Author: Alan Page

Amy Little wins u-11 Title at Midlands Gigafinal

From Peter Hodkinson…

On Sunday 8th July 2018, Amy Little (grade 118) won the Solihull (Birmingham) Gigafinal of the UK Chess Challenge to become Midlands girls u11 champion. Amy went clear of the field of 24 by winning her first 5 games and needed only to agree a draw in round 6 to be a clear winner.

The Southern Gigafinal in Twickenham a week earlier was a much closer affair with 4 girls finishing with 5 out of 6. Alisha Vyas (grade 117) won the title on a tie-break.

The Northern Gigafinal takes place on Sunday (15th July 2018) in Manchester.

This national schools event attracted over 40,000 entries of all school ages. It is the biggest chess tournament in the World.

The UK Grand Finals will be held in Peterborough.

Grading List January 2017

 

Name Standard Previous RapidPlay Previous
Bond, Peter D 157 158
Buxton, Jake 78 70 70 61
Clear, David E 167 161
Clough, Peter WL 134 132 135 130
Evans, Alex J 103 107 116 119
Evans, Jack A 99 99 74 80
Gallacher, Paul J 91 92 78 75
Hackford, Edward 128 124 125 124
Hodkinson, Peter M 104 102 99 98
Larner, Emily M 109 106 82 74
Larner, Thomas O 76 75 87 83
Larner, Tony R 100 111 111 114
Little, Amy 101 87 73
McCoan, Oliver 73 70 74
Page, Alan F 141 138 147 146
Pearl, John RF 45 51 62 61
Pigott, Darrell N 142 129
Sallon, Michael D 88 92 93 93
Savatov, Roman S 92 94 87 87
Thompson, Joseph M 67 66 59 59
Wells, Jonathan C 189 188 179 176

Summer Grading List 2016

feat

Name Standard Previous Rapidplay Previous
Bond, Peter D 158 160    
Burnham, Martin K 96 96    
Buxton, Jake 70   61  
Clear, David E 161 163    
Clough, Peter WL 132 129 130  
Evans, Alex J 107 106 119 118
Evans, Jack A 99 94 80 95
Gallacher, Paul J 92   75  
Hackford, Edward 124 121 124 127
Hodkinson, Peter M 102 105 98 107
Larner, Emily M 106   73 50
Larner, Thomas O 75 67 83 76
Larner, Tony R 111 107 114 96
McCoan, Oliver 70 68 74 74
Moreton, Richard C 78 88 94 94
Page, Alan F 138 136 146 138
Pearl, John RF 51 52 61 46
Sallon, Michael D 92 100 93  
Savatov, Roman S 94 96 87  
Stoppani, William 68 66 82 79
Thompson, Joseph M 66 70 59 45
Wells, Jonathan C 188 185 176 172

Alan at the British Chess Championships 2015 Rapidplay

At the first weekend of the British Championships at Warwick University the Rapidplay competitions were held. There were several sections and I had entered the U-150 tournament.  The format was over two days, with 11 rounds and 20 minutes on each player’s clock, plus an additional 10 seconds added after each move. Hopefully this would help me practice playing faster after many time-troubled games last season!

The first day was quite tough, with three losses in a row after long, close finishes which left me on 1.5/5. However, I started better on Sunday morning, and ended with 6.5/11 including a quick draw in the last round with most players suffering mental exhaustion by then!

An enjoyable couple of days at an excellent venue and good luck to Alex, Jack and Jon in the rest of the Championships at a more leisurely pace!

I’ve included an interesting game from Saturday where I reached a winning position only to see this disappear over the horizon as the moves got faster and faster…

Oliver at Birmingham 2015

Thanks to Oliver McCoan for this nice finish to one of his games in the recent Birmingham U-135 tournament