Welsh Chess Union (Undeb Gwyddbwyll Cymru)

Welsh Girls Championship Results

The 2019 Welsh Girls’ Championships were held at Ysgol Gymraeg Caerffili on 26th January.

The lower age groups were paired as one large group with the following prizewinners:

U8: 1st Nona Roberts,

2nd Lydia Thomas

3rd Amelie Caesar

U9: 1st Vivien Townsend

2nd Gwennan Evans

U10: 1st Isabella Caesar

2nd Sophie Clark

3rd Mia Jones

Isabella had the remarkable achievement of becoming Welsh Champion in two different disciplines on the same day, as she became a Welsh swimming champion in the morning and by claiming byes in the chess, and then winning the 3 games she managed to arrive for in the afternoon, she scored enough to win the U10 chess title.

The other two groups were Swiss events

U11: 1st= Tabitha Ryan, Ashika Shahameeran

3rd Ava Choung

U12: 1st= Alice Potter, Gabriella Watkins

3rd Kirby Paul

U14 Champion Hiya Ray (only entrant)

A boys’ Starters’ event was held at the same time with the prizewinners:

1st Andras Potts

2nd Kelley Maunder

3rd Benjy Hill

Junior Congress Results

The winners were:

Starters’ (7 player all-play-all)

1st= Tom Griffiths and Jamie Lau-Jones 6/7,

3rd Nathaniel Ekemani 5/7

Major (6 round Swiss)

1st= Hassan Amar and Govind Anandkumar 5,

3rd Robert Sequeira 4.5 (18 entered)

Premier (6 round Swiss)

1st Daniel Seymour 5.5,

2nd Ahmed Bilal 5,

3rd Anshul Swamy 4.5 (20 entered)

First Rank Newsletter Edition 1 2019

The newsletter can be viewed here.

Mike Colwill RIP

Sad news has reached us that Mike Colwill (Rhondda Chess Club) passed away on 31st December.

The Management Board wish to extend their sincere condolences to Mike’s family and friends at this very sad time.

Mike’s Funeral is due to take place on Tuesday 22 January
Venue: Carmel Chapel Treherbert at 10.15 am. Interment at Treorchy cemetary followed by refreshments at Treherbert Rugby Club. Tynewydd

Directions for the Chapel:
As you drive through the lights in Treorchy, continue up the valley for about 1.5 miles. On the LEFT you will see a sign for TREHERBERT and Penyrelyn Primary school followed by open ground.

Immediately following, the Chapel is on the RIGHT. If you see the the pub “The New Inn” on the left, you have just passed the Chapel.”

World Seniors Rhodes, 15-25 April 2019

The two teams selected for this event are as follows:

Wales Silures (Over 50s)
Sven Zeidler
Mark Adams (Captain)
Anthony Hughes
John Fletcher
Lynda Smith

Wales Deheubarth (Over 65s)
Iolo Jones (Captain)
John Thornton
John Waterfield
Peter Bevan
Bill Harle

We wish them all he best!

Bill Flew Memorial Tournament (Correspondence Chess)

Details of this event can be downloaded here.

Junior Rapidplay Ratings Website

Parents, organisers and players who use the Junior Rapidplay Ratings Site will find a few small changes to this site. In fact although the site has the same ‘feel’ to it, everything has been rewritten, with the ratings program and website being completely revamped with various improvements.

The birth years are now all visible, where some of our younger players were out of range of the old version, and within any year group or school year group it is now possible with a single click on the heading at the top of a column to arrange players in order, which selectors and teachers should find useful for selecting and ordering teams. It should also shortly be possible to access the archive section, though this will probably only contain details of results from Sept 2018 onwards.

There are a few teething problems we are still working to iron out, but the new version is now in use with the same address: www.wcurapidplayratings.co.uk so there should be no reason to change the way you access the site.

The person responsible for this re-vamp is Matthew Lunnon of Pentyrch chess club, and we should all be most grateful for the work he has put in to update and improve the previous version of the site, which was slowly becoming inappropriate. Also for the help Matthew has given in getting the new site up and running, with only minimal changes to the way the data is input, making for an easy changeover.

