The England team started with high spirits as they prepared for the first round of the European Youth Chess Championship in Prague. Many of the team had tough pairings given their seeding, though they all played well in these hard games.

Round one started with two consecutive wins by the U8s, as has been the norm in recent events for England. Nishchal was the first to emerge after 45 minutes, with a big smile on his face. We had some very fine performances, notably a draw for Alex Golding in U15 section against a FM 350 points above him. Laura Davidson and Thivyaa Rahulan also secured draws in the U14 Girls against opponents around 300 grade points above them. Almost all of the losses were hard fought games, and I am sure players will have a different outcome in coming games.

The most notable wins came from James Golding, Sharon Daniel and Anisha Sawhney, all winning against highly rated opponents. There were excellent wins as well for FM Ravi Haria, Koby Kalavannan, Aditya Verma, Jacob Yoon, Daniel Gallagher, Nishchal Thatte and Shlok Verma.

We are fortunate to have two good-sized team rooms with good internet connectivity, which work very well for individual coaching and analysis. I have just returned from the team room at 11pm and was surprised to see our hard working coaches sitting there in different corners, preparing for morning sessions. I think it might be the first time we’ve had almost all coaching sessions in the team room and players are benefitting from this