Middlesex U14/130 win in Kent puts them in zonal decider

Middlesex U14/130 chess team earned their first win of the season against Kent in Sevenoaks yesterday

The win following draws against Essex and Surrey puts the team in a title decider against Sussex in mid April.

With one game outstanding Middlesex lead the match 12.5-10.5. The final unresolved game will either be a win for Middlesex or a draw.

This is a great win for Middlesex juniors and a great team effort.

It was another close match. After Round 1, Middlesex were leading 6.5-5.5. Kent were White in Round 2 and at one point the scores were 10.5-10.5 but we held our nerve in the three remaining matches - winning two with the third awaiting a ruling from the Southern Counties Chess Union.

Again, there were some very good individual performances. Jacob Goldberg (Board 4) and Emmanuelle Gelain-Sohn (Board 11) won both their matches. Reuben Balouka-Myers (Board 2), Harrison Willmoth (Board 3) and Liam Reed (Board 5) were also undefeated with a win and a draw.

This result means a win against Sussex in our final fixture would make Middlesex the zonal winners which would be a fantastic feat.

Kamlesh Karia

Middlesex U14/130 Team Manager

U14 Middlesex success in Southern Counties Chess Championships

Both the Middlesex U14 chess teams finished in third place in the Southern Counties Chess Championships held in Guildford yesterday.

U14 Open

The A team played in the U14 Open section and came third with a score of 10.5/18. The winners were Sussex A on 13 with Surrey second on 12. 

The other county teams were from Oxfordshire (9), Essex (8.5), Berkshire (5.5) and Sussex B (4.5).

The A team in Board Order was:

Gautam Jain, Pranay Chauhan, Federico Rocco, Luke Remus Elliot, Oren Levene, Gabriel Balouka-Myers and Reuben Balouka-Myers.

We had seven players for six boards and so Oren, Gabriel and Reuben played two matches each on Boards 5 and 6.

Luke and Federico did particularly well. Luke won all his three matches. Federico was also undefeated with two wins and a draw.

Overall it was a good team performance especially when you take into account the chess strength of the juniors our players faced.

U18 Minor

The B team played in the U18 Minor section. The grading rule meant the team was too strong for the U14 Minor section and I didn't want to have two teams in the same section.

The U18 Minor section was open to teams with players graded less than 130 (both standard and rapidplay grades).

This team did very well too and finished third with a score of 11/18. We missed second place by just one point. The winners were Surrey A on 14 with second place going to Sussex on 12.

The other counties taking part were Surrey B (8), Oxfordshire A (6.5), Essex (6) and Oxfordshire B 5.5.

The B team in Board Order was:

Harrison Willmoth, Devin Karia, Dylan Hung, Adam Rosenthal, Toby Balouka-Myers and Raphael Balouka-Myers.

Harrison, Devin and Dylan were undefeated with scores of 2.5, 2.5 and 3 - a very good effort on the top three boards.

The team was close to a very good finish and on another day a couple of games could have gone our way.

Kamlesh Karia

Middlesex U14 Team Manager