blueboard2

Bristol juniors march on in UK Chess Challenge

The Delancey UK Schools Chess Challenge is the biggest junior chess tournament in the world. Over the last two weekends 10 Bristol League Juniors took part in the 2nd stage regional Megafinals. They all qualified! Congratulations to all the Young guns.

This year there were over 40,000 children, from over 1,000 schools and chess clubs participating across the UK in The Delancey Chess Challenge.

The stages of the UK Chess Challenge

From the initial school/club stage the best players go through to the regional Megafinals. These are held during April and May, and each Megafinal is divided into different age groups for both boys and girls, from under 7 to under 18. This year there were over 40 regional Megafinals taking place across the UK. This stage is a six round rapidplay, with a qualification score of 3.5/6.

Those that qualify from these Megafinals move onto the Gigafinal stage, when we are down to the best 1000 Players. There are three Gigafinal events; Manchester, Birmingham and London, all held in July.

The coveted invitation to the Gigafinals

The Gigafinals are extremely competitive, with most top juniors across the UK playing (some graded over 200 ECF). Only the first couple of players from each age group will qualify from each Gigafinal, to the final Terafinal stage.

In the Terafinal there are no age group divisions, all players enter one big section. This is held in Daventry over the weekend of 15th/16th September. There will be approximately 150 players though to this final, standard play event (played over 6 rounds). There will be live boards in operation, GM’s in the commentary room, and various other activities.

To reach the Terafinal is a definite milestone in a youngster’s chess career. It highlights that they are one of the best (top 20 ish) players in their age group across the UK. The first prize of £2,000 is awarded for the final title of Strat champion.

Some of you adults out there will have previously played in the Terafinal. Don’t be shy of letting your club members know exactly who you are!

Results

The Bristol Megafinal, BGS – Saturday 5th May

There were six Bristol League Juniors (BLJ’s) playing in this Megafinal (6 round rapidplay event) and all of them qualified for the Gigafinal ! (to qualify for the Gigafinal you need to score 3.5/6).

Under 16 Supremo – Oliver Stubbs (Downend & Fishponds) 4.5/6

Under 14 Supremo – Max Walker (Clevedon) 5.5/6 !

Under 13 Supremo – Chirag Hosdurga (North Bristol) 4.5/6

Under 13 Suprema – Maria Eze (South Bristol) 3.5/6

Under 10 Suprema – Kandara Acharya (North Bristol) 5.5/6 !

Under 10 Qualifier – Jonathan Zeng (Horfield & Redland) 4.5/6

(Supremo/Suprema means 1st place in your age section)

A special mention has to go to Kandara’s sister Dwiti (not playing league chess yet) who won the combined under 8 section (both boys and girls) with an amazing 100% score of 6/6 !!

Also a special mention goes to Max Walker who came overall 1st in the combined under 12-16 age group. Max did this with an unbeaten score of 5.5/6

The Gloucestershire Megafinal, The King’s School Gloucester – Saturday 12th May

There were 3 BLJ’s playing, and all of them qualified for the Gigafinal!

Under 14 Supremo – Jack Tye (Downend & Fishponds) 6/6 !

Under 12 Supremo – Toby Kan ( Downend & Fishponds) 6/6 !

Under 12 Qualifier – Aron Saunders (Downend & Fishponds) 4.5/6

Fantastic full house scores from Jack and Toby, very impressive!

Aron, Jack and Toby with their prizes and medals!

The Somerset Megafinal, Millfield school – Sunday May 13th

Only one BLJ playing in this Megafinal, but another qualification!

Under 12 Supremo – Samir Khan (Bath) 4/6

Fantastic result Samir.

Fixtures

Next, the Gigafinals:

Southern Gigafinal – June 30th

Midland Gigafinal – July 7th

Northern Gigafinal – July 14th

Last year we managed to have 4 qualify for the final Terafinal stage… This was a most impressive achievement.

Will any of our juniors qualify for the Terafinal this year? Watch this space!

John is a member of Downend & Fishponds Chess Club and the organiser of Chipping Sodbury Rapidplay and Junior Chess events

BCT Invitational – Clevedon haul another trophy!

