Date	News item
July 10	Well done to all those who competed in the Northern Gigafinal. The results can be found here
July 10	Results of the Sheffield Grand Prix, Yorkshire championships and overall Grand Prix are here. A more detailed view of individual results from Sheffield are here. Congratulations to all the winners and participants and a big thank you to all the organisers who give so much of their time to make these events possible. The Grand Prix events have been a big success attracting 156 players !
May 10	Details and entry for the final Yorkshire Grand Prix of the season at Sheffield including the Yorkshire championship titles. This will take place on Sunday June 27th 2010 at Sitwell School, Grange Road, Rotherham, S60 3LA Full details here
May 10	Fantastic performances from Leeds Junior Chess Club members at the North Yorkshire Megafinal saw four girl supremas crowned and three supremos. In the younger sections Aoife Berwick won the U11 girls with 6/6 and Adarsh Vani the U10 boys. Harry Li won the U12 boys and Hannah Priest the U12 girls. At the older end Francesca Fozard won the U14 girls, Amanda Hipshon the U18 girls and Sean MacDonald the U17 boys. Additionally, the following all qualified for the national Giga Final in July: James Roberts, Amol Vani, Wesley McGough, Joshua Levine and Gabriel Dixon Hardy - that's a total of 12 players from 14 qualifiers - wonderful!. Full results here
Apr 10	Well done to Adarsh Vani who scored 2.5/6 in the recent England under 11 trials in Liverpool - always an extremely tough tournament with the best players from across the country qualifying to play. Although his score was not quite enough to qualify for the squad Adarsh is still only under 10 so will have another opportunity next year. A great effort to qualify for the trial a year early though so well done Adarsh and good luck for next year. Full results will appear here
Apr 10	New dates for the Leeds Junior Club are as follows: April 18th, 25th May 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd. June 13th, 20th July 4th, 11th
Mar 10	Well done to the Leeds juniors who represented Yorkshire in several of the senior county teams in the Northern County Championships. Results were as follows - those sections with * had Leeds juniors in the team: Team Open U180 U160* U140* U120* U100* The qualifiers for the National Final Stages are: Open: 1st Lancashire; 2nd Yorkshire ( Yorkshire & Lancs drew 8-8, Lancs won on tie-break ) U180: 1st Yorkshire; 2nd Lancashire U160 1st Yorkshire; 2nd Lancashire U140: 1st Yorkshire B (Mainly Juniors); 2nd Yorkshire A (Seniors) U120: 1st Yorkshire; 2nd Lancashire U100 1st Lancashire 2nd Yorkshire ( Yorkshire & Lancs drew 6-6, Lancs won on tie-break )
Feb 10	A great weekend competition for Leeds Juniors. Francesca Fozard was the outright winner of the Doncaster congress Minor section with 4.5 / 5 and James Bowler was the joint winner of the Major section with the same score. Sean McDonald also did well in the intermediate section (final score tbc).
Feb 10	Well done to James Bowler who won the Leyland Rapidplay Major outright with 5.5/6.
Feb 10	56 players competed in the latest Grand Prix held at The Grammar School at Leeds. Congratulations to the winner of the Major section - Louis Brjmohun, the Intermediate section - Dev Hamal and the Novice section - Sailash Sitaram. The results, prize winners and the latest Grand Prix standings are here. Full details of individual games available here
Jan 10	55 players competed in the latest Grand Prix held at Wakefield. The results and the latest Grand Prix standings are here. Full details of individual games available here Next Grand Prix is at Leeds Grammar School on 7th Feb - please get your entry in as soon as possible. Entry form available here
Jan 10	Dates of the Leeds Junior Club Club for the coming term. Also includes dates of other events including a special parents open night where parents - instead of leaving their children for two hours - come and join in the chess !
Jan 10	Leeds Juniors team narrowly lost a close match with Calderdale 4.5-3.5 in the Yorkshire League. The team were outgraded on nearly every board so a good result in that context. Wins for James Bowler, Amol Vani and John Hipshon and a draw for Francesca. Well done all. Scorecard here
Dec 09	Hull Junior Grand Prix results here Full details of individual pairings and results available here. Please note that the final ordering shown on this detailed list does not take into account that there were tie breaks.
Dec 09	The London Chess Classic (8th to 15th December) will be the highest level tournament in London for 25 years. Many of the World's top players are competing including 2 prominent teenagers - World No 2 Magnus Carlsen and England's British Champion David Howell. Player profiles here
Dec 09	Congratulations to James Bowler who was joint winner of the Bury Rapidplay Major (U170).
Dec 09	Well done to the Leeds Junior team who had their first win of the season in the Yorkshire league against Wakefield B - winning 4.5 - 3.5. The team was James Bowler, Francesca Fozard, John Hipshon, Amol Vani, Wesley McGough, Adarsh Vani, John Fozard.
Nov 09	Yorkshire are the new U16 county champions ! The U16s followed up the U18s similar recent success with the same score and another great win. Leeds Juniors - James Roberts, Francesca Fozard and James Bowler all played in the team. 1 Yorkshire 21 2 Hampshire 18½ 3 Lancashire 18 4 Glamorgan 17½ 5 Berkshire 15½ 6 Kent 15 7 Cheshire North Wales 6½ The Yorkshire U12s also played in the county championships. They found it very tough going with several players missing but acquitted themselves well and gained more experience which will help them all in the future. Several Leeds juniors played in the team: Robert Oxley, Dev and Prav Hamal, Yash Kapur and Adarsh Vani. Well done to all. A full match report for both U16s and U12s can be found here
Nov 09	James Bowler will be representing England in the World Youth Chess Championships (Under 12 section). The tournament is over 11 rounds and starts on 12th November. There are at least 40 players in his section graded over 2000 ELO (Approx 170 ECF) so it will be extremely tough ! You can follow his and the rest of the England team's progress here. There will be further coverage on the ECF website. 2 promotional videos from the competition (they're each nearly 30 megabytes so will take time to download) Video 1 Video 2
Oct 09	Well done to Francesca Fozard who finished 2nd in the Scarborough U125 Minor tournament with 4.5/5 and narrowly missed out on winning.
Oct 09	Magnus Carlsen - 18 year old Super GM The 2nd Nanjing Pearl Spring Chess Tournament takes place 27th Sept - 9th October 2009 in Nanjing, China. The total prize fund is $365,000 (250,000 Euros) and event is part of the Grand Slam series, with the winner getting an automatic seat into next year's Grand Slam Masters Final. The line-up (in rating order) for the 6-player double round robin will be: Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria), Magnus Carlsen (Norway), Peter Leko (Hungary), Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan), Dmitry Jakovenko (Russia), Wang Yue (China). The average rating is 2763, which makes the event a category 21 tournament. The Carlsen carnage continues, as the young Norwegian stands ominously poised for an epoch-making breakthrough victory. The 18-year-old rode his luck but finally ground down local hero Wang Yue in round eight, to take his score now to +5 on 6.5/8, two points clear of his nearest rival, world #1 Topalov. So far, Carlsen has ripped through the opposition; and with only two rounds to play, he's on the verge of his first outright win in a super-tournament. And in the process, he's also boosted his live rating by 24.4-points to jump into the world #2 spot, less than four points shy now of breaking the 2800 barrier. Update 9/10/09. . . Magnus Carlsen's magnificent performance at the Pearl Spring super-tournament in Nanjing, China, ended on a historic high as the Norwegian teenager won a truly remarkable tournament victory. With the tournament already in the bag going into the final round, Carlsen saved the best till last by beating Dmitry Jakovenko for a final +6 winning score of 8/10 and a tournament performance of 3008 - remarkably, 2.5-points ahead (!) of his nearest rival, world #1 Veselin Topalov.
Oct 09	Detailed results of the York Junior Grandprix available here Results and Grandprix standings in Excel are here
Oct 09	Well done to James Bowler who won the Ormskirk Rapidplay - Major section (U170) finishing unbeaten on 5/6.
Sept 09	James Roberts, Amanda Hipshon and James Bowler helped the Yorkshire U18 team to a stunning victory to win the National Title ! U18 Team manager's report: The Yorskhire Under 18 chess team pulled off a stunning victory in the National Youth Chess Association Under 18 Championships yesterday by beating off the challenge of 7 other counties to take the title. We were certainly not favourites going into the competition and looking round at the quality of chess players in the room we felt it could be a tough day. However, the first round was amazing, with no losses, 6 wins and 2 draws to take a two point lead. The team consisted of Tom Whittaker, Louis Brijmohun, Ashley Littlewood, James Bowler, Evie Hollingworth, Amanda Hipshon, James Roberts and Peter Hornsby. They showed fantastic levels of concentration through the day. First defeats came in the second round, but only two to take another five points. Tom Whittaker, having dismissed Michael Rabbitte in the first round then beat Craig Whitfield in the second. A two and a half point lead had built up going into the third round and the team kept up the level of concentration to take another five and half points and open up a three and a half point cushion over Kent. Everyone was very focussed but we should mention Evie had been ill all week and had turned up bravely not to let the team down. She turned out a highly effective performance on board five. The last round was totally nail biting. Despite everyone playing well it was difficult to sustain the level after three gruelling games. Peter got a quick draw against a Kent player on board 8, and how crucial this turned out to be, as only three other wins followed. We were left to rely on Kent dropping one more point and thankfully that happened as their board two lost a tense game to hand the title to Yorkshire by half a point. No one should be in any doubt about the scale of this achievement and it was down to eight players concentrating and focussing on the day, giving everything for the team. Final Team Standings - U18 1st Yorkshire 21 2nd Kent 20½ 3rd Warwickshire 19½ 4 Cheshire & North Wales 16½ 5 South Wales 15½ 6= Lancashire 12½ 6= Berkshire 12½ 8 Shropshire 10 Yorkshire U14 team Report and photos can be found here Final Team Standings - U14 1st Sussex 42½ 2nd Kent 35 3rd Berkshire 32 4 Lancashire 30½ 5 Yorkshire 18½ 6= South Wales 17½ 6= Cheshire & North Wales 17½ 8 Staffordshire 14½ 9 Manchester 8 U18 Team photo U14 Team photo U14 Reserves Team - Winners
Sept 09	Russian legends do battle . . again Chess legends Garry Kasparov and Anatoli Karpov will face off on Monday in the Spanish city of Valencia for a five-day re-match (21-25th Sept), 25 years after their epic world championship duel. Kasparov arrives tomorrow after having trained in Oslo with the child prodigy of World’s chess - 18 year old Magnus Carlsen. The matches will be broadcast live on the Valencia regional government website (www.gva.es). Organisers said they expect some 10 million web users to follow the event in this city known as the birthplace of modern chess, where the game has been played since the 15th century. The official match website is here. Live games here. BBC video clip here Update: Kasparov wins the first 4 game match 3-1 as their ratings would have predicted. Results and games here
Aug 09	Congratulations to all those who made it to the final stage of the UK Chess Challenge entered by over 70,000 juniors upto age 18. Terafinal James Bowler - 6th= Harry Li - 24th= ( Adarsh Vani also qualified for the Terafinal but was unfortunately unable to compete ) Challengers Amanda Hipshon - 15th= Karim Ismail - 26th= Wesley McGough & Dev Hamal - 43rd= Full Terafinal and Challengers results here
Aug 09	Leeds Junior Chess Club New Venue: Alwoodley Community Centre, The Avenue, Alwoodley LS17 7NZ. New club dates and other details can be found here
Aug 09	A great new Yorkshire Junior website has been launched by John Fozard which can be found at http://www.yorkshirejuniorchess.co.uk
Aug 09	4 Leeds juniors (Amol & Adarsh Vani, Robert & James Bowler) represented England in the European Union Youth Championships in Austria. Report on the ECF website here
July 09	Fantastic results at the Northern Gigafinals from Leeds juniors - with an amazing 9 players qualifying for the Terafinal ! The following who all made it through to the Terafinal: Adarsh Vani 1st in U9 boys Harry Li 1st in U11 boys James Bowler 1st in U12 boys Dev Hamal 2nd in U11 boys Karim Ismail 2nd in U11 boys Wesley McGough 2nd in U11 boys Amanda Hipshon 2nd in U17 girls Lois Coleman 3rd in U10 girls Francesca Fozard 3rd in U13 girls Full results here for Saturday and Sunday events
July 09	Well done to both Harry Li and Amol Vani who were both selected to play for a "Rest of England" team v London. This is an annual closely contested under 11 team tournament of 20 boards and 2 rounds. Harry scored 2/2 and Amol 1/2 but despite these great results it wasn't quite enough for the team to beat London who won 24-18. Results here
July 09	Harry Li made his debut for the England under 11 team scroing an excellent 2/2 against a Dutch team in Amsterdam. Well done Harry !
July 09	Congratulations to Alcuin who did the double winning both the Leeds Junior Chess League and the Leeds Junior Team Tournament - a fantastic result - particularly for such a small school. Final Results of the Leeds Junior Team Tournament were: 1st Alcuin 21 2nd Hugh Gaitskell 9 3rd Froebelian 6 Alcuin also followed this up with 3rd place in the National Small Schools Final in Somerset the next day, missing second by just half a point !
