Chairman's Report 2013
NATIONAL CHESS JUNIOR SQUAD
A Trust for the promotion of chess for juniors in the U K
The National Chess Junior Squad is a charitable trust constituted by a Deed of Trust dated 23 December 1999 and is a registered charity, No. 1084293. Its official address is 50 Worcester Road, Sutton, Surrey, SM2 6QB. The charity’s Trustees during the year to 31 December 2012 were: Mr Peter Purland (Chairman), Mr Gerald Jacobs & Mr Alec Webster (Treasurer and Membership Secretary).
The object of the charity is to advance the education of children and young people (between the ages of 11 and 25) through their leisure time activities so as to develop their physical and mental capabilities through teaching, supervising and developing their playing of chess.
We have had a record number of 104 players going on trips this year, and also had two incoming groups.I will report on all these in the following paragraphs.
In February Geoff Jones and Ian Campbell took 6 players to Trzebinia and a good time was had by all although an unfortunate loss of the website means we do not have the full results. I am glad to say that all problems have been resolved and the website is back up and running.
At Easter we took 20 players and 3 leaders ( Glynis Purland, Victor Cross and myself) to Frydek Mistek. Outside of the main tournament we visited a preserved coal mine, a shopping centre in ostravaand swam and played football. whilst in the simultaneous displays Kumar Dixit beat GM Eduard Andreev and Rohan Bansal beat IM Oleg Ivanov. In the main tournaments Andrew Horton was third at U15 level, Theo Slade was 5thin the U12s and Eva Ressell was third in U12 girls. Sadly we did not manage the inevitable cake! This was another very good performance at a strong and well organised tournament. Sadly the very early Easter means we will not be going there in 2013 although we fully intend to return in 2014.
The annual U12 trip this year was to Prague– arranged by Mr Jaroslav Nemec. Victor, Glynis and myself led the party of 16 players. We had an excellent programme staying in a hotel run by a Caritas, a Catholic charity Mr Nemcov is in charge of. We had a diverse and very full programme including an adult rapidplay tournament in which Matthew McLachlan and Billy Twigge-Molecey won prizes. We played a simultaneous against WGM Katerina Nemcova and James Meredith, Joshua Higgs and Johan Power all gained wins. In a long play match against Prague we won 19½ - 12½ whilst Mark Kenyon came third in the rapid play event. We also visited 3 castles, went bowling, played 4 a side soccer and shopped. The Czechs ran a “Boy of the Trip” tournament totally independent of us and the winner was Johann Power. I must say this was probably the best organised U12 trip we have had.
We returned in August to Gibraltar for the Junior International and the trip was led by Glynis Purland and Ian Burford – I was Director of the event and Dave Welch was Chief Arbiter. It was a very good event, well financed and played in a 4* hotel (where we stayed and ate) and the event included two tours - one round Gibraltar and one Dolphin Trip. The 20 players did well with Henry Broadley and Jonny Burch coming third equal with Aidan McGiff and Will. Claridge-Hansen sharing 6th place plus Alfred and Ryan Wong sharing 10th in the U16s whilst Jonathan Pein won the U14 prize. Joshua Higgs, who came with his family gained 6th place in the U12s.
In early September Victor and Peter took 20 players to Flanders for our annual match. The club has a new venue on the edge of an airfield which led to some interesting team talks with low flying aircraft! It was a really exciting match and ended up tied 20 all. The tie break is in the rapid play using a system Rudi and Ian Cowen worked out years ago and which I do not understand. However it worked in our favour so we retained the trophy.The players stayed with hosts and a good time was had by all.
Our next foreign trip was to Antwerpto take part in a four nations tournament at U16 level. We had a team of 10 players led by Victor and Dawn Burroughs and we came second behind the Netherlandswith Eva Ressell, Joshua Higgs and David Liu winning board prizes. Dawn did the organisation for this and I owe her a debt of thanks.
