West Of England Championships: 19th - 20th February 2005, Swindon

Once again, the Sussex elite packed their bags and disappeared for the weekend, this time to Swindon for the West of England Championships.

In the U9 tournament, George Galliano scored a creditable 4 out of 7, and in the U10, Charlie Mills finished on 3 out of 6.

The U12 Championship was a six round Swiss, and was another qualifer for the England trials for the U11s. At the end of the first day, Alex Galliano was carrying the flag for Sussex on 3 out of 3. However, he met the fate of so many Sussex players before him, and was drawn against Saravanan in the first match of day 2. A tense battle ensued, resulting in Alex calling the two minute rule to attempt to claim a draw. Unfortunately in the next few moves he lost a pawn to forfeit the game. Alex finished the tournament on 3.5 out of 6. Other participants were David Grant and Farris Ziyada (4.5), Chris Linnett (4), Jude Lenier and George Salimbeni (3.5), George just missing out on the 4 points he needed for automatic entry into the England Squad, and Ben Blundell, Rhys Cumming and Joe Quinn (3). Polly Lambert played in the U12 Challengers tournament (score to follow).

Abi Fryer also competed - score to follow.