Staffordshire Congress, April 10-11

[Alex Holowczak]

Mike Surtees won the Premier section (U200), in the final round he mated KR v K with 10 seconds left on his clock, blah blah blah, not important.

What is important:

In the Minor section (U120), a 7-year old (not sure if I can say his name here given his age) scored 3.5/5 (3/4 without one half-point bye). He used about 20 minutes of thinking time in the entire tournament (time control was 36/90 back 15). He had three wins against 100+ opposition, losing only to a 118 this morning, who is vastly undergraded, he is really about 130 standard. I was watching his last game. He had just won a rook, but in the blink of an eye, chose not to take it, in favour of playing rook takes pawn on the other side of the board that was mate next move.

Apparently, he scored 0 in a tournament last year at some point, so this was a bit of a shock even for the junior club that entered him!

Anyway, I was impressed! There can't be too many other Under 8s who are about 110-120 standard in England. It turns out, he has a rapidplay grade of 84. Indeed, there can't be many times you have to wind the clock forwards to start the next game (he used fewer than 5 minutes for 36 moves, so with the quickplay finish time added on, he actually won his game with more time left than he started with)!

[Alex Holowczak]

I've just spoken to the player who beat him. Apparently, the youngster knew his stuff in the opening and had good attacking ideas. He won thanks to a three-move combination, which playing as quickly as he did, he was probably quite likely to miss.

I neglected to mention that two brothers were 1st and 2nd in the minor section. One of the brothers is 10, and the person I'm speaking to said he was a better player than the 7yo. They'll be graded about 130 next season. Not sure if that's good enough for England contention, but they must surely be trialworthy.

[Rob Thompson]

the National Junior Squad itself isn't open to any juniors younger than U10, so the younger one will have to wait if he wants to go down that route, but the older one will certainly be strong enough

[Nick Thomas]

Hi Alex. I think the chap you're referring to is about eight and a half rather than seven. Still an impressive result but a bit less spactacular...

[Alex Holowczak]

Oh, OK. I was told on the day he was an Under 8 (on August 31), so I suppose he could be.

[David Pardoe]

Heres the congress report from the Staffs website http://www.staffordshirechess.org.uk/st ... s2010.html

Looks like a good turnout from the juniors, quite good all round, and interesting to see so many prize winners.
Interesting to see the range of prizes on offer. Quite good. Only missing a best lady player....again, a challenge to encourage more to take part in these events.
More publicity, perhaps....with more prominant postings on neighbouring counties major websites (News Sections) might help.
Congrats to Staffs organisors........

[Alex Holowczak]

Only missing a best lady player....

I think only one entered. She commented that she'd be doing well if there was a women's prize.

[David Pardoe]

Thats really my point Alex. It would be good to see a few more ladies entering our congresses.

I see that, just up the road at Warrington, we`ll have the new e2-e4 Congress on w/e 7th - 9th May.
See http://stockportdistrictchess.110mb.com/ for details. Hopefully they`ll be good representation from Staffordshire, Cheshire, & Shropshire players...and from Northern based players generally, including Merseyside, Chester and across the Pennines. Email your chess contacts who might be interested....!
Hopefully this will be well supported, with its FIDE rated Open section already attracting some GM/IM entries.
But the other sections also offer attractive chess/prizes & smart venue... for all grades of player, including Ungraded.

But note, (e2e4) is not some kind of specialist openning that has to be played...just a `swisch` name with a `chessy` flavour.

[Alex Holowczak]

"up the road in Warrington" - that's an awfully long road! (The M6?)

I think someone from Aston University is playing in the event in Warrington (he's either playing in that and/or Sunningdale, not sure which). He complained about how apart from the 4NCL, there was so little FIDE-rated chess in England. (He's Polish, so he cares not about his ECF grade.) I suggested Sean's events and provided entry forms accordingly.

I don't think there needs to be a women's prize. There's no men's prize, after all, and men turn up. If they're good enough, they will win the prizes. I think there's a difference between encouraging enthusiasm, and bribing them with women's prizes. But what do I know...

In the Staffordshire Congress, I don't think a women's prize would have helped. I can't think of any female player who would have entered in the area other than the one who did. The event did have a female organiser, though.

[Sean Hewitt]

I see that, just up the road at Warrington, we`ll have the new e2-e4 Congress on w/e 7th - 9th May.
See http://stockportdistrictchess.110mb.com/ for details.

The correct URL is www.e2e4.org.uk/warrington