Welsh Junior Championships, Monmouth,  March 8-9th 2008

Monmouth proved a popular venue for the second set of Junior Championships this season, with comfortably over 100 players competing at the comprehensive school.  Whilst there was considerable local support, many other players travelled long distances to take part, making this one of the best attended championships for some time.  We are grateful to the parents and other adults who made this possible.

Under 16 Championship

This was played as a 6-player all-play-all, with Sam Turner needing to take 2 byes in the first two rounds. 

There were three key games.  Jac Thomas dispatched Sam Lazarus fairly comfortably in Round 2, but then came unstuck in a hard fought game against James Thomas in Round 3 (see below).  James initially overstretched in the centre and lost a pawn, but then an enterprising sacrifice which was turned down netted the pawn back, and both sides now attacked each other furiously. Jac sacrificed a knight when a rook sacrifice on the same square would have won, and James return sacrifice on the other side of the board proved more effective.  So after 3 rounds James was on 3 points, and Jac and the two Sams on 2. 

In round 4 Sam Lazarus took advantage of inaccurate opening play by James, who subsequently allowed a pawn discovery which won his queen. 

In the last Round all 3 leaders won their games, and the Championship was shared between them.

Jac Thomas, Sam Lazarus (Monmouth), James Thomas (Penarth)    4 pts

Sam Turner (Monmouth)          3

Michael Hossein (Kings Monkton)         1

Joram Los (Olchfa)           0

Thomas,James (1747) - Thomas,Jac (1958) [B07]

Welsh U16 Championships (3), 08.03.2008

1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.Bg5 Bg7 5.f4 0-0 6.Nf3 c5 7.d5 Qa5 8.Bxf6 Bxf6 9.e5 dxe5 10.fxe5 Bg7 11.Qd2 Bg4 12.Qe3 Nd7 13.0-0-0 Bxf3 14.gxf3 Nxe5 15.h4 h5 16.Be2 Nd7 17.Kb1 b5 18.f4 [18.Qxe7] 18...c4 19.Bxh5! b4 20.Ne4 Rab8 [20...gxh5 21.Rhg1 Qb6 22.Qe2 (22.Qg3 Qh6) 22...b3 23.cxb3 cxb3 24.Rg3 Kh8 25.d6=] 21.Be2 Rfc8 22.h5 b3 23.axb3 c3 24.bxc3 [24.Nxc3!] 24...Bxc3 [24...Rxc3! 25.Nxc3 Bxc3-+] 25.Nxc3 Rxc3 26.Qd4 [26.Rd3!+-] 26...Nc5 [26...Rbxb3+ 27.cxb3 Rxb3+-+] 27.hxg6 f6? [27...Rbxb3+-+] 28.d6 [28.Bc4!+-] 28...Nxb3 [28...Rbxb3+-+ For the last time!] 29.Bc4+ Kg7 30.Rh7+ Kxg6 31.Rg1+ [31.Rg1+ Kxh7 32.Qe4+ and mates]  1-0

Under 13 Championship 

The U13 winner, Alex Freeland of Cathedral School came as no surprise to me, despite his having played less than a season of League Chess.  In a competitive 10 minute game last summer, he produced 12 moves of Yugoslav Dragon theory against me, and made me work really hard for the win subsequently.  Alex is definitely a player to watch out for in the future.  He romped through the first 4 rounds with 4 wins to ensure he would at least have a share of 1st place – a point ahead of everyone else at this stage.  A last round draw ensured he was out on his own as sole winner.  In achieving his score of 4½  he had defeated Peter Downing, who finished on his own in 2nd place, drawn with Sam Pritchard and beaten Alex Wills – two of those who shared 3rd place – with only Roshan Daniel also in 3rd place the only one of the prize winners not to meet him.  So a worthy winner!

I saw a lot of decent chess being played in this event, but in general, the play of those below Alex was not consistent enough and sufficiently error free to really challenge his dominance.

