Ben Reigns in Risley

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