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Last update: Friday June 3, 2005 9:44

The England Team1st WORLD SCHOOL CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP

2005 IS THE SCHOOL CHESS YEAR IN ALL FIDE COUNTRIES!!

Tournaments for school chess in categories U8, U10, U12, U14, U16

“Porto Carras Grand Resort”, Halkidiki, April 21st – 29th 2005

In October last year I received an unexpected phone call from FIDE, informing me that a new event to celebrate chess in schools was to be organised by our good friends Theodoros and Viron Tsorbatzoglou on behalf of FIDE by the Greek Chess Federation. This fitted in very nicely with the ‘Chess in Schools Project’ we had been doing with the DfES . I was delighted to be able to give full backing to the new event and undertook to organise a team at no cost to the Junior budget as it had not been agreed under the 2004/5 financial projections.

We travelled to Greece with 10 players, 2 chess coaches, 12 parents/siblings & 2 team managers. The total number of participants reached 195 from 19 countries. The statistics below show that we had the 4th = largest team, but mysteriously with 11 rather than 10 players! Our ‘mystery’ player was 7 year old Rory Fraser who was invited to participate by the organisers so that there would not be a bye in the U8s.

Statistics

No

COU

8

10

12

14

16

SUM

1

GRE

11

20

26

16

14

87

2

RSA

  

8

7

8

11

34

3

IND

5

1

3

2

2

13

4

RUS

2

1

2

2

4

11

5

ENG

1

 

2

3

5

11

6

POL

2

1

3

1

2

9

Under 12s

Anjali Lakhani

4.5/9

24th =

 

Nick Fraser

3.5/9

32nd =

Under 14s

Kishan Lakhani

5/9

11th =

 

Harry Streeter

4/9

25th =

 

Toby Hall

3.5/9

32nd =

Under 16s

Daniel Wells

5.5/9

7th =

 

Daniel Hall

 

 

 

Vedantha Kumar

5/9

15th =

 

Joe Fraser

 

 

 

Michael Keetley

4/9

29th =
Team get together on the first evening Analysis Coaching team with Dan & Joe Individual caoching

The England Team: Coaches GM Neil McDonald & FM Thomas Rendle – Players Vedantha Kumar, Joe & Nick Frazer, Toby & Dan Hall, Harry Streeter, Kishan & Anjali Lakhani, Michael Keetley, Daniel Wells, special guest player Rory Fraser and team ‘mascot’ Natalie Wells.

Daniel Wells was presented with a medal by Alexander Kostyev, President of the International School Chess Union, for the best performance by an unrated player. Unfortunately Daniel had a bye in the first round and then had 8 rated players. Normally 9 rated players are required for a FIDE rating but it is possible that, under these circumstances, he may be awarded a full rating. Vedantha achieved the 3rd best performance by an unrated player and also received a medal.

Some very serious preparation Harry & Toby ready for their round 8 encounter Medal presentation

Many thanks to all the competitors, parents, coaches and organisers for making this a most successful and enjoyable occasion.

We were most grateful for support from the BCF Youth Chess Trust in assisting with the organisation of this endeavour. In 2004/5 the Trust has committed funds to support the BCF National Schools Tournament, Glorney & Faber Cups, World & European Championships and the Cappelle La Grand International. Very generous donations from GM David Norwood have enabled the Trust to continue support to junior chess activity.

GM Matthew Turner
BCF Director of Coaching