10th Teesside Individual Chess Championships: Report

The 10th Teesside Individual Chess Championships attracted a bumper entry, with 118 children from 19 different schools, several of whom had never been represented at our tournaments before.

The playing hall was packed with eager chess players and the outside area was full of parents, basking in the glorious sunshine.

As is well known, we have our own particular ethos on Teesside, which is essentially to let the children get on with simply enjoying playing chess, free from the external pressures which taint other events (have you ever seen a Saturday morning junior football match...!?).

Fortunately, everyone respected our ethos and, consequently, we all had a very good day.

The children found their social skills enhanced, as they had to find their own places in the hall and to take care of reporting their results too.

Chess remains a tough game, of course, and the battle for the titles was a tough one in all three sections.

Everyone received something from us at the prize giving ceremony, from chess-piece key-rings all the way to medals and trophies.

We always try to make as many people happy as possible and I think yesterday we did very well indeed on that score.

This was our last big local event of a very busy season but we will return to Yarm Preparatory School in October for our famous team tournament which will, remarkably be the 28th such event in our long-running series.

Thank you to everyone who helped to make yesterday such a great success.

Here is a round-up of the results. A gallery will follow in the next blog post.

The entries were from the following schools:

Barley Fields

Billingham South

Christ the King

Fairfield

Green Lane

Holy Trinity

Junction Farm

Linthorpe

Norton

Skelton

St. Alphonsus

Thornaby C of E

Throston

Viewley Hill

Village Primary

Westgarth

Whale Hill

Whinstone

Yarm

Remember, I don't like to use tiebreakers or play-offs for the main places. Why separate players who have earned the same title or places? I prefer to obtain more medals and trophies, in order to send as many people home happy as possible.

Under-7

1st and Boys' Champion: Jayden Wang (Yarm), 5/5

=2nd Lucas Ziyan Liu (Yarm) and Agam Vats (Yarm) 4/5

Girls' Champion: Zoyaa Soni (Yarm)

3/5: Harvey Wilson (Village Primary), Yenul Karunathilaka (Linthorpe) and George Birkin (Yarm)

2/5: Nael Saddiqi (Yarm), Poppy Betts (Throston), Edward Williams (Yarm), Edward Gildroy (Yarm), Senon Weekrakkody (Yarm), Angela Moukoko (Christ the King)

1/5: Darcie McGlade (Yarm), Alex Zavora (Yarm)


Under-9

=1st and Boys' Champions: Isaac Machin (Christ the King) and Japjot Nanda (Whinstone), 5/5

=3rd: Rory Fitzgerald (Yarm), Dara Jafari (Yarm), Henry Stanley (Yarm), Fathe Cathal (Yarm) and Tashil Sethika Lankapura (Green Lane), all 4/5

Girls' Champion: Manha Abdullah (Yarm), 3.5/5

3.5/5: Spencer Wadsworth (Fairfield), Bradley Murphy (Holy Trinity)

3/5: Tyler Hanson (Whale Hill), Louie McGarry (Whale Hill), Connor Pinder (Fairfield), Isaac Brette (Fairfield), Stan Dugdale (Yarm), Rosa Williams (Yarm), Isabelle Little (Throston), Alexander Neal-O’Kane (Westgarth), Paulina Roy Choudhury (Barley Fields)

2.5/5: Austin Oman (Yarm), Paari Muthukrsihnan (Yarm), Albie Dixon-Turner (Westgarth), Shadrach Moukoko (Christ the King), Harry Metcalfe (Throston), James Shipley (Throston)

2/5:Vishaun Susewhewage (St. Alphonsus), Benjamin Pearson (Village Primary), Maisey Webster (Holy Trinity), Freya Hind (Holy Trinity), Max Skelton (Whale Hill), Scarlett Todd (Viewley Hill), Sia Sidaginawale (Yarm), Harrison Gurney (Yarm), Tudugalage Yuthura Perera (Junction Farm)

1.5/5: Ziad Salim (Yarm), David Williams (Holy Trinity), Millie Webster (Holy Trinity), Daniel Degnan (Holy Trinity)

1/5: Jade Stockton (Norton), Nicholas Simmons Giles (Throston), Sebastian Green (Village School), Samuel Thompson (Whale Hill)

0/5: Ollie Smith (Viewley Hill)

Under-11

1st and Boys' Champion: Stanley Allan (Skelton Primary), 5/5

2nd: Monty Van Niekerk (Yarm)

=3rd: Kavan Sidhu (Yarm), Haashir Imran (Yarm), Agam Nanda (Whinstone), Leon Hammond (Norton), Patrick Smith (Viewley Hill), Joseph Dodds (Westgarth), Can Sezen (Yarm), Tristan Green (Village School), Miles Page (Yarm), all 4/5

Girls' Champions: Lila Thomson (Norton), Nikita Suryadevara (Yarm), Lolwa Soliman (Yarm)

3.5/5: Samuel Stevenson (Fairfield)

3/5: Marawan Saad (Yarm), Tyler Beazley (Whale Hill), Frankie Smart (Norton), Griff Williams (Yarm), Vedh Arcot (Yarm), Lewis Godwin (Fairfield), Dexter Macrae (Throston), Harrison Randall (Junction Farm), Udham Chahal (Yarm), George Butterworth (Thornaby C of E)

