37 children descended on Birchwood Grove School aiming for the title of Sussex U8 Champion; many competing for the first time. The event was hard fought and the arbiters were very pleased with the effort and determination of the players, giving rise to many long and high standard games for this age group.
Top honours not surprisingly mainly went to the more experienced players – well done to tournament winner Matthew Armstrong, with a score of 5 out of 5.
Runner up was Abhi Jadeep Jadav with Timmy Hedger in third place. George Koumellis, James Robertson and Adam Faulkner finished just outside the top 3 on the progressives tie-break. Just half a point behind, Samantha Sareen took the Top Girl prize.
However, many of the competitors were only playing in their first or second tournament, gaining valuable experience. At this age chess can be a cruel game with 15 minutes of careful play undone by one impulsive move – don’t worry if you didn’t score many points this time, you will have gained by the experience. Some of those mentioned above found scoring in their first tournaments equally tough, and are showing the benefits of perseverance.
It was very encouraging to see twenty different schools represented, with five having enough players to constitute a team. The team event is based on the overall score of the top 3 players from the school.
Great Walstead (10 points) took the title and became the first recipients of the renamed Colin Harding Cup. Colin was a great supporter of chess in Sussex. Colin first joined Great Walstead school as a teacher in 1972 and continued to be part of the school community for 43 years, giving up many evenings and weekends to take teams, tutor and coach keen Chess players. The school credit the success they have enjoyed at chess to be down to his enthusiasm and drive. He was involved in the creation of Sussex Junior Chess in the early 1990s and remained very active in retirement both at the school and at our events. Colin donated the trophy in 2009 to be awarded to the winning Under-8 School Team, and after his death in 2015 the trophy was rededicated as the Colin Harding Cup. It is fitting that the winner team in both 2009 and 2015 was Great Walstead school where Colin put so much time and effort into the chess club.
In an exciting finish Lancing College took second place with 8.5 points, with Copthorne, The Vale School and Ardingly College all finishing on 7.5 points. Copthorne was awarded the third place trophy due to the best fourth player score.
Thanks to Birchwood Grove Primary for the very spacious venue which accommodated both the tournament and a training day, to Gary, Brian and Peter for managing the tournament and to Cosima for presenting the prizes.
We would be delighted to see all the players return to all the upcoming tournaments that are listed on the website, particularly the U9 / U11 / U13 / U18 event on 15th November and the Girls’ tournament on 6th December. These events are key tournaments for players aspiring for selection to the Sussex teams for the Under 9s, Under 11s and Under 11 girls at the start of 2016.
| U8 Individual Championship | U8 School Team Championship | |||||||
| 1st | Matthew Armstrong | 5 | 1st | Great Walstead | 10 | |||
| 2nd | Abhi Jadeep Jadav (on progressives) | 4 | 2nd | Lancing Prep | 8½ | |||
| 3rd | Timmy Hedger | 4 | 3rd | Copthorne Prep (on tie break) | 7½ | |||
| 4th= | Ardingly College | 7½ | ||||||
| The Vale, Worthing | 7½ | |||||||
| Top Girl |
Arbiter’s Prizes |
|||||||
| Samantha Sareen | 3½ | Jay Christiansen | Victoria Mendoza | |||||
| Adam Faulkner | Hugo Pelkonen | |||||||
| Alice Howie | James Robertson | |||||||
| George Koumellis | ||||||||
ECF R O U N D S
Pos Player Grade 1 2 3 4 5 A B TB
1 Armstrong, Matthew....... 62A w28+ b30+ w24+ b3+ w2+ 5 5 15
2 Jadav, Abhi Jadeep....... 38F b33+ w4+ b11+ w8+ b1- 4 5 14
3 Hedger, Timothy.......... 78A b17+ w13+ b9+ w1- b14+ 4 5 13
4 Koumellis, George........ 0d w14+ b2- w15+ w13+ b8+ 4 5 11
5 Robertson, James......... 0d bye+ w10- b31+ w12+ b9+ 4 4 11
6 Faulkner, Adam........... 67A b24- b15+ w22+ w19+ b10+ 4 5 10
7 Sareen, Samantha......... 0d w25+ b18= w30+ b10- w20+ 3½ 5 11
8 Currah, Elena............ 69A w22+ b12+ w10+ b2- w4- 3 5 12
9 Laurillard, Henry........ 18A w23+ b20+ w3- b24+ w5- 3 5 11
10 Thurston, Harry.......... 0* w31+ b5+ b8- w7+ w6- 3 5 11
11 Webber, Zac.............. 0d w35+ b36+ w2- b14- w24+ 3 5 10
12 Chandler-Brown, Jasper... 0d b32+ w8- w36+ b5- w18+ 3 5 9
13 Chapman, Rafe............ 0d w16+ b3- w18+ b4- w27+ 3 5 9
14 Cooper, Cameron.......... 0E b4- w29+ b28+ w11+ w3- 3 5 9
15 Appleton, Toby........... 0d b37+ w6- b4- w33+ bye+ 3 4 8
16 Ullman, Hugo............. 0d b13- w17+ b19- w31+ b26+ 3 5 7
17 Eastman, Harry........... 0d w3- b16- w37+ b36+ w25+ 3 5 6
18 Rees, Amelie............. 0* b34+ w7= b13- w21+ b12- 2½ 5 9
19 Creer, Beatrice.......... 0d w27+ b24- w16+ b6- bye= 2½ 4 8½
20 Labroo, Pranav........... 0d b26+ w9- w25= b29+ b7- 2½ 5 8½
21 Bennett, Toby............ 0d bye= b22- w23+ b18- w32+ 2½ 4 6½
22 Flux, Henry.............. 0d b8- w21+ b6- w32= b34+ 2½ 5 6
23 Kelly, Archie............ 0d b9- w26= b21- b35+ w30+ 2½ 5 5
24 Glascott, Arthur......... 0d w6+ w19+ b1- w9- b11- 2 5 9
25 Blades, Kit.............. 0d b7- w34+ b20= w26= b17- 2 5 6½
26 Nunns, Lara.............. 0* w20- b23= w35+ b25= w16- 2 5 6
27 Robertson, Campbell...... 0* b19- w33= b32= w28+ b13- 2 5 5½
28 Godfrey, Sam............. 0d b1- bye+ w14- b27- w36+ 2 4 5
29 Farrell, Dan............. 0d w30- b14- bye+ w20- b37+ 2 4 4
30 Christiansen, Oliver..... 0d b29+ w1- b7- w34= b23- 1½ 5 6
31 Christiansen, Jay........ 0d b10- w37+ w5- b16- b33= 1½ 5 4½
32 Ralph, Toby.............. 0d w12- b35= w27= b22= b21- 1½ 5 4½
33 Howie, Alice............. 0d w2- b27= bye= b15- w31= 1½ 4 4
34 Lowe, Nathan............. 0d w18- b25- bye+ b30= w22- 1½ 4 4
35 Christopherson, Ella..... 0d b11- w32= b26- w23- bye+ 1½ 4 3
36 Pelkonen, Hugo........... 0d bye+ w11- b12- w17- b28- 1 4 5
37 Mendoza, Victoria........ 0d w15- b31- b17- bye+ w29- 1 4 2
Index:
A = Player's score
B = Number of graded games played
TB= Sum of progressive scores Standard