Our final trip was to Poland and 12 players led by Glynis Purland and Ian Burford flew to Krakowwhere they met Mr Sadzikowski the director of School 8 in Chrzanow who had put together an excellent package of chess and social events. I have always felt that social and cultural events are very important on chess trips and I shall certainly keep them in the programme. As well as at least 4 different chess tournaments we visited Krakow and Wielizka Salt Mines, played volleyball (badly) and soccer (better) and also had a swim. From the chess point of view in the 9 round team blitz Akito Oyama was third highest scorer and he also came first in the individual blitz 3rd in a three way match and second in the FIDE Rated, Oskar Hackner won the Individual Blitz and came thrid in the 3 way, Harry Croasdale came second in the Individual Blitz and third in the FIDE Rated whilst Frank Sabin was third in the Individual Blitz. Yet again a very good time was had by all.
This year we had two visiting teams and both stayed in Liverpool as I was the home organiser. The first group were the Saxons who we had played in 2010. I noted then that we had an older side and won comfortably but they had potential. They showed it this summer! The teams were similar in age but we played a Manchester team and a combined Lancashire \England team. The former lost 1-15 and the latter 3-13. Perhaps we will get the standards equal when we go back in 2014! We also had two rapid plays both won by Saxons with Joseph McPhillips and Zheming Zhang as the two top English players (both 2nd equal). There was the usual social side including meals out, extensive sightseeing around Liverpool and a visit to Manchester Museum of Science and Industry.
The second group were the team from Ile de France who we visited in 2011. They stayed at Suites Hotel and also played the chess there. The first day we had our long play match and as our team was younger than last year we lost 8½ - 17½ but only after some good long games which gave credit to our
juniors. The second day was the rapid play and our best performance was 4th= with Callum Brewer getting“Best English Player” award. The final day we went by train to Blackpool Pleasure Beachwhere we had 5 ours on the rides. The weather was foul but failed to dampen the enthusiasm of kids in a
fairground!
There were only three home events as the Millfield tournament is not getting sufficient entries to make it viable. The first weekend after the New Year sees a training weekend which had a new venue this year, Suites Hotel in Knowsley and, as usual, was organised by our secretary, Glynis Purland with head coach Andrew Martin sorting out the coaching ably assisted by GM Nigel Davies, IM Graeme Buckley and IA Peter Purland. There were no weather problems and, as last year, 54 players from all over the country joined in and learnt a lot about various aspects of the game as well as having a great time on the social side. Coaching, swimming and fun chess were all on the menu as well as a comfortable hotel and some first class food. This equalled the highest number we have ever had and is particularly pleasing in difficult economic times. The English Closed at Yateley Manor attracted an
entry of 75 players which was 4 down on last year. The U16 event was won by Peter Batchelor, U14 was shared by Daniel Abbas, Ananth. Balaji, Adam C Taylor and Leo Tsoi. Jake Liang took the U12 title whilst George Ivanov, Koby Kalavannan, Aditya Yanamandra and Zheming Zhang were our joint U10 champions.
The Junior Squad Championships were held at Tiffins School Kingston Upon Thames and did not prove a good venue for many reasons and we will not return there. We did have a very good turn out of 148 players but despite this we did not make a profit due to high costs and the hassle we got and the poor playing conditions did little to enhance the tournament. In 2012 we will be experimenting with a hotel in the Midlands. Alec Webster and Marc Shaw controlled with a little help from myself. The Under 16 was won jointly by Oskar Hackner and Jamie Tilston whilst Ananth Balaji took the Under 14 trophy. The U12 championship was shared by Joshua Higgs, Jake Liang and Yang Jian Zhou and the U10 was also shared by Nikolai Hinterreither and Koby Kalavannan.
Apart from the standard entry point (the England U11 team) 14 new players have joined the squad during the year and some of them have been on trips. This shows that the system of “late entry” continues to work well.
The programme for 2013 is looking sparser than usual as an early Easter means we will not visit Frydek Mistek although we have already booked in for 2014 and an invitation to Saxonyin 2014 has also been issued. Furthermore the Gibraltarsponsorship is in place until at least 2014 so that year is already getting booked up! Back to 2013, trips to Gibraltar and Polandare confirmed and a couple of others are in the pipeline whilst this year a Flemish team will visit Surrey. I remain confident that all members will continue to be offered two trips during their squad membership.
Each year I say a heartfelt thank you to many people who have contributed to the Squad's success over the year. It is often difficult to find new ways of saying what is such an important and valuale message but I repeat, without the myriad organisers, arbiters, parents and players there would be no junior chess and I put it on record the debt that junior chess owes to all these people. Long may their enthusiasm continue.
