FINALS ECF NATIONAL SCHOOLS CHAMPIONSHIP 2013

[Mick Norris]

Manchester Grammar School retain their title, congratulations to all

Wins for Dan Fernandez, Andy Horton, Dan Abbas and Jake Manton, draws for Jamie Horton and Michael Fernandez if I have the message correct

[Neville Belinfante]

Bolton Girls School won the Under 11 Girls title.
Guildford High School won the Under 19 Girls title.
One game remaining in the Under 11 Championship

[LawrenceCooper]

Manchester Grammar School retain their title, congratulations to all

Wins for Dan Fernandez, Andy Horton, Dan Abbas and Jake Manton, draws for Jamie Horton and Michael Fernadez if I have the message correct

From facebook:

Guildford High School have won the ECF national girls championship. Well done to Anna Purvis, Beatrice Steele and Isabella Roper.

[Mick Norris]

Bolton Girls School won the Under 11 Girls title.

More good news, thanks for that

[Andrew Martin]

Final results Girls:


U11

1st Bolton 13

2nd Inglefield Monmouth 11

3rd Aughton St Michael's 8 ( winner on tie break over)

4th Wimbledon High 8 ( by winning the individual match between the two teams).

5th Newcastle Prep 3

6th St Edward's Leek 2


A hard-fought event where Bolton played very consistently throughout and deserved to win.



U 19


1st Guildford High 8.5

2nd Nth London Collegiate 8

3rd St Catherine's 4.5

4th King's Chester 3



An event played in the most sporting spirit and we hope for a six-team final next year.


I was impressed with all the girls and accompanying staff and parents. They were a credit to themselves and the school that they represented.

It was great to see teams from literally all over England and Wales. This must bode well for girls chess.

Every school received a trophy. Every girl, including reserves , got a medal.

Next year we hope for a bigger and better event.Please spread the word that this is a good event for girls to take part in. A team of three cannot be that hard to assemble!?


Final thanks must go to arbiter Neville Belinfante, to the on-the-ground team of Richard Haddrell, Dave Welch, Julian Clissold, to Uppingham School for playing splendid hosts and to the sponsor, St Catherine's, who have renewed for next year.

[Neville Belinfante]

Heathside Prep School won the Under 11s. This is a double for them as they won the EPSCA equivalent competition at Prestatyn earlier this week.

Just edited - apologies that I put Heathfield instead of Heathside originally.

[AustinElliott]

I believe this is Manchester Grammar School's third win in a row for the U-18 boys, matching the previous best achieved (according to Wikipedia!) by them and by St Paul's. If they can repeat it next year for four in a row they will set a new mark. Given most of the team will still be there - only top board Daniel Fernandez is in the upper 6th this year - they should be in with a good chance.

[Mick Norris]

http://www.sccu.ndo.co.uk/schoolshist.htm

Nottingham HS also did 3 in a row

Losing Dan, who is the strongest top board in nearly every match, will be difficult fro MGS, plus the age handicap pressure increases as the rest of the team gets older - the only certain thing is that they have strong players outside the top 6 who can come in

[AustinElliott]

http://www.sccu.ndo.co.uk/schoolshist.htm

Nottingham HS also did 3 in a row

Losing Dan, who is the strongest top board in nearly every match, will be difficult for MGS, plus the age handicap pressure increases as the rest of the team gets older.

Age handicap - interesting. *adopts Monty Python Four Yorkshiremen accent* Bah 'eck, we didn't have age handicap back in 't' 70s.

[Roger de Coverly]

[Age handicap - interesting. *adopts Monty Python Four Yorkshiremen accent* Bah 'eck, we didn't have age handicap back in 't' 70s.

You did though, it was a feature of the competition from when first devised in the 1950s. Arguably it's been broken since the seventies when Nigel Short and Julian Hodgson, amongst others, demonstrated that it's possible to be seriously good at a really young age.

[Mick Norris]

http://www.sccu.ndo.co.uk/schoolshist.htm

Nottingham HS also did 3 in a row

Losing Dan, who is the strongest top board in nearly every match, will be difficult for MGS, plus the age handicap pressure increases as the rest of the team gets older.

Age handicap - interesting. *adopts Monty Python Four Yorkshiremen accent* Bah 'eck, we didn't have age handicap back in 't' 70s.

We did

Like many, I suspect, I have fond memories of the competition in the late 70s

[AustinElliott]

[Age handicap - interesting. *adopts Monty Python Four Yorkshiremen accent* Bah 'eck, we didn't have age handicap back in 't' 70s.

You did though, it was a feature of the competition from when first devised in the 1950s. Arguably it's been broken since the seventies when Nigel Short and Julian Hodgson, amongst others, demonstrated that it's possible to be seriously good at a really young age.

And what Mick Norris said.

Fascinating - I never knew there'd been an age handicap system in operation then, despite (like many others here, I guess) playing in the competition for several years in the mid to late 70s.

My best year as a member of the Magdalen College School (Oxford) team was 1977-8. We won the Zonal final against Cheltenham School, and one 'interzonal' round, but went out in our second interzonal match to St Albans, who I see from the records were national runners-up that year to Julian Hodgson's & co's St Paul's.

[Neill Cooper]

Detailed U19 results are now available at http://www.sccu.ndo.co.uk/schoolsres.htm

A few comments:

• The final was very close. With 15 mins to go it could have gone either way and was looking to me like a 3-3 draw. As it was each undecided game went Manchester Grammar's way.
  The strength of the best school teams has been improving. Only 9 years ago the highest graded player in the winning team was 136. This year the lowest graded player in any of the 4 final teams was 137. Even taking into account the grading revisions there is a clear improvement in the strength of the top school teams.
  State secondary school chess is improving: I think this is only the second time in over 20 years that there have been two state schools in the final four. There were three state schools in the quarter finals. No state school has won for the past 25 years but Reading have been second twice in the past three years.