EPSCA U11 Championships

The English Primary Schools' Chess Association (EPSCA) exists "to advance the education of primary school aged children by teaching, supervising and developing the playing of chess by those children."

E.P.S.C.A. holds three annual team championships for member associations - Under 9, Under 11, and Girls Under 11.

The U11 Championship is for teams of 20, playing 3 rounds in a 'jamboree' format. Sussex compete in a local "4-Counties" match kindly organised by Berkshire before the zonals stage in March, and the national finals in May.

National Final, Northampton - 7th May 2011

South Zonal, Tiverton - 19th March 2011

4-Counties Match, Maidenhead - 20th February 2011

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National Final, Northampton - 7th May 2011

Headline results:

Team	R1	R2	R3	Total
Kent	15½	17½	18½	51½
Wey Valley	16	17½	15½	49
Sussex	14	16½	15	45½
Barnet	16	14½	14	44½
Berkshire	12	13	11½	36½
Notts	13	12	11½	36½
Herts	10	9½	15	34½
Richmond	10	10	13½	33½
Essex	9½	11½	9	30
Birmingham	12	7½	9½	29
Cheshire & N.Wales	7½	5½	10½	23½
Northants	7½	7	8½	23
Yorkshire	10	8	4½	22½
Oldham	7½	7	5½	20
Lancashire	6½	8½	3	18
Manchester	5	6	6	17
Lincolnshire	3½	4	6½	14
Staffordshire	4½	4½	2½	11½

The Team:

Joseph Allin, Ewan Borland, Scott Borland, Callum Brewer, Freddie Coleman, Edward Critchley, Thomas Finn, Freya Finnegan, Niroshan Ganeshan, Xavier Gordon-Brown, Cassie Graham, Rhys Harmour, Daniel Hawkins, Luke Herlihy, Josh Higgs, David Liu, Daniel Manvell, Hamish Milne-Skilman, Sebastian Pollard, James Reid, Alistair Smith, Michael Stockham, Brian Tarhon, Joe Thorley, Billy Twigge-Molecey, Jamie Ward, Jimmy Warwick.

Missing this round but contributing to the team qualifying for the final: Matthew Barton, Jamie Lear, and Josh Rowe

Report:

The coaching team had been looking forward for some time to the final but knew it would be very tough despite the strength and depth of our own squad. Also in the mix was the fact that our U9s had won their Final, and our U11 Girls had come third in theirs - no pressure then! Choosing just 24 to play in the final proved an impossible task and we ended up with 27 on the day - all of whom would do an excellent job for the team.

The team played consistently throughout and racked up an impressive score of 45.5 out of a possible 60 points to come 3rd, an excellent result.  The tournament was incredibly strong – take Berkshire who finished =5th despite their top 4 players all scoring 3/3!

The reserves were terrific too – after 2 rounds they had scored an incredible 13 out of 14 points.  Sadly there was no team prize for the reserves but well done to them all.

In the first round we laboured a little to 14 points with a couple of bits of misfortune thrown in and we ended the round a couple of points outside the medal places.

The children then bounced back most impressively in round 2 putting an enormous amount of effort and determination into their games – take a look at Jamie’s game and you’ll get a flavour for what was going on. Cassie defended solidly before unleashing a nice tactic with ...Bf6, simultaneously hitting her opponent's queen and a rook on a1, and then went on to carefully convert the material advantage. Ewan had a nice win in this round, through steady accumulation of a material advantage. Freddie Coleman was involved in a long and tense struggle, a high-quality game which would have graced board 10 or higher. In a prolonged king chase, involving queen and rooks, Freddie drove his opponent's king right across the board, while staving off threats to his own king, and ended up prevailing on the queenside.

After an hour’s play we only had 6 points on the board but over half our team were still playing in the hall and it was really satisfying to see them chalk up the points in these tough, long games.  A score of 16.5 was no less than we deserved.

In round three, Michael fought back very well from a rook down to be a pawn up but in a tricky position, which he did exceptionally well to convert into a win. David returned to his best and won very convincingly, as did Freddie Coleman. Brian, tucked away in the middle of a row inaccessible to board stewards, was his usual unobtrusive but highly efficient self.

Nearing the end of the round the tension was rising as we were tied neck and neck with Barnet with just a few games left in the hall.  Looking at the positions on the board all seemed lost - but then a slice of luck – a draw offer to one of our players who was lost followed by a fantastic comeback saw 1.5 points come from nowhere.  This left Barnet needing to win their last game in progress and we watched anxiously as the Birmingham player slowly got into a completely won position.  It looked like nothing could go wrong when suddenly the Birmingham player got up and started talking to another member of his team right by the board!  As any of the Sussex team knows, you can’t talk to anyone except the arbiters when your game is in progress as it could be interpreted as giving or receiving advice resulting in the game being awarded to the opponent.  Fortunately for Sussex, the Barnet coach standing right beside me just shrugged his shoulders and didn’t make a fuss; a really sporting gesture, and soon after the Birmingham player won to give us 3rd place and the celebrations could begin!

