7th Teesside Individual Junior Chess Championships: Gallery (1)

Today we present the first gallery from the 7th Teesside Individual Chess Championships, to follow on from yesterday's summary of results.

A concluding gallery will be posted tomorrow.

All photographs in the gallery are © Mr Grundmann.

7th Teesside Individual Junior Chess Championships: Results

Thank you to everyone who supported yesterday's big tournament at Yarm Preparatory School.

With 132 entries from a total of 20 different schools, it is safe to say the event was a terrific success.

We had lots of new champions and, as usual at our tournaments, I preferred not to use any tie-breaks and instead awarded the titles, trophies and medals to all of the players tied on the top and relevant scores. 

Mr Harris, Mr Pointon and Mr Weightman all worked hard to help me control the tournament sections and as always I am indebted to Mr Grundmann and the Yarm Preparatory School staff for their invaluable help before, during and after the event.

The children were magnificent. A lot of them were making their tournament debuts and they will have gained valuable experience over the course of the day. Ultimately, the amount of points scored doesn't matter. It's all to do with the experience, the determination to improve and, most of all, simply, having fun doing something they all enjoy.

I am sure that all of the players - whether they scored 0/5, 5/5 or anything else between - will see their strength has improved once they return to playing at their own schools.

Further reports and galleries will follow over the nest few days, but to start with here are results of the 7th Teesside Individual Junior Chess Championships.

Under-7

1st and Teesside U-7 Boys’ Champion:

Oskar Rooney (Whale Hill), 4.5/5:

2nd: Zane Barznji (Whale Hill), 4/5

=3rd: George Forshaw (Yarm), Felix Song (Whinstone), 3.5/5

3/5: Olly Bruce (Throston), Louie Lambert (Whale Hill), Adam El Kandoussi (Whale Hill)

Teesside U-7 Girls’ Champions: Anushri Wadehra (Yarm), Aisling Timmons (Yarm), Kasey Walker (Whale Hill) all 2.5/5

2/5: Daniel Howell (Yarm), Alfie Ridsdale (Pennyman), Isabelle Evans (Pennyman), Ava McCluig (Pennyman), Jack Bolton (Throston)

1.5/5: Sophie Meadows (Whale Hill), Willow Thompson (Whale Hill)

Under-9

=1st and Under-9 Teesside Boys’ Champions:

Aryan Nalawade (Yarm) and Aditya Paul (Yarm), both 5/5

=3rd and Under-9 Teesside Girls’ Champions: Natasha Pointon (Yarm) and Farrell Scott (Whale Hill) both 4/5

Also =3rd: Noah Coulman (Yarm), Sabeeh Qureshi (Yarm), Adam Paul (Yarm), Ethan Phillips (Westgarth)

3.5/5: Effie Poole (Westgarth), Edward Lamb (Yarm),

Marshall Lancaster (Ings Farm)

3/5: Lily Cox (Yarm), Kate Howell (Yarm), Harshini Ramkumar (Stockton Library), Aidan Bainbridge (Whale Hill), Minu Palat-Meethale (Yarm), Jack Wilkinson (Whale Hill), Harry Charlton (Ings Farm), Max Thornton (Westgarth), Noah Todhunter (Throston), Harvey Leech (Wheatlands), Lily Tattersall (Whale Hill), Isobel McGlade (Yarm), Cole Addison (Wheatlands)

2.5/5: Zachary Green (Throston), William Makepeace (Wheatlands), Albie Finn (Westgarth)

2/5: Alex Hird (Wheatlands), Alfie Hopwood (Wheatlands), Ruby Todhunter (Throston), George Oliver (Pennyman), Daniel Bland (Westgarth), Mustafa El-Sherif (Yarm), Leo Breeze (Wheatlands), Leon Rushton (Westgarth), Samuel Shawcross (Yarm), Leon Li (Whale Hill), James Goodall (Yarm)

1.5/5: Ben McEvoy (St. Aidan’s), Taylor Pearson (Ings Farm), Tanveer Timmons (Yarm), Elizabeth Neilson (Yarm), Deja Romeu (Whale Hill), Lawrence Wilson (Whale Hill)

1/5: Oscar Watson (Whale Hill), Isobel Campbell (Westgarth), Fraser Black (Westgarth), Hajra Shahzad (Yarm), Amelie Sawyer (Yarm), Chloe Lodge (Whale Hill)