July 09	ECF All England Girls Final - Amanda, Kiruthika and Francesca all took part in the All England Girls Gold Finals last weekend in Suffolk. Congratulations to Francesca Fozard who won the National Under 14 Title and Amanda Hipshon who came third in the Under 18's. Full result here
July 09	EPSCA Schools Zonal - Prestatyn Under 9s &11s Several Leeds Juniors competed for their schools in the English Primary Schools chess Association finals in Prestatyn with some great results: Under 9's - QEGS 5th out of 24 Under 11's - QEGS 2nd, Alcuin 13th out of 36 Click here for team results
June 09	Congratulations to all those who competed in the South Yorkshire Megafinal. Some more great results for Leeds juniors with another 11 players qualifying for the Gigafinal as follows: Under 7-8 Mixed Under 9-10 Boys Adarsh Vani (U9) 6 Supremo Yash Kapur (U9) 4 Under 9-12 Girls Abigail Arnold (U10) 4.5 Suprema Under 11-12 Boys James Bowler (U12) 6 Supremo Karim Ismail (U11) 5.5 Supremo Amol Vani (U11) 5 Robert Oxley (U11) 4 Prav Hamal (U11) 4 Dev Hamal (U11) 4 Under 13-18s Mixed Robert Bowler (U14) 4.5 (Joint 1st on points) Francesca Fozard (U13) 4 Suprema Those in bold have qualified for the Gigafinal. That's a total of 24 Leeds Juniors in the Gigafinal qualifying from both North and South Yorkshire Megafinals. 75% of Leeds juniors entering the Megafinals qualified for the Gigafinal and half of those qualifiers won their Megafinal section !
June 09	The Yorkshire Girls Under 14 county team won the national title today in Syston, Leicestershire, nudging out Kent in a thrilling finish. Five counties contested the title - Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Worcestershire, Surrey and Kent. Yorkshire were fielding a full strength team but Kent were also strong. In round 1 the girls had a sensational start, winning 6/6 to take a 1½ point lead over Kent. In round 2 we were again undefeated with 4 wins and 2 draws, and took a 2 point advantage going into the last round. However, there were two crucial head to head matches against Kent in the third round so nothing was guaranteed. On board 6 Anna Cunningham was defeated by the Kent player, and then Megumi Parbrook fell to a shock defeat on board three. Amy Greenhough, Rebekah Brown and Evie Hollingworth completed victories, but with Kent winning five it all came down to the final board 2 match between Francesca Fozard and the Kent board 2. With all other matches long since finished the pressure was on. A victory for either girl would give their team the title, but a draw would tie the competition, with Yorkshire winning the tie break on board count. In a nail biter Francesca kept her cool under pressure to ease through a passed pawn and win the title for Yorkshire. A fantastic achievement - well done to all the girls - no one scored less than 2/3 and Evie and Rebekah - both members of the 2006 team that also won the title - scored 3/3. Team Photo Amy Anna Megumi Rebekah Francesca and Evie News article here
June 09	Well done to the Yorkshire girls who took part in the All England girls Northern Region last Sunday. Kiruthika Rajeswaran and Amanda Hipshon both scored 4/5 in a tough U18/14 section, with Kiruthika winning the title on tie break. Megumi Parbrook won the U12 title and Francesca Fozard scored 3/5 in the U14 title to finish in the medals after some very tough matches. Both Abigail Arnold ( 3/5 )and Anna Cunningham (2.5/5) qualify for the gold final. Prize Winners
June 09	James Bowler and Miles Edwards-Wright (both Yorkshire juniors) were recently selected for an England under 12 team to play in Poland against a number of other International teams. A summary of the trip including how they got on can be seen here.
May 09	Details of the British Championships to be held in Torquay 26 July - 8 August 2009 are here
May 09	Great success for Leeds Juniors at the North Yorkshire Megafinal Some of the Leeds juniors storming the North Yorkshire Megafinal pictured here from left to right: David Francis Under 15 supremo, Sean Mc Donald U16 supremo, Lois Coleman U10 suprema, Amanda Hipshon U17 suprema, Rachel Brown U8 suprema, Rebekah Brown U14 suprema. Here are the results of all the Leeds Juniors who qualified and participated. Those in bold have qualified for the Gigafinal in Manchester by gaining 4 or more points out of 6 or by being the winners of their age group and hence being awarded the titles of Suprema or Supremo. Very well done all. U14-U18 Sean McDonald (LJCC) 5 (U16 Supremo) James Roberts (LJCC) 5 David Francis (LJCC) 4 (U15 Supremo) Amanda Hipshon (LJCC) 4 (U17 Suprema) Edward Pellow (LJCC) 3.5 Rebekah Brown (LJCC) 3 (U14 Suprema) U12-13 Sam Vasquez (LJCC) 4 U11 Boys Harry Li 6 (Supremo) Wesley McGough (Alcuin, LJCC) 4.5 Anamay Shetty (Alcuin) 4 Roddy MacSween (LJCC) 4 Charley Brennan (Hugh Gaitskell) 3.5 Marc Armitage (Hugh Gaitskell) 3 James Buckley (LJCC) 3 U9-10-11 Girls Lois Coleman (Alcuin) 4 (U10 suprema) Samiya Namballa (LJCC) 3 U10 Boys Ben Wainwright (LJCC) 4 Matthew Johnson (Alcuin)3.5 U9 Boys Gabriel Dixon Hardy (LJCC) 3.5 Matthew Bullock (Churwell) 2 U7-U8 Rachel Brown (LJCC, Alcuin) 4 (U8 suprema) Its great to see 13 Leeds players qualifying for the Gigafinal and great credit to the Leeds Junior Chess Club that no fewer than 10 of them are members of the club ! (with still some additional members playing through their schools in the South Yorkshire megafinal on 30th May) Full cross tables here: Under 7s and 8s Under 9s Under 9-11 Girls Under 10 Boys Under 11 Boys Under 12s-13s Under 14-18s
Apr 09	Under 11 England Trial Results Congratulations to Leeds juniors Harry Li and Amol Vani who both competed in the England under 11 team selection trial held last weekend. It is a great achievement for them both to have made it to this final stage after the preliminary qualifying events. The event itself is an exceptionally tough tournament with only the best players from across the country competing for a relatively small number of places. This was Harry's second attempt after unfortunately missing out as an under 10 last year by half a point with a very tough draw in the last round. This year however he managed to get the extra half point and successfully made it through the trial to become a member of the EPSCA England under 11 team - a great result which has eluded many other extremely good juniors at this stage. Harry's first match will be against Holland in a few weeks. Amol had a great start but in the end fell just one point short of the qualifying score. A great effort never the less and demonstrating he is clearly one of the best players in the country in his age group. Amol will still have a great chance in the future to qualify for the squad. Results here
Apr 09	Three Leeds Junior players had a successful day at the Lancashire Junior congress on Saturday 18th April in Blackburn. Francesca Fozard won the Queens section with 5/5, Harry Mehat won the Knights section with 6/7 and Amanda Hipshon was runner up in the Kings section on sum of progressive scores with 4/5. Excellent performances by all three. Detailed results here Players
Apr 09	Leeds Junior Chess Club Dear Club members - the new dates for Leeds Junior Chess Club are as below. I have included dates of other events too. Sunday 26th April, Sunday 3rd May, Sunday 17th May, Sunday 24th May, Sunday 7th June, Sunday 14th June, Sunday 21st June, Sunday 28th June, Sunday 5th July, Sunday 12th July Other Dates: Saturday 25th April: rearranged Yorkshire league match with Sheffield Monday 4th May: North Yorkshire Mega Final Sunday 10th May: Hull Rapidplay/Skelmersdale Rapidplay/ York Junior Event Saturday 30th May: South Yorkshire Mega Final Sunday 31st May: All England Girls Northern Region (Ormskirk) Saturday 6th June: Under 14 girls ECGCF national final (Syston) Saturday 20th-Sunday 21st June: EPSCA National Primary Schools semi-final Saturday-Sunday 18th-19th July: Giga Final weekend (Oldham) Regards John Hipshon
Mar 09	Well done to all the girls who represented Yorkshire yesterday in the EPSCA Under 11 girls county championship. It was a tough day and everyone fought hard against some of the best young female players in the country. Well done to Zahra Ahmed who won all three of her games. Wins were hard to come by, and we managed 10, but there were some memorable moments such as Rachel Brown defeating Surrey in the last round to finally scupper their chances of taking the title. The title went to Kent this year. Leeds girls Abigail Arnold, Hannah Priest, Lois Coleman, Rachel Brown and Niamh Jessop Sanders were all in the team. Photos: The Yorkshire under 11 girls team Anna Cunningham fought doggedly on board one – here against Natalie Cass
Jan 09	Leeds Junior Chess congress & Yorkshire Junior Chess Grand Prix Congratulations go to Louis Brijmohun who became the first Yorkshire Junior Grand Prix Champion by winning the Leeds Junior Congress with 5.5/6. Louis will be the first to admit it has been a hard road. Today he had to beat Evie Holligworth, Sean MacDonald and Robert Bowler, with a draw against Harry Li, to secure the prize. It looked at one stage as if Robert Bowler was the player in form, striding to 5/5, but Louis proved his nemesis today. The big shock came in round 3, with the top three seeds all losing - James Bowler went down to James Roberts, Evie lost to Louis and Ashley Littlewood went down to Sean MacDonald. Such is the competitive nature of the Yorkshire juniors anyone seems capable of beating anyone on their day. The grand prix has been a successful series with congresses in Sheffield, Hull and Leeds attracting 110 players in total! The Leeds event had 57 entries and 4 players finished on 5 points. Robert Bowler was second on tie break, with Michael Littlewood 3rd, James Bowler fourth and Ashley Littlewood fifth. Ashley took the U18 trophy, James Roberts the U14, James Bowler the Under 12 and Harry Li the Under 11. Amanda Hipshon took best girl with 4.5 and then Abigail Arnold U10, Adarsh Vani U9 and Hephzi Leatherbarrow took a clean sweep of under 8 trophies at all three events. Many thanks to all who helped out throughout the series and for the Leeds event - the team - Cath Bowler, John Littlewoood and John Fozard, and many thanks to Bobbie Hipshon and Julie Fisher for doing a great job with refreshments. John Hipshon Leeds Congress results here Full individual results here Grand Prix Final Standings here Congress winners Deciding match Grand Prix Winners Congress Pic 1 Congress Pic 2 Congress Pic 3
Dec 08	The first ever Hull Junior Congress in premier surroundings of the KC Stadium Sports Bar proved to be a keenly contested affair, with Evie Hollingworth claiming the top prize with a stunning 5.5/6, fending off Sam Milson the top seed into second place. Louis Brijmohun from Sheffield came 3rd with 5/6. It was good to see a number of Hull juniors taking part and the Hull Champion was Thomas Bertolotti, who squeezed his brother out by half a point on sum of opponents scores! Fourth and fifth places were shared between Ashley Littlewood, Michael Littlewood, Amy Milson and Robert Oxley, who all won age group trophies for U18, U14, Best Girl and U11 respectively. The U12 trophy went to Miles Edward Wright, under 10 to Ben Wainwright, Under 9 to Wasim Ahmed and Under 8 to Hephzi Leatherbarrow. The prize for the best ungraded player was shared between Thomas Wills and Stephen Bertolotti. Well done everyone who took part on an excellent day's chess. The grand prix moves on to Leeds in February with Evie currently leading the standings half a point ahead of Sam, Louis and Ashley. Detailed results can be found here. Here are the overall Grand Prix standings with the next event in Leeds on 8th Feb - See Events page. Event photos here
Nov 08	The Yorkshire girls open took place last Sunday and again proved to be a very tough competition. Some of the best players from Yorkshire and Lancashire gathered again chasing a £100 first prize and the title of Yorkshire Girls Open Champion. The top seeds were all on course until the fourth round where the heavyweight clashes began. Defending champion Amanda Hipshon played Evie Hollingworth and managed to beat her for the second year in a row. 2006 winner Kiruthika Rajeswaran looked in formidable form having beaten Isobel Cotogni in round 3. She defeated the 2005 winner Rachel Cass in round 4 to set up the meeting with Amanda in round 5. It was tense encounter but a clever middle game tactic gave Kiruthika the advantage which she used to secure a victory. It guaranteed nothing, however, as she met Evie Hollingworth in round 6 but there was no stopping her and she won to take first place. Amanda defeated the vastly improving Francesca Fozard in round 6 to take second. Last match to finish was a gruelling affair between Isobel Cotogni and Rachel Cass, which finally ended in a draw – enough for Rachel to take 3rd and Isobel 4th with the consolation of the U14 trophy. West Yorkshire Championships were also awarded – a good day for Wakefield Girls School who took three of these: U18 Kiruthika Rajeswaran U14 Francesca Fozard and Amy Greenhough U11 Abigail Arnold U9 Rachel Brown The trophy for the West Yorkshire U14 Championship was awarded to Amy Greenhough, but after discovery that Francesca was also eligible for the trophy it was agreed by all parties that the title should be shared – both girls receive trophies and title. Well done to both and for being mature in resolving the error to the satisfaction of all parties. Other trophy winners: Under 12: Lara Buckley Under 11: Anna Cunnigham Under 10: Victoria Sung Under 9: Jessica Priest Under 8: Rachel Brown The novice competition was contested by 9 girls playing in their first tournament. Worthy winner was Sydney Ropella who score 5.5/6 and second was 8 year old Lucinda Thompson form Alcuin with 4.5. Third was Zahra Ahmed from Wakefield also with 4.5. Congratulations to all girls for taking part. Many thanks to Julie Fisher who assisted brilliantly on the day. John Hipshon Individual results here
Nov 08	Yorkshire U14 girls produced their best result in the Northern Region traditional match with Lancashire drawing 9-9 to share the trophy. This year Cheshire were not able to field a team. The Lancashire team were a strong 6 and Yorkshire had to rely on three players who produced their best form, remaining unbeaten in their three games. Evie Hollingworth (SASCA) won 3/3 with Francesca Fozard(Leeds Juniors) and Rebekah Brown (Leeds Juniors) both scoring 2.5/3. Others struggled, with Hannah Kong (Rotherham) scoring 1 but unfortunately Yasmin Niksaz (Leeds Juniors) and Amy Greenhough (Bradford) failed to register. It was a close run and nervy encounter. After the first round the scores were 3-3. In the second round Rebekah pulled off a great win over Natalie Cass and Francesca defeated Lancs board 1 Rachel Cass to pull level at 6-6. Into the final round. Evie made short work of Rachel Cass, but with Yasmin, Hannah and Amy all losing it needed victories in the other two games to secure a draw. Rebekah won comfortably against Sarah Ryder and the final match between Francesca and Phoebe had the whole result resting on it. However, Francesca was as cool as ice to steadily turn her tactical advantages into the deserved victory and the match was drawn. It seemed a fitting result as three Lancashire players (Rachel, Sarah and Claire) and three Yorkshire players (Evie, Rebekah and Yasmin) will not be eligible for the match next year and have all played in the fixture for several years. Many thanks go to Ian Hughes, the Lancashire team manager, for organising the event at St Michaels in Ormskirk yet again. Event pictures . . . U14 Girls Team Yorks & Lancs Teams Team Captains Last Match Full results will follow. John Hipshon (Yorks girls team manager)
Sept 08	Yorkshire Girls Training Day On September 21st 2008 20 under 11 girls reported for training from all round Yorkshire at the Alcuin School in Leeds. The day's coaching was provided by the experienced Nick Nixon, who covered basic openings and end games. During the day the girls also played a training tournament. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and certificates were awarded for completing the training and competition. It became clear that Yorkshire might be able to again put together a team for the EPSCA national championships next March. After finishing 4th in 2006 it has been difficult to replace the girls who moved on, but Sunday gave great cause for optimism, particularly as there were a significant number of girls who seemed very keen to play for their county. In the tournament Megumi Parbrook (Sheffield) scored a fantastic 6/6 (18 points), with Lois Coleman (Leeds) second on 15 points. Also on 15 were Sarah Woodmansey (York) and Jenita Punnoose (York). The photo shows all the girls with their certificates and prizes that were awarded. Special thanks to Nick for the coaching and Peter Cloudsdale for his support. Photo
Sept 08	A Leeds Junior team has entered the Yorkshire Chess League this year - the first game is on Sunday 21st Sept against Sheffield. This is a great opportunity to play against adults which is a great way of improving your chess. Games will also go for grading. If you're interested in being considered for the team during the season then please contact John Hipshon (0113 2176296) the team manager. Good luck to the team !