Peter Purland January 2013
A Trust for the promotion of chess for juniors in the U K
The National Chess Junior Squad is a charitable trust constituted by a Deed of Trust dated 23 December 1999 and is a registered charity, No. 1084293. Its official address is 50 Worcester Road, Sutton, Surrey, SM2 6QB. The charity’s Trustees during the year to 31 December 2012 were: Mr Peter Purland (Chairman), Mr Gerald Jacobs & Mr Alec Webster (Treasurer and Membership Secretary).
The object of the charity is to advance the education of children and young people (between the ages of 11 and 25) through their leisure time activities so as to develop their physical and mental capabilities through teaching, supervising and developing their playing of chess.
We have had a record number of 104 players going on trips this year, and also had two incoming groups.I will report on all these in the following paragraphs.
In February Geoff Jones and Ian Campbell took 6 players to Trzebinia and a good time was had by all although an unfortunate loss of the website means we do not have the full results. I am glad to say that all problems have been resolved and the website is back up and running.
At Easter we took 20 players and 3 leaders ( Glynis Purland, Victor Cross and myself) to Frydek Mistek. Outside of the main tournament we visited a preserved coal mine, a shopping centre in ostravaand swam and played football. whilst in the simultaneous displays Kumar Dixit beat GM Eduard Andreev and Rohan Bansal beat IM Oleg Ivanov. In the main tournaments Andrew Horton was third at U15 level, Theo Slade was 5thin the U12s and Eva Ressell was third in U12 girls. Sadly we did not manage the inevitable cake! This was another very good performance at a strong and well organised tournament. Sadly the very early Easter means we will not be going there in 2013 although we fully intend to return in 2014.
The annual U12 trip this year was to Prague– arranged by Mr Jaroslav Nemec. Victor, Glynis and myself led the party of 16 players. We had an excellent programme staying in a hotel run by a Caritas, a Catholic charity Mr Nemcov is in charge of. We had a diverse and very full programme including an adult rapidplay tournament in which Matthew McLachlan and Billy Twigge-Molecey won prizes. We played a simultaneous against WGM Katerina Nemcova and James Meredith, Joshua Higgs and Johan Power all gained wins. In a long play match against Prague we won 19½ - 12½ whilst Mark Kenyon came third in the rapid play event. We also visited 3 castles, went bowling, played 4 a side soccer and shopped. The Czechs ran a “Boy of the Trip” tournament totally independent of us and the winner was Johann Power. I must say this was probably the best organised U12 trip we have had.
We returned in August to Gibraltar for the Junior International and the trip was led by Glynis Purland and Ian Burford – I was Director of the event and Dave Welch was Chief Arbiter. It was a very good event, well financed and played in a 4* hotel (where we stayed and ate) and the event included two tours - one round Gibraltar and one Dolphin Trip. The 20 players did well with Henry Broadley and Jonny Burch coming third equal with Aidan McGiff and Will. Claridge-Hansen sharing 6th place plus Alfred and Ryan Wong sharing 10th in the U16s whilst Jonathan Pein won the U14 prize. Joshua Higgs, who came with his family gained 6th place in the U12s.
In early September Victor and Peter took 20 players to Flanders for our annual match. The club has a new venue on the edge of an airfield which led to some interesting team talks with low flying aircraft! It was a really exciting match and ended up tied 20 all. The tie break is in the rapid play using a system Rudi and Ian Cowen worked out years ago and which I do not understand. However it worked in our favour so we retained the trophy.The players stayed with hosts and a good time was had by all.
Our next foreign trip was to Antwerpto take part in a four nations tournament at U16 level. We had a team of 10 players led by Victor and Dawn Burroughs and we came second behind the Netherlandswith Eva Ressell, Joshua Higgs and David Liu winning board prizes. Dawn did the organisation for this and I owe her a debt of thanks.
