We had a wonderful turnout at our first-ever East Midlands Chess Festival at Risley Village Hall, DE72 3SU, on Sunday 16 June 2013.
There were players who had travelled from Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, Lichfield and Northampton to take part. However the winner of the special trophy for the furthest distance travelled was seven-year-old Amelie Garrett from Lancaster, 2½ hours away! Unfortunately due to heavy traffic it took them four hours to get to Risley.
EMC Training Tournaments are a unique blend of competition and quality training, in this case delivered by David Levens, ECF National Manager of Coaches & Junior Selector, and myself.
We were impressed by the high level of play in the TT, where many matches could have gone either way. I (CD) was particularly impressed by the game Susie Wang against Neel Badhe, where Susie consistently found strong moves in the late opening / early middlegame to build up a winning position, only to fall for a clever tactical trap that Neel set.
We also noted the high level of focus, concentration and application during games, with many top county players competing. Especially the focus of Ben Raine from Sheffield who, despite being lower graded than other challengers, used his application to edge the event. Ben drew with a player graded 83, beat players graded 78 & 101, and all five of his opponents were qualified Gigafinalists.
The other junior to stand out was newcomer seven-year-old Mate Ther from Leeds. Apparently Mate only learnt chess in January by teaching himself from a book, and this was his first competition. His stillness and focus at the board belie his years.
1st Ben Raine U11 Sheffield, Home Ed. 59 ecf grade 14 / 15
=2nd Harry Madden U12 Landau Forte, Derby ug. 13 /15
Aditya Munshi U9 Nottingham JHS 75 ecf
4th Mate Ther U8 Leeds, Home Ed ug. 12 / 15
=5th Susie Wang U8 Stanley St. Andrew’s, Derbys. ug. 11 / 15
Rachael Raine U9 Sheffield, Home Ed. ug.
Ben Gilpin U9 Jesse Gray, West Bridgford ug.
Neel Badhe U9 Nottingham JHS 78 ecf
Max Miller U9 Great Houghton, Northants 101 ecf
10/15 Abhishek Thakar U9 Nottingham JHS 83 ecf
9 Ranulph Wheway U9 Brook Priory, Oakham ug.
Adam Salah U11 Whaley Bridge ug.
Kishan Modi U9 Herrick, Loughborough ug.
Shyam Modi U10 Fairfield, Loughborough ug.
Robert Tombs U9 Witham Hall, Lincs. ug.
Clayton Wilkes U8 St. Joseph’s, Lichfield ug.
8 John Moughton-Leay U7 Walton on Trent, Derbys. ug.
7 Amelie Garrett U7 Lancaster ug.
William Langton U12 Heanor Gate ug.
Ben Masterson U9 Old Vicarage School, Derby ug.
6 Lucy Masterson U9 Old Vicarage School, Derby ug.
4 Henry Hodgkinson U7 Old Vicarage School, Derby ug.
Our Primary Schools Challenge attracted six teams with many children playing for the first time in such an event, and with chess clocks. Of these Holmgate Primary, Clay Cross, did especially well considering that Nottingham Junior High School are current champions for the whole of the UK.
1st Nottingham Junior High A 8 MPs (Match Points) 15 GPs (Game Points)
2nd Nottingham Junior High B 6 MPs 13 GPs
3rd Holmgate Primary, Clay Cross 6 MPs 11 GPs
4th William Gilbert, Duffield 4 MPs 6½ GPs
5th Royal School for the Deaf, Derby 3 MPs 6 GPs
6th Munday Junior, Heanor 2 MPs 4½ GPs