Richmond Juniors Newsletter

[Paul McKeown]

Here is a copy of Richmond Junior Chess Club's latest newsletter (http://us12.campaign-archive1.com/?u=68 ... a2294b4d47):

Richmond Junior Chess Club Newsletter – April 2016

Dear Parents,

Spring Term was hectic at Richmond Juniors, but intensely rewarding. This newsletter reviews some of the highlights, and outlines the schedule for the club in the coming Summer Term.

Schedule

Date Time Event
Sat. 9 April 14:00 – 17:00 Richmond Junior Chess Club, inc. Girls Class
Sat. 9 April 12:30 – 17:30 SCCU U14 Match vs. Kent
Sat. 16 April 14:00 – 17:00 Richmond Junior Chess Club
Sat. 16 April all day Girls Match – AWAY (tba)
Sun. 17 April 09:30 – 17:30 Richmond Rapidplay
Sat. 23 April 14:00 – 17:00 Richmond Junior Chess Club
Sat. 23 April all day EPSCA U9 Final – Nottingham
Sat. 30 April 14:00 – 17:00 Richmond Junior Chess Club
Sat. 7 May 14:00 – 17:00 Richmond Junior Chess Club
Sat. 7 May all day EPSCA U11 Final – High Wycombe
Sat. 14 May 14:00 – 17:00 Richmond Junior Chess Club, inc. Girls Class
Sat. 21 May 14:00 – 17:00 Richmond Junior Chess Club
Sat. 28 May 14:00 – 17:00 Richmond Junior Chess Club
Sat. 4 June CLOSED FOR HALF TERM
Sat. 11 June 14:00 – 17:00 Richmond Junior Chess Club, inc. Girls Class
Sat. 18 June 14:00 – 17:00 Richmond Junior Chess Club
Sat. 25 June 14:00 – 17:00 Richmond Junior Chess Club
Sat. 2 July 14:00 – 17:00 Richmond Junior Chess Club, inc. Girls Class

Classes offered
Our classes for Intermediate & Advanced players will remain 3 hours in length, lead by our Chief Coach, David Okike. As numbers have increased, we will try to split the classes up into groups by current playing standard and maturity, in order to provide a more tailored environment for the children. The cost remains £200 for the term of 12 classes, with additional siblings being charged at £140 per term.

Our classes for Beginners & Novices, lead by Agnieszka Milewska, which proved so successful last term, will remain just over 1 hour in length, running from 14:20 to 15:30 and from 15:40 to 16:30. The cost remains £100 for the term of 12 classes, with additional siblings being charged at £70 per term.

Our special monthly Classes for Girls will continue to be lead by International Master Susan Lalic, with Agnieszka filling in, when Susan is unavailable. This term will feature 4 of these classes, for a cost of £70.

Jim Stevenson will continue to lead our team in the Southern Counties Under 14 Championship. There is one match left, a home match against Kent. If sufficient numbers of post-primary students elect to take up club membership, we may choose to run a weekly 11+ class.

We hope to run a new service, which several parents have enquired after, a special 3 hour class for Parents. This will be charged at the same rate as for siblings, £140 per term. It will be suitable for mums and dads up to 140 ECF/1750 Elo standard, and will be held in a separate room from the children. Please email to let us know if you are interested.

Dates for your diary
There are some external events which you may like to enter into your diary:

Date Event
Sat. 30 April UK Chess Challenge Megafinal XIII (Isleworth)
Fri. 6 May Nette Robinson Jazz & Chess Evening (Chiswick)
Sat. 16 July UKCC Gigafinal U7 – U10 (Reading)
Sun. 17 July UKCC Gigafinal U11 – U17 & Girls (Reading)
Sat. 23 July British Championships U8 (Bournemouth)
Sun. 24 – Mon. 25 July British Championships U9 (Bournemouth)
Tue. 24 – Sat. 30 July British Championships U9 (Bournemouth)
Sun. 31 Jul. – Fri. 5 Aug. British Championships U11/U13/U15 (Bournemouth)
Sat. 23 – Fri. 29 July British Championships U12/U14/U16 (Bournemouth)

If you would like further information or advice about any of these events, please ask.

