Berkshire County Team Trial

50th Berkshire Junior Championship

Annual Pairs Tournament and Grand Prix Presentation

Under 18 Girls Team event: Berks, Wilts, Somerset

South of England Junior Chess Championships

Berkshire squad training match

Click for larger photo

The 16 best U11 county teams in the nation gathered on Saturday for the final of the 2015 EPSCA championship – and Berkshire was there with a full squad. A tough day of play against some of the finest in land ended up with Berkshire in 10th place, with the winners Kent & Barnet tied in a draw at the top of the leader board.

So particular recognition to Gaurav Kamath and Aditya Singh as they took points off the winners – and when you look at the final scores, you’ll see not many players from any county managed that – so well done indeed to them.

The top scorers in our own U11 team today were unbeaten – three players consistently outplayed their opponents with a display of paced control and blunder-free chess: congratulations to Nicholas Vallis, Gurveen Kapoor and David Winsor.

Also scoring well with 2 points were: Ciara Jolliffe with her balanced and structured openings; Arti Lenoir, who played with a deliberate confidence – and special recognition for recovering from a disruption in her 2nd game with a wonder Rook sacrifice that set up a promoted pawn to form a cunning Queen/Bishop checkmate - a brilliant manoeuvre; and Felipe Goodman who was a pleasure to watch in the 3rd round as he applied the 'grind-down approach' carefully trapping his opponent's King into a corner.

Medals today for all those that scored 1.5 points or more: so congratulations to Maxim Dobrynin & Henry Munn too for getting a medal. The sad news is that 4 of the team are too old to play U11 next year: but the good news is that most of the team will have another chance at a medal in next year’s U11 competition – so keep practicing!

A well done! to the whole team – not only did you all play your best, you were great sports and proudly represented your county.

Big thanks to Paul Vallis, Johnny Gillespie & Jim Hoskins for their coaching & support to the team - Many thx.