European Schools Chess Championships 2016

[NickFaulks]

What's with the constant smiley icons, John?

They're enjoying every day, what's your problem?

[Mike Truran]

No problem. It would just be nice to get some sort of overview rather than just the link.

[David Shepherd]

England has two players in the U7's where the top scores after 7 rounds are as follows:

1 4 Mammadov Ziya AZE 1190 6
2 16 Royal Shreyas ENG 0 5.5
3 2 Ribstein Orel ISR 1329 5
4 1 Vetokhin Savva RUS 1444 4.5
5 5 Verma Shlok ENG 1171 4.5
6 3 Shmyrev Nikolai RUS 1218 4.5

With two rounds left they are both well placed and whatever happens they have clearly played good chess.

This is the position in Shreyas Royal v Savva Vetokhin (round 5)- white to move- there followed a spectacular finish , the game can be downloaded from the chess results website for anyone that doesn't want to work out the winning moves 7k/p2b2pp/1pp2r1r/6q1/1Q1PpN2/4P2P/PP4PK/5RR1 w - - 0 27

[John Higgs]

The daily round report from the Head of Delegation features on the ECF junior web pages:

http://englishchess.org.uk/Juniors/

[LawrenceCooper]

Under 7s finished already, a win for Royal and a loss for Shlok. Looking at the standings 6.5/8 guarantees him 2nd= with a chance of first place if results go his way http://www.chess-results.com/tnr221609. ... =30&wi=821

Last round pairing: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr221609. ... =30&wi=821

Start time 10:00 Greek time.

[LawrenceCooper]

Silver medal and also fifth place finish in the Under 7s

http://chess-results.com/tnr221609.aspx ... =30&wi=821

[Leonard Barden]

Impressive from Shreyas Royal. His first international tournament, unbeaten, playing all major rivals, showing a good knowledge of opening theory, and with a nice queen sacrifice (see above) which will appear in due course in my London Evening Standard online column. He was winning against the gold medallist from Azerbaijan with a passed pawn up, but allowed a snap perpetual.
I looked also at his cv link above, and that too is encouraging, playing often against adults with successes including an U135 first at Hampstead and an U120 second at Golders Green. I am surprised that his ECF grade is only 99. He comes from Newham, a London inner city area, and his coach is not well known. He states his interests as chess and maths. Plus points in my book for all of these. This is not too far short of the best 7-year-olds we had 40 years ago, who were Stuart Conquest, James Howell, David Norwood and Neil Carr. He could be a real talent,and I hope the ECF and others will give him support and opportunities to advance to higher levels. I see from the CSC website that last December world champion Magnus Carlsen gave a simul against six children from Newham. Shreyas was not among them....

[Jonathan Rogers]

England has two players in the U7's where the top scores after 7 rounds are as follows:

1 4 Mammadov Ziya AZE 1190 6
2 16 Royal Shreyas ENG 0 5.5
3 2 Ribstein Orel ISR 1329 5
4 1 Vetokhin Savva RUS 1444 4.5
5 5 Verma Shlok ENG 1171 4.5
6 3 Shmyrev Nikolai RUS 1218 4.5

With two rounds left they are both well placed and whatever happens they have clearly played good chess.

This is the position in Shreyas Royal v Savva Vetokhin (round 5)- white to move- there followed a spectacular finish , the game can be downloaded from the chess results website for anyone that doesn't want to work out the winning moves 7k/p2b2pp/1pp2r1r/6q1/1Q1PpN2/4P2P/PP4PK/5RR1 w - - 0 27

Er, what exactly is the brilliant finish? 1 Qf8+ Rxf8 2 Ng6+ hxg6 would be embarrassing, and to me the prosaic 1 Qe7 looks best.

[Mike Truran]

1 Nh5?

[Leonard Barden]

The above diagram misquotes the actual position, where the black queen was on f5 and White won by 1 Ng6+ Qxg6 (hxg6 stops mate but loses on material) 2 Qf8+. Apologies if my post was misleading, I had been looking at the correct position online.

[NickFaulks]

No, it was right. After 1.Qe7, 1...Qf5 is the only way to save the bishop and stop the back rank mate, but then you get the nice finish. I'm impressed.

[Ian Thompson]

The above diagram misquotes the actual position, where the black queen was on f5 and White won by 1 Ng6+ Qxg6 (hxg6 stops mate but loses on material) 2 Qf8+. Apologies if my post was misleading, I had been looking at the correct position online.

I don't think so. The diagram is the position after 26 moves, where 27.Qe7 (as played) wins. After 27... Qf5, White went 28.Ng6+, with the consequences as you say. Unfortunately, it's probably not a very good position for a "White to play and win" problem, because the computer says White has a better move than 28.Ng6+ which forces mate (whereas 28.Ng6+ only gives White a winning material advantage).

[David Shepherd]

Sorry its my fault for posting the position slightly earlier in the game than maybe I should have - but at the point I posted the wining move was Qe7 with no defence. I would have posted the whole game, but its nice to keep the games of very young players at least slightly hard to find (for at least a time), my intention was to get those that were interested to look at the game as I thought it was good and deserved to be seen, particular with a very nice ending. The ending was 27. Qe7Qf5 28. Ng6+ Qxg6 29. Qf8+ Rxf8 30. Rxf8# 1-0

After Qe7 there were a few ways to win - and there were "better" lines for black than what was played - but after Qe7 it was just lost whatever black played and the finish actually played was nice. I was tempted to post the position after move 27 which showed the finish better but thought that those interested would be less likely to look at the game which deserved looking at, and I thought was impressive given it was in the U7's.

[NickFaulks]

but its nice to keep the games of very young players at least slightly hard to find

Why?

[David Shepherd]

but its nice to keep the games of very young players at least slightly hard to find

Why?

Its just a personal opinion, the more games that are easily available for a player the easier it tends to be to prepare against them, and at a very young age they may have a less wide range of openings than after they have been playing for a few years. Also at the level they are at, they are often playing against opponents who have very few, if any games available for them to use to prepare.