Highlights of Last Term

Last term was very busy. Despite being exhausting, it was also very rewarding, as the club and our children were successful in many of the events in which they participated.

Southern Counties Chess Union U14 Championship

We entered this event for the first time in many years. We lost our first two matches, against Surrey and against Sussex, but then managed to win our third match quite handily against Essex. As we have only one fixture outstanding, against Kent (Middlesex withdrew), we will be unable to qualify for the final. There is always next year! The feedback from opposing team captains and our own children and parents has been unanimously positive. Everyone has loved the standard to which we have organised these matches, including the provision of refreshments and the coaching provided for our players before the games. Credit for this must go to our Match Captain, Jim Stevenson.

English Primary Schools Chess Association Under 9 Zonal

We held a team qualifying Trials event for our EPSCA teams for the first time in several years. Although crowding an already full calender during Spring Term, our qualifier was a great success, with an entry of two dozen strong players, many of whom we would otherwise not have known of.

The result was that our Under 9 team this year was significantly stronger than last year's, and managed to qualify with ease in the Eastern Zonal competition at West Ham, on Saturday 12th March, for the National Final, which last year we failed to do. Our star players were Anthony Yazhou Jiang and Willow Griffith, each of whom won all three of their games.

English Primary Schools Chess Association Under 11 Zonal

The Under 11 Zonal was originally meant to take place in Hertfordshire, but loss of the venue meant that Richmond had to step in at short notice. Happily, Orleans Park School gave us permission to use their sports hall, and we were able to organise the event, to run all day on Saturday 19th March, with our normal chess club running parallel to it. There was sufficient space available to run a much larger Reserves tournament than is usual for such EPSCA events.

We were delighted to secure Vince Cable, former local MP, as our guest speaker, with the local press in attendance. The event was a huge success, with EPSCA officials declaring themselves delighted, and asking whether they could use Orleans Park as a future venue for the finals.

Our own team was magnificent. As for the Under 9 team, we were able to hold a qualifying Trials tournament, which helped us gather together our strongest team in many years. Not only were we able to qualify for the national final, we managed to finish third, behind an awesome Barnet team and a strong Kent team.

Our team's heroes included Timothy Lee, Henry Shard and Nadhmi Auchi, all of whom won all three of their games, and Nandinee Thatte, who won two and drew one.

Such a successful event could not have been achieved without the work of many. I would like to thank the regular and the occasional staff of Richmond Junior Chess, who worked from nine in the morning until beyond seven in the evening: Agnieszka Milewska (and her mum!), David Okike, Marie Gallagher, Richard James, Rick McMichael and Rik Thomas. I would also like to thank the many parents who happily turned their hand to many of the jobs that needed attending to, including Neil Jamieson and Nilesh Thatte, who recorded the results for the tournament controller, Suman Chatterjee, our Board Steward, Caroline Prisk, Chi Lee and Tonia Sian, who all helped out at our Refreshments Stand, and Sampson Low, who wrote out all the certificates for the players. Besides this, many of the parents helped set up at the start, so many that I couldn't possibly remember them all. They are thanked, nevertheless! I would also like to thank Orleans Park School, their Premises Staff, and Joshua Sendinakawa, in particular, who helped in so many ways to make their premises welcoming to all our guests.

Junior 4NCL
Richmond Juniors entered a team in the Junior 4NCL for the first time, in the 3rd Weekend (Saturday and Sunday 12th and 13th of March) of the 2015-16 season, held in Birmingham. The Junior 4NCL is the junior wing of the most important and prestigious chess league in the British Isles. Our team, consisting of Xavier Cowan, Sagnik Chatterjee, Nandinee Thatte, Nishchal Thatte, Arjan Sian and Freddie Blair had a fantastic time. They won Division 2, winning two of their matches by the score of 3½ – ½ and drawing their other two matches 2 – 2. Xavier won three of his games and drew the other. He was the rock on board 1 around which our team built its success.

Besides noting the success of our young players, I should also thank Richard Onslow, who paid the entry fee for our team, and Nilesh Thatte, who was our team manager at the event.