Sept 08	Bradford Congress Francesca Fozard continues to demonstrate consistency and improvement with a great performance in the Bradford Congress Minor section scoring 3/5 to take a share of the grading prize. Many players commenting on how well she was applying herself and playing. Robert Bowler finished unbeaten with 3.5 / 5 also in the Minor to finish 5th=. James Bowler scored 3/5 in the Major with just 1 defeat finishing 6th. Full results here
Sept 08	Results of the Sheffield Junior Congress - 1st of the new Grand Prix events can be found here Sheffield Junior Congress, the first of three Yorkshire Junior Grand Prix events, was an unqualified success, with 60 juniors taking part. With several players graded well over 100 and a number of ungraded youngsters the mixture was about perfect. The top boards of the competition were keenly contested, with some tough encounters particularly in the later rounds. Some highly rated juniors found the going much tougher than they expected and did not figure in the running at all. In the end Tom Whittaker form Yorkshire and Mitchell Burke from 3C's in Lancashire were left to battle for the top prize in round 6. With both players showing each other a healthy respect the match was drawn so the prize money was shared, but it took two blitz play offs to decide the destination of the trophy, with Mitchell taking it. Ashley Littlewood came a commendable 3rd, and Evie Hollingworth taking a hotly contested best girl trophy finishing overall 7th. The top 5 places all went to Under 18's, so Athar Mehmood's 6th place winning the Under 12 trophy was highly commendable. The Source is a great venue for the event which we hope will continue next year. The Grand prix moves on to Hull in December. Scores will carry forward to Hull and then to Leeds in February, with any Junior who has played in two or three events having a chance of becoming Yorkshire Grand Prix champion. Detailed cross tables, ratings, etc are here Play-off photo Prize winners photo
Aug 08	Leeds Junior Chess Club Dates for the coming term are as follows: September: 14th, 21st, 28th October: 5th, 12th, 19th November: 9th, 16th, 23rd, 30th December: 7th Please note that the club has been accredited as a Centre of Excellence by the English Chess Federation. The club provides great opportunities for both play and to receive expert coaching. Details about joining the club and new membership fees can be found here The club meets Sundays 5.30pm - 7.30pm Venue: Alcuin School, 64 Woodland Lane, Leeds LS7 4PD
Aug 08	The Leeds Junior Chess Association Summer School proved to be a hit again for the 20 youngsters who took part this year. It provided three days of intensive training and competition. With top coaching from Nick Nixon in the morning sessions and competition in the afternoon it was a very full three days. The theme this year was middle games and youngsters watched examples of games and then worked on positions in pairs in three morning sessions. In the afternoon they played four games contributing to a twelve round swiss tournament. The competition was extremely tough, reflecting the quality of players taking part and there were some fantastic games. With repairing allowed in the 12 round tournament, James Roberts and Kiruthika Rajeswaran fought out two epic matches, both ending in draws. However, the best game prize went to Sean Mcdonald and Amanda Hipshon for their bruising encounter. As Nick put it, 'Amanda threw the kitchen sink at Sean who defended grittily before breaking through to take the game.' Overall it was James Roberts who triumphed this year with a fantastic 10/12. Kiruthika came second with 9 and Sean and Amanda scored 8. Awards were given as follows: 1st James Roberts 2nd Kiruthika Rajeswaran 3rd Sean McDonald 4th Amanda Hipshon Under 11: Amol Vani Under 9 : Adarsh Vani Best grading performance above their grade: Abigail Arnold Merit prize in relation to age: Jabari Carr Photos: Coaching All Players Winners
July 08	Congratulations to James Bowler who is the joint winner of the Under 11 British Championships being held in Liverpool. A great result with 7 of the top 10 rated under 11s in the country competing in addition to 3 previous British Champions and a Commonwealth junior bronze medalist ! This is the 2nd time James has won atthe British Championships - he last won as an under 8. Details can be found here James receives his trophy from IM Andrew Martin - picture James will now be representing England in the European Union Youth Championships along with brother Robert over the next 2 weeks. Both are playing a year above their age group and the opposition will be very good ! You can see their progress here: under 12s and under 14s. Daily commentary is here Many congratulations also to Adarsh Vani who finished an excellent 4th= in the Under 8 British Championships just half a point behind the 3 joint winners - details here. Adarsh won the U8 National Junior Squad title early in the year and is clearly a real talent for the future.
July 08	James Bowler has been playing in the 2008 Four Nations Championships for the England under 12 team, in Liverpool, against Scotland, Wales, Ireland and 2 other teams of players from England. Each team had 6 players. The England team ran out comfortable winners with 26.5 points ahead of Ireland in 2nd place with 18. James was 1 of 2 team members who scored a maximum 5/5. 3 other England teams were also competing in separate competitions: u14, u18 and u18 girls - all 3 teams were also victorious making it a clean sweep for England !
July 08	Article in Bradford T&A on the incredible impact chess has had on pupils’ academic results and confidence
July 08	Well done to Amanda Hipshon who continues her great form of late to win the Yorkshire U18 trophy (both Open & Girls trophies !)
July 08	Fantastic successes for Leeds juniors in the Northern Gigafinal - the following have all made it to the final stage - the Terafinal to be held in Sheffield in a few weeks time. Remember - over 70,000 players entered the tournament and the Terafinal qualifiers represent less than 0.5% of those that started ! Section Name Score Position U8 Boys Adarsh Vani 5/6 2nd= U10 Boys Harry Li 5.5/6 1st= U10 Boys Amol Vani 5/6 3rd= U11 Boys James Bowler* 6/6 1st U11 Boys Tyrell Walwyn 5/6 2nd= U12 Girls Francesca Fozard 4.5/6 3rd= U16 Girls Amanda Hipshon* 4.5/6 1st Those marked * qualify for the Terafinal and the rest qualify for the Challengers section of the Terafinal Full results can be found here including many other Leeds juniors who also performed very well against the top players in the North of England ( Well actually anywhere north of a line from London to Bristol including Scotland and Ireland ! ). A special mention for Amanda who competed in a mixed U16 section and beat some very highly graded opponents including one graded over 170 to score 4.5 / 6 an excellent result.
June 08	A number of Leeds girls competed in the all England Girls gold final. Congratulations to Francesca Fozard who finished 4th= in the U12 section, Amanda Hipshon who came 6th= in the U18, Yasmin Niksaz who was 7th and Rebekah Brown who was 8th in the under 14s. Full results here
June 08	Congratulations to the Churwell team who completed the double by winning the LJCA Primary schools league finals as well as the recent LJCA Team tournament. The double has only once been done before so a great achievement. The finals were contested at Churwell school by 3 teams - Churwell, Alcuin and Froebelian. All 3 schools played really well to qualify through the League stages - unfortunately Lofthouse Gate, the 4th qualifier, were unable to take up their place in the final. The finals were run on a 4 round jamboree format with the final scores as follows: Winners - Churwell - 18pts ( Team photo ) 2nd - Alcuin - 11pts 3rd - Froebelian - 7 pts Froebelian took an early lead after round 1 with 4.5/6 and the competition looked wide open but Churwell and Alcuin picked up the pace through the rounds to move ahead. Churwell finished round 3 in a strong position and with a huge final round 4, scoring 6/6, took the trophy. Lots of good chess played - the high quality at the top end (several Yorkshire county junior players) was complemented by some real strength in depth in the teams. Well done to all the teams who represented their schools extremely well and made it a great event. Full details of league results and finals here
June 08	Some excellent results from Leeds juniors playing for their school teams at the EPSCA Primary school championships at Prestatyn. The QEGS junior school team came a brilliant 2nd with 5 of the team having been current or past members of the Leeds Junior Chess Club – Roshan Patel, Dev and Prav Hamal, Karim Ismail and Amol Vani. They finished just half a point behind the perennially strong Nottingham High and go through to the National finals where we wish them luck. Both Lofthouse Gate and Alcuin teams finished on a very creditable 16/30 and 13.5/30 points respectively. A great performance by Tyrell Walwyn for Alcuin with 4/6 on board 1. Full results will appear here
June 08	Congratulations to Yasmin Niksaz who won the under 18 section of the York "Celebration of Chess" tournament with 4/4. Amanda Hipshon finished 3rd. Congratulations also to Josh Levine who finished 2nd in the under 11 section. Results here
June 08	Well done to the Churwell A team of James Bowler, Robert Oxley, Ravi Patel and Josh Reed who followed up their win at the York Schools Championships in April with another victory in the Leeds Junior Chess Association team tournament. The team retained the title ahead of 12 other teams and finished unbeaten for the 4th year running winning 22/24 of their individual games. Many congratulations also to runners up Alcuin A and 3rd placed new comers Wakefield Girls junior school who made an impressive debut in the tournament. Churwell B narrowly won the B team trophy over Alcuin B having had to go to board count to split the 2 teams. Winners: Churwell A (6/6) Runners Up: Alcuin A (5/6) 3rd Place: Wakefield Girls (4/6) Best B team winners: Churwell B (3.5/6) The tournament was once again excellently hosted and organised by John Hipshon at Alcuin school which continues to punch way above its weight in terms of chess success for such a small school - a remarkable achievement. Pictures: 1st, 2nd and 3rd placed teams Churwell A, Alcuin A and Wakefield Girls Team winners Churwell A & B More details and pictures to follow including board awards . . .
