European Schools Chess Championships 2018

National developments, strategies and ideas.
Jonathan Rogers
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Re: European Schools Chess Championships 2018

Post by Jonathan Rogers » Sun Jul 08, 2018 11:37 am

Is there a link to the game?

Andrew Martin
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Re: European Schools Chess Championships 2018

Post by Andrew Martin » Sun Jul 08, 2018 11:40 am

Jessica Mellor won today gaining the gold medal. The most unexpected and amazing performance I have seen in 25 years of working on these trips.

Let’s face it , anyone who wins playing the Grand Prix Attack and the King’s Gambit deserves all the applause. Congrats to her , her family and coach Adam Taylor who worked tremendously well with her throughout the event.

Some other strong performances emerging as the last round develops.

Full report later.

Roger de Coverly
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Re: European Schools Chess Championships 2018

Post by Roger de Coverly » Sun Jul 08, 2018 10:41 pm

Andrew Martin wrote:
Sun Jul 08, 2018 11:40 am
Let’s face it , anyone who wins playing the Grand Prix Attack and the King’s Gambit deserves all the applause.
This is the final round game as extracted from the official site. It's a line seen quite often in UK amateur chess. 6. .. h6 looks rubbish but engines say it's equal.



According to an engine, it stayed about equal all the way through until Black's disastrous decision to offer a King and Pawn ending at move 26.



I suppose in future her opponents, or perhaps the coaches of her opponents are going to have to decide whether to meet e4, f4 plans with direct theory or avoid them with Caro's , Scandinavian's and French's.

Andrew Martin
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Re: European Schools Chess Championships 2018

Post by Andrew Martin » Mon Jul 09, 2018 8:00 am

Here is the last round report.

Thanks to Nas for his excellent work.

Thanks also to Andrew Walker at the ECF Office for all his support during the event.




Final round was an early starter, again posing challenges to the participants, coaches and parents in terms of preparation and rest. For some players it was the final test before they could attain their goal of whatever they wanted to achieve from this tournament. Obviously sometimes things don’t go as planned, so there are some disappointments as well. However, this is the competition at the highest level and all the players come prepared hard. If the results are not good - players need to get back to drawing board again and start working hard for the next goal. At this stage the competition is cut throat. A little lapse in concentration costs you here.

Not for all though, for our lead scorer, Jess in U11 Girls section the tournament has gone very well. With a bit of a slow start, she has increased in strength as the tournament went by. Her last couple of games have been splendid, she has completely outplayed higher rated players. Today also she kept the good form and after a solid middlegame position she transitioned into a completely winning endgame, as her opponent overlooked that endgame transition to K+P was a mistake (as shown in the diagram). The transition was abrupt as opponent offered an exchange of minor piece into a winning pawn and King endgame. It was not so simple though, but Jess played it perfectly from there and made sure she gets the full point which see needed for a Gold medal! She was undefeated for the last seven rounds of this tournament and a well-deserved achievement therefore.


Hold the press we have got a Gold medallist! A Gold medal, when we checked the records for the last Girl who had won it in an OTB championship (Sheila Dines in ECYG U12), after 2004. Fantastic achievement and congratulations to the new Girl Champion, an ESCC 2018 U11 Girl European Champion.

Other results for the day were, 7 more wins ( 8 in total)

O-11 Auchi, Nadhmi
O-11 Trivedi, Aarnavh
O-13 Dharmasena, Gavith
O-13 Orgler, Lukas
O-17 Varney, Daniel
G-11 Mellor, Jessica
G-13 Maladkar, Lavanya
G-13 Sheikh, Anum


6 draws for:

O-09 Lohia, Sohum
O-11 Dharmasena, Kian
O-11 Gardiner, Ethan
O-13 Aubury, Benjamin
O-13 Huang, Henry
O-15 Gogia, Armaan

Total 11/17

We must congratulate all the players however, who fought hard through the ups and downs of this nine-round tournament. Also, a big thankyou should go the parents and coaches who supported the players throughout. This England Delegation had a harmonious time in Krakow.

England delegation supported their sole medal winner in the closing ceremony later during the day at 16:30 local time. After the ceremony ended, parents started preparing to leave back to home. There were flights scheduled for same day for some families, while other will be leaving the next day. See you all in England


Nas.



Here ends the tale of a most successful trip.

Mick Norris
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Location: Bolton, Greater Manchester

Re: European Schools Chess Championships 2018

Post by Mick Norris » Mon Jul 09, 2018 8:44 am

Great news; well done Jessica
Any postings on here represent my personal views

Richard Bates
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Re: European Schools Chess Championships 2018

Post by Richard Bates » Mon Jul 09, 2018 9:58 am

Well done - seemed a huge amount of maturity in her play for a 10/11 year old. A talent for K+P endings already puts her ahead of almost all the rest of us!

Can i recommend that round reports include the actual cumulative scores, especially when the event website doesn't seem to offer the option of the same in one place...?