Under-11

1st and Under-11 Teesside Boys’ Champion:

Henry Parker 5/5

2nd and Under-11 Teesside Girls’ Champion:

Alice Sturman (Westgarth), 4.5/5

=3rd: Sai Sidaginamale (Yarm), Avsanish Batra (Yarm), Ajay Selvan (Yarm) all 4/5

3.5/5: Oscar Thomas (Yarm), Benjamin Walker (Hemlington Hall), Yusuf Syed (Yarm)

3/5: Max Mowbray (Yarm), Benjamin Clayton (Westgarth), Alex Gray (Westgarth), Samuel Bolton (Throston), Nathan Li (Whale Hill), Ella Field (Billingham South), Max Brighton (Wheatlands),
Eleanor Whitwell (Ings Farm)

2.5: Grace Wilson (Westgarth), Noah Clayton (Westgarth), Ameen Khunda (Yarm), Ella Mae Francis (Wheatlands), Thomas England (Wheatlands)

2/5: Benjamin Stevenson (St. Aidan’s), Freya Costello (Westgarth) Samuel McGreal (Westgarth), Grace Crawford (Yarm), Matthew Finn (Westgarth), Zak Marshall (Park End), Tenuk Mendis (Yarm)

1.5/5: Hannah Allen-Ayre (Westgarth), Akira Bartram (Westgarth), Eleanor Lamb (Yarm), Adam Addison (Yarm)

1/5: Eve Siddaway (The Links), Isabel Kelly (Ings Farm), Rowan Garrett (Ings Farm), Heidi Himsworth (Whale Hill)

0/5: Jay Hughes (Hemlington Hall)


Over-11

=1st and Over-11 Teesside Boys’ Champions:

Gautam Sathyamurthy (Yarm), Crispin Roundtree (Yarm) 4.5/5

3rd: Ihsaan Mahmood (Yarm), 3.5/5

Over-11 Teesside Girls’ Champion: Aishani Paul (Yarm), 2.5/5

2.5/5: Alfie McMonagle (Outward Academy Acklam)

2/5: Michael Darcy (Yarm), Vignesh Janakiraman (Yarm), Shrish Nair (Yarm)

1.5/5: Sophia Kusterer (Yarm)

Summary of Champions

Under-7

Boys:  Oskar Rooney

Girls: Anushri Wadehra, Aisling Timmons, Kasey Walker 

Under-9

Boys: Aryan Nalawade, Aditya Paul

Girls: Natasha Pointon, Farrell Scott

Under-11

Boys: Henry Parker

Girls: Alice Sturman

Over-11

Boys: Gautam Sathyamurthy, Crispin Roundtree

Girls: Aishani Paul

CSC Training Day Tour 2017-8: Middlesbrough

Following my tour dates in London (two days), Manchester, Newcastle, Edinburgh (three days) and Leeds, today brought the annual Middlesbrough training day which once again took place at the magnificent venue of the Middlesbrough Community Learning Centre (Acklam Grange School).

The day broke the attendance record for this particular leg of the tour as we attracted 16 eager delegates, including teachers, TAs and strong chess players. A fabulous blend!

We introduced the delegates to the CSC curriculum, mini-games, roleplay and a variety of group games and chess variants. The delegates also presented their own thoughts on the merits of teaching chess to children and this led to a fascinating group discussion.

Here are a few captured moments from the day's activities.

There is now just one more date left on the 2017-8 tour and that will be in London in July.

Plans are already afoot for the 2018-9 Training Day Tour and details will follow here in due course.

Thank you very much to everyone who played their part in making today's event such a great success.

Brambles Host Broadway

Our annual event featuring Brambles and Broadway took place today and it was the turn of Brambles to act as hosts.

The format of the day was similar the one we used last year, only we had more children than ever taking part this time; over 40, in fact.

The Brambles children, as hosts, had to choose a work partner from Broadway, a task which immediately acted as a perfect icebreaker.

The children then worked in their pairs to solve a tricky chess Word Search and a sheet of checkmate problems.

We then chose two captains - one from each school - and they were asked to select players for their respective teams.

The final score of the big match was Oliver's Team 16, Isabel's Team 10.

Thank you Miss Thomas and Miss Hastie for organising your players. Hopefully we can repeat the shared chess sessions again next year.