June 08	Congratulations to all the juniors from Leeds who played in the South Yorkshire Megafinal after successfully qualifying through the school/club stage. The following players successfully qualified for the Manchester Gigafinal where they face other top players from aross the country. ( To qualify for the Gigafinal players needed to score 4 or more out of 6 or be the highest placed boy/girl in their age group) Age Group Players & Results U8 Boys Adarsh Vani (6/6) - 1st U9 Girls Abigail Arnold (4/6) U10 Boys Amol Vani (5.5/6) - 1st Prav Hamal (4.5/6) - 2nd= Karim Ismail (4.5/6) - 2nd= Robert Oxley (4.5/6) - 2nd= Dev Hamal (4/6) U11 Boys James Bowler (6/6) - 1st U12 Boys Mark Lister (5/6) - 2nd U13 Boys Robert Bowler (5.5/6) - 1st Picture - 3 of the winners - James, Amol & Adarsh That's a total of 29 Leeds juniors who have now qualified for the Gigafinal, with 1 in 3 of them actually winning their age group at one of the 2 Yorkshire mega finals - a fantastic result clearly demonstrating the improving standard. Full list of qualifiers here
June 08	Congratulations to James Bowler who won the Huddersfield Rapidplay Minor (U120) with 6/6 and also to Francessca Fozard who won the Junior grading prize with 3.5/6 including an excellent last round win over the number 1 seed graded 119 ! Karim Ismail also scored a very creditable 2.5 / 6 and very nearly turned over a 106 graded player, having been a piece up, but in the end the game ended in a draw much to the relief of his opponent. Details will appear here
May 08	John Hipshon & ECF coach Nick Nixon will again be running the popular Summer school on August 11th, 12th and 13th - details here. This is for boys and girls from Year 3-11.
May 08	A large number of Leeds juniors have been representing the Yorkshire under 11, under 13s, under 13 girls and under 18 teams this weekend. Under 13 Girls take the title ! 5 girls from the Leeds Junior Chess Club represented Yorkshire in the Yorkshire county U13 girls team. The team took the ECF title after thrashing their opponents Norfolk 10-2. Yasmin Niksaz played some very focussed chess on board 1 to win 2/2 and Francesca Fozard is rapidly improving and never looked anything less than winning in both her games on board 3. Also with 2/2 were Hannah Kong and Amy Greenhough, and only Amber Bailey and Rebekah Brown dropped points. It was a confidence boosting win for a group of girls who have shown tremendous commitment to the county cause and enjoy playing together as a team. Team photo Under 13s take 2nd place ! Robert Bowler scored 2/2 for the Yorkshire under 13s who were pipped to the title by 1 point by Sussex. Under 18s take 2nd place ! Amanda Hipshon, James Gratrex and James Roberts played for the Yorshire under 18s who were also narrowly pipped for the title by Kent. Under 11s take 6th place A large number of Leeds juniors played for the Yorkshire under 11s in the finals of the EPSCA county championships. The team played well above expectations and took 6th place out of 15 - amongst Yorshire's best ever finishes. More coverage of these events here
May 08	Congratulations to all the juniors from Leeds who played in the North Yorkshire Megafinal after successfully qualifying through the school/club stage. The following players successfully qualified for the Manchester Gigafinal where they face other top players from aross the country. ( To qualify for the Gigafinal players needed to score 4 or more out of 6 or be the highest placed boy/girl in their age group) Age Group Players & Results U7s David Roberts (4/6) Rachel Brown (2.5/6) U8s Jabari Carr (4/6) U9s Samuel Marston (5/6) - 2nd= Ben Wainwright (4/6) Lois Coleman (4/6) U10 Boys Charley Travis-Brennan (5/6) - 1st= Harry Li (5/6) - 1st= Wesley McGough (4.5/6) Marc Armitage (4/6) Anamay Shetty (4/6) U11 Girls Evangelina Fozard (4/6) U11 Boys Tyrell Walwyn (5/6) - 2nd= Sam Vasquez (5/6) - 2nd= Hamza Butt (4/6) U12 Girls Francessca Fozard (6/6) - 1st U12 Boys Mathew Li (4/6) U13s Yasmin Niksaz (4/6) U16s Amanda Hipshon (5/6) - 1st Full cross tables as follows: Under 7s and 8s Under 9s Under 10-12 Girls Under 10 Boys Under 11 Boys Under 12s-18s Full list of qualifiers on the UK Chess Challenge website here
April 08	Congratulations to James Bowler who has been selected for the England Under 12 team to play in the annual quadrangular tournament against Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
April 08	A great effort at the weekend by Harry Li in the England under 11 trial in Liverpool. Harry (still an under 10) finished on 3/6 just half a point short. He went into the last round on 3/5 and got an exceptionally tough draw losing to the current under 10 British champion. Best of luck to Harry next year when he'll have another chance. Congratulations to Miles Edwards-Wright from South Yorkshire who did make it into the squad with 3.5/6.
April 08	Dates of meetings of the Leeds Junior Chess Club - Summer term (all 5.30-7.30pm) are as follows: Sunday 20th April (Coaching Groups 1 and 2) Sunday 27th April (Coaching Groups 2 and 3) Sunday 4th May (Coaching Groups 3 and 4) Sunday 11th May (Coaching Groups 1 and 4) Sunday 18th May (Rapidplay 1) Sunday 25th May (Coaching Groups 1 and 2) Sunday 8th June (Coaching Groups 2 and 3) Sunday 15th June (Coaching Groups 3 and 4) Sunday 22nd June (Rapidplay 2) Sunday 29th June (Coaching Groups 1 and 4) Sunday 6th July (Rapidplay 3) Sunday 13th July (Summer Blitz and Prizes)
Apr 08	A large contingent of Leeds juniors travelled to York to play in the York Schools Championships held at the York Railway Museum. This was both an individual and team competition. The standard was very high at the top with several England Junior Internationals, National boys and girls age group champions and numerous junior county players from several different counties. There were some great individual results (see below)- particularly from the girls and from the younger players, some of whom are young enough to compete for another 10 years (!) in this competition which was open to under 18s. Churwell Primary School ran away with the team trophy ahead of about 6 other teams - a fantastic result given the team's average age was only 10 ! The team were: James Bowler, Robert Oxley and Ravi Patel. James Bowler 5/6 Francesca Fozard 4/6 (Under 14 girl prize) Yasmin Niksaz 4/6 (Under 13 prize) Abigail Arnold 4/6 (Under 9 girl prize) Adarsh Vani 4/6 ( U8 National Junior Squad champion continues his great recent form ) Ravi Patel 3.5/6 Rebekah Brown 3.5/6 Robert Oxley 3/6 Amol Vani 3/6 Amanda Hipshon 3/6 Asher Dixon Blair 3/6 Anamay Shetty 3/6 Jabari Carr 2.5/6 Euan Tanna Fenton 2/6 Amarri Dixon Blair 1.5/6
Apr 08	Congratulations to Adarsh Vani who won the U8 section of the National junior squad championships at Liverpool on the 29th to 30th March winning 6/7 games. A fantastic result !
Apr 08	Results from the Huddersfield Congress are here
Feb 08	A large contingent of Leeds Juniors did battle in the "Chess Championships of the 5 Counties". This was a new event held at Scunthorpe and featured players from Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Derbyshire. There were u7, u8, u9, u10, u11, u12, u14, u18 and an adults under 120 sections however the under 14/18/Adults were combined as were the u7/u8/u9s. There were plenty of excellent results (all finished on better than half marks) with Leeds juniors taking several of the prizes as follows: Under 8s: Adarsh Vani - 2nd Place (4/5) & Top Yorkshire player Under 10s: Karim Ismail - 2nd place (?/5) & Top Yorkshire player Prav Hamal - 3rd place (?/5) Amol Vani & Dev Hamal (3/5) Under 11s James Bowler (5/5) - U11 5 Counties Champion Under 12s Francesca Fozzard (3/5) Under 14s Robert Bowler (4.5/5) - U14 5 Counties Champion (and overall winner of the u14/u18/adults section) James Roberts - 3rd= (3.5/5) Picture (Sorry not great - hopefully better to follow !)
Feb 08	Mega final dates and venues here
Feb 08	James Bowler followed up his success at the Leeds Junior Congress with an outright win at the Leyland Under 131 Rapidplay with 5.5/6. Well done to the other Leeds juniors who competed who all gave good accounts of themselves. Results are here
Feb 08	The Leeds Junior Chess Congress attracted 64 juniors from around the North of England. With a host of titles, county caps and even international honours between them, many of Yorkshire’s top juniors were there to battle it out for the £150 first prize and the large number of trophies on offer. It was an intense day of competition. Very pleasing was the number of girls taking part -21 in total, and it was fantastic to see a girl emerge as the overall winner – Evie Hollingworth achieveing 5½/6 to win on the fractional tie break of Sum of Opponents Scores from James Bowler, who also scored 5½. Both played superbly on the day and deserved their shared prize money. Third place went to Robert Bowler with 5/6. All the top board matches were very close and the competition could have gone to any of at least 5 players going into the last round. However, it was not just about the top boards. There was rising talent such as 3C’s Phoebe Price who stole wins from Yasmin Niksaz and Amanda Hipshon on her way to the best girl trophy with 5/6. The age group trophies were distributed nicely – U16 went to Amanda, U14 to Ashley Littlewood, U12 to Roshan Patel, U11 to Matthew Li, U10 to Lara Buckley, U9 to Lois Coleman, U8 to Adarsh Vani and U7 to Rachel Brown (again the girls doing well). Awards were also given to Yasmin Niksaz (U14 girl), Hannah Priest (U11 girl) and Abigail Arnold (U9 girl). Many thanks to all juniors for taking part and playing so well and in such a great spirit and thanks to all who helped Prize winners list Prize winners Picture Pic 2 Pic 3 Detailed results here
Jan 08	The All England Girls Northern Region again attracted the cream of girls’ junior chess from the North of England. The competition was intense to say the least. Several Leeds girls took part and the Yorkshire battle bus arrived with no less than 9 girls in it, joined by two more who came under their own steam. Amanda Hipshon fought tooth and nail to hang on to her Under 18 title, scoring a notable first ever victory over Abigail Pritchard, a recent England representative. However, her rival Kiruthika Rajeswaran defeated her in a tense battle in round 4. It still wasn’t over, and in the final round the two key games both went down to the final minute, with Amanda losing out to Rachel Cass and Kiruthika grabbing the draw against Abigail which was good enough to take a well deserved 1st place. Yasmin Niksaz gained a commendable third place in the Under 14 section. In the Under 12’s Francesca Fozard came joint 3rd and qualified for the Gold final in June. In the Under 9 Lois Coleman came 3rd. This all means that Amanda (finishing 2nd in the Under 18 section), Yasmin and Francesca will go forward to the Gold Final. Hard luck to Lucy Ackroyd, Lois and Rebekah Brown who all scored 2/5, just a half short of the qualification score. Mr Lamb who was overseeing the competition, said it was the most intensely fought junior competition he had ever witnessed as a large number of games in the older sections went completely to the wire. Under 9 - Top 3 Under 12 - Prize Winners Under 14 - Top 3 Under 18 - Top 3
Jan 08	Congratulations to James Roberts who finished 2nd in the York Rapidplay Junior tournament. James finished on the same points as the winner having drawn their head to head match. However James unfortunately just lost out on the tie-break method of sum of opponents scores. Well done to all the Leeds Juniors who took part.
Jan 08	James Bowler is the new English Primary Schools (EPSCA) Rapidplay Champion. James won the title in Liverpool finishing unbeaten. Harry Li came an excellent joint 2nd and is young enough to enter again next year ! Picture
Jan 08	Leeds Junior Chess Club - Dates and events for the Spring Term here.
Dec 07	Robert & James Bowler competed for the North of England junior teams in the annual Quadrangular tournament against Scotland, Wales & the Midlands. Robert won 3/3 for the under 14s to retain his unbeaten record from last year. James also finished unbeaten with a win and 2 draws for the Under 12s who also won the tournament.
