9th March
Just
to quickly let everyone know how the Middlesex U14 chess teams got on
yesterday in the Southern Counties chess jamboree hosted by Sussex.
We had two teams in the Open section joining teams from Essex, Surrey and Sussex.
Each team, made up of 8 players, played three rounds in the jamboree format.
After
a day of some intense, close and very good games, Sussex came out on
top with 18.5 points out of 24. Going into the third round Middlesex A
and Surrey were tied on 10.5 points. But with some exceptional
performances in the final round, Middlesex A pulled away and finished
runners up with a score of 15.5. Surrey finished third on 13.5.
It
was quite a challenging section for the B team but the average grade of
the team was above 120 and so they did not qualify to play in the Minor
tournament. However, the children got an opportunity to challenge some
very strong junior chess players (including some England
Internationals), and finished with a score of 6.
Everyone played very well and there were some very good individual performances and games. Pranay Chauhan who won all his three games on Board 2 of the A team; as did Joe Lindsay on Board 7. Jagdeep Dhemrait and Gabriel Balouka-Myers were both undefeated each with two draws and a win. In the B team Yuri Evdokimov finished undefeated too with a score of 2.5.
Thank you
Many thanks again to the parents for getting the children to Sussex. And also parents who gave lifts.
These
day long away chess matches are always tough on parents as we spend a
lovely bright summer's day (like it was yesterday) inside a school
building! But for the children, it's a great opportunity to play chess
at a fairly high standard and also play in a team format which fosters
values that are different but just as important to when the same
children face each other in individual tournaments.
Next match
The next Middlesex U14/130 match is on Sunday 30 March away to Sussex.
I will do a separate email about this in the next few days but please note the date for now.
For now, many thanks again to all the parents for your support and congratulations to the U14 A team on their success.
Best wishes.
Kamlesh