Congratulations to Alistair, Brian, Callum, Daniel, Freddie, Jimmy, Joseph, Josh, Scott, Seb, and Xavier who all scored 3 out of 3.

It just remains to thank EPSCA and Northamptonshire for organising and hosting the event and the Gordon-Brown family who stayed behind after prizegiving to help clear away the tables and chairs. Also to our loyal band of coaches and board stewards - Jonathan, Gary, Brian, Dave and Tom. Finally to the parents for supporting and transporting the children all season, and the children themselves for their determination, enthusiasm and sportsmanship. Congratulations to Kent and Wey Valley, and we look forward to another high quality contest next season.

Thanks to John Higgs, Brian Stockham, Dave Graham, and Tom Borland for their input into this report.

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South Zonal, Tiverton - 19th March 2011

Headline results:

Team	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Total
Wey Valley	14 1/2	18 1/2	16 1/2	49 1/2
Sussex	13	10	13 1/2	36 1/2
Berks	11	11	12 1/2	34 1/2
Devon	8	10	8	26
Birmingham	7 1/2	6 1/2	6 1/2	20 1/2
Wiltshire	6	4	3	13

Reserves Tournament:

Sussex 2nd place, from Wey Valley.

The team:

Joseph Allin, Ewan Borland, Scott Borland, Callum Brewer, Freddie Coleman, Edward Critchley, Thomas Finn, Freya Finnegan, Niroshan Ganeshan, Xavier Gordon-Brown, Cassie Graham, Rhys Harmour, Josh Higgs, Jamie Lear, David Liu, Sebastian Pollard, James Reid, Josh Rowe, Alistair Smith, Michael Stockham, Joe Thorley, Billy Twigge-Molecey, Jamie Ward, Jimmy Warwick.

Report:

The South Zonal of the EPSCA U11 national championship was held on Saturday 19th March in Tiverton, Devon. 

To join in the battle the families of 24 of the finest Under-11 players in Sussex convened on this quaint Devon town by various routes and leaving at various times. Many arrived at hotels on the Friday to meet up with team-mates, or came down to breakfast in the morning to find other players were also at their chosen overnight stop. It was a long distance from home, which always produces a worry that distance will diminish performance.

The first round saw us score a creditable 13 points and we were only 1.5 points behind our friends from Wey Valley.   Our top five were unbeaten, but on the lower boards fortunes varied, with Sebastian, Edward, Michael, Freya, Niroshan and Ewan scoring victories with solid progressive chess.  Jamie Lear has a reputation for fast play, but although he lost he had a long thoughtful battle with his opponent, in which his King was badly trapped. The game of the round was definitely that of Jamie Ward and it proved to be one of the longest – at one point Jamie was two pawns down but he never gave up and with well executed plans scored the victory.  For those who lost, a common theme seemed to be an aversion to castling, which was addressed at the team talk before the second round.

However the second round proved testing and we only scored 10/20. In some of our games players were castling, but not paying enough attention to their defence and being caught out, particularly a few who were caught by Stolle attacks with a Bishop sacrifice on h7 or h2.  Joshua on the top boards was our only winner, in both rounds having played magnificent attacking chess obviously against good opponents.  Joe, Callum, Jamie L, Xavier and Freddie reversed their fortunes in this round with good wins and Jamie Ward again scored another long and solid victory. The game of the round this time was Freya’s, who herself sacrificed a bishop to open her opponent’s King on h7, but then found she did not have enough support. The match ebbed and flowed mostly against her but then Freya found a strong series of pins with sequential attacking moves and her opponent succumbed.  The end of the round saw us now 10 points behind Wey Valley, but more worryingly Berkshire – who were much stronger than in the recent friendly – had moved to one point behind us.

The rallying calls for the third round were necessary for the players to find fresh drive. Perhaps it was the inspiration before the third round of taking the team photo, or more likely maybe it was Thomas Finn’s 10th birthday cake, but we were much more convincing in the third round, scoring 13.5 in our best round of the day.  Our top four were again unbeaten, but there were good wins from Joe, Michael (fighting back from the exchange down), Callum, Thomas, Jamie Lear, Niroshan and  both Jamie Ward and Freya scored their third wins of the day.

Vying with them for the team’s star of the day this time was Ewan, who also scored his third victory, but he is worthy of a different accolade.  At one point he had a real difficulty with his opponent, who perversely had offered a draw with a seemingly unstoppable attack in progress, but then withdrew the offer five seconds later. Ewan correctly raised his hand and I was the nearest adult – at first the opponent denied making the offer, so I called tournament arbiter and England team manager Victor Cross over to make a judgement. The opponent then conceded that he had made the offer and Victor offered the draw to Ewan, as since it was now admitted to have been made, it had to have a reply.  To my horror looking at the position Ewan then declined the draw!! He then systematically took apart the attack and went on to win the game!  No less a person than the England manager commented that it was a piece of outstanding sportsmanship, which flustered his opponent more than Ewan, and said I must have been pleased at the outcome.  To be honest, to be a witness to such play and events is nothing less than inspirational to the most experienced coaches, but the rest of the team need to be inspired by it and to hold it as an example for all of their own efforts.