Dec 07	Four Leeds juniors were part of the team of 6 Under 14 Yorkshire County girls’ team that took on Lancashire and Cheshire in the ECGCF Northern Region yesterday. Yasmin Niksaz, Rebekah Brown, Amber Bailey and Lucy Ackroyd joined South Yorkshire girls Evie Hollingworth and Hannah Kong to make up what is a new look team. In the end Lancashire were too strong, winning by 5 clear points, with Cheshire well behind in 3rd place. It was actually a much closer contest than the score suggests, with some very close games. The Yorkshire team is very much a developing one for the future and the match was good experience. Amber and Lucy both did well with 2/3. Final scores: Lancs. 14, Yorkshire 9, Cheshire 4. Yorkshire will still take part in the grand final next year as the event is no longer a qualifier where only the top team goes through. Team Photo
Nov 07	The 5th Yorkshire Girls Open Championships produced the highest standards so far seen. This year’s entry of 33 was a little down on last year but as usual all the old rivals from Yorkshire and Lancashire lined up to chase the £100 first prize and the title of Yorkshire Girls Open Champion. Last Year’s winner Kiruthika Rajeswaran came to defend her title, but she knew it was going to be tough with Evie Hollingworth in good form, great friend and rival Amanda Hipshon fresh from her England Girls U18 joint title, Lancashire maestro Rachel Cass and the ever dangerous and also in hot form Jade Stirrup. There were also several dark horses snapping at their heels as well as the age group trophies to contest. For the first time this year a novice section was introduced for girls playing their first tournament and this proved very enjoyable for the little newcomers taking part. There was some fantastic attacking play all round and the first of the heavy weight contests started in round 3 as Evie Hollingworth defeated Jade Stirrup. In round 4 Amanda scored her first ever victory over Rachel Cass and Evie defeated last year’s winner Kiruthika to set up a meeting with Amanda in round 5. Again, Amanda scored her first ever win over Evie to at least secure the trophy, and then went on to beat Jade in the final round to claim first place outright. In the Novices little Hephzi Leatherbarrow put a marker down for the future with 5½/6. Runner-up in the championship was Evie with Kiruthika 3rd. The Under 18 trophy was awarded to Jade Stirrup, the Under 14 to Rachel Cass, the Under 12 to Isobel Cotogni, the Under 11 to Phoebe Price, the Under 10 to Lara Buckley, Under 9 to Lucy Towse and Under 8 to Hannah Harrison. West Yorkshire County trophies were also awarded in three categories: Under 18 Amanda Hipshon Under 14 Amy Greenhough Under 11 Eleanor Westwood The best game prize was awarded to Natalie Cass and Yasmin Niksaz for their final round draw which had seen Yasmin attack with her usual ‘caution to the wind’ approach and Natalie hang on for grim death to almost grab the win at the end. A very big well done to all girls for taking part in a great day of chess. Let’s hope we can try to attract even more new faces next year. Results details here ECF website link Pictures: Novices - Jade v Evie - Winners
Nov 07	Well done to Harry Li who is the joint U10 British Rapidplay champion. Harry won the title at the recent event in Halifax - a great result.
Oct 07	A big thank you to Nick Nixon for running a coaching session for the Yorkshire Under 14 girls team who all worked very hard. Picture
Oct 07	Well done to Harry Li who achieved his first England half norm with 3/5 at the English Closed U11 Championships in Nottingham. Harry now needs another half norm to gain a place at the England U11 trial next April. James Bowler also competed and finished in joint 3rd place with 4/5 only losing to the eventual winner.
Oct 07	James Roberts, Harry Li, Robert & James Bowler all helped the Yorkshire under 14 team take an excellent 3rd place in the county championships in Birmingham. Harry finished on 4/4 and is young enough to play for the next 4 years ! Well done to all the team. 1st Sussex 40 2nd Berkshire 38 3rd Yorkshire 26 4 South Wales 22½ 5 Lancashire 17 6 Warwickshire 16½ 7 Devon 8
Oct 07	Several Leeds juniors had excellent results in the 3rd Renaissance Academy Rapid Play Tournament. Results can be found here
Sept 07	2 news articles on Junior chess in Bradford here and here "Chess idea wins praise nationally"
Aug 07	Congratulations to Nick Rigby who finished a fantastic 5th in the Terafinal. This is the final section of the UK Chess Challenge which 74,000 junior plays enter ! Full results are here.
Aug 07	Leeds Junior Chess Club - letter from John Hipshon including club dates and important changes to club fees are here.
Aug 07	Some great work going on in Bradford by Charles Wood and others to promote and develop junior chess at the Renaissance Academy Further information on the Bradford & District Chess Website here
Aug 07	Congratulations to Harry Li who finished on 4.5/7 in joint 7th in the under 9s section of the British Championships. Details of the under 9 ection can be found here
Aug 07	Well done to Robert and James Bowler who have been representing England at the European Union Youth Championships in Austria in the U12 and U10 sections respectively. This is a 9 round tournament with many of the top juniors from across Europe including some very strong Eastern Europeans. Robert finished 28th/40 and James finished 14th/47 having at one stage been in 7th place. These were excellent performances against some exceptionally strong opposition (e.g. 2 of the U10s were graded over 160 ! ). James finished with a performance rating for the tournament of 127 and Robert 115. Extensive commentary on the full visit by the England team can be found on the ECF website here
July 07	Leeds Junior Chess Association Summer School was a highly successful event again with 26 youngsters attending over 3 days. Intensive coaching in the mornings from Nick Nixon focussed this year on opening play, followed by tournaments in the afternoon in which youngsters had to play given openings before starting the clocks to play the matches. The three 5 round swiss tournaments were then scored on a ‘grand prix’ basis, with the prize winners being decided over the 15 games played. Even then, the main prize all came down to the last game on the last day between James Roberts and Amanda Hipshon, with Amanda finally overcoming James in an exciting game. Overall the feedback was very positive from the participants who seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed the three days and have hopefully improved there opening play. Prize winners: 1st Place: Amanda Hipshon Runner Up: James Roberts Joint 3rd: Charles Farnes and Amol Vani Best Under 9: Wesley McGough Best Girl: Amber Bailey Best Rating Improvement: Edward Pellow Best Game: Amanda Hipshon v James Roberts on day 2 - match drawn with both players playing accurately and ice cool under pressure. Pictures here: pic1 , pic2 . pic3 , Results
July 07	Well done to Nick Rigby who followed up his win at the Renaissance Tournament in Bradford by winning the U15 section of the Northern Gigafinal and now goes onto the final Tera Final. Well done to all the others who competed - Results of the Giga Finals are here
June 07	Well done to Amanda Hipshon who finished joint first in the English National Girls Chess Championships U18 section in Nottingham, with a score of 3/5. This gives her a joint national title a fantastic result. It included a sensational win over Former U13 European Girls' Champion and former U12 British Champion Sheila Dines (grade 130). Amanda also won the best game prize for the tournament for one match in which she was under time pressure but showed great coolness to execute the win. Photo News article Kiruthika Rajeswaran also scored an excellent 3/5 in the U18s but unluckily missed out by a half point on sum of opponents scores. Other good scores from Leeds juniors included U12s: Yasmin Niksaz scored 2 and Rebekah Brown 1½. In the U10s Claudia Smalley scored 2. Well done to all. Results
June 07	Alcuin School retained the Leeds Primary School’s League Title by defeating Hugh Gaitskell 7-5 and Froebelian 9-3 in a three way play off. Hugh Gaitskell put up a great fight with some close matches between the two schools. Alcuin had suffered a defeat in the group stages to Froebelian, so it was an amazing turn around, especially the 6-0 whitewash in the first round of games. Stars for the Alcuin team were Ananamay Shetty who won all four of his games and Tyrell Walwyn who won 3½/4 on board 1. The rest of the team did their bit: Brie Grierson, Hema Shah, Nika Nasserghasri, Callum Hylton and Megan Jessop Sanders. After trips to Somerset and Prestatyn this term, perhaps the Alcuin team had become battle hardened enough to take the pressure on the day. Alcuin Team Photo
June 07	James Bowler made a successful debut for the England Under 11 team against an older Dutch team in Amsterdam. He won both his games to help the team to a 17.5 - 14.5 win.
June 07	Well done to the Churwell A team of James Bowler, Robert Oxley, Jamie Oxley and Mark Lister who retained the Leeds Junior Chess Association team tournamnent title at Alcuin. Churwell finished unbeaten for the 3rd year running and won 21/24 of their individual games. Congratulations also to Riverside B who won the B team trophy and all the other winners and runners up listed below: Winners: Churwell A (11)Team photo Runners Up: Riverside A (10) 3rd Place: Alcuin A (8) Best B team winners: Riverside B Best Board 1: Douglas Jones (Pool) Best Board 2: Robert Oxley (Churwell) Best Board 3: Callum Hylton (Alcuin) Best Board 4: Mark Lister (Churwell) Best Girl: Rebecca Hutson (Froebelian) Well done to all the players in the 16 teams who entered the tournament and a big thank you to John Hipshon for once again organising this excellent event.
June 07	Here are the final standings in the Leeds Junior Chess League stage. Congratulations to the 4 schools who have qualified for the knockout stage as follows: Lofthouse Gate (Wakefield), Alcuin (Chapel Allerton), Froebelian (Horsforth) and Hugh Gaitskell (Beeston) This will be held on 28th June.
June 07	2 Leeds Juniors competed in the Lakes congress - Amanda Hipshon got 3/5 in the Minor and Nick Rigby got 3.5/5 in the Intermediate - well done to both. However the best performance was John Hipshon with 4/5 in the Minor to take 3rd= ! Well done John - great result.
May 07	Congratulations to Joshua Levine who won the under 9s section of the York Junior Chess Championships with a perfect score of 7/7. Results summary here
May 07	Yorkshire Under 14 Girls made a supreme effort to retain their national title in a strong competition and were desperately unlucky to lose out to Surrey by a half point. Leading going into the last round fortunes fluctuated wildly as the games progressed. In the end it boiled down to two matches, with Surrey board one struggling to overcome Lancashire board 1 Abigail Pritchard. Somehow Abigail made a mess of the ending to hand Surrey a lifeline – defeat would have given Yorkshire the title. This put immense pressure on Lilli Hahn, who had to win the final match being played. She was a piece up against England International Rachael Cass but somehow the position fell apart under the pressure and victory was handed to Surrey. Lilli was distraught but in a fantastic display of team spirit the rest of the girls were quick with the hugs and the assurance that they were all responsible for dropping points and one person was not to blame. As for the team manager – more shredded nerves but very proud we pushed Surrey so hard again, with Lancashire, the prematch favourites, left well behind, and we certainly won the team spirit competition. Massive thanks must also go to Gordon Stables for his input and coaching during the day. The Results: Surrey 12½, Yorkshire 12, Oxfordshire 10½. Lancashire 10. Kent 8, Lincolnshire 1 Individual scores: Evie Hollingworth 2/3, Lilli Hahn 1/3, Emma Bentley 2½/3, Rebekah Brown 2/3, Yasmin Niksaz 2/3, Imogen Stables 2½/3
May 07	Well done to the Leeds Juniors James Bowler, Harry & Mathew Li, Ashwin Venkatesh, Roshan Patel, Gianni Singh and Harry Pickles who all represented Yorkshire at the under 11 county team finals. The young team (12 of the 20 were under 10 or younger) finished a creditable 9th out of 17. Results
May 07	The North Yorkshire Megafinal was played on Bank Holiday Monday with some excellent results from Leeds Junior players including 6 regional age group champions ! Many of these players attend the Leeds Junior Chess Club which is clearly having a very positive effect on their performance. Here are the results of the Leeds players many of whom now qualify for the UK Chess Challenge Gigafinal in Manchester. Age Group Players & Results U7 Boys Gabriel Dixon Hardy 4½/6 U8 Boys Ravi Patel 4/6   Kobie Blair Adams 3/6 U8 Girls Lois Coleman 4/6 (Suprema) U9 Boys Harry Li 6/6 (Supremo)   Anamay Shetty (4/6)   Joshua Levine (4/6)   James Buckley 2½/6 U9 Girls Quiss Simms-Craddock 2/6 U10 Boys Ashwin Venkatesh 6/6 (Supremo)   Tyrell Walwyn 5½/6   Roshan Patel 5/6   Gianni Singh 4½/6   Amol Joshi 4/6 U10 Girls Brie Grierson 6/6 (Suprema)   Georgia Howorth 4/6   Rebecca Hutson 4/6 U11 Boys Matthew Li 5/6   Nika Nasserghasri 3½/6 U12 Boys James Roberts 3½/6   Edward Pellow 3½/6 U12 Girls Rebekah Brown 4½/6 (Suprema) U15 Boys Nick Rigby 5½/6 (Supremo)
May 07	New ECF Junior Chess Magazine - available here
Apr 07	Congratulations to James Bowler who is now a member of the England under 11 team after finishing joint 6th with 4/6 at the trial in Liverpool. James competed against 50 of the top under 11s from across the country over 2 days. He joins Pierre Weller from York who also qualified to make it a double success for Yorkshire ! His first match will be against Holland in June. Local news article
Apr 07	Well done to the Leeds Juniors Harry Li, Josh Levine, Wesley McGough & Robert Oxley who represented Yorkshire at the under 9 county team finals. The team, captained by Harry Li, finished a creditable 10th behind the more experienced counties from the south of England. Results
Apr 07	Well done to James Bowler who scored an excellent 5/7 in the National Junior Squad U12 championships in High Wycombe finishing as the joint best under 11. Results
Apr 07	A large contingent of Leeds Juniors competed in the Yorkshire Junior Chess Championships held at Rotherham with smany exc ellent results as follows: U15 Champion Nick Rigby U15 3rd Adam Routledge U15 4th Amanda Hipshon U12 Runner Up Yasmin Niksaz U12 3rd Robert Bowler U10 Winner James Bowler U12 5th James Roberts U10 7th Afsar Haseeb U10 9th Tyrell Walwyn U12 6th Harry Li U12 7th Rebekah Brown U12 9th Amber Bailey U12 10th Douglas Jones U10 11th Hamza Butt U10 13th Callum Hylton U12 12th Nika Nasserghasri U9 Champion Harry Li U9 4th Wesley McGough U9 5th Joshua Levine U9 8th Charley Brennan U9 11th James Metcalf Picture of Adam, Yasmin & Nick with their trophies
Apr 07	Leeds Junior Chess Club Dates of meetings Summer term (all 5.30-7.30pm) Sunday 29th April Sunday 6th May Sunday 13th May Sunday 20th May Sunday 27th May Sunday 10th June Sunday 17th June Sunday 24th June Sunday 1st July Sunday 8th July Costs will be £1.50 per session or £10 for the term.
