The 1st Bristol Blitz Chess Championship was held on 25th November 2018 at Bristol Grammar School. As the name suggests, this was an event with a short time control of 5 minutes + 3 second increment, and played over 11 rounds. This new event in the local chess calendar attracted a field of 44 players, and gave the opportunity for several Somerset Juniors to compete in the same line-up and against experienced players, including USA International Master James Sherwin.
Category: Latest News (Page 1 of 3)
The British Rapidplay Chess Championships 2018 took place on the weekend of the 24th and 25th November 2018 in Ilkley, North Yorkshire. There were several Somerset Juniors who made the long journey and took part in this prestigious event in the British Chess calendar.
The annual Musketeers Chess Club Congress took place in Shurdington Social Centre on 17th November 2018. The event is organised by the Musketeers Chess Club as a one-off tournament. It’s a great starter-tournament, and also has some compelling battles between players with more experience.
Whilst not a part of the Somerset Junior Chess Grand Prix series, it is good to see some familiar faces making the journey and getting some valuable tournament practice against different opposition. And very pleasing to see some of our Somerset Juniors win their age sections.
The 2018/19 season of the Somerset Junior Chess Grand Prix series started on a sunny day at St. Saviour’s Primary School in Bath. More than 60 children competed playing 6 rounds of chess each. Which (if my maths is correct), is over 360 games of chess played!
There were lots of first time entries, which is great to see, and we hope you enjoyed the day and motivated to see if you can score more points in your next tournament.
The 2018 British Chess Championships took place in Hull from 27th July to 5th August 2018 and featured several Somerset Juniors competing against the best players in the UK and some top International players.
Here’s the main playing room in the Hull City Hall, where the Grandmasters were battling it out for the overall British Championship title and where some of the other age sections also competed. Michael Adams won the title for the 6th time in his career, following a play-off, and you can read more on the chess.com website.
The Gigafinal stage of the Delancey UK Schools Chess Challenge 2018 was held over 3 venues: Southern, Midlands and Northern. Many regulars on the Somerset Junior Chess circuit qualified and have been battling it out with some
of the best junior chess players in the country.
Top 3 in each section at a Gigafinal qualified for the Terafinal, and anyone scoring 4 or more points outside of the Top 3 qualified for The Challengers event (Northern or Southern section).
Following a tough season of five Grand Prix events across the county, the top 4 players in each age category were invited to attend the SJC Finals Day at Millfield School in Street.
The scene was set for a knockout competition where in the semi-finals, 1st place would play 4th place in the league tables and 2nd place would play 3rd place. After a best of three games encounter, the two semi-final winners would play against each other in the final. The winner after three games would be crowned the Somerset Junior Champion for their age category, and have the honour of being the first name engraved on the new trophies.
Congratulations to all players for consistently playing well throughout the season, and scoring points in each round to earn qualification for the finals day.
The very best Wales and South West England junior chess players competed against each other in a team event on 3rd June 2018. The match consisted of a Wales Under 14’s vs South West England Under 14’s and Wales Under 11’s vs South West England Under 11’s.
There were 12 boards in each age section, with players selected based on their performance at other events. 8 of the 24 players South West players were provided by Somerset, and all competed well in a tough two round match on a very warm day in Chepstow.
The 29th Frome Chess Congress took place 18th-20th May 2018, and incorporates the Somerset Chess Championships for eligible players. The event is split into three sections based on grading, featuring many Somerset Juniors. And a few parents of Somerset Juniors!
Congratulations to Ernie Fields, who scored 3.5/5 and shared the 86-100 grading prize in the Minor (Grade U110) section. And well done to Jamie Beviss (Amarra and Finley’s dad) who finished 2nd= in the Intermediate (Grade U140) section and won the trophy for highest placed Somerset player in that section.
The local Megafinals took place over recent weekends and final results have now been published on the UK Schools’ Chess Challenge website:
- Bristol Megafinal 2018 results
- Gloucestershire Megafinal 2018 results
- Somerset Megafinal 2018 results
You can find all Megafinal results here.