England v Norway U11 Match

Sam Walker (board 16) and Ilya Iyengar (board 20) made their international debuts for England U11s vs Norway U11s in a 22-board match at Hemsby on 25-26 June.

They both scored 2/2 to help the England team to a convincing win 39-5 (!).

England U11 Team Trial

Sam Walker (4/6), Ilya Iyengar (3½/6) and James Foster (2/6) played some tremendous chess and did themselves proud in a very competitive England U11 Team Trial in Liverpool.  All three have been selected to represent South-West England v Wales in June.

Eden Kirk has competed in the European Youth for France.  Eden was placed 47 out of 102 scoring 4½/9.  Full results at http://www.euroyouth2004.com/.

Neville Belinfante

I took part in the 'Masters' section of the Specsavers Young Masters 2004 which was held at Millfield School, Somerset from 19th -25th July.  The format of the tournament was a 44 player, 10 round accelerated Swiss system with IM Norm and FIDE rating opportunities.

Having won my first round game against Josiah Lutton (2062 and about 180 BCF), I had a run of blacks against highly rated opposition which meant that, at the halfway stage, I was on a slightly disappointing 1½/5.  However, a quick win in round 6 and a draw with black against James Hanley (2065 and 181 BCF) put me in a good position on 3/7.

The double-round Saturday proved to be a strange penultimate day for me.  In the morning session against David Bareham (2115), I reached a comfortably drawn ending from a 'Sicilian Dragon' but a miscalculation lead to a fourth defeat in the tournament.  In the afternoon, against lower rated opposition, I chose to enter a level endgame, again straight from a 'Dragon'.  On this occasion, I managed to win, leaving me on 4/9 going into the final round.

After a Saturday night diet of laxative plots (don't ask!), no preparation and even less sleep, I proceeded to enter the playing hall 20 minutes late and lose a piece for nothing after just 17 moves.  As you can imagine, with a part rating of 1875 imminent if I lost, I wasn't too happy about this!  But some rather lucky counterplay lead to an endgame which was, if anything, slightly better for me despite being a piece down.  When the draw offer came on move 35, I practically ripped my opponent's hand off! 

This left me with a satisfactory 4½/10 in 30th= position and a part rating of 1934 x 7 which I should hopefully be able to boost to 2000 at Hastings and/or in 4NCL.  My mate Charlie Fry was far more solid throughout and came away 19th= with 5/10 and an excellent full rating of 2026!  Well done Charlie!

It was disappointing not to see any Bucks players in the Weekend Section which is a very good tournament to gain experience, not to mention enjoyable, as the facilities at the school mean that a relaxed environment is achieved with ease.

Onwards to Scarborough, where I hope to see many Bucks players, and to the Terafinal which promises to be the best for BYCA yet!

For further information, visit www.ncjsyoungmasters.co.uk

Phil Makepeace (27-Jul-04)

In the Andrew Martin Simultaneous World Record Attempt, 14 BYCA members
took part.  All played "meritoriously" and hung on well into the 17 hour session
before succumbing.  Having agreed to a draw around 4 p.m., it was
interesting to see the win count totting up into the 200's (his target was
256) with odd draws here and there by the time I left just before 11 p.m.
There is a full report at www.chessworldrecord.co.uk.  A positive event for
everyone who took part!
 
Philip Makepeace

Local VW dealership, Rye Mill Garage Ltd, have kindly provided BYCA with some sponsorship funding this season.  These funds will be used to subsidise the costs of T-shirts for players in county team events.  Further details to follow.

Last weekend, Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th August, Charles Evans (13) from Amersham was one of 36 competitors from England,  Scotland and Wales in the Terafinal of the British Land UK Chess Challenge held at the Source in Sheffield.

The UK Chess Challenge started in January with over 60 000 children competing in school heats, and Charles won his place in the Terafinal by winning his age group section at the Gigafinal in July.  Charles found the going very tough, as there were children in the competition who had represented their country in international tournaments, and finished up with 6 points out of a possible 18 from his six games.

Running alongside the Terafinal were two Challenger sections for the children who came second or third in the July Gigafinals.  Beaummont Tang (12) from Dr Challoners Grammar School scored 12 points out of a possible 18 in the Challengers A section, finishing 5= out of 55. Jamie Craik who is a member of the Buckingham Chess Centre scored 6 out of 18 - an excellent results as he is only 8.