Apr 07	Under 11 Team 1 day Tournament. Primary School Teams of 4 Schools may enter up to 2 teams Sunday June 17th 10.00am - 4pm (arrival 9.45am). At the Alcuin School, 64 Woodland Lane, Chapel Allerton, Leeds LS7 4PD. Trophy for the winners and runners up and best 'B' team. Individual Team Medals for top 3 teams. Board prizes. More details here: Poster Rules Entry Form
Mar 07	Well done all the girls who represented Yorkshire for the Under 11 Girls team last Saturday. It was a long trip to Hertfordshire and the team bonded well. In total we scored 14½/36 – well down on last year’s 4th place but a good effort and by no means near the bottom. Leeds girls Amber Bailey, Rebecca Hutson, Hema Shah, Georgai Howorth and Claudia Smalley all played and a special well done to Georgia Howorth who scored 3/3. Team photo
Mar 07	Well done to Kiruthika Rajeswaran who won the under 15 section of the Yorkshire Junior Rapidplay Championships. Robert Bowler finished in joint first in the under 12 section but lost the playoff for the trophy.
Mar 07	29 players entered the Leeds Junior Club - UK Chess Challenge qualifier. The qualifiers for the Mega Final are shown here
Mar 07	Robert & James Bowler played for the Yorkshire Under 18 team in the NCCU under 18 championships scoring 2/2 and 1/2 respectively. The team finished as joint winners with Cheshire & North Wales to retain their title.
Mar 07	New ECF Junior Chess Magazine. The English Chess Federation is delighted to announce the launch of a new monthly chess magazine, The Right Move. The magazine, which is edited by Andrew Martin IM, the ECF's Manager of Coaching, was developed by both Andrew and Claire Summerscale, Director of Junior Chess & Education. Initially free and delivered via PDF, it is intended to become part of the ECF's junior membership scheme which is being revamped to give members more value for money. Claire Summerscale is delighted with the first issue. "I think this is a very important initiative for the ECF and the early feedback we have had from the first issue is very gratifying." ECF Chief Executive Martin Regan said: "ECF Membership and its value for money has long been a contentious subject within the federation. The launch of The Right Move shows that the ECF is seeking to give the best possible value to its members. As a publisher myself, I would like to congratulate Claire and Andrew for developing such an excellent project within a very tight timescale." Download a free copy here There is also a new junior section on the ECF website: http://www.englishchess.org.uk/junior/index.htm
Feb 07	Results of the Leeds Junior Congress held at Alcuin School were as follows: Winner: Ashley Littlewood (6/6) 2nd: Adam Routledge (5/6) 3rd: James Bowler (5/6) Full Results and other prize winners (PDF) Well done to all the prize winners and all those who competed in this very successful tournament and a big thank you to John Hipshon for organising the event. Photos: Top Board Action Playing Hall Prize Winners
Jan 07	Congratulations to Kiruthika Rajeswaran who finished an excellent joint 2nd in the Minor section of the Heywood Rapidplay with 5/6 and finished unbeaten. Also competing in the tournament from Leeds were Adam Routledge, Amanda Hipshon, Nick Rigby and Robert Bowler, Rebekah Brown & Yasmin Niksaz.
Jan 07	Well done again to James Bowler who has qualified for the England under 11 trial in April. James scored 4.5 / 6 in the Open (Under 11) section of the English Primary Schools Championships finishing 4th= out of about 60. He was also the highest placed under 10.
Jan 07	Congratulations to James Bowler who won the top Kings section of the Lancashire Junior Congress at Aughton. Photo Results
Jan 07	Well done to Nick Rigby who finished on 4/5 and Amanda Hipshon on 3/5 at the York Congress.
Dec 06	For information - some guidance on the quickplay finish from the ECF.
Dec 06	Leeds Junior Chess Club: Here are the dates of meetings Spring Term together with further information and other tournament dates.
Dec 06	3 Leeds juniors played for the Yorkshire under 16 team: Nick Rigby, Adam Routledge and Amanda Hipshon. Team Photo
Dec 06	Robert Bowler played for the North of England under 14 team in a quadrangular tournament against Scotland, Wales & the Midlands. He scored an excellent 2.5/3 beating his opponents from Scotland and Wales and agreeing a draw with his opponent from the Midlands.
Dec 06	Well done to Nick Rigby who was the joint winner of the Bury Rapidplay Minor section with 5.5 out of 6. Also competing were Adam Routledge (4), James Bowler (3.5) and Amanda Hipshon (3).
Nov 06	The Yorkshire Girls Open Chess Championships held at the Alcuin School in Leeds was a great success with 41 girls competing for a first prize of £100. the competition attracted most of the strongest girls in the North of England and there were some tough battles. Eventual overall winner was Kiruthika Rajeswaran from Dewsbury with 5½/6, but she had to work for her money, defeating England international Rachel Cass and dropping half a point to experienced Lancashire player Jade Stirrup. Jade managed to draw in a seemingly hopeless position against U18 North of England Champion Amanda Hipshon to secure 2nd place on a tie break. Second place prize money was shared between Jade, Lilli Hahn form York and Evie Hollingworth all with 5/6. All the top girls ended up with something though, as age group prizes were also awarded to those who finished outside the top 3. Rachel Cass and Rachel Ball from Lancashire took the Under 12 and under 11 prizes with 4/6, with Claudia Smalley from Leeds taking the Under 10’s. Natalie Cass took the Under 9 trophy and Lois Coleman from Leeds took the Under 8’s. Jenita Punnoose from York won the prize for the best ungraded player with a score of 3½/6 The competition also included a west Yorkshire championship. Kiruthika was crowned U16 West Yorkshire champion, Yasmin Niksaz took the Under 12 crown with 4/6, Bronagh Sheridan from Hebden Bridge took the Under 10 title and Lois coleman the Under 8. The prizes were presented by Susan MacFarlane from the British Women’s Chess Association who was delighted to see so many girls playing and commented on the progress Yorkshire Girls’ chess had made recently. Full Results here. Pictures: Playing Winners
Nov 06	From November 25th to December 5th 2006, World Champion Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) and Deep Fritz (Germany), will be squaring off against one another in the Man vs. Machine duel. This competition will be held in the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn. There will be six games in the duel. If he is victorious, Kramnik will win one million US dollars. Otherwise, the World Champion will walk away with only half that amount ! Game 1: Saturday, November, 25th at 2 p.m. GMT More info here
Nov 06	The Leeds Junior Chess Club team continued their campaign in the A G Sunderland Cup at Huddersfield and with once again a number of players missing performed very well to move up to 2nd place behind South Yorkshire. A numner of Leeds juniors also played for Alwoodley B who are just half a point behing in 3rd place. Here's the current table
Nov 06	Nick Rigby won the under 120 section of the Bolton Rapidplay outright with 5.5 out of 6.
Nov 06	Amanda Hipshon won the Under 18 All England Girls Northern Region Trophy with 4½/5. She had to fend off her old rival Kiruthika Rajeswaran in a tense game which went to the wire, Amanda securing a check mate as time ran out. A very accomplished draw against Abigail Pritchard was then enough to take the title. Leeds girls Yasmin Niksaz, Rebekah Brown and Claudia Smalley all qualified for the grand final with 3/5.
Nov 06	James Bowler won the Nottingham High School London Qualifying event - U10 section with 6/6 to qualify for the London Junior Championships. Brother Robert was 2nd in the U12s with 5/6 and also qualifies.
Nov 06	A large contingent of Leeds juniors played in the York Open Under 18 Championships with some excellent results. James Bowler, Amanda Hipshon & Nick Rigby all scored 5/6 to finish 2nd,3rd & 4th respectively split only by sum of opponents scores. Amanda was also the highest scoring girl in the tournament. Yasmin Niksaz continued her excellent recent form to win the best U13 girl trophy losing only to Nick and the overall winner - an excellent result. Well done all the Leeds Juniors who competed.
Oct 06	Congratulations to Robert Bowler who finished 2nd= in the Ormskirk Rapidplay Novices section with 5/6. Robert joined with brother James and John & Amanda Hipshon to make a Leeds Team which finished as joint winners of the congress team competition. Team photo. Several other Leeds Juniors played at the congress: Yasmin Niksaz, Rebekah Brown, Georgia Howorth and Claudia Smalley. Well done to all.
Oct 06	Last Friday three girls from Leeds Junior Chess Club attended a special training session for Yorkshire Girls with top junior coach Nick Nixon. Rebekah Brown, Yasmin Niksaz and Amber Bailey were joined by South Yorkshire Girls Hannah Kong, Evie Hollingworth and Imogen Stables in the intense all afternoon session held at the Alcuin School. Nick commented what a pleasure it was to work with such talented youngsters and commended them all for their concentration and creativity. Picture here
Oct 06	Please note that the English Counties Girls Chess Federation has moved to: www.ecgcf.org.uk Note from the ECGCF website re U14 girls county final: "The date for the ECGCF Grand and Minor Finals has been fixed as Saturday 19 May 2007. The venue is likely to be St Peter and St Paul School, Syston, Leicestershire as in 2006."
Oct 06	The Leeds Junior Chess Club team started their campaign in the A G Sunderland Cup at York and with a number of players away at the Scarborough Congress performed extremely well to finish 3rd and only 0.5 points behind second placed Alwoodley B. The following all played for the Leeds Junior Team: Amber Bailey, Claudia Smalley, Asher Dixon-Blair, Gavin Tapsfield, Yasmin Niksaz, Rebekah Brown, James Bowler and Robert Bowler. There were also some further Leeds Juniors Chess Club who represented Alwoodley B who finished 2nd as follows: James Roberts, Matthew Li and Harry Li. The team scores after this first event were as follows: South Yorks 13.5 Alwoodley B 10.0 Leeds JCA 9.5 York RI E 8.0 York RI F 7.5 Netherton B 5.5 Harrogate D 1.5 The next event is on Sunday November 19 at Huddersfield Ukranian Club. ( See Events section for more details )
Oct 06	Some good results from the Leeds Juniors at the Scarborough Congress: Amanda Hipshon scored 3½/5 to finish joint 7th in the Foundation section. Nick Rigby was again undefeated in the Minor but three draws kept him out of the prizes on 3½/5. Last but not definitely not least - an excellent result from Mr John Hipshon in the Foundation finishing on 4/5 and undefeated to claim joint 3rd place ! Well played John and congratulations from all the juniors I'm sure !
Oct 06	Vladimir Kramnik beats Veselin Topalov to become World Chess Champion. More details here
Oct 06	There is no stopping Nick . . . he chalks up another win with 5/5 in the Metropolitan Congress. Results
Oct 06	Well done to Nick Rigby who wins yet another Minor tournament ! This time it was the Rotherham rapidplay where he scored 5.5 / 6. Pictured here with top England GM Michael Adams.
Sept 06	Follow the World Championship between Topalov & Kramnik here. Vladimir Kramnik, Classical World Chess Champion plays against Veselin Topalov, FIDE World Champion for the Re-unification title. The twelve-game match is taking place in Russia. Kramnik has won the first game.
Sept 06	Well done again to Nick Rigby who won the Minor section of the Hartepool Rapidplay with 10 out of 11.
Sept 06	Follow the European Union Individual Championships taking place in Liverpool here. Here are the players including 18 Grand Masters and Last Year's Tera final winner Stephen Gordon.
August 06	Congratulations to Nick Rigby who was the outright winner of the Chorley Congress Minor section with 5.5/6.
August 06	Well done to Robert Bowler who finished 2nd= in the Lincoln Rapidplay under 100 section with 4.5/6 and finished unbeaten.
August 06	Well done to Harry Li and Robert Bowler who finished on 9/18 and 7/18 respectively in the Terafinal. The full results are here. Harry finished as the top under 8 and on the same points or better as many notable older juniors including several England players - a fantastic result. Congratulations also to Amanda Hipshon who scored 9/18 in the Challengers section - another very good result.
August 06	Nick Rigby, Amanda Hipshon, Robert Bowler and James Bowler all competed in the British Championships in Swansea. Nick was 6th= in the under 14s, Amanda was 27th= in the under 100 tournament, Robert was 23rd= in the under 11s, James was 3rd= in the under 9s and 10th= in the under 10s. Full results can be found here.
August 06	Yorkshire Junior Grades for 2005/6 are now available under the Gradings section. Many thanks to Stuart Johnson for once again compiling and crunching the numbers !
August 06	The Leeds Junior Chess Summer School was a very successful 3-day event attended by 24 youngsters aged 7-14. The mixture of morning coaching, supervised practice and afternoon competitions proved very popular. The final afternoon was taken up with a 5 round championship, which produced a remarkable 5 way tie on 13/15 points between Nick Rigby, Amanda Hipshon, Peter Hornsby, Joshua Levine and Edmund Stell. After applying a tie break Amanda and Nick were level and Nick won a 10 minute play off to take the title and avenge his earlier defeat to Amanda. The prize winners: Champion: Nick Rigby Runner Up: Amanda Hipshon 3rd Place: Peter Hornsby Best Under 11: James Roberts Best Under 9: Joshua Levine Most improved grading: Gianni Singh Most improved player over 3 days: Imogen Stables Best attitude/attention/behaviour: Anamay Shetty Best game: Amanda v James Roberts. Many thanks to coaches Nick Nixon and Stuart Johnson and to all the juniors who made it such a great event.