Our final trip was to Poland and 12 players led by Glynis Purland and Ian Burford flew to Krakowwhere they met Mr Sadzikowski the director of School 8 in Chrzanow who had put together an excellent package of chess and social events. I have always felt that social and cultural events are very important on chess trips and I shall certainly keep them in the programme. As well as at least 4 different chess tournaments we visited Krakow and Wielizka Salt Mines, played volleyball (badly) and soccer (better) and also had a swim. From the chess point of view in the 9 round team blitz Akito Oyama was third highest scorer and he also came first in the individual blitz 3rd in a three way match and second in the FIDE Rated, Oskar Hackner won the Individual Blitz and came thrid in the 3 way, Harry Croasdale came second in the Individual Blitz and third in the FIDE Rated whilst Frank Sabin was third in the Individual Blitz. Yet again a very good time was had by all.
This year we had two visiting teams and both stayed in Liverpool as I was the home organiser. The first group were the Saxons who we had played in 2010. I noted then that we had an older side and won comfortably but they had potential. They showed it this summer! The teams were similar in age but we played a Manchester team and a combined Lancashire \England team. The former lost 1-15 and the latter 3-13. Perhaps we will get the standards equal when we go back in 2014! We also had two rapid plays both won by Saxons with Joseph McPhillips and Zheming Zhang as the two top English players (both 2nd equal). There was the usual social side including meals out, extensive sightseeing around Liverpool and a visit to Manchester Museum of Science and Industry.
The second group were the team from Ile de France who we visited in 2011. They stayed at Suites Hotel and also played the chess there. The first day we had our long play match and as our team was younger than last year we lost 8½ - 17½ but only after some good long games which gave credit to our
juniors. The second day was the rapid play and our best performance was 4th= with Callum Brewer getting“Best English Player” award. The final day we went by train to Blackpool Pleasure Beachwhere we had 5 ours on the rides. The weather was foul but failed to dampen the enthusiasm of kids in a
fairground!
There were only three home events as the Millfield tournament is not getting sufficient entries to make it viable. The first weekend after the New Year sees a training weekend which had a new venue this year, Suites Hotel in Knowsley and, as usual, was organised by our secretary, Glynis Purland with head coach Andrew Martin sorting out the coaching ably assisted by GM Nigel Davies, IM Graeme Buckley and IA Peter Purland. There were no weather problems and, as last year, 54 players from all over the country joined in and learnt a lot about various aspects of the game as well as having a great time on the social side. Coaching, swimming and fun chess were all on the menu as well as a comfortable hotel and some first class food. This equalled the highest number we have ever had and is particularly pleasing in difficult economic times. The English Closed at Yateley Manor attracted an
entry of 75 players which was 4 down on last year. The U16 event was won by Peter Batchelor, U14 was shared by Daniel Abbas, Ananth. Balaji, Adam C Taylor and Leo Tsoi. Jake Liang took the U12 title whilst George Ivanov, Koby Kalavannan, Aditya Yanamandra and Zheming Zhang were our joint U10 champions.
The Junior Squad Championships were held at Tiffins School Kingston Upon Thames and did not prove a good venue for many reasons and we will not return there. We did have a very good turn out of 148 players but despite this we did not make a profit due to high costs and the hassle we got and the poor playing conditions did little to enhance the tournament. In 2012 we will be experimenting with a hotel in the Midlands. Alec Webster and Marc Shaw controlled with a little help from myself. The Under 16 was won jointly by Oskar Hackner and Jamie Tilston whilst Ananth Balaji took the Under 14 trophy. The U12 championship was shared by Joshua Higgs, Jake Liang and Yang Jian Zhou and the U10 was also shared by Nikolai Hinterreither and Koby Kalavannan.
Apart from the standard entry point (the England U11 team) 14 new players have joined the squad during the year and some of them have been on trips. This shows that the system of “late entry” continues to work well.
The programme for 2013 is looking sparser than usual as an early Easter means we will not visit Frydek Mistek although we have already booked in for 2014 and an invitation to Saxonyin 2014 has also been issued. Furthermore the Gibraltarsponsorship is in place until at least 2014 so that year is already getting booked up! Back to 2013, trips to Gibraltar and Polandare confirmed and a couple of others are in the pipeline whilst this year a Flemish team will visit Surrey. I remain confident that all members will continue to be offered two trips during their squad membership.
