London Junior Chess Championships (Dec 2003)

London Junior Chess Championships Pt 2 (28th - 30th December)

The second leg of the London Junior Chess Championship was hit by a disastrous sickness bug, which hampered the large Sussex contingent.  Sussex was well represented with Farris Ziyada, David Grant, Christopher Linnett, Tristan and Ben Blundell, Rhys Cumming and Andrew Turner (well he does play for a Sussex club!) all taking part in the U12 Major - also an England Trials Qualifier.  George Salimbeni, Charles Board, George Perez Trunin and Joseph Quinn played in the U12 Minor and Barnaby Paul in the U8.  

Most of the players had a successful first day, but in the Major tournament, performances began to tail off on the second day.  The reason soon became clear when Rhys had to withdraw from his last game on the day due to a sickness bug, which by the third day saw more than half of the team withdraw from the tournament.  This was particularly disappointing for George S, who was playing among the top boards in the Minor tournament after two excellent days.

Despite this, Farris scored 5.5 from 9 games and secured his required half norm to ensure qualification for the England trials.  Christopher scored 4.5 and Andrew 3. 

Barnaby Paul finished on 3.5 in the U8.

London Junior Chess Championships (13th & 14th December)

U10 Major - four entries from Sussex.  Ben Blundell played extremely well, securing 5 from 6 before the final round.  In the last round, Ben lost to Robert Darby, denying him a place in the winning group.  Creditable performances from all three of the other players.  Rhys Cumming and Andrew Turner finished on 4.5 and Oskar Schortz finished on 3.5 

U10 Minor - Both Ben Rudling and Joe Quinn competed in their first LJCC.  A good experience for both of them, with Ben finishing on 3 points from 7 and Joe on 2.5.

U14 Major -  Joe Fraser finished joint second in the U14 major tournament with 4.5 from 6 games.  After a strong start, Grant Bucher finished on 3 points, as did David Grant, Andrew Tucker and Farris Ziyada.  Tristan Blundell and Joe Richardson scored 2.5.

U14 Minor - Nick Fraser and Abi Fryer both competed, Nick finishing on 2.5 from 5 and Abi on 2.

Adult Minor (Under BCF 90) Competition - Keiran Fryer produced his best result to date.  Not only did he secure the U50 grading prize before the final round, but secured a share of the first place prize to secure his best prize money to date - £75 (which I understand he has already spent!)

And last but by no means least, David Fryer put up a strong performance in the Open competition, beating US International Master James T Sherwin in the final round, finally finishing equal second behind Grand Master Peter Wells but ahead of Grand Master Mark Hebdon.  David was "...as pleased as the kids are when they do well. Also £106.25 better off!!"