South Wales New Year Congress Results

Open:
=1st Gregorz Toczek, David Sands and Conor Gay 4pts

Major:
=1st Duncan Macarthur and Dai James 4.5 pts
=3rd Stephen Williams, Tom Bennett, Scott Hammett, Les Philpin,
David Parsons, Andrew Smith and Mark Cooke 3pts

The games from the Open are now available on the Games page.

Gwynne Rhys-Jones RIP

Sad news has reached us that Gwynne Rhys-Jones of Upper Killay Chess Club passed away on 23rd December.

Gwynne was a founder member of a committee formed to produce the British Isles Chess Championship in Swansea in the 1980’s.

The Management Board wish to extend their sincere condolences to Gwynne’s family and friends at this very sad time.

The funeral will take place on Wednesday 9th January at Morriston Crenatorium at 11 am.

Geof Tyrrell Best Game Prize 2018: Approaching Deadline

The deadline for entries for the 2018 award is 31 January 2019; so there is still time to nominate a game (which need not have been played by the person making the nomination). The detailed rules can be found here but briefly to qualify for consideration a 2018 game must be a win or a draw by a player qualified to represent Wales in a FIDE competition against a non-Welsh opponent graded over 2250 and FIDE-rated at least 150 points above the entrant at the time the game was played.

Entries should be sent to Howard Williams (howard.swnynant@btinternet.com).

The games so far identified by the judges as meeting the above criteria are in chronological order:

(1) Strugnell, C (2305) – Federovsky. M (2487), Augsburg, 03.01.2018

(2) Strugnell, C (2305) – Rozentalis. E (2527), Augsburg, 04.01.2018

(3) Brown, Thomas (2064) – Willmoth, Robert F (2267) 4NCL, 13.01.2018

(4) Blackburn, J (2189) – Ledger, A (2363)4NCL, 10.02.2018

(5) Kett, T (2215) – Taylor, Mart (2367)4NCL, 17.03.2018

(6) Davies, Matthew (2006) – Hall, John (2252)4NCL, 06.05.2018

(7) Fletcher, John T (1943) – Jhunjhnulawa, Ramesh (2260)WSTT 50+, 07.07.2018

(8) Jukes, Sam (1853) – Dambrauskas, V (2301)15th South Wales Int, 09.07.2018

(9) Jones, Iolo C (2175) – Vogt, Lothar (2376)WSTT 65+, 09.07.2018

(10) Kulashko, A (2349)- Blackburn, J (2185) 43rd Olympiad, 26.09.2018

(11) Camp, Imogen A L (1940) – Rodriguez Rueda, P (2298)Olympiad Women, 26.09.2018

(12) Bullen, Alex (2098) – Ker, A (2315) 43rd Olympiad, 26.09.2018

(13) Bekker Jensen, S (2482) – Blackburn ,J (2185) 43rd Olympiad, 30.09.2018

(14) Pleasants, A (2090) – Khader, Sam (2405)43rd Olympiad, 05.10.2018

(15) Blackburn, J (2185) – Ahmad, Al Khatib (2355)43rd Olympiad, 05.10.2018

(16) Podlesnik, B (2365) – Bevan, P (1886) 34th ECC Open, 12.10.2018

(17) Mansner, Harry (2278) – May, Adam J (1924) 34th ECC Open, 13.10.2018

(18) Lampen, T (2332) – Heaven, Pete (2041) 34th ECC Open, 13.10.2018#

(19) Hewitt, B (2015) – Sammalvuo, T (2414)34th ECC Open, 13.10.2018

(20) Thorarinsson, P (2270) – Garcia, Jas (2027) 34th ECC Open, 16.10.2018

(21) Dauletova, G (2261) – Jukes, Sam (1888) London Classic Open, 09.12.2018

The scores of these games can be downloaded here. Any notes to these games (and any others) submitted by 31 January will be taken into account by the judges in reaching their decision.

These games have been taken from the weekly bulletins on the website of ‘The Week in Chess’. But games from less well-publicised English/European tournaments do not necessarily reach TWIC. So would players please check that games they feel qualify are in the list and, if not, send them in.

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