EPSCA U9 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 U9 Championship is for teams of 12, plus 4 reserves. The Championships have two stages; regional heats (known as zones), followed by the final. To prepare the players, Sussex U9s usually compete in a local "4-Counties match" kindly organised by Berkshire, before the zonal stage.

5-Counties Match - 7th January 2012 - Twyford

---

5-Counties Match - 7th January 2012 - Twyford

On Saturday 7th January, the Sussex Junior Chess under 9 team travelled to Twyford for the traditional "4-Counties Match"...which this year had grown to 5-Counties!  We are very grateful to Nigel Dennis and Berkshire Junior Chess who host these events which give a chance for our players to gain valuable experience before the regional zonal jamboree.

Headline Results:

	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Total
Sussex	10	9½	8	27½
Berkshire	7	7½	6	20½
Wey Valley	8	8½	4	20½
Hampshire	4½	2½	7	14
Bucks	½	2	5	7½

 

The Team:
William Allin, Harry Armstrong, Lucy Bennet-Stevens, Scott Borland, Daniel Finn, Matthew Finn, Amalia Finnegan, Yelena Finnegan, Madeleine Liu, Oliver Manchester, Thomas Manchester, Alexander Miller, George Neale, Grace Norman, Sophia Martin, Henry Roser, Calum Salmons, Adam Smith Carretero, Oscar Udsholt-Clayton, Hugo Westwood-Dunkley.

Team co-ordinator and U9 Coach Mike Forster writes:-

"On a mild, sunny January morning twenty Sussex U9s travelled to Polehampton Junior School, Twyford. Traditionally this fixture has been a 3-round 4-team match play, but the welcome addition of Wey Valley this year changed the format to jamboree.

We are fortunate this year to have considerable strength in depth. Consequently we negotiated with the hosts to bring the extra reserves (most teams had teams of just 16). We also changed our team significantly each round in order to ensure that everyone on boards 1-11 played at least 2 match games, while all others played at least one.

Out of last years winning team there were 12 U8s that are now U9s. Of these, Oli Howell rested out, and Miles Brown has gone to the US, leaving us with 10 players at this friendly who brought experience from last season. As we started the new season with a great talk from our chairman Tom Borland, the Peter Aykroyd cup on hand to inspire morale, our team started the first match with great excitement.

The five team jamboree format causes occasional matches between different boards. In ROUND 1 it was our board 2 Yelena who got this privilege by playing white against the Berkshire board 1. In the following diagram, she played a perfect sequence. First Nb5 hitting the black queen, which can only go to b2. Then Rb1, winning Q for a R. Yelena made no mistake converting this to a win.

On board 3, Daniel was in a very balanced position against Hants, with R,Q and minor piece each. In a tense position his opponent managed to win the minor piece, and then subsequently the game. This match was notable though, in that all the first round losers, which included Grace and Adam all bounced back to win brilliantly in rounds 2 and 3. This round included notable wins against Wey Valley by both Hugo - who converted an extra exchange - as well as George and Alex. There were a steady stream of Sussex players who secured a material advantage, and carefully ground out the win - this included Oliver (the exchange up), as well as Thomas (with an extra queen), Harry and Matthew (both a rook up), as well as Scott, Ami and Madeleine.

Henry Roser, playing in his first event ended up a pawn down in a king and pawn endgame, and was eventually forced to move (zugzwanged) to lose another pawn - and the position. He fought on to the end though... and with his opponent queening three (!) pawns, it was perhaps inevitable that he eventually stalemated Henry.

In the reserves Lucy was last to finish after a very theoretical opening ended up in a mammoth struggle where she was material up but looked sure to lose on time. Fortunately she gained 2 minutes after an illegal move from her opponent - and after managing to eliminate the last of her opponent’s pieces she even missed a chance to win in a pawn ending time scramble, which finished with a K v K draw - an apt finish to a great fighting round!

Sussex finished the round on a great score of 16 out of 20 - with a superb 10 out of 12 on the match boards.

In ROUND 2 there was a sudden increase in speed, with some of our players winning before I could even see their positions! On board 1 Scott had a ferocious attack, but somehow his opponent managed to survive into an endgame where he was slowly outplayed. Yelena was Black against Wey Valley in a very level position, which eventually ended in a draw. Oliver was a rook up in an endgame, and delivered a very nice windmill checkmate.

Sophia had a remarkable game: at one point white's king was under attack in the centre by 2 bishops, a queen and knight, and had only one move to avoid mate. By the time Sophia had driven it to g3, she was in the very unlucky position of having a queen and 2 minor pieces all under attack, so had to lose at least one of them. Somehow she managed to turn it around and finished with a nice win. Madeleine had a slight initiative, but lost her way in the complications that followed. Callum, Matthew and Thomas were also unlucky to lose this round - but with fourteen wins, Sussex finished the round with a pleasant  14½ out of 20, with 9½ out of 12 in the match.

After round 2 Sussex were leading with 19½, followed by Wey Vallye on 16½, Berks on 14½, Hampshire on 7, and Bucks on 2½.

Before ROUND 3 the team management confirmed that everyone was having a great time - and tried in vain to remind people to slow down.

Harry won before I could see his game. Grace as white managed to capture on f6 so that only g takes f6 was possible, and then crashed through with a nice mating attack involving Qh6 and a rook lift to g3 delivering mate. On 1 there was a very strange game - after Scott played Qe4, white failed to defend a rook on h1 and went a whole rook down after about 5 moves.

Madeleine had fought back brilliantly from being a pawn down to get back to level material with an initiative. She had just played Nf5 in this position hitting the pawn on e3 (the white knight is pinned). White chose to defend here by Kg2. After some thought Madeleine hit the e pawn again by playing Ra3. What combination did she miss? (Answer below). Unluckily, after missing this chance white went on to win the d pawn with the knight, and the passed d pawn later won the game.

Henry managed to get well behind on development on his queenside, and later got caught with his king in the middle and white had a raging attack. He eventually shook hands believing he was mated - although he could have played on to get a rook down with a lost position. These friendly tournaments are a good opportunity to learn the rules about shaking hands and the need to be certain before agreeing the result. Meanwhile Alex won with a nice mating combination in the middlegame - and Hugo won after a complex game that will be worth careful analysis.

In his final game Daniel managed to make the watching coaches very worried, as he played a line that was completely losing in all variations but one. Daniel was not concerned though, he had already calculated with perfect accuracy, that one winning line. As black, after swapping his rook on b6 for a white rook on a6, white recaptured with his b5 pawn and was convinced his passed pawn on a6 was now queening. Daniel was completely cool and played his knight from f6 to d7 and then to b6 to block his opponent's passed a-pawn, before marching his own king all the way over from g8 to win the a7 pawn, and then queening his own c-pawn and delivering mate. Finally, Calum delivered our last win of the day playing a very mature game, grinding out a solid win after winning material out of the opening.

Scoring 100% on the day were: Scott, Sophia, Hugo, George, Amalia, Alex, Oscar, and Harry, with Lucy unbeaten just half a point behind.

Our final score was a superb 27½ - a great day for our U9 team!"

Answer: After Kg2? Black should play Rxd1. When if Rxd1, Ne3+ forks king and rook to reach a winning position.

Back to top