Girls’ Championships 29th January 2017 – Inglefield House, Monmouth

The Girls’ Championships were held at their usual venue of Inglefield House, prep school for Monmouth Girls’ School. Every year, the facilities there seem to be bigger and better, and we are grateful to the headmistress for letting us use the hall and numerous classrooms to accommodate the players and provide space for the parents who wish to stay around throughout the day.

There was far less disruption than usual at the start of the day, as all the players had been entered previously and all the players turned up. The only last minute change to plans were caused by two people changing age group, one our mistake for a wrongly assigned age and the other where we thought the highest rated player there would want to play out of age against strong opposition, when in fact she chose to play within her own age group. So we had:- U14s a 5 player all-play-all; U12s combining with the U11s as a 5 round Swiss; U10s a 5 player all-play-all; U9s a 6 player all-play-all; and U8s a double round 4 player all-play-all.

In the U8s Isabella Caesar clearly meant business and won on 6/6 from Lilian Sapsford on 4/6. Both these players know a lot about finishing games off competently but to improve will have to slow down and use that time to find the best moves taking into account what their opponent is planning.

Ashika Shahameeran had won the U8s with 5/5 last year and continued to hold a title by repeating the performance in this year’s U9s, finishing ahead of Lara Omidvar on 4/5 and well clear of the others.

The U10s produced two promising new faces in Alice Potter, winner on 4.5 ahead of Gabriella Watkins on 4 whose only loss was to Alice. These two left Xanthe Harris, last year’s U9 winner trailing in 3^rd place, and it was also encouraging that they won their ‘bye game’ against players from the U14s.

The U12/U11s was hard fought between the top 3 who clearly outrated the others. Hiya Ray was slowly outplaying Nayana Kalavala and reached a position where my first thought was Qc7 looks good before I quickly spotted that this allowed Rd1 mate. Sadly for Hiya, she didn’t have my second thought, and a promising position became an instant loss. Madeleine Smith beat Nayana in Round 3 and so by the start of the last round, when she was playing Hiya, both these were already sure to win their respective age groups. A competitive game was played ending in a draw so that Madeleine (4.5) pipped Nayana (4) for the U12 title and Hiya (3.5) was well ahead of Joana Anjos and Ella Toner (2) in 2^nd place in the U11s.

Susanna Fraser had to defend a tremendous battering from Aishwarya Lutchman Singh who sacrificed a piece, ultimately without success, in the key game in the U14s. By also beating Rachel McIntosh she achieved 5/5 leaving Aishwarya and Rachel who drew in the last round sharing 2^nd on 3.5.

I was grateful for help on the day from Ladies’ Director Olivia Smith, who amongst other things pointed out my mistakes and presented the prizes; Kevin Thomas who makes the arrangements with the school as well as helping things to run smoothly on the day, and George Smith who will have obtained useful experience in his arbiter training. I am also pleased with the behaviour and sporting way all the girls played, which makes this a very easy tournament to run, and to the parents who give up their time to give their daughters the opportunity to play in the event.

U14s 1^st Susanna Fraser 5, 2^nd = Aishwarya Lutchman Singh and Rachel McIntosh 3.5, 4^th Evie Hurn 2, 5^th Asha Sparks 1
U12/U11 1^st Madeleine Smith 4.5 (U12 Champ) 2^nd Nayana Kalavala 4, 3^rd Hiya Ray 3.5 (U11 Champ), 4^th Bindu Doddi 3, 5^th = Joana Anjos and Ella Toner 2, 7^th Aneshka Walker and 8^th Jasmine Richardson
U10 1^st Alice Potter 4.5, 2^nd Gabriella Watkins 4, 3^rd Xanthe Harris 3, 4^th Daisy Phillips and 5^th Hannah Moore
U9 1^st Ashika Shahameeran 5, 2^nd Lara Omidvar 4, 3^rd = Anika Kamath and Eloise Walker 2, 5^th Suhaani Prasad and 6^th Elizabeth Dale Hickey
U8 1^st Isabella Caesar 6/6, 2^nd Lilian Sapsford 4, 3^rd Carys Davies, 4^th Samantha Holley