Each year I say a heartfelt thank you to many people who have contributed to the Squad's success over the year. It is often difficult to find new ways of saying what is such an important and valuale message but I repeat, without the myriad organisers, arbiters, parents and players there would be no junior chess and I put it on record the debt that junior chess owes to all these people. Long may their enthusiasm continue.
Peter Purland January 2013
Chairman's Report 2012
NATIONAL CHESS JUNIOR SQUAD
A Trust for the promotion of chess for juniors in the U K
The National Chess Junior Squad is a charitable trust constituted by a Deed of Trust dated 23 December 1999 and is a registered charity, No. 1084293. Its official address is 50 Worcester Road, Sutton, Surrey, SM2 6QB. The charity’s Trustees during the year to 31 December 2011 were: Mr Peter Purland (Chairman), Mr Gerald Jacobs & Mr Alec Webster (Treasurer and Membership Secretary).
The object of the charity is to advance the education of children and young people (between the ages of 11 and 25) through their leisure time activities so as to develop their physical and mental capabilities through teaching, supervising and developing their playing of chess.
We have continued to make good progress with plenty of trips, although with Easter being the latest possible date and the half term holidays being staggered we were unable to do as many trips as usual. We had an incoming group from Flandersas well as our usual other activities. We arranged trips to Frydek Mistek (Czech Republic), Eurodisney (France), Antwerp and Gibraltar for a new junior international tournament. The match against Holland was played under the auspices of the English Primary Schools’ Chess Association. I will report on all these in the following paragraphs.
The Trzebinia event did not take place in 2011 as half term holidays are wrong but we did return in 2012 whilst Saxony are coming to Liverpool in August 2012.
At Easter we took 14 players and 2 leaders (Victor Cross and myself) to Frydek Mistek. Outside of the main tournament the organisers ran an U12 soccer tournament and we won that despite only having four players and borrowing a Czech reserve whilst in the simultaneous displays Adam C Taylor beat gm Viktor Komliakov and in a second display was offered a place and beat wgm Katerina Nemcova. Not a bad day’s work! In the main tournaments William Foo was second and Adam C Taylor 6that U15 level whilst Will Claridge-Hansen was 5th in the U12s. We were also third in the team tournament gaining the inevitable cake! This was another very good performance at a strong and well organised tournament.
The annual U12 trip this year was to Eurodisney where we played Ile de France over 20 boards. Victor, Dawn Burroughs and myself led the party. We won the long play match 24.5 – 15.5 but, as usual, did not do as well in the blitz tournament, our best player being Michael Ashworth who came third. We then had an afternoon enjoying the leisure activities in the hotel before having our final day in Eurodisney. The weather was fine and everyone enjoyed themselves.
A new venture this year was a trip to the new Gibraltar Junior International which was led by Glynis Purland and Ian Burford – I was Director of the event and Dave Welch was Chief Arbiter. It was a very good event, well financed and played in a 4* hotel (where we stayed and ate) and the event included two tours - one round Gibraltarand one Dolphin Trip. The 19 players did well with Gordon Scott winning the Blitz and coming second with Aidan McGiff
and a Spaniard in the U16s whilst Henry Broadley won the U14 prize. Joshua Higgs, who came with his family as he was not a squad member until September won a prize in the U12s. It was a very enjoyable trip and at least 16 players are returning this year.
Our final foreign trip was to Antwerpto take part in a four nations tournament at U16 level. We had a team of 10 players led by Glynis and Ian and we came second behind the Netherlandswith Joe McPhillips and Barnaby Graff winning board prizes.
This year the Flemings came to Barnet in early September. We have to say a big thanks to Angela Eyton and Tony Niccoli for the hard work they put in to organising the accomodation and playing venue whilst Tony and Glynis ran the Rapidplay on the Sunday. Many Barnet parents also helped and The Hall School was an excellent venue. We won the match 22.5 – 17.5 whilst Matthew Wadsworth won the rapidplay with Jackson Wen as second best
Englishman.
