Junior Chess Diary - 2014/15 Season

Cornwall Junior Championships (Penair School, Truro - 14/3/15)

Under 7
1^st: Jack Hatchalt, 5/6. Jack was slightly over-age, so he won the U7 and-a-bit prize
2^nd: Charles Sexton (Truro Prep), 4/6. Winner of the best Under 7 prize.
3^rd: Chloe Frankland (Truro High), 3½/6 Best girl
4^th=: Ben Strevens (under 5!), Myla Hussain (Truro Prep), 2/6
6^th: Gracie Dorrell (Nancledra), 1½/6

We added Jack to the Under 7s to make up an even number. The young children displayed excellent powers of concentration all day.

Under 9
1^st: Adam Hussain (Truro Prep), 6/6
2^nd: Ollie Cameron (Truro Prep), 5/6
3^rd=: Celeste Woodall (Truro High) (best girl), Sam Harris (Marazion), Ethan Redondo-Barter, Thomas Redondo-Barter (both Nancledra), Spencer Richings (Marazion), Jonathan Taylor (Truro Prep) 4/6 (Spencer and Jonathan were Best U8s)

Fresh from winning the SW England U9 championship, favourite Adam Hussain reached a perfect score. He has added more care to his attacking style and was scarcely in trouble throughout. The best game was the narrow victory by Ollie over Celeste, giving him 2nd place overall. Celeste, last year’s U9 winner, had the toughest draw and emerged with credit as usual.

Under 11
1^st: Harvey Richings (Marazion), 5½/6
2^nd=: James Ackerley (Trewirgie), Josh Patterson (Marazion), Lily Strevens Trythall (Best U12) 4/5
5^th=: Sam Edwards (TruroPrep), Corben Heath (Marazion) 3½/6

A comfortable victory by Harvey despite dropping a draw to his school friend and rival Josh. Errors by the others meant they could not keep up with him.

Under 13
1^st: Thomas Oates (Pool Academy), 3/5
2^nd: Joel Needham (Helston), Josh Patterson (Marazion), Lily Strevens Trythall (Best Girl and Best U10) 2½/6

A fine performance by Thomas, who has played for several years now, improving all the time.

Under 15
1^st: Richard Stephens (Penryn College), 5/5
2^nd=: Oliver Curtis (The Roseland), Jason Stephens (Penryn College), Alex Sharbatien, Samson Fisher (Truro School) 2½/6

Richard proved much the strongest player, demonstrating the value of having played in adult competitions. His rivals have lots of talent and, with practice, will surely soon play for club teams.

Full scores of U9 / U11 / U15 here.

There were 48 entries in total (U7: 6, U9: 21, U11: 11, U 13 and 15: 10)

Robin Kneebone

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At this annual event, held at Swindon on 21 and 22 February and featuring many strong juniors from outside the region, Adam Hussain (Truro Prep) was the top-scoring West of England player in the Under 9 section and is therefore the new West of England Under 9 Champion. Congratulations to Adam on this fine result from one of our most promising juniors.

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Adam Hussain

Adam (Truro Prep) won the London Junior U10 qualifying event at St. Albans on 6^th December, scoring 5/6. As he is not yet 9 this is a promising achievement. He faces a tough challenge next weekend, playing in the London Major U10.

Theo Slade

At the London Chess Classic, which was held at Olympia from 6^th to 14^th December Theo was one of 405 players in the 10 round rapidplay open which featured many GMs (including the six elite players) and IMs. In round 1 the six elite players were each paired against a junior. Theo took on Hikaru Nakamura from the USA, the world no. 1 blitz player, putting up impressively stiff resistance against his powerful opponent. The game is here. He finished on 4½/10. In the strong FIDE Open which followed he scored 3½/9

Report and interview in the North Devon Journal

Theo Slade with Hikaru Nakamura at the 2014 London Chess Classic

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Cornwall Junior Championships (Penair School, Truro - 22/11/14)

The inter-school team cup was won by Marazion School whose 4 highest-scoring players reached 20½ points out of a possible 24. Second place went to Trythall with 18, ahead of Truro Prep 15, Constantine 12 and Truro High10½

The winners of the Cornwall age-group championships were as follows:
Under 8 (12 entries) Winner: Spencer Ritchings (Marazion) 6/6, 2^nd: Katie Strevens (Trythall) 5/6. Best Under 7: Otto Harman-Stevens 4/6
Under 10 (22 entries) Winners: Adam Hussain (Truro Prep) and Lily Strevens (Trythall) 5/6, 3rd Andrew Roberts (Constantine) 4½/6, 4th Ollie Cameron (Truro Prep), Thomas Redondo-Barter, and Celeste Woodall (Truro High) 4/6.
Under 12 (13 entries) Winner: Harvey Richings (Marazion) 6/6, 2nd Josh Patterson (Marazion) 5/6, 3rd Josh Hutchinson (Devoran) 4/6. Best Under 12 (since the Under 11s finished ahead of them): Thomas Oates (Pool Academy). Sneha Shaju (St Mary’s, Truro) was the leading girl.
Under 14: Winners: Jack Andrew (Truro School) and Jason Stephens (Penryn College)
Under 16: Winner: Richard Stephens (Penryn College)
Full scores of U8 / U10 / U12 here.

There were 54 entries in total (U8: 12, U10: 22, U12: 13, U14-16: 7)

Robin Kneebone

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Last updated 4/5/2015