Our first casual chess tournament in a pub – many thanks to the Windmill for having us and thanks to everyone who played! Here’s what happened…

The first Bristol Chess Times tournament went down a storm, 12 wood-pushers seamlessly blended into the usual pub antics – nodding along to the Spanish guitar playing or debating answers from the pub quiz whilst playing some intense rapid games. It was 4 teams of 3 – North Bristol, South Bristol, Clevedon and a rag tag bunch we named the Mercenaries. We didn’t have enough players until the night before so we played a bit of wait-and-see, but it all worked out in the end – making organiser/arbiter Jon very happy:

jon

Some eager beavers arrived to help set up, have a drink, or in Chris and Waleed’s case have a game of blindfold chess to warm up. Believe it or not, they are on about move 10 of a real game here and are deep in concentration..

blindfold2

Preliminaries

The first match-ups were drawn at random and saw the Mercenaries draw South Bristol and Clevedon face North Bristol. Each player faced off against their counterpart once with White and once with Black. Ben Edgell (Mercenaries) was a cut above the rest for the night as he proved why he is comfortably above 200 even when not playing regular chess. He scored 2/2 and his teammates gladly polished it off to march ahead to the final beating South Bristol 5-1. Meanwhile the other match had more evenly split teams and a much more even score of 3-3. This tournament favoured the bottom board for all tie-break situations, so as rising Clevedon star Max had won 2/2 on board 3 – Clevedon went through on board count.

Results:

Mercenaries 5 – 1 South Bristol
North Bristol 3 – 3 Clevedon.

prelim

Final

Due to the grading restrictions (team average had to be below 150) there were bound to be interesting matches where a few players had the pressure to make their grades count, while others acted as the underdogs – aiming to snatch points and prove their team’s grading strategy as correct. The mercenaries were the most skewed team – largely due to Ben who won 2/2 again, despite a tenacious Andrew at the helm for Clevedon. So Chris and Max had to win at least 3/4 to stand a chance. They both won their first round which helped – but in the second Chris looked in a lot of danger. He had lived up to his surname (strong) and had sacked a piece for an attack against up-and-coming Horfieldian Sam; who repelled the attack and was consolidating – though he had used some time getting there:

samchris2

Max was under some pressure from a classic pawn-storm from Waleed, but had his own play on the other side. They both played quickly and the dust settled even quicker – Max was a piece up and just had to mop up the resulting danger. He did so and completed another 2/2 – counterbalancing Ben’s whitewash on board 1. We were all checking the maths and had just about confirmed that Clevedon would win on board count when Chris somehow hung on to the draw (the only one of the night) and sealed Clevedon’s third trophy of the season by a clear margin.

clevedon

The bronze medal match was soon billed as an all-out rivalry between North and South – perhaps taking advantage of being on home turf the South of the River won this time convincingly 5-1.

Results:

Final: Clevedon 3.5-2.5 Mercenaries
Bronze medal match: North Bristol 1 – 5 South Bristol

Champions: Clevedon (total count: W6 D1 L5)

2nd: Mercenaries (total count: W7 D1 L4)

3rd: South Bristol (total count: W6 D0 L6)

4th: North Bristol (total count: W4 D0 L8)

A more casual game

Chess isn’t often categorised in the same bracket as checkers, cribbage or dominoes, but it is clearly adaptable enough to be a played as a pure pub game. This event was billed as such – and played as such, and everyone got into the spirit of “casual competitiveness”. More importantly, it gave the game and the league that little bit more visibility to casual players – during the night two friends enquired about the event, challenged me to a game and played alongside the tournament. Many other pub-quizzers and diners observed and walked on through, glancing at the games for a quick evaluation of the game – or in utter bemusement, we’ll never know. Whether casual players join the league or not – the game is being promoted and those who wish they’d kept up the game or wish they’s been taught before can get involved and have fun.

test

The invitational was a great success – but as always feedback is welcome and we may hold another one soon, perhaps even more teams and even shorter games!

Mike is a regular player in the league and co-editor of Bristol Chess Times.

April Review – Season’s end!

A smattering of matches remain but the champions are crowned! Let the summer transfer market begin..

Its been a cracking season for the Bristol league – new players, resurgent clubs, and a fighting season that we all like to see. Some players will hang up their boots for the summer while others battle through, either way we all have the frantic negotiations of club AGM’s to look forward to. There will be much to discuss, new teams – new league? – promotions and relegations and new goals for 2018-19.