Southern Counties Jamboree
Richmond Juniors entered the Southern Counties Jamboree for the first time in many years, with three teams, one in the Under 18 Minor (U130), one in the Under 14 Open and one in the Under 14 Minor (U110) sections, on Sunday 13th March, at Gravesend. Again with notable success!

Our U18 Minor team, comprising Alex Barlov, Ben Hammond, Johnny Cubbon, Sanju Rajavelu, Leo Zupan and Samuel Lewis, took Bronze! Sanju scored two wins and a draw from her three games, her draw in the third round coming from an endgame of king, knight and bishop against king and a few pawns. We shall have to teach our stronger players how to mate with king, bishop and knight, always very tricky!

12928419_829066203866242_810453581383294475_n.jpg

Photo (l to r): Alex Barlov, Sanju Rajavelu and Leo Zupan of Richmond Juniors U18 Minor team collecting their Bronze medals at the SCCU Jamboree on Sunday 13th March at Gravesend.

Our Under 14 Open team was very strong, consisting of Hoatian Wu (165), Alfie Onslow (164), Samir Samadov (160), Alexander Jamieson (148), Christopher Tombolis (144) and Teddy Onslow (136). However, the Kent and the Sussex teams were also very strong, too! We contended for Gold right up to the last game, but had to settle for Silver, as Kent took Gold, by the merest margin of 1 point on board count, the second tie-break. Shame, but "Bravo" to our team. Samir won all three of his games, whilst Hoatian and Teddy each conceded but one draw.

12924594_10153671611867572_9071350724870715689_n.jpg

Photo (l to r): Samir Samadov, Alex Jamieson, Alfie Onslow, Hoatian Wu, Teddy Onslow and Christopher Tombolis of Richmond Juniors collect their Silver medals at the SCCU Jamboree on Sunday 13th March at Gravesend.

Our Under 14 Minor team was much less experienced at such a level. It consisted of Tomas Le Rendu, Joseph Williams, Vigus Widdicombe Gasson, Yann Sydow, Samuel Le Rendu and Mattias Le Rendu. Samuel scored two wins, whilst Joseph, Vigus and Yann each scored a win and a draw.

UK Chess Challenge Qualifying Competitions

Besides all our other activities, we managed to run three qualifying tournaments for the UK Chess Challenge. The following qualified to take part in Megafinal XIII (South Middlesex) at Isleworth on Saturday April 30th:
Under 16 Girls: Sanju Rajavelu
Under 15 Boys: Leo Zupan
Under 12 Boys: Joseph Williams, Alex Barlov
Under 11 Boys: Luke Markovic, Alex Richford
Under 10 Boys: Mattias Le Rendu, James Joyce
Under 10 Girls: Maya Kapila
Under 9 Boys: Sachin Crawford, Leon Carey,
Under 8 Boys: Alex Joyce, Luca Buanne, Nicholas Kram, Rudy Sian, Rohan Pillai
Under 7 Boys: Kabir Arjun Ghosh, Gautam Pacakollu, Arun Kapila

We wish them all the best of luck!

Richmond Junior Chess Club

A note about the club would also be in order. Average attendance on Saturday afternoons throughout Spring Term was just a little shy of 40 children, with a peak attendance of 56. This is a remarkable turn-around from five terms ago, when I took over running the club. The average attendance then was less than twenty. We must now be doing something right! Nevertheless, we can always do better, and we are always willing to listen to children or parents who have suggestions or comments. Just get in touch.

None of these highlights would have been possible without the talents of your children, or your investment in our club, in time and money. On behalf of Richmond Juniors, I thank you, and look forward to seeing you again very soon.

Best wishes,
Paul McKeown
Manager - Richmond Junior Chess Club
Tel. 020 8756 0474
Mob. 078 33 577 451
http://www.rjcc.org.uk/
http://www.facebook.com/richmondjuniorchess
http://twitter.com/richjunchess
https://uk.linkedin.com/pub/paul-mckeown/30/b03/716

[Paul McKeown]

Our club flyer for the term is the following pdf:

Richmond Junior Chess Club Flyer [Summer Term 2016].pdf