darja Kaps WGM who invited us for a return match in Slovenia. Above all, many thanks also to Lawrence Cooper ECF Junior Director for organising team England and for kick starting such a memorable day.

It is always exciting to hear about chess tournaments which are taking place across the Kent area.

Five school teams from the Tunbridge Wells area took part in an inter school Christmas Chess Jamboree in early December. The event was arranged by John Fagg and the schools taking part were Claremont, St Peters, St Johns, St James and St Barnabas. Many of our Kent Junior regulars were playing at the event, with Claremont emerging as the eventual winners after four hard fought rounds.

Many thanks to John and Avril Fagg for organising the event and reporting back.

If you are taking part in a Chess Tournament in Kent or organising one, we would love to hear from you and to let us know your results at webmaster@kjca.org.

KJCA