Neville Belinfante

The 90th Annual Championships of the British Chess Federation took place over two weeks (Sunday 20th July - Saturday 2nd August at George Heriot's School Edinburgh).  A record entry of 1009 took part in the various events.

Several Bucks Juniors took part and recorded the following results:

British Under 175 Championship (31 in tournament)
28-Jul to 1-Aug-2003
Koichi Nicholas 4/5 (1=)

British Under 125 Championship (62 in tournament)
28-Jul to 1-Aug-2003
Kenji Nicholas 2/5 (38=)

British Under 14 Championship (26 in tournament)
27-Jul to 1-Aug-2003
Philip Makepeace 4/7 (9=)
Also Charlie Fry (Bucks OB) 4½/7 (3=)

British Under 13 Championship (39 in tournament)
21-Jul to 26-Jul-2003
Charles Evans 3/7 (27=)

British Under 12 Championship (38 in tournament)
27-Jul to 1-Aug-2003
Andrew Clark ½/7

British Under 9 Championship (44 in tournament)
26-Jul to 27-Jul-2003
Eden Kirk 4/7 (13=)
Ezra Kirk 2/7 (35=)

British Under 8 Championship (44 in tournament)
25-Jul-2003
Eden Kirk 3½/6 (13=)
Ezra Kirk 3/6 (17=)

Full tournament results on www.bcfservices.org.uk.

Neville Belinfante

Philip Makepeace (14 Dr Challoner's Grammar school) came joint 2^nd in the Under 16 section of the Smith and Williamson Young Master's tournament at Millfield Somerset.

Philip, who was disappointed to miss out on the Under 14 section of the UK Chess Challenge Gigafinal because of a clash of dates, scored his best result in this tournament (4/5) coming joint second with two others including Bucks old-boy and friend Charlie Fry. Both players narrowly missed out on the title that was won by Richard Willis (4.5/5).

Neville Belinfante

It was a successful weekend for Bucks juniors at the UK Chess Challenge Gigafinal this weekend at Keele University in Staffordshire with four players qualifying for either the Terafinal or Terafinal Challengers at the Source in Sheffield at the end of August.

Briony Brock (7 Gateway school) won the Under 7 girls outright with 6/6. Charles Evans (13 Beacon school) won the Under 13A section with 6/6. Both of these qualify for the Terafinal for a first prize of £1000.

Jamie Craik (8 Buckingham Chess Centre) scored 5/6 in one of the Under 8 sections.  Beaummont Tang scored 5/6 in one of the Under 13 sections. Both of these play in the Terafinal Challengers for a first prize of £500.

Richard Biondini (U7) 4/6, Joshua Hagley (U8) 4/6, Christopher Palmer (U8) 4/6, Ilya Iyengar (U9) 4.5/6, Toby Brock (U9) 4/6, Ruth Burr (U10) 4/6, Patrick Stockwell (U11) 4.5/6, ,David Saunders (U11) 4/6, Alex Lillie (U11) 4/6, Susanna Challinger (U11) 4/6, Adam Pomerenke (U11) 4/6), Edward Basham (U12) 4/6, Christie Goodman (U12) 4/6, Mark Amery (U13) 4/6, Dominic Reed (U13) 4/6, Bei-Nan Liu (U18) 4/6.

Neville Belinfante

Last weekend (29/30-Jun-03) the Royal Grammar School competed in the Under 12 section of the National Schools Team Competition at Pontins, Prestatyn, North Wales.  The U12 team came second, Magdalen College School, Oxford were the winners with a school from Torquay 3rd.  

The RGS team were represented by Edward Basham, Christie Goodman, Michael Ball, Jonathan Ooi, Matthew Plato and Oliver Olney.

On Monday and Tuesday last week (1/2-Jul-03), Hamilton School competed in the Under 9 final section of the English Primary School's Chess Association annual championships.  They came 4th out of 9.  The winners were MCS Oxford, and the other teams were Haberdashers Askes, (Elstree, Hertfordshire), Dulwich College (SE London), Brookland (N London), Queen Elizabeth Grammar School Wakefield, Nottingham High and Aughton St Michael (Liverpool).  Most of these schools have professional chess players as coaches.

The Hamilton team were represented by Christopher Lillie, Paul Carr, Abigail Basham, Joshua Hagley, Matthew Saunders and Joseph Pepper-McCrudden.