There were the usual four home events. The first weekend after the New Year sees a training weekend at Thornton Hall Hotel organised by our secretary, Glynis Purland with head coach Andrew Martin sorting out the coaching ably assisted by GM Nigel Davies, IM Graeme Buckley and IA Peter Purland. The weather this year was much better and 54 players from all over the country joined in and learnt a lot about various aspects of the game as well as having a great time on the social side. Coaching, swimming and fun chess were all on the menu as well as a comfortable hotel and some first class food. This was the highest number we have ever had and is particularly pleasing in difficult economic times. The English Closed at Yateley Manor attracted an excellent entry of 79 players. The U16 event was won by Brandon Clarke, the U14 event by Tarun Malhotra, Ravi Haria took the U12 title and Tharson Kuhendiran was our U10 champion. The Junior Squad Championships were held at the Royal WolverhamptonSchool by kind permission of Stephen Bailey (Headmaster) and the governors. It did mean we had both food and accommodation on site again and numbers held up. We must thank the school for allowing us a free venue and also inviting us back anytime (although Mr Bailey has stepped down as headmaster). Alec Webster and Marc Shaw controlled with a little help from myself. The Under 16 was won by Brandon Clarke whilst Leo Tsoi took the Under 14 trophy. The U12 championship was won by Harry Croasdale and the U10 was won by Arul Gupta. The Young Masters was, again, held at Millfield. Numbers were again down and, unfortunately, we will not be holding it in 2012.. Matthew, Peter and Gill Turner ensured that all went well on the domestic front whilst Matthew also send out the entry forms. Glynis Purland took the entries whilst Victor Cross and myself controlled the tournaments. This year we again had a 6 round FIDE event and the usual weekend event. Unfortunately the dates and various clashes meant we only had 39 players in all. The FIDE Tournament was won by Sam Walker whilst Katherine Shepherd won the weekender.
Apart from the standard entry point (the England U11 team) 14 new players have joined the squad during the year and many of them have been on
trips. This shows that the system of “late entry” continues to work well.
The programme for 2012 is looking good and trips to Frydek Mistek, Poland, Gibraltar, Prague, Flanders and Poland are all in the pipeline thus helping to ensure that all who enter at the age of 11 plus most of our “late entrants” are offered two trips during their squad membership.
Each year I say a heartfelt thank you to many people who have contributed to the Squad's success over the year. It is often difficult to find new ways of saying what is such an important and valuale message but I repeat, without the myriad organisers, arbiters, parents and players there would be no junior chess and I put it on record the debt that junior chess owes to all these people. Long may their enthusiasm continue.
Peter Purland
A Trust for the promotion of chess for juniors in the U K
The National Chess Junior Squad is a charitable trust constituted by a Deed of Trust dated 23 December 1999 and is a registered charity, No. 1084293. Its official address is 50 Worcester Road, Sutton, Surrey, SM2 6QB. The charity’s Trustees during the year to 31 December 2011 were: Mr Peter Purland (Chairman), Mr Gerald Jacobs & Mr Alec Webster (Treasurer and Membership Secretary).
The object of the charity is to advance the education of children and young people (between the ages of 11 and 25) through their leisure time activities so as to develop their physical and mental capabilities through teaching, supervising and developing their playing of chess.
We have continued to make good progress with plenty of trips, although with Easter being the latest possible date and the half term holidays being staggered we were unable to do as many trips as usual. We had an incoming group from Flandersas well as our usual other activities. We arranged trips to Frydek Mistek (Czech Republic), Eurodisney (France), Antwerp and Gibraltar for a new junior international tournament. The match against Holland was played under the auspices of the English Primary Schools’ Chess Association. I will report on all these in the following paragraphs.
The Trzebinia event did not take place in 2011 as half term holidays are wrong but we did return in 2012 whilst Saxony are coming to Liverpool in August 2012.
At Easter we took 14 players and 2 leaders (Victor Cross and myself) to Frydek Mistek. Outside of the main tournament the organisers ran an U12 soccer tournament and we won that despite only having four players and borrowing a Czech reserve whilst in the simultaneous displays Adam C Taylor beat gm Viktor Komliakov and in a second display was offered a place and beat wgm Katerina Nemcova. Not a bad day’s work! In the main tournaments William Foo was second and Adam C Taylor 6that U15 level whilst Will Claridge-Hansen was 5th in the U12s. We were also third in the team tournament gaining the inevitable cake! This was another very good performance at a strong and well organised tournament.
