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| 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 . . .
Full results will follow.
John Hipshon (Yorks girls team manager) |
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| 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. |
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| 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 ! |
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| 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 |
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| 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. Detailed cross tables, ratings, etc are here Play-off photo Prize winners photo |
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| Aug 08 |
Dates for the coming term are as follows:
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
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| 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.' Awards were given as follows:
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| 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. |
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| 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 ! |
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| 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 !
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. |
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| 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 |
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| 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 |
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| 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 |
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| 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 |
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| 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.
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:
More details and pictures to follow including board awards . . . |
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| 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)
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 |
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| 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 |
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| 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 |
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| 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)
Full cross tables as follows:
Full list of qualifiers on the UK Chess Challenge website here |
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| 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. |
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| April 08 |
Dates of meetings of the Leeds Junior Chess Club - Summer term (all 5.30-7.30pm) are as follows:
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| 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 |
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| 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:
Under 10s:
Under 11s
Under 12s
Under 14s
Picture (Sorry not great - hopefully better to follow !) |
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| 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 Detailed results here |
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| 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. |
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| 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 |
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| 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. |
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| 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 |
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| 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. |
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| 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 |
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| 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.
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| Oct 07 |
Several Leeds juniors had excellent results in the 3rd Renaissance Academy Rapid Play Tournament. Results can be found here |
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| 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. |
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| Aug 07 |
Leeds Junior Chess Club
- letter from John Hipshon including club dates and important changes
to club fees are here. |
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| 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 |
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| 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 |
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| 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 |
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| 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 |
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| 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 |
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| 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. 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. 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 |
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| 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 |
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| 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:
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. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 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:
Individual scores:
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| 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 |
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| 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.
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| 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. |
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| 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 |
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| 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. |
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| 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 |
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| Apr 07 | Leeds
Junior Chess Club
Dates of meetings Summer term (all 5.30-7.30pm) Sunday 29th April Costs will be £1.50 per session or £10 for the term. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
