World Schools Chess Championships 2018

[John Higgs]

The World Schools Chess Championship starts on 21st April and runs to 29th April. The event is a 9 round FIDE rated event and is for boys and girls in the U7, U9, U11, U13, U15 & U17 categories. The venue is Durres, Albania.

The England delegation is 8 players and 3 coaches. The team can be viewed at:

https://www.englishchess.org.uk/Juniors ... hips-2018/

The event website is https://worldchess.events/

The chess-results link for the event (tab across for your chosen age group) is:

http://chess-results.com/tnr334480.aspx ... NG&flag=30

Latest news, photographs etc can be seen via the twitter feed : @ECFJuniors2018

No twitter account? You can follow the twitter feed via this link:

https://mobile.twitter.com/ECFJuniors2018

[John Higgs]

Good luck for round 1 today - round time is 3pm local (2pm uk time).

[John Higgs]

From the Delegation in Albania:

Our 8 strong England team together with 3 coaches have arrived safely in Durrës, Albania for the World School Chess Championship 2018.

The team consists of Max Miller, Adam Hussein, Georgia Headlong, Nadhmi Auchi, Denis Dupuis, Kavin Thoorn, Siena Gurjar and Sohum Lohia.

The next hurdle was the arrival of luggage - some of which had an extra unaccompanied journey in Vienna - but it finally arrived at 2am (phew)!

Our coaches GM Glenn Flear, GM Jonathan Hawkins and FM Adam Taylor presented the players with their official England shirts, hoodies and silver badges in time for the team photo.

[John Higgs]

Round 1 results and round 2 draw:

http://chess-results.com/tnr334475.aspx ... NG&flag=30

[John Higgs]

From the Delegation in Albania - WSCC Round 1:

Morning coaching sessions took place with our team of coaches. All the players wore their England attire for the team meeting.

Following the opening ceremony, the players, coaches and parents set off for the first round. Luckily, David Miller came well prepared with some playing cards and kept the parents entertained with magic tricks and card games.

The first player to come out was Denis Dupuis who won very quickly due to his opponent’s unorthodox antics failing against him. Well done Denis! Denis was closely followed by wins from Nadhmi Auchi and Adam Hussain. Siena Gurjar also won a long game, followed by a draw from Sohum Lohia.

What seemed like hours later, Georgia Headlong finished her game with yet another win. What stamina Georgia - well done!

The England Team of 8 achieved 5 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses - excellent playing from everyone and a great start for England. Every single player went away feeling proud of their game and rightly so.

The evening finished with an impromptu team dinner under the stars!

[John Higgs]

Round 2 results and round 3 pairings:

http://chess-results.com/tnr334480.aspx ... NG&flag=30

[John Higgs]

From our Delegation in Albania:

WSCC 2018 - round 2

Before setting off today, Adam and Nadhmi had a training game using the large outdoor chess set! The team all left the hotel together providing each other with last minute encouragement.

The players left the playing hall in high spirits today after a great performance from all - with a team score of 5/8! Wins from Kavin, Denis, Sohum, Max and Nadhmi - well done to everyone for their efforts today.

As usual, the parents played rummy whilst waiting for the children - parents can be competitive too!

[John Higgs]

From our delegation in Albania:

Round 3 was a tough day for the England Junior Team. Nevertheless, each and every game was hard fought - most of the games lasted in excess of 3 hours.

Wins for Sohum and Georgia and a draw for Adam. Parents were completely banned from the playing hall today so no photos sadly - apart from of course, our travelling magician David Miller who kept parents and coaches occupied during the long wait for the players to finish.

The evening finished with a team dinner at a local restaurant - it was unanimously agreed to stick to the tried and tested hotel buffet in future.

[John Higgs]

Round 4 results and round 5 pairings:

http://chess-results.com/tnr334480.aspx ... NG&flag=30

[John Higgs]

From our delegation in Albania:

WSCC Round 4

Another tough day for the England Junior Team - some very long games from the whole contingent and some hard fought battles. Wins from Denis, Max and Adam and a draw from Nadhmi. The parents and coaches kept themselves occupied with magic tricks and card games - much to the envy of the other delegations.

Fingers crossed for tomorrow!

[John Higgs]

From our delegation in Albania:

WSCC Round 5:

A day of drawing for the England Junior Team today!

A quick win for Kavin followed by 4 draws from Denis, Georgia, Sohum and Nadhmi - against tough opposition! Sohum and Georgia’s game lasted near 3 hours while Nadhmi and Denis were in for 4 hours.

Nadhmi had the chance to promote a passed pawn in the end game but so did his opponent leading to a draw with no mating options. Denis mostly outplayed his opponent and was up in material but a complicated end game ensued and eventually a draw was agreed.

The evening was spent relaxing and playing games (not chess!) against delegations from across the globe.

[Matthew Turner]

Just had a look at chess reults and it is interesting where the players come from. I think England and Ireland are the only two countries in 'Western' Europe to have representatives.

[Roger de Coverly]

Just had a look at chess reults and it is interesting where the players come from.

They are regarded by some organisers as lucrative, but these international junior events do seem to have proliferated in recent years. Other than as an excuse for another competition what distinguishes this event from other world and European junior ones?

(edit) To answer my own question it appears the age limits use odd numbered ages, U17, U15 etc. whilst the other competitions use even numbered ages, U18, U16, U14 etc. (/edit)

[John Higgs]

From our Delegation in Albania:

WSCC Round 6

An incredibly tough day for England - only another quick win for Kavin.

Nonetheless each and every game was strongly fought and no one left the battle ground without a full and proper fight.

The team are in good spirits and fully aware that they are playing some of the strongest players around the world.

Keeping fingers crossed for round 7.

[John Higgs]

From our delegation in Albania:

WSCC Round 7:

A successful day for the England Junior Team today - 5/8!

Siena had a good game and fought off any untoward threats leading to a victory. Georgia thought that she was claiming three-fold repetition the correct way but the arbiter didn’t agree - Georgia went on to win the game!

Kavin played his longest game so far and went on to be successful. Coach FM Adam C Taylor was all smiles!

Nadhmi and Adam played another great game against strong opposition leading to a couple more points for England.