2.5/5: Deborah Onabajo (Norton), Tiger Chahal (Yarm), Phoenix Emadi (Yarm), Noel Adams (Throston), Annabelle Lyver (Throston), Libby Betts (Throston), Alexander Wormald (Yarm), Eric Pinedo Fuentes (Yarm), Samuel Isukapatha (Yarm), Thomas Ferguson (Yarm),
Mason Doherty (Norton), Lucas Bloor (Throston), Sophie Allen (Throston), Sid Suryadevara (Yarm), Maddison Green (Throston), Noah Daniel Graham (Skelton Primary)

1.5/5: Abbie Ainsley (Viewley Hill). Molly Marksby (Norton), Brian Franks (Yarm)

1/5: Anwita Dara (Yarm), Anika Sunkavalli (Yarm), Archie Carroll (Viewley Hill), Louie Nelson (Norton), Ollie Lynch (Norton), Isaac Brown (Norton), Alexia Gowland (Norton)

0/5: Harrison Covell (Yarm)

11th CSC Teesside Team Tournament

The 11th CSC Teesside Team Tournament took place at Holy Trinity Primary today.

Six schools entered the tournament and we had 33 children in action during an exciting afternoon of chess - the most since pre-COVID days.

Throston and Fairfield shared first place last year and they both fancied their chances of success again this time, but there were lots of tough games today and the final places were in doubt until the final pawns were pushed.

After the first of the two rounds - played on the Jamboree system - Fairfield held a slender one-point advantage over Throston.

All of the other teams were busy taking points off each other, making it difficult for them to challenge for the top spot.

Fairfield continued their excellent form in the second round and ultimately this proved just enough to hold off the challenge of the tenacious Throston team, who did more than enough to earn silver.

Holy Trinity A leapfrogged over some of the other teams with a strong finish, to leave them in medal places too.

All of the teams were awarded with certificates. The top three teams earned medals and champions Fairfield earned special winners' certificates and a chess book for their school library. The medals and the book were provided by CSC (thank you, Nevil!).

Fairfield have made a big impression in this tournament since they joined CSC last year and they will be looking to make it three consecutive wins when we have the 12th tournament in the series next year.

Holy Trinity were excellent hosts (we have used a different school venue each time) and they did extremely well in the tournament, especially considering they are still in their first year of chess. Indeed, history was already made before a single move was played, as this was the first-ever chess event at Holy Trinity.

All of the teams played their part in making it such an excellent afternoon of chess, whether they went home with medals or not. 

Final Scores

Fairfield 7

Throston 6

Holy Trinity A 3.5

Holy Trinity B and Wheatlands 3

Holy Trinity C 2.5

Billingham South 2

Mill Lane 1

The tournament has built up a very impressive history (despite losing two years to COVID).

Thank you to all of the children and staff for making the event such a great success.

Roll of Honour

2011: Ings Farm and Throston

2012: Ings Farm and Billingham South

2013: Throston

2014: Errington

2015: Throston

2016: Sacred Heart

2017: Westgarth

2018: Westgarth

2019: Westgarth and Billingham South

2022: Fairfield and Throston

2023: Fairfield

We conclude with a gallery from the event.

Thank you to CSC chess tutors Catherine and Nicola

Checkmate!

Errington and Westgarth: Shared Chess Sessions

Now that Errington Primary School is back on board as part of CSC Teesside, I was able to resurrect an old plan featuring an afternoon of shared chess activities with Westgarth Primary School. The original plan dates back to 2015.

Mrs. Cowan walked the Westgarth children along the short journey between the two schools and I was helped by Catherine Lloyd and Nicola Harrington (two of the Angels who were part of Sunday's famous chess stream).

The 20 children were asked to find a partner from the other school with whom to work on a set of chess problems.

Then we appointed two captains, who selected teams which featured a mixture of players from each school.

Both rounds of the match were close but Team A emerged victorious.

Thank you to everyone who helped to make the day such great success. More events are planned for the next school year.

ECF Charity Marathon for Ukraine 2023: Catch-Up

If you missed the excellent online stream from Jonathan Blackburn and Natasha Regan, for the ECF Charity Marathon for Ukraine 2023, featuring a whole galaxy of chess stars and personalities, then you can catch up with all of the action here:

Saturday

Sunday

Marsh's Angels are on for an hour during the Sunday stream, from the 04.52 mark.

CSC Training Day Tour 2022-23: York

We are now coming to the end of this year's CSC Training Day Tour. Yesterday brought a fabulous day in the historic city of York, for our first training day there since I became a CSC trainer.

My last training day prior to this one was online, in April and there is one more online day still to come, although this was the penultimate in-person day of the season.

We had an excellent set of delegates yesterday - aged 16 upwards - who were a real joy to work with. Additionally, I was joined by my great friends and CSC colleagues Catherine Lloyd and Dan Staples.

York enjoys a lot of history and is almost certainly the only place in the world with a street called 'Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate'.

Anyone who would like to attend one of our training days should note that Middlesbrough is fully booked but there are a couple of places left on the final online training day of the year.

We conclude our short report with a gallery from the day.

ChessFest 2023

'We had joy, we had fun
We had seasons in the sun...'

Do you remember ChessFest 2022?

Trafalgar Square full of chess players; Summer sun so hot that one could fry eggs on the pavement; Lord Nelson and the four lions sharing ice creams; Admiral Jellicoe and Vice Admiral Beattie wishing they had been sculpted wearing their hats; characters from Alice in Wonderland walking around (or were they hallucinations?)...

Of course you do!

The big news is that ChessFest is returning this Summer!

For further details, please follow the link:

https://www.chess-fest.com

Updates will follow here too, of course.

Now, where did I put my 'Factor 50'?

Marsh's Angels: Commentary Debut

ECF chess marathon commentary schedule announced - including very special guests Marsh’s Angels!