Finally the team had to be content with silver medals in the tournament, with Wey Valley clear winners by 13 points, which seems convincing. However we had beaten Berkshire by two points and it is important to note that Sussex are regarded as a strong contender by other teams for the national championship this year.  We must remember that there will be other strong teams at Northants on 7th May and some of them will take points from Wey Valley too !  It is also worth noting that our reserves also came second in the reserve competition, having only dropped 2.5 points the whole day – special mention to Alistair for his triple victories.

It was left for us all to make our way back on the long journey to Sussex. Some set out immediately at the conclusion of the tournament whilst others of us stayed a further night in Tiverton and enjoyed the delights of the West Country well into Sunday.  The organisation and hospitality from our Devon hosts was excellent.

Thanks must also be given to our own team:- to Jonathan, and to Dave, who this time as their long-standing coach since most of these were much smaller stayed in the team room to work through games with the players and re-charge them; to Brian and Tom our stalwart board stewards (hard work spending all day on your feet) also to John who having brought us all together provided well earned Easter eggs and endless supplies of `brain food’.  Finally great thanks to all of the parents and families who supported the team with justifiable pride – whilst it is a great honour to play for the County, as on this occasion it is sometimes also at great cost both in time and money, so we thank you for your massive support.

Let us look forward to Northants with relish and determination!

report by Brian Stockham & John Higgs

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4-Counties Match - 20th February 2011 - Maidenhead

Headline results:

Team	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Total
Sussex	17 1/2	14	14 1/2	46
Berks	10	15	5 1/2	30 1/2
Oxon	10	6	10 1/2	26 1/2
Bucks	2 1/2	5	9 1/2	17

The team:

Toby Barden, Matthew Barton, Ewan Borland, Callum Brewer, Edward Critchley, Thomas Finn, Amalia Finnegan, Freya Finnegan,Yelena Finnegan, Niroshan Ganeshan, Daniel Gooda, Xavier Gordon-Brown, Cassie Graham, Alisha Gunn, Rhys Harmour, Josh Higgs, Jamie Lear, Sebastian Pollard,James Reid, Josh Rowe, Alistair Smith, Michael Stockham, Brian Tarhon, Joe Thorley, Indie Udsholt-Clayton, Jamie Ward, Jimmy Warwick.

Report:

Saturday dawned grey and drizzly as SatNavs all across Sussex were programmed towards Maidenhead. The vaguaries of the M25 meant that everyone allowed plenty of time.....so much time in fact that we formed an orderly queue of Sussex cars behind SJC Chairman Brian Stockham outside the locked School gates! Eventually the organisers arrived to open up, and we were off.........or we would have been, had Brian been able to start his car! Thanks to Shaun and Callum for their excellent pushing.

Some team members had chosen unorthodox preparation routines for the match; Callum had been partying until 2:00am and Jamie W had travelled back from Manchester having watched the Crawley-ManU FA Cup tie. However both achieved a flawless 3 wins out of 3.

The team was without top boards Billy and David, and illness also forced the absence of Dan Manvell. New blood came into the team in the shape of Matthew, Callum, Niroshan, Xavier, Rhys, Alistair, Indie and Jimmy all wearing the blue Sussex sweatshirt for the first time. Super-sub siblings Amalia and Yelena Finnegan, 8, found themselves pressed into service as extra reserves, gaining valuable experience and confidence before their own outing with the U9 squad later this month.

The first round saw Sussex off to a flying start against a much depleted Bucks side allowing all our new players to settle their nerves and gain that all important first point. A stern team talk before the next round guarded against over-confidence and solid performances were turned in against both Oxfordshire and Berkshire to secure overall first place by a clear margin.

The top four boards was a very tough place to be as all teams fielded England squad players, or aspiring players, in this zone. Well done to Josh, Brian, Edward and Seb for securing an excellent 6 points out of 12.

Game of the day goes to Josh Rowe who secured a famous victory in Round 1. After losing his queen early on he showed great tenacity in fighting back and winning with seconds to spare.

Finally, well done to Callum, Cassie, Ewan, Jamie L, Jamie W, Joe, Josh R, Rhys, Thomas, and Xavier who all scored maximum points.

It just remains to thank all those who contributed to making the day a success. Firstly, thanks to Berkshire Junior Chess for organising the event which is so valuable as preparation for the next stages of the competition. From the Sussex camp, thanks to Jonathan and Brian for managing the chess, and to John for managing the logistics - notably the coloured pens and the sweets. Thanks to Tom Borland who found himself presented with a copy of the EPSCA rules and promoted to 'board steward' seconds before the first round started. Lastly but most importantly, thanks to all our parents for their support and committment, and to the players for a terrific team spirit on the day.

Here's looking forward to another great day's chess in Tiverton on March 19th.

 

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