July 06	Leeds Junior Chess Club - Meeting Dates Here are the dates when the Leeds Junior Chess Club will be running for the rest of 2006: Sunday 10th September Sunday 17th September Sunday 24th September Sunday 1st October Sunday 8th October Sunday 15th October Sunday 12th November Sunday 19th November Sunday 26th November Sunday 3rd December Sunday 10th December Sunday 17th December Details about the club can be found here Other important Dates Friday 20th October - Sunday 22nd October: Scarborough Congress Sunday 29th October: Ormskirk Rapidplay Saturday 4th and 5th November: British Rapidplay (Halifax) Sunday 26th November: Yorkshire Girls Open (at Alcuin)
July 06	Well done to all those who qualfied for and competed in the Northern Gigafinal. Lots of excellent results with many scoring over half marks in this high quality tournament. Particular congratulations go to Harry Li & Robert Bowler who both won their sections in the Under 8s and Under 11s respectively. Full results of the juniors from Leeds are here. Full Gigafinal results are here: Saturday Sunday
July 06	Well done to James Bowler who won the Oldham Junior U9 Championships with 6/7. The only player to beat James was Harry Li who finished on 5/7 to finish as the best under 8. Robert Bowler was 2nd= in the under 11s. The 3 were joined by Matthew Li to make a team of 4 - pictured here. The team result is yet to be announced. This is an excellent junior tournament which juniors should look out for next year.
June 06	Congratulations to Alcuin who won the Leeds Junior Chess League final. In a tense final to the primary schools league Alcuin overcame Churwell 6½-5½ to take the league championship for the first time. The same two finalists from last year over came Froebelian (11-1) and Gildersome (8-4) respectively in the semi-finals, but this time the result was reversed. It could not have been closer. Robert and James Bowler overcame some stubborn resistance from Rebekah Brown and Yasmin Niksaz to secure 4 points on the top two boards, but Alcuin knew it was on the bottom four boards that there best chance lay. With under 9 battler Tyrell Walwyn thrown in to the team to add some aggression, he came up trumps with 2 wins. Asher Dixon Blair also came up with 2 points on board 3, but Andrew Keyworth and Daniel Potts had struck hard against Saroj Spickett on board 5 to take 1½ points back. It was Jessica Gale who fought hard on board 4, winning both games and the final point to clinch victory. Well done both teams who did nothing to calm the nerves of the watching team managers. Alcuin have been runners up twice since the league started and won this year with a majority girls’ team. Pictures: Alcuin - Churwell - The Final Match A total of 111 players represented their school in this year's League ! Individual player stats, Game results, Board prizes
June 06	Adam Routledge and Nick Rigby played for the Yorkshire U18 team who successfully retained the NCCU U18 team championships - final scores were as follows: Yorkshire 14.5 Lancashire 12.5 Cheshire & NW 9
June 06	Robert Bowler played for the Rest of England Under 11s v London & SE and scored 1.5 / 2. The team were narrowly pipped in the last game of the day going down 21.5 v 20.5 a reversal of last year's result.
June 06	Leeds’ Girls bolster a record 10 Yorkshire girls in the National Girls’ Championships in Nottingham. Leeds’ Girls Amanda Hipshon, Rebekah Brown, Yasmin Nikaz, Jessica Gale and Georgia Howorth all competed in the National Girls Championships in Nottingham on Saturday 25th June. In an elite gathering of female players all the girls could hold there heads up after scoring at least 2/5. Rebekah Brown came joint 7th in the Under 12’s with 3/5, including an unfortunate draw in having to play Yasmin in round 3. Amanda Hipshon was unlucky to be placed only 5th in the Under 14 girls. With 4 girls (Amanda, Kiruthika Rajeswaran, Latifah Messam Sparks and Fay Birch) obviously in a different class from the rest of the field, Amanda lost out to Kiruthika and Latifah in the final rounds, and with the vagaries of a five round swiss draw ended up 5th rather than a more deserved joint 3rd with Fay Birch also suffering under similar circumstances. Great news for Yorkshire though with 10 girls qualifying for the final (3 years ago there were just 3) and producing its first national title winner –Kiruthika Rajeswaran from Dewsbury taking the Under 14 title.
June 06	Leeds Junior Chess Club enjoyed a great simul with IM Richard Palliser. 22 youngsters pitted themselves against Richard, and all lost ! An exhausted Richard said afterwards how great it was to see so many youngsters playing and awarded 5 prizes for the best games played against him. These went to Charley Brennan, James Roberts, Yasmin Niksaz, Rebekah Brown and Brie Grierson. Thanks to everyone who came. Picture here.
June 06	The Churwell A team won the Leeds Junior Chess Association team tournamnent to retain their title of last year. It was an exceptionally close tournament and the Churwell team of James Bowler, Robert Bowler, James Limb and Andrew Keyworth won by the narrowest of margins after the very last game of the day. The Churwell team finished the day unbeaten for the second year running. The runners up were the Lofthouse Gate B team who also finished unbeaten and a very unlucky Alcuin team finishing in 3rd place who would have won if they had won the last game of the day. The best B team was won by Alcuin B. 14 teams competed. Many thanks to Alcuin and John Hipshon for once again organising and hosting this excellent team tournament. Churwell A - 10 Lofthouse Gate B - 9 Alcuin A - 8 Leeds Grammar - 8 Lofthouse gate A - 7 Alcuin B - 7 Eldwick B - 7 Riverside A - 6 Riverside B - 6 Holy Trinity - 5 Churwell B - 5 Eldwick A - 4 Hugh Gaitskell - 2 Bramley St Peters - 0 Board prizes (awarded to best scores on each board other than those of the top three teams) Board 1 James Roberts (Leeds GS) Board 2 Brie Grierson (Alcuin B) Board 3 Michael Owens (Lofthouse Gate A) Board 4 Bronagh Sheridan Best Girl Bushra Khan (Alcuin B)
June 06	Alcuin School were the only Leeds school in the EPSCA National Primary Schools Semi Final held at Pontins in Prestatyn last weekend. Alcuin were also the smallest school and the Under 11 team matched last years performance by scoring 13½ points. The under 9 team scored 11 points. The Alcuin Under 11 team was unique in that 5 of the 6 boards were represented by girls – a fact commented upon by the manager of every opponent played. Top performances were by Yasmin Niksaz with 4/6 on board 2, Asher Dixon Blair with 4/6 on board 5 and Bushra Khan with 4/6 on the reserve board 6. Rebekah Brown also did well with 3½/6 on the top board. In the Under 9’s, mega final U9 suprema Georgia Howorth scored 4½/6 on board 3 and Tane Randall, a Year 2 pupil, scored 4½/6 on the reserve board. In perspective some of the schools at the competition had well over 400 pupils to pick from and most of them couldn’t raise a single female player. Alcuin continues to overachieve in relation to size and feed the Yorkshire county girls teams with competent girl players. Pictures: The Under 11’s prepare to do battle. Yasmin receives a bronze award for the team.
June 06	A fantastic result for 7 year old Harry Li at the Brighouse rapidplay beating an adult graded 142 ! Well done also to James Bowler who won the junior prize with 4/6. Full results here
June 06	Nick Rigby continues his excellent form with an outright win in the Minor 1 section of the Lakes Congress with 4.5 out of 5 and winning £300 !
May 06	Yorkshire U14 girls win the grand final ! It’s true – Yorkshire U14 girls are national county champions ! They beat Surrey, Oxfordshire and Lancashire in the grand final. It was an intense day of chess, and the girls showed great focus to take the title against strong opposition. A momentous 2nd round saw them take 5/6, setting up a tense last round, where they secured 2 wins and 2 draws as Lancs crumbled under the pressure. The result: Yorkshire 12, Lancashire 9, Surrey 8 and Oxfordshire 7. All played their part. The individual scores: Evie Hollingworth 1½/3 Amanda Hipshon 1½/3 Kiruthika Rajeswaran 3/3 Rebekah Brown 2½/3 Yasmin Niksaz 2½/3 Rachael Brook 1/3 The scores against the counties: Surrey 3½/6 Lancashire 3/6 Oxfordshire 5½/6 This is the first time in the 8 year history of the trophy that Surrey have not won. A great day for girls chess in Yorkshire – what a team ! More info here. Team photo here
May 06	Nick Rigby and Adam Routledge both represented Yorkshire in the Inter County Under 18 Championship and both finished undefeated with great performances. The team finished in an excellent 3rd place just behind Wiltshire & Kent. The Yorkshire juniors continue to do very well at all age groups. Wiltshire 18 Kent 17.5 Yorkshire 16 Northants 12.5 Derbyshire 10.5 Lincolnshire 7.5 Worcestershire 2
May 06	Congratulations to Robert and James Bowler who finished on equal points in the Darwen Vale Kings section to take 1st and 2nd place respectively. Picture
May 06	Well done to Nick Rigby who finished 3rd in the Minor section of the Huddersfield Congress. Results here
May 06	The Yorkshire Under 11 team finished a fantastic 3rd place in the finals of the EPSCA county championships. This is the highest we have ever been placed in this competition and goes 1 better than last year showing how junior chess is improving in the county. The top 17 qualifying county teams travelled to Richmond, South London for the finals to do battle. After a slightly below par first round of 12/20 the team had better 2nd and 3rd rounds to finish on 41.5 / 60 to take the bronze medal. James Roberts, Matthew Chan, Christian Christiansen, Matthew Li, Harry Li, Robert Bowler & James Bowler, all from Leeds, gave excellent performances in representing the team in the final. Team photos are here Final results table is here In addition - this also means that the combined Yorkshire Junior Teams (Under 9s, Under 11, Under 11 Girls) finished a fantastic 2nd place in the overall Grand Prix - another best ever performance ! This is a great result for all the junior players and all the teachers, coaches and organisers who have helped support and develop junior chess in Leeds and throughout Yorkshire. A special mention must go to Alan Coupe who along with his whole family have tirelessly supported junior chess in Yorkshire for many years and has been pivotal in the success of the teams. A huge thankyou to Alan. Final Grand Prix Scores: 1 Wey Valley, Surrey 54 2 Yorkshire 45 3 Oxfordshire 37 =4 Nottinghamshire 35 =4 Richmond 35 6 Sussex 29 7 Oldham 27 8 Barnet 26 =9 Berkshire 23 =9 Lincolnshire 23 31 teams competed.
May 06	Well done to Joshua Levine who came 2nd in the under 9 section of the York Schools Event. In the under 14 section, Robert Bowler was 2nd and brother James was 4th.
Apr 06	The North Yorkshire Megafinal saw a number of excellent results from Leeds juniors who had all successfully qualified from the initial club / school stage: In the girls, Rebekah Brown beat Yasmin Niksaz (picture) in a thrilling play off to take the U11 title. Georgia Howorth (picture) won the U9 girls with 5/6 and Amanda Hipshon won the U14 girls. In the boys, Harry Li won the U8s with 6/6 with Josh Levine the runner up on 5/6. Nick Rigby won the U14 boys with 6/6 and Robert Bowler was runner up in the U11s with 5.5/6. There were many others who successfully achieved 4/6 or better to qualify for the Northern Gigafinals on 8th/9th July. Well done to all those who competed. Results here.
Apr 06	Leeds Junior Club - dates of meetings, summer term, here
Apr 06	Congratulations to James Bowler who won the Rotherham Rapidplay under 9 section with 6/6. Photo with Grandmaster Nigel Davies.