Paul Basham / Neville Belinfante

Last Saturday (29-Jun-03), Charles Evans (13, Beacon School, Amersham) and Toby Brock (9, Gateway School, High Wycombe) took part in a simultaneous chess display against Sergey Karyakin from the Ukraine, who at 13 is the world's youngest chess grandmaster ever.  The display was to celebrate the opening of the Art of Chess exhibition at the Gilbert Collection, Somerset House which is on until the end of September.  In the simultaneous display, Sergey played 20 players at the same time, and as soon as one player finished their game another took their place.  Although both Charles and Toby played valiantly for over an hour, they both lost their games.  This is no disgrace as through the afternoon, Sergey played 68 games with 63 wins and 3 draws, including a win over one of the county's best players, Andrew Smith from Bourne End.

Toby Brock was not discouraged by this, and played another game in a simultaneous display against Britain's Chess Prodigy of the Year, David Howell (12, Sussex).  Again Toby lost, and David's record throughout the event was played 58, won 49 drew 7.

Charles and Toby were invited to take part in the display as they are competitors in the British Land UK Chess Challenge (http://www.ukchesschallenge.com).  If they win the next stage against children their own age, they might get the chance to play David Howell head to head in the final at the end of August.

Neville Belinfante

The BYCA AGM was held Wednesday 4-Jun-03.  The election of officers was conducted (see contacts page).  Team Manager's for the new season were provisionally assigned.

Various reports were presented (Chairman's, Treasurer's, Membership, Team Reports).  All teams this year have done exceptionally well with the U9 finishing 3rd in the EPSCA finals, the best result for many years.

The BYCA Trophy presentation will be held Sunday 6-Jul-03 at 1.30pm.  The Bucks Junior Congress will be held Sun 12-Oct-03.

Coaching.  The Wednesday coaching with Andrew Martin, once a month will continue.  The monthly Sunday sessions (previously held with Jason Kirk and then Shalindra Fernando) require a replacement organiser.  Similarly the earlier Friday session (17:15-18:00) requires a replacement organiser as Brian Lacey has now stepped down from running this session.  The later Friday session (19:20 to 20:30) with Paul Basham will continue.

A vote of thanks was recorded to David Balderson on his retirement as Treasurer for all his hard work in connection with the Association's finances and tournaments.  

We welcome Tanya Iyengar who will take over as Treasurer and Neville Belinfante who takes over as Grading Secretary and Event Organiser.

Grading - information on players' grades will be held.  BCF and BYCA estimated grades for all Bucks players will be put on the website.

BYCA League for the new season will aim to attract further schools into the competition.  A mailshot will be sent to all schools. 

Updated

Mark Amery played in the U14 section at the Letchworth Congress (BCF Grand Prix) on 30-Mar-03.  There were 11 players in the section and Mark scored 5/6 to win the section. That is the 3rd year in a row, that Mark has been within the top three at this event.  Joint 2nd were Kathy Nightingale (Beds) and William Mycroft (Herts) scoring 4/6.

 Well done Mark.

Edward Basham scored 3 / 6 in the Terafinal Challenger's section and was placed 20= in a very strong field of 55 (U7 to U18).  Well done Edward.  Thoroughly deserved.

News from Buckingham Chess Centre

Buckingham Chess Centre players perform well, both individually and as a team in the Letchworth One Day Congress - Terence Chapman Group Grand Prix event (21-Apr-02).

Mark Amery came 2nd in the U14 section against some strong opposition.  Matthew Iceton and Alan Miscampbell (both still U9) came joint 5th in the U11 section in a field of about 40.  Ian Iceton (chairman of Buckingham Chess Centre) came 2nd in the minor section.

The foursome also entered as a team and scooped the team prize finishing a full 3% clear of the next best team. The players won small cash prizes in the individual and team events.

Well done to all of you for an excellent day's chess.

Marianne Amery

Breaking News from High Wycombe and Hazlemere Chess Club

With the numbers still to be formally checked, HW and Hz I clinched the Division 2 title to earn promotion to the top flight.  

The success is a tribute not just to the hard work of the first choice team but to a number of players including juniors throughout the club who have stepped in and chalked up some vital half points.  Promotion would also not been achieved without the efforts of the second team in beating Aylesbury twice, let alone the embarrassment of the win over the first team!!

There was a lot of hard work too in getting the room ready and tidying up afterwards. It has been difficult for me fitting in chess around increased travelling for work this year so this has been much appreciated. I am tempted to observe that the team often functioned more smoothly without me, so a special thank you to the stand in captains!