Division 1

Horfield A have been threatening the title in recent years but have often been pipped – this year they boasted a regular side of nearly 190 average strength and were ready to claim the throne. They lost their first match of the season back in September and languished for a bit (back when Horfield B were top) but since then they have dropped just one match point – never really letting anyone get close. An incredible 33 points won them the league this year by a mile – with 3 players on 200+ performances and also an unbeaten 198 from Steve Dilleigh (who incidentally is unbeaten for 50 games with the White pieces in all competitions).

Major KO

Downend and Bath finished strong in the league to secure 2nd and 3rd places – but they know the real chess is all about the cup. The match report by Ian Pickup is very entertaining – and the scoreline was about as close as cup finals always are – 4.5-3.5 to Downend. Well done!

cupfinal — It all went down the last game of the cup (photo credit: Dave Tipper)

Division 2

This one was close – it was a three or four horse race for a while and even in the last month it was touch and go between Horfield C and Clevedon B. They both secured their promotion spots (whether they take them remains to be seen) and fought all-out for the trophy. Clevedon were not slipping up and Horfield, a point behind, had a must-win to keep the pressure on but succumbed and lost their final match. Clevedon mopped up their match later in the week with a fine 4-2 away win. Also finishing strong was North Bristol A, winning the last match to nab fourth.

Minor Cup

The only club to win two trophies this year were the medium-sized Clevedon. The cricket club will be well-adorned this summer – a great achievement from an inauspicious beginning. The final was a bloodbath in which all three juniors stomped home to victory whilst a gentleman’s draw on the top board sneaked Clevedon over the line.

Division 3

A two-horse race for a lot of the season, Keynsham and Yate had their inaugural struggle for the crown; there was nothing in it until the last few months when Keynsham raced away with it – including an impressive 14 wins this season from long-time Bristol player Duncan MacArthur. Will we see Keynsham threaten in Div 2 next year?

Division 4

One certified promotion is that of North Bristol B, who have earned the honour of winning a trophy by the highest margin – they are 10 points ahead of nearest rivals University C and wrapped up the league with many matches to spare. The club have enjoyed many spoils of late after they changed venue and gathered interest from many new players. Newcomer Chris Smith and youngster Chirag Hosdurga are on 180+ performances!

Division 5?!

The re-instating of a division 5 would be a great achievement for the league. With the World Champs being held in London this year surely there will be another chess resurgence in the UK (following the recent boost in online player numbers) soon enough. Let’s hope Bristol is ready for it!

In Summary:

Div 1 – Horfield
Div 2 – Clevedon
Div 3 – Keynsham
Div 4 – North Bristol
Major KO – Downend
Minor KO – Clevedon

Individual performances

We like to give an extra shout out to players performing well above their grade or for other miscellaneous stats!

Playing above their grade

Jonathon Long (University): +48
Max Walker (Clevedon): +37
Pete Marks (Horfield): +34
Kwame Benin (Harambee): +30
Alan Papier (Clifton): +28
Chirag Hosdurga (North Bristol): +27
Christian Brown (Bath): +27
Elmira Walker (Downend): +26

Fighting chess (no draws, at least 10 games and at least 1 win)

Christian Brown (Bath)
Mauro Farina (Bath)
David McGeeney (Cabot)
John Conway (Cabot)
Christian Ryan (Clifton)
Fedor Turetskiy (Downend)
Matias Candelario (Horfield)
Mohammed Hassan (North Bristol)

Most games played

Richard Palmer (Downend): 29

Highest Performance

IM Chris Beaumont (Clifton): 230

Club with most active players

Downend: 44

Tournament Round-up

Chipping Sodbury Rapidplay kept the pieces moving and the local tournament calendar ticking on – you can read all about it in this lovely pictorial report; with Open and Major sections combined it sounded like a barnstorming event with many new match-ups and challengers.

minor section — Alex Vaughan very pleased with his win of the Minor Section (photo credit: Chris Lamming)

Coming up in the Summer is the Frome Congress and the Bristol Summer Congress – as well as many smaller tournaments and friendly get-togethers. Until then, enjoy the long awaited weather out there folks.

Mike is a regular player in the league and co-editor of Bristol Chess Times.