Apr 06	Robert Bowler repeats his performance of last year in the England trial with 3/6 and again unfortunately just misses out on a place in the England squad. An excellent result though to have qualified for the trial. Details of other Yorkshire players in the trial here
Apr 06	Well done to the Yorkshire under 9s who finished 5th out of 18 in the EPSCA county finals. Details including updated Grandprix leader board is here
Mar 06	More success for the Yorkshire junior teams as the Yorkshire Under 11 Girls finish an excellent 4th place in the EPSCA county finals. Leeds’ girls Rebekah Brown, Yasmin Niksaz, Jessica Gale, Saroj Spickett, Bushra Khan and Georgia Howorth, all from the Alcuin School, were part of the team of 14 girls. All scored important points, with Jessica Gale scoring 2½/3. This included a point against Wey Valley in the last round which helped deprive the winners for the last 10 years from retaining their crown. Fourth place is Yorkshire’s best performance in the 22 years of the competition. Team photo here Results are here More details here. Grandprix leader board ( Inter County Championships made up of zonal and finals results for U9s, U11s and U11 girls )
Mar 06	Well done to Nick Rigby who finished 2nd= in the Atherton Rapidplay Minor section. Results
Mar 06	The Yorkshire under 11s continued the great run of successes this year enjoyed by the Yorkshire junior teams. They returned from Staffordshire having gained a thumping 52 out of 60 points to win the EPSCA Northern Zonal and qualify for the finals on 13th May. Results were as follows: Yorkshire 52 Oldham 38.5 Manchester 36.5 Staffordshire 36 CNW 33 Liverpool 29.5 Lancashire 28 Tameside 18 Shropshire 15.5 Wirral 13 Leeds players Matthew Chan, Christian Christiansen, James Roberts, Matthew and Harry Li, Robert & James Bowler all played very well and between them scored a massive 19.5 out of 21 against some of the best under 11 players in the North of England. More details here
Mar 06	The Yorkshire U14 girls’ team stormed the Eastern Region yesterday taking 16½/18 points. Three Leeds’ girls were representing Yorkshire out of the 6 strong team. Amanda Hipshon on board 2, Rebekah Brown on board 4 and Yasmin Niksaz on 5 all took maximum points winning three out of three games each. The girls finished 10 points clear of 2nd place Lincolnshire, with Norfolk and Derbyshire some way behind. This puts the team into the U14 final on May 27th. The team were ably supported by South Yorkshire girls Evie Hollingworth and Emma Bentley, and Dewsbury’s Kiruthika Rajeswaran. Emma, at 9 years old, was the youngest member of the team and has now joined Leeds Junior Chess Club. Team Photo
Mar 06	Joshua Levine, Harry Li and James Bowler from Leeds, helped the Yorkshire under 9 team win the Northern EPSCA zonal to qualify for the county finals on 1st April to be held in Rotherham. Good luck to the team in the final ! Results Table here
Mar 06	The Leeds Junior Chess Club got off to a great start with 20 youngsters aged 7-14 enrolling on the first evening. This included 9 girls. There was a large span of ability, from current British Champions and England internationals to those just embarking on their chess careers. This shows the club can work at all levels and more members are welcome. All the juniors seemed to enjoy themselves with a 45 minute coaching session from Nick Nixon followed by a Swiss blitz tournament. We look forward to seeing more new members next week. The club will meet every Sunday from now up to and including April 2nd before the Easter break.
Feb 06	Well done to Harry Li (Winner) and Joshua Levine (2nd) in the Huddersfield Junior Championships. Congratulations also to Robert Bowler who won the Under 12 section. All 3 players were a year younger than their respective age group sections !
Feb 06	Well done to James Bowler(8) who was the highest placed under 14 in the Stockport Rapidplay and joint under 80 grading prize winner. Results
Feb 06	Congratulations to Alcuin school's U9 and U11 teams who have both qualified for the semi-finals of the English Primary Schools Chess Association competition at Prestatyn after a tough regional qualifying tournament in Rotherham.
Feb 06	Three Leeds girls played for the Yorkshire Girls Under 14 team at Ormskirk on Sunday January 29th and came within a whisker of beating defending champions Lancashire in the northern Region ECGCF county competition. Cheshire were well beaten into third place. Amanda Hipshon (board 2), Rebekah Brown (Board 5) and Yasmin Niksaz (Board 6) all played in a massively improved Yorkshire performance. Yasmin scored 2½/3, Rebekah 2/3 and Amanda 1/3 as the Yorkshire team finished just one point behind Lancashire. This qualifies them for the minor final in May, but the team will compete again in the Eastern Region in March to attempt to reach the major final. The performance marks the progress being made in Yorkshire Girls’ chess and the great contribution coming from Leeds. The girls were backed up by Evie Hollingworth (Sheffield), Kiruthika Rajeswaran (Wakefield) and Emma Mavin (Yarm). Team photo here Results here
Jan 06	Yorkshire Under 9 Team selection event. There will be an under 9s selection event to be held at Huddersfield on 12th Feb. This will be incorporated into the existing A G Sunderland event to be held at the Ukrainian club, Edgerton Road, Huddersfield from 2pm. Results in this event will go towards the consideration of players for the Yorkshire team. For more information contact Alan Coupe Tel 01709 551 532. Note that there is also an excellent tournament in Huddersfield on Sunday26th Feb which includes an under 9 section. Download an Entry Form here
Jan 06	New Leeds Junior Chess Club starts Sunday March 5th ! See here for full details. Venue is Alcuin School (Map Here)
Jan 06	Congratulations to Harry Li who won the English Primary Schools Chess Association (EPSCA) Under 8 Championships in Liverpool ! After a first round win over his main rival Harry swept the board to finish with 7 out of 7. Picture
Jan 06	The Yorkshire under 9 and under 11 teams both won their respective tournaments against 3 other county teams from Nottinghamshire, Northants and Lincolnshire. Both matches came down to the last round: The under 9s won by 2 points ahead of the Notts team. In the case of the under 11s it came down to the last of 120 games ! Fortunately Yorkshire triumphed by just half a point over Notts team. Joshua Levine, Matthew & Harry Li and Robert & James Bowler played for the 2 county teams and won 14 out of their 15 games - not bad ! Table of results. See also News
Dec 05	Congratulations to Harry Li who claimed 3rd place in the London Junior Under 8s with 5.5 / 7. Link
Dec 05	Three Leeds girls were among the Yorkshire County Under 11 Girls team which competed for the Whitehead Cup on Saturday 17th December in Oxford. Rebekah Brown, Yasmin Niksaz and Jessica Gale, all from Alcuin, joined Sheffield girls Evie Hollingworth and Afira Sutanto and Wakefield’s Rachael Brook to play against the strong counties of Lancashire, Oxfordshire and Surrey. For once the southern counties did not have things all there own way, although Surrey were eventual winners in a close contest with 11½ points. Yorkshire came joint second with Oxfordshire on 8½ with Lancashire in 4th with 7½. This was a strong effort by Yorkshire girls and shows the terrific progress now being made in this area. Team Photo The under 14’s play in the English Counties Northern qualifier in Ormskirk on January 29th.
Dec 05	Well done to James Bowler who won the under 80 grading prize in the Minor section of the Bury Rapidplay with 3.5/6. Link
Dec 05	The Yorkshire Girls Open held at Alcuin School on 27th November was a huge success, with 52 girls taking part. As well as attracting some of the North’s finest young female talent a large number of less experienced girls also took part and had a thoroughly enjoyable day. Several girls came from Lancashire as well. The Under 16 trophy was won by Christine Jones from York who quietly came from nowhere to finish on 5/6 and finish ahead of more experienced players Amanda Hipshon, Kiruthika Rajeswaran and Lancashire’s Jade Stirrup. In the under 12’s an exciting competition was won by Lancashire’s ice cool Rachel Cass with 6/6, but there was a fabulous performance from Alcuin’s Yasmin Niksaz to finish on 5, beating Christine Jones and Jade Stirrup on the way. In the Under 10’s section, the largest group of 27 girls, Alcuin’s Brie Grierson pulled off an amazing performance to finish on 4½/6 and take the title. The under 8 title went to Natalie Cass, Rachel’s sister. The competition also included West Yorkshire titles and the Under 8’s, 10’s and 12’s all went to Alcuin girls – Quiss Craddock, Brie Grierson and Yasmin Niksaz. Overall girls’ chess was the real winner. Three Alcuin girls now go forward to represent Yorkshire’s Under 11 Girls on December 17th in Oxford, these being Yasmin Niksaz, Rebekah Brown and Brie Grierson, with Jessica Gale as first reserve. The girls will take on Oxfordshire, Surrey and Lancashire for the Whitehead Cup. Pictures.
Nov 05	Congratulations to Rebekah Brown who scored 2.5 out of 5 at the Britsh Rapidplay Under 12 junior event with a performance grade of 67 ! All results can be found through the results page.
Oct 05	Primary Schools League - fixtures available here
Oct 05	Congratulations to James Bowler who won the Under 11 section of the Ormskirk Rapidplay with brother Robert in joint second place.
Oct 05	Congratulations to Amanda Hipshon who retained her All England Girls Northern region U14 trophy at Ormskirk. Well done also to Rebekah Brown, Yasmin Niksaz and Jessica Gale also all qualified for the national finals in their respective age groups. A great day for the girls. Full Details here
Sept 05	BCF National Schools Championship - Entry Form
Aug 05	Girls County Team Selection News John Hipshon is now coordinating the Yorkshire girls’ county teams. If you are interested in being considered for the Yorkshire girls' county teams then please get in touch with John if he has not already contacted you. Here is a list of selection events (further updated 30/12/05) which will be used to select the team. Please also note that there is a girls tournament on November 27th- details and entry form can be downloaded here: Word Version and PDF Version. The U11 team will be announced shortly after the November 27th event. For more information on anything to do with girls chess, please contact John Hipshon Tel 0113 269 1173
Aug 05	Well done to Amanda Hipshon who scored 9 and Harry Li who scored 6 in the Challengers section of the Terafinal. Full Terafinal results are here
Aug 05	James & Robert Bowler finish 1st and 2nd in the Manchester under 11 Championships.
Aug 05	James Bowler is the new Under 8 British Champion. James also finished 9th in the Under 9s. Older brother Robert finished an excellent 8th in the under 10s. Full details of all events at the British Championships can be found here. News article 1. News article 2
July 05	Junior British Chess Solving Championship 2005-2006. Details here. Closing date for entries is the end of July.
July 05	Harry Li and Amanda Hipshon both take excellent second places in their sections of the Gigafinals in Manchester. Good results also from Mathew Li (U9s) and Robert Bowler (U10s) with 4.5 points out of 6. Full results available here.
July 05	A numbr of Leeds juniors competed in the Oldham Junior Championships with some great successes: Amanda Hipshon was 2nd in the U14s, Robert Bowler was 2nd in the U10s, James Bowler won the U8s and Harry Li was 2nd in the U8s. An "Alwoodley" junior team of 4 were narrowly beaten into 2nd place by half a point ! The team consisted of Rebekha Brown, Yasmin Niksaz, Robert Bowler and James Bowler.
June 05	In an extremely close final of the Primary Schools Chess League Churwell just took the title beating Alcuin 7-5. Froebelian finished 3rd after an even closer semi final against Churwell ( 6.5 - 5.5 ). Well done also to Menston who finished 4th. Churwell Team Photo.
June 05	Follow Englands number 1 Grandmaster Michael Adams as he takes on the world's most powerful chess Computer - "Hydra" - 21st - 27th June. Link1 and Link2. Result: Hydra wins 5.5 - 0.5 and also wins open tournament 8 - 0 !
June 05	Alcuin School were proud to represent the Leeds area in the National Primary Schools Semi Finals held at Pontins in Prestatyn, North Wales on the weekend of 11th and 12th June. They qualified through an extremely difficult qualifying section which included QEGS and Sitwell, both of whom made it through to the national final, and Royal grammar school. The competition was tough, with the best primary teams from around the country battling for a place in the final. Thirty teams took part in the under 11 section, playing 3 matches per day. Alcuin had a good Saturday, winning two of their three matches. Sunday was a little tougher, with just one win in three, meaning a total of three wins out of six. Not bad for a school competing at national level for the first time with an entire school population of 47! Nottingham High School were the runaway winners at both under 9 and under 11 level. Full Results Brothers Wonjun and Wonsoek Jang did well on boards one and two to get three out of six but Yasmin Niksaz achieved 4 out of 6, continuing her good form from the Darwen Junior congress the previous week. It wasn’t all chess, though, with plenty of exciting activities for the children to enjoy after the chess finished on Saturday afternoon. Alcuin look forward to qualifying again for Prestatyn next year, hopefully alongside one or two other Leeds Schools.
June 05	Robert Bowler played for the Rest of England U11 team v London U11. Rest of England win 24 - 20 !
June 05	Yasmin Niksaz wins the Knights section of the Darwen Vale junior tournament with an impressive 5/5 ! Yasmin receives her award. Full results will appear on the Lancashire Junior site.
May 05	Results from the 36 Megafinals across the country.
May 05	67 players forming 17 teams competed in the Alcuin Primary School Team Challenge. Churwell A were the overall winners followed by Churwell B who were runners up. Leeds Grammar B won the B team trophy and there were many individual prizes at this successful event. More details to follow . . .
Apr 05	Alcuin School wins a prestigious award from the British Chess Federation (BCF) in recognition of it’s services to chess. More details here.
Apr 05	Northern Membership Scheme - New scheme to join the BCF and get your games graded by the BCF.  £5 p.a. for juniors.
Mar 05	Leeds brothers - James & Robert Bowler and Mathew & Harry Li - help Yorkshire Under 11 team win the Northern zonal of the EPSCA county championships and so qualify for the National Finals. Link
Mar 05	Amanda Hipshon wins the U14 section of the UK Chess International after winning a 3½ hour marathon last game ! ( More details available on this new National chess competition for secondary schools at www.ukci.org ). Amanda pictured here with Russian WGM Elmira Mirzoeva at the tournament.
Mar 05	Leeds juniors - James Bowler, Mathew & Harry Li and Joshua Levine help Yorkshire Under 9 team win the Northern zonal of the EPSCA county championships and so qualify for the National Finals. Link
Feb 05	The Alwoodley team from Leeds narrowly beat South Yorkshire to win the A G Sunderland competition ! See results page for more details.
Feb 05	Matthew and Harry Li appear on Look North
Jan 05	Robert and James Bowler in the newspaper
Dec 04	Amanda Hipshon on the radio