St John’s retains Welsh Primary School Championships

St John’s, Cardiff, were convincing winners of the 2018 Welsh Primary School Championships held at Bishop Hedley School Merthyr Tydfil, on Saturday 24 March. The team of four won all five matches, and netted 18 game points out of as possible 20.

Three schools shared second place with 8 match points: Rhydypenau A, Caedraw A and Melin Gruffydd. The best performance for a B-team came from St John’s, netting 7 match points, and The Dell and Rhydypenau shared the top spot for C teams, netting 4 match points.

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St John’s qualify for ECF Under 19 Open finals

St John’s, Cardiff, have qualified for the national finals of the ECF Under 19 Open (formerly The Sunday Times and then the Times Championship) by beating Chepstow School on tie-break, after the match finished 3-3. The team of Shayanna Sivarajasingam, Anlan Qui, Hiya Ray, Danield Jaberansari, Aron Callist and Anish Choudhury progress to the finals, where they will be one of 16 teams from all over the UK. The finals will be played at Uppingham on 3-4 July.

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2017/18 Welsh Rapidplay now rearranged for 28th April

Please note that the Frank Hatto Memorial Welsh Individual Rapidplay Championships has now been rearranged for 28th April 2018 at Pencoed.

Please also note that players who entered this event in December are asked to contact Kevin Staveley to confirm they will be playing.

The entry form can be downloaded here.

Richard Jones wins Geof Tyrrell Best Game Prize 2017

In this the eighth year of the competition in memory of Geof, the judges, Stuart Hutchings, Dave James and Howard Williams, looked at 24 games which met our basic criteria. In short, these are wins or draws by Welsh players against foreign opposition rated both 2250 or over and 150 points or more above the Welsh player. The number of games which met these criteria was well down on the 2016 total (24 as against 42), but that was still rather more than the 2015 total. It’s also probably worth noting that 2016 was an Olympiad year and also featured two Welsh teams in the European Club Cup (no Welsh entrants in 2017). These events generated 11 qualifying games in 2016. Continue reading Richard Jones wins Geof Tyrrell Best Game Prize 2017

Dyfed Open games now available

The games from the Dyfed Open can now be downloaded from the Games page.

Chepstow cruise into ECF Junior Team Challenge finals

Chepstow School put in an outstanding performance in the West Country Region heat of the ECF Junior Team Challenge, winning 16 game points out of a possible 16.

The team of Madeleine Smith, Neil Stevenson, Harrison Postans and Steffan Griffiths will now play in the ECF Junior Team finals, to be held at Hertford College, Oxford, on Monday 16 April. Chepstow came fourth last year, and will be hoping to get in the medals this time.

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Welsh Junior Championships 2018: Week-end two results

At the second week-end of the Welsh Junior Chess Championships, held at Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Glantaf, Cardiff, on 10-11 March, Hugo Fowler and Ifan Rathbone-Jones shared the Under 16 title, Madeleine Smith won the under 13s, Daniel Chung won the under 11s and Tom Davies won the under 9s.

Arnav Kulkarni and Mohamed Mukhaiber shared the under 11 Major, and Ben Morcombe won the under 9s Major.

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2018 World Seniors Team Championship

Two squads have now been selected to represent regions of Wales in the above event.

Over 65 Section: Deheubarth

Iolo Jones (Capt.)

John Thornton

Rudy van Kemenade

Peter Bevan

David Aubrey-James

Over 50 Section: Silures

Mark Adams (Capt.)

Lee Davis

John Fletcher

Tony Hughes

Huw Morcom

We wish the players an enjoyable and successful tournament.

Bill Hewitt wins 2018 A O Jones

The first Open A O Jones attracted 28 entries.

The eventual winner Bill Hewitt, led from the start and only drew in the last round against the top grade Adam Rakos.

Apart from his draw with Bill, Adam Rakos also drew with Andrew di Vetta.

Alan Young (winner for the last 3 years) lost in the first round to Sipho Donovan, before completing four straight wins.

The win Chris Boyd enjoyed the most was against his old chess tutor from Newport, Robert Taylor, and the only game he lost was to Moss McCarthy.

Tomasz’s only loss was to Adam Rakos

The final results were:

Winner with 4.5/5 – William Hewitt

Joint Second place with 4/5 – Adam Rakos, Alan Young and Chris Boyd

Under 1900 Grading Prize Winner with 3.5/5 – Tomasz Miga

Under 1500 Grading Prize Joint Winners with 2/5 – Janet Evans, Sean Denton, Tomos Roberts and Aidan Reilly

UK Land Chess Challenge 2018: An opportunity to qualify

A local round of the UK Land Chess Challenge will be held on Sunday 18 March in Chepstow. It will provide an opportunity for children that have not had a chance to play in the UK Land Chess Challenge through their school or local chess club, and a second chance for children that have already participated in this competition this year.

The competition in Chepstow will take place in Chepstow Methodist Church (NP16 5DA) from 2 p.m. until 5 p.m. Richard can be contacted on 01291 629640, or by e-mailing richardstevenson@zoho.com

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