We had a
wonderful turnout at our first-ever East Midlands Chess Festival at Risley Village
Hall, DE72 3SU, on Sunday 16 June 2013.
There were
players who had travelled from Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, Lichfield and Northampton
to take part. However the winner of the special trophy for the furthest
distance travelled was seven-year-old Amelie Garrett from Lancaster, 2½ hours
away! Unfortunately due to heavy traffic it took them four hours to get to
Risley.
EMC Training
Tournaments are a unique blend of competition and quality training, in this
case delivered by David Levens, ECF National Manager of Coaches & Junior
Selector, and myself.
We were
impressed by the high level of play in the TT, where many matches could have
gone either way. I (CD) was particularly impressed by the game Susie Wang
against Neel Badhe, where Susie consistently found strong moves in the late
opening / early middlegame to build up a winning position, only to fall for a
clever tactical trap that Neel set.
We also noted
the high level of focus, concentration and application during games, with many
top county players competing. Especially the focus of Ben Raine from Sheffield
who, despite being lower graded than other challengers, used his application to
edge the event. Ben drew with a player graded 83, beat players graded 78 &
101, and all five of his opponents were qualified Gigafinalists.
The other junior
to stand out was newcomer seven-year-old Mate Ther from Leeds. Apparently Mate
only learnt chess in January by teaching himself from a book, and this was his
first competition. His stillness and focus at the board belie his years.
EMC Junior
Training Tournament & Primary
Schools Challenge Results