Alex Freeland (Cathedral)          4.5

Peter Downing (Monmouth)         4

Sam Pritchard (Monmouth), Alex Wills (Kings Monkton) Roshan Daniel (St Michaels) 3.5

Davin Menon (Kings), Jack Aldous-Fountain (Monmouth)     3

Arthur Fearnell (Packwood), Jerry Zhou (Olchfa)      2.5

Daniel Wilmot (Bishop Vaughan), Varum Varna (Cathedral), Eva Los (Olchfa)  2

George Davies (Monmouth)         1.5

Cameron James (Monmouth) Matthew Brothers (Rougemont)    1

Under 11 Championship

This was also dominated by one player, Philippe Rodgers, who raced away to a perfect 5/5.  He did need to score in the last round to become champion, but a comfortable win against Raymond Shi meant he finished a point clear of Luke Kostanjsek and Morgan Taylor.  The only disappointment in Philippe reaching this score was that the vagaries of a Swiss draw and the closeness of the competition he left in his wake meant that neither second place player had been given the opportunity to peg him back.  Luke was not helped by illness on the Sunday, but he did decide to come and soldiered through for his prize.

Philippe Rodgers (St Michaels)         5

Luke Kostanjsek (Newport) Morgan Taylor (Grange – Swansea)    4

Raymond Shi (Cathedral) Matthew Biggs, Kelland Chambers (Grange)   3.5

Harsith Maruthireddy (Cardiff), Harri Bell-Thomas, Harry McCoy, (Grange)   3

Fraser Wallace, Callum Jackson (Rougemont), Robert Warrington (Lyndon Prep),

Jack Brenton (St Josephs)

Sean Edwards, Glen Hamilton (Grange)        2.5

Jessica Martin, Victoria Johnson, Natasha Aziz (Gilbert Inglefield)     2

Joshua McKenna, Joe Channon (Kings Monkton), Geraint Downing  (Grange)

David Coulton (Osbaston), Imogen Jones (Gilbert Inglefield), William Hughes   1.5

(St Josephs)

Sebastian Harvey (Goodrich Primary)         1

Cavan Norton (Kings Monkton)         0

Louis Peace (Osbaston)      withdrawn after round 3  1/3

U9 and U8 Championships

Ben Thomas, (still only 7 years old), romped away with both these events, making a perfect 5 on each day.  He was a class ahead of everyone, with only one game lasting much longer than 10 minutes.  This was when Ben was pushed quite hard for some time by David Kett in the last round of the Under 8’s.  It is a pity for David, who is probably still clear of others of that age, that he is in the same age group as Ben, who has already represented Wales in a World Championship event.  Another World Championship player, Sarah Maher (who played in the World Girls U-9), showed why she had achieved that distinction, by finishing joint 2nd in the U9’s here, and it was pleasing to see so many girls competing in these two events.  Aisling Edwards picked up the prize for the best girl in the U8 event.  Matthew Smail deserves a mention for improving from lowest scoring U9 on Saturday, to 2nd place in the U8’s on Sunday.

U9 Results

Ben Thomas (Murch)          5

Sarah Maher (Haberdashers), James Baker (Grange), Nicholas Evans (Craig-y-Nos) 4

Dylan Taylor (Grange, Swansea)         3.5

Alex Sidorowicz, Jamie Bell-Thomas, Hamish O’Hare, Josephine Frankel,   3

Stefano Paparoni, Thomas Ashton

James Turner, Zelig Ho, Thomas Maher,        2.5

Gabrielle Du Troit, Selina Aziz, Connor Bunten, Charlie Parkman, Rhydian Downing 2

Tejas Anand, Alexi Johnson, Alexia Guppy, Thomas Stockton    1.5

Omar El Hamany, Matthew Smail         1

U8 Results

Ben Thomas (Murch)          5

David Kett, Oliver Reynolds, Thomas Payne, Joseph Bright (Cathedral),    4

Matthew Smail (Grange)

John McCoy, Luke Corten, Daniel Cook, Rhydian Downing, Jamie Bell-Thomas  3

Jacob Sutton, Aisling Edwards (Gilbert Inglefield) – best girl

Elis Bird,             2.5

Matthew Conti, Owen Vineall. Lewis Medcraft, Rowan James, Abraham Turner,   2

Naiomi Armitage

Alif Aziz, Sean McKenna, Miles Tilling        1.5

Ellie Jones, Amy Hughes          1

Pippa Higgs            0.5

Maddy Jones      withdrew after round 1     0/1

Thanks to Kevin Staveley, Ian Eustis and Kevin Thomas for organising the venue and the event; to Wilf Arnold, and Mike Kilner who I shared the arbiting with; and to the various people who helped with refreshments on the day.

John D Thornton