The annual U12 trip this year was to Eurodisney where we played Ile de France over 20 boards. Victor, Dawn Burroughs and myself led the party. We won the long play match 24.5 – 15.5 but, as usual, did not do as well in the blitz tournament, our best player being Michael Ashworth who came third. We then had an afternoon enjoying the leisure activities in the hotel before having our final day in Eurodisney. The weather was fine and everyone enjoyed themselves.
A new venture this year was a trip to the new Gibraltar Junior International which was led by Glynis Purland and Ian Burford – I was Director of the event and Dave Welch was Chief Arbiter. It was a very good event, well financed and played in a 4* hotel (where we stayed and ate) and the event included two tours - one round Gibraltarand one Dolphin Trip. The 19 players did well with Gordon Scott winning the Blitz and coming second with Aidan McGiff
and a Spaniard in the U16s whilst Henry Broadley won the U14 prize. Joshua Higgs, who came with his family as he was not a squad member until September won a prize in the U12s. It was a very enjoyable trip and at least 16 players are returning this year.
Our final foreign trip was to Antwerpto take part in a four nations tournament at U16 level. We had a team of 10 players led by Glynis and Ian and we came second behind the Netherlandswith Joe McPhillips and Barnaby Graff winning board prizes.
This year the Flemings came to Barnet in early September. We have to say a big thanks to Angela Eyton and Tony Niccoli for the hard work they put in to organising the accomodation and playing venue whilst Tony and Glynis ran the Rapidplay on the Sunday. Many Barnet parents also helped and The Hall School was an excellent venue. We won the match 22.5 – 17.5 whilst Matthew Wadsworth won the rapidplay with Jackson Wen as second best
Englishman.
There were the usual four home events. The first weekend after the New Year sees a training weekend at Thornton Hall Hotel organised by our secretary, Glynis Purland with head coach Andrew Martin sorting out the coaching ably assisted by GM Nigel Davies, IM Graeme Buckley and IA Peter Purland. The weather this year was much better and 54 players from all over the country joined in and learnt a lot about various aspects of the game as well as having a great time on the social side. Coaching, swimming and fun chess were all on the menu as well as a comfortable hotel and some first class food. This was the highest number we have ever had and is particularly pleasing in difficult economic times. The English Closed at Yateley Manor attracted an excellent entry of 79 players. The U16 event was won by Brandon Clarke, the U14 event by Tarun Malhotra, Ravi Haria took the U12 title and Tharson Kuhendiran was our U10 champion. The Junior Squad Championships were held at the Royal WolverhamptonSchool by kind permission of Stephen Bailey (Headmaster) and the governors. It did mean we had both food and accommodation on site again and numbers held up. We must thank the school for allowing us a free venue and also inviting us back anytime (although Mr Bailey has stepped down as headmaster). Alec Webster and Marc Shaw controlled with a little help from myself. The Under 16 was won by Brandon Clarke whilst Leo Tsoi took the Under 14 trophy. The U12 championship was won by Harry Croasdale and the U10 was won by Arul Gupta. The Young Masters was, again, held at Millfield. Numbers were again down and, unfortunately, we will not be holding it in 2012.. Matthew, Peter and Gill Turner ensured that all went well on the domestic front whilst Matthew also send out the entry forms. Glynis Purland took the entries whilst Victor Cross and myself controlled the tournaments. This year we again had a 6 round FIDE event and the usual weekend event. Unfortunately the dates and various clashes meant we only had 39 players in all. The FIDE Tournament was won by Sam Walker whilst Katherine Shepherd won the weekender.
Apart from the standard entry point (the England U11 team) 14 new players have joined the squad during the year and many of them have been on
trips. This shows that the system of “late entry” continues to work well.
The programme for 2012 is looking good and trips to Frydek Mistek, Poland, Gibraltar, Prague, Flanders and Poland are all in the pipeline thus helping to ensure that all who enter at the age of 11 plus most of our “late entrants” are offered two trips during their squad membership.
Each year I say a heartfelt thank you to many people who have contributed to the Squad's success over the year. It is often difficult to find new ways of saying what is such an important and valuale message but I repeat, without the myriad organisers, arbiters, parents and players there would be no junior chess and I put it on record the debt that junior chess owes to all these people. Long may their enthusiasm continue.
Peter Purland