I’ll report in more detail on the other teams at the season’s end. Judging by the standard of opposition posed in internal fixtures and the difficulties I experienced clocking up wins in the club championship, things look bright for the future. But for those impatient for games I’ve still not seen a more entertaining game than David Balderson’s early season effort featured elsewhere on the BYCA website – though he pulled off a rather neat ‘sucker punch’ against me as well (coming soon!).

Jonathan Melsom

At the South of England Championships, in February,

         Charlie Fry and Philip Makepeace

both qualified to join the National Junior Chess Squad.

Congratulations and well done to both of you.  It is richly deserved.

We hope that this news will encourage other BYCA members to keep up the chess.  Who knows what might be achieved. 

Having won their zonal final of the BCF Trophy against Abingdon School, Dr. Challoner's played Queen Elizabeth's Barnet on 4-Mar-02 and won 4-2. This means that they are now in the last 16 in the country!

Unfortunately, they have drawn St. Paul's in the next round, who I believe have won the tournament on a number of occasions before, but all the matches would be tough at this stage. There are some well known names in the teams left: Manchester Grammar School, Oakham, Yateley Manor, Millfield, King Edwards Birmingham etc.

From David Balderson.

Good luck in the next round

Grand Master James Plaskett will play the Rest of the World starting 1st March on the internet at www.chessworld.net.

Plaskett is one of the UK's most exciting and dynamic grandmasters both on
and off the board! He won the British Championship in fine style in 1990 and the Redbus knockout in 1999. He achieved 3204 on the ICC drawing an unofficial match with Shirov 10:10. Off the board has written books and has led an expedition to find a giant octopus off the coast of Bermuda.

This is a rare opportunity to play against a top British Grandmaster. The match will be played at the rate of 5 days per move. Players will vote their moves by clicking on the chess board while discussing and formulating strategies and tactics in the Rest of World team forum. This match is open to all who visit www.ChessWorld.net. Those wanting to play Plaskett will need to login and follow the Opponents menu to 'Play the Expert'.

This will be a historic Chess event. The last time a game like this was played, it erupted in controversy when Garry Kasparov teamed up with Bill Gates at Microsoft to issue the ultimate chess challenge of the 20th Century. The match ended in disaster when it was claimed that Microsoft lost a move suggestion by WGM Irena Krush who was on the move guidance panel for the rest of the world. Fraud was charged. However never before had a chess game engendered so much camaraderie with an intensity usually reserved for Football matches. Despite the World losing, this game was recorded in history as one of the most heavily analysed chess games every played!

Calling all Girl chess players.  Hazlemere Chess Club is running a session for Girls only on Fridays (4:30pm to 5:00pm) at Hazlemere Sports Association Pavilion.

If you are keen and interested contact Brian Lacey for further details (01494 713698).

In the Challenger's section Philip Makepeace scored 3/6 and finished 19= in a very strong field of 52.

Well done Philip.

At the annual Berks lightning tournament, held at St Edwards School on 19-May-01, a bumper field saw Ben Purton (Berks) carry off the U18 title and Mark Amery (Bucks) win the U11 title.  A last minute decision to enter by Mark (and Marianne), and a hurried lunch, led to an excellent result and a fun afternoon out!

Well done Mark.  A well deserved title.

Dr. Challoner's Grammar School got through to their zonal final of the Times Schools Trophy and were narrowly defeated by Magdalen College School Oxford.  However, this put them in the Plate Competition with the runners up from the zones throughout the country. After further victories they are now in the semi-final.  We'll keep you posted.  Good luck Dr Challoner's. 

Several BYCA  members from the Buckingham Chess Centre have recently attained the British Chess Federation (BCF) Certificate of Excellence awards.  The awards are given at three levels; Bronze, Silver and Gold and candidates take a test paper of 15 questions at the chosen level that test the general knowledge of chess, recognition of mate, and chess openings etc.

12-Feb-01 Bronze Award of Excellence:

• Alan Miscampbell (pass)
• Mark Amery (distinction)
• Jonathan Spencer (distinction)
• Matthew Iceton (distinction)
• Paul Davis (distinction)
• Michael Heath (distinction)
• James Coxhill (distinction)

17-Mar-01 Bronze Award of Excellence:

• Adam Davis (distinction)
• Andrew Norman (distinction)

17-Mar-01 Silver Award of Excellence:

• Mark Amery (distinction)

Well done to you all.  Keep up the good work.