Archive

A Herts Girls team played a friendly match against Essex at Stormont School, Potters Bar.

Essex are a strong county, and their team was much older than ours, which makes our performance all the more creditable. In last year’s county championships, they came 6th with 21.5 points (out of 36) compared with Herts’ 11.5 points in 13th place.

Although we lost 9-5 and 9.5-4.5, I thought that several of the games could have gone the other way, and the score-line would have been closer.

There was some really good chess played, and I was particularly pleased that we did well on the bottom boards, as we normally struggle for strength in depth. Particular mention to Georgina, Sophie, and Victoria who won both their games, and Jessica who was also unbeaten.

Considering the make-up of our team was 4 year 6, 3 year 5, 3 year 4, and 4 year 3, the future is indeed bright.

The Under 9 and Under 11 teams both took 5th place in their respective finals to go with their third places in the zonals. Under 9 individual scores here and Under 11 scores here. In the Under 11 final, we had a moderate first round scoring 10 points, a very strong second round with 15 points but a poor third round with just 7.5 points. A minimum of five more points would've achieved clear third place. Still well played everyone.

Primary Schools Competition

What an exciting last day for this year's leagues! Any school could have been the Major Champions going into the last round. The Minor League was a little more clear-cut but Radlett Prep were pipped at the post in the last round by Cunningham Hill... last game of the season.

Bowmansgreen School turned up with 6 players, all of whom had only been playing a few days (or weeks).

Everything is now over until we meet again in the Autumn. Final scores here.

Under 11 Zonal - Chingford

Herts took third place in the East zonal with 38 points behind Kent and Barnet. Billy Rintoul, Ryan Lubbock, Carl Breindel, Peter Hodgson-Jones and James Colebourn won all three games whilst Lawrence Lee and Alexander Long scored 2.5 points. Well done everyone! Full details here.

Under 9 Zonal - Northampton

Hertfordshire took third place behind Barnet and Kent. Other teams competing were Cambridgeshire, Essex, Northamptonshire and Richmond. Five teams qualified for the national final in Northampton on Saturday 25th April. Results here.

The venue for the U11 zonal will be in Chingford Foundation School, Nevin Drive, Chingford, Essex, E4 7LT.

ECF National Under 13 championships

Herts team finished a commendable 4th out of 10 scoring 13.5 points out of 24

Eili Topham is the Herts U11 Girls Champion having scored a perfect 6/6 in the championship at Stormont School. Georgina Moore was runner up on 4.5/6. Everyone seemed to enjoyed themselves!

The Herts Primary School league has now played four rounds. Cunningham Hill lead the Major League with 15.5 points and Radlett Prep B lead the Minor League with 17 points. The final two rounds are on Tuesday 24th March. Fuller details here.

The Under 14 / Under 90 team lost to a strong Surrey team. Most of the team achieved at least one point from their two games. Details here.

Chris Cook has announced that he is stepping down from Herts Junior activities from the end of the current season following over ten years of involvement.

I have added five revision guides produced by Kent Junior Chess (led by chief coach GM Chris Ward). These are well worth working through by new and experienced players. Many thanks to Kent!

We are now entering a period of intense activity that will only stop after the EPSCA final in May. Do enter the Herts Junior Championships taking place shortly. These will be held at Cunningham Hill School, St Albans.

Little Heath Christmas Fun Tournament results here. Joshua Cavendish was Christmas Champion with 4.5/5. Thirty players took part in what is likely to be the last such tournament.

Season 2008 - 2009 sees us building on the successes of last season and the opening of our academy at North Mymms Cricket Club in the Herts countryside. You will find directions here.

The diary of events is continually updated. We have included other competitions that you may want to enter as well - you will find details of these elsewhere on the internet often through the ECF site under the calendar link but where we have entry forms you can click to download them.

The U14 team defeated Hampshire 18.5 - 6.5 at St Luke's in Cell Barnes Lane, St Albans on Saturday 22nd November. Details here. At the same time we held a 'stars-barred' mini tournament which was won by Asad Shad with a perfect 6/6 - details here.

The first round of the Hertfordshire Primary Schools League took place in November over two dates. Click here for more details of this competition. Schools may still enter - please click here for an entry form.

Several junior players who have links to Hertfordshire are playing in the World Youth championships. We have heard from Sonal Haria that they are having a great time out in Vietnam. Details here.

One of our chess mums, Yvonne Tomlinson, is undertaking a sponsored cycle trip in Cambodia and Vietnam in support of the Alzheimer's Society in February 2009. It involves more than 470 km of cycling over five days in hot and humid conditions. Details here.

Our first tournament of the season was our London Junior Qualifier. Details here.

A new aspect of coaching this season will be the establishment of monthly coaching days including dedicated training for complete beginners. Contact Chris to register an interest. The topic for our first session on Sunday 28th September 2008 was 'Include all your pieces in the attack' or as Jacob Aagaard also calls it 'Bring all your toys to the nursery'. The second session looked at choosing the right time to attack. we looked at game 3 of the World Chess Championships amongst other games. The next session is on Sunday 16th November when we hope to have three groups - Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced.

The EPSCA (English Primary Schools Chess Association) is holding its AGM on 6th October. According to papers I have received, we will compete in the East zone for the U9 and U11 competitions along with Barnet, Cambridge, Essex, Kent, Kingston, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Richmond and Suffolk. One of these counties will host the U9 zonal whilst Essex will host the U11 zonal. The U9 final will be held somewhere in our zone whilst the U11 final will be in Buckinghamshire. The U11 Girls competition will be held in Manchester. Details may yet change of course.