Welsh Junior Chess has a lot to thank Kevin Thomas for over a number of years, with large numbers of Gwent juniors, in particular, having benefited from his introducing them to the game. His efforts over the last few years in coaching girls, initially in Monmouth area, but more recently in Howells school in Cardiff, meant that for the first time for many years it was possible to hold all girls’ championships at several different age groups and the vast majority of those attending this event were his students.
In all, 31 girls attended this event, with Kevin bringing a minibus-full from Monmouth. We are grateful to the other adults who by providing transport and support for their daughters, made possible what was probably the biggest ever girls only event in the history of the WCU. With a few girls now starting to play chess at Cathedral School in Cardiff where the event was held, there is every chance that this event can grow in future years. I hope that in years to come, we can start to encourage more entries from the state sector schools, particularly in Cardiff area.
But to this year’s event…
As seems to be the case these days very few secondary pupils attended, and there were no entries for the U18 championship.
U14/U12
With only 2 players in each age group, this was run as a double round all-play-all. Eva Los from Upper Killay club raced out to 5/5, but with the undisputed title in her grasp, lost to her friend Angharad Jenkins in Round 6. Angharad’s 3rd round win had been a titanic struggle with Natasha Aziz which had lasted nearly the full hour, and their return round 4 game had been ‘put back’ till the end so the whole event was not held up. As a result, when this game was played, Angharad could now join Eva as champion if she won. This was not to be as Natasha gained her revenge in the delayed game, bringing the rather endearing comment from Eva to her friend - I’m so glad you lost! - though an apologetic remark did follow
Tamara Herbert was the other U12 player, and despite losing all her games, I never saw the smile leaving her face, and if only for being such a good sport throughout, she was given a medal as the U12 runner-up!
U14 champion Eva Los (Olchfa) 5/6 runner-up Angharad Jenkins 4/6
U12 champion Natasha Aziz (Monmouth Girls) 3/6 runner-up Tamara Herbert (Haberdashers) 0/6
U11/U10
With only one entry - Jessica Martin - for the U11 section, the U10’s joined her in a combined tournament run as an 8-player Swiss tournament. As all the girls were U11, all were eligible for that title. One competitor was outstanding. Sarah Maher, who has already played in a World Championship in Turkey, left the other players well in her wake and won both titles with 5/5. She would have been thrilled with becoming just U10 champion, and so was over the moon when she found was a double champion! The remaining competition was pretty close, with 4 of the 8 players achieving a runner-up prize on 3 points.
U11 and U10 champion Sarah Meyer (Gilbert Inglefield) 5/5
U11 r-up Jessica Martin (HMSG) 3/5 U10 r-up Selina Aziz, Josephine Frankel (Gilbert Inglefield), Elizabeth Bennett 3/5
6th Alexia Guppy (GI) 1½/5 7th Nia Mosely Roberts (Howells) 1/5 8th Gabrielle du Toit (GI)
U9
With 6 players, this fitted neatly into the day as a 5 round all-play all. Again one girl was outstanding. Naiomi Armitage won her first round game, and four times subsequently approached me with obvious delight saying ‘I won again.’ She finished a point and a half clear of Madison Jones who was a further point clear of 3rd place.
U9 champion Naiomi Armitage (Gilbert Inglefield) 5/5 2nd Madison Jones 3½ 3rd = Saffron Herbert (Haberdashers), Alyssa Wang (Howells) 3/5 5th Aisling Edwards (GI) 1/5 6th Amy Hughes (Haberdashers) ½ /5
U8
In contrast to the other tournaments, the winner of this one almost fell over the line. By the end of Round 4 in a Swiss tournament with 13 players, there were 4 players still unbeaten, but no-one had scored more than 3 points.
The winner came from the 5th round game in which Anna-Lena Barth triumphed over Ruby Rees, whilst the other player on 3, Caitlin MacDonaldCurry had her third draw in succession. Fay Blagbrough who had previously scored a win and 3 draws was beaten by Jessica Norton, who came from behind to share second place with Caitlin.
U8 champion Anna-Lena Barth (Rougemont) 4/5 2nd= Caitlin MacDonald Curry (Howells) Jessica Norton (Cathedral) 3½ 4th = Ruby Rees (Howells), Zoe Solomon (Llandaff) 3 6th = Ellie Keeping, Mehak Sakhinja, Tahlia Morgan Rose, Claudia Murray (all Howells), Katherine Finch (HMSG), Fay Blagbrough (GI) 2½ 12th = Acacia Jones , Anoushka Negi (Howells) 1½
The whole event was played in a good spirit with no real problems, and boundless energy and enthusiasm throughout the day. The Cathedral School venue was fine for the event, and I would like to thank Sarah Kett (Home Director) for liaising with the school in providing this.
From a chess point of view, it was frustrating to see so many games finishing in stalemate with multiple queens on the board, which frequently mopped up the last of the opponents material rather than mating! My recent experience in coaching young juniors has been to give them lots of practice in solving mates of increasing difficulty, (1,2,3... moves deep), mostly from game positions, but which could include the last few moves of 2-queen mates, K+R v K and back rank mates. I find this more valuable than showing them how to win or draw with K+P v K which I used to do, but which youngsters find rather dry and in any case rarely occurs in their games. Maybe Kevin could find some value in that approach, to cut out all the stalemates! But who am I to talk - he’s the one who has done all the hard work enthusing the youngsters to make a day like this possible, and long may he continue to do so!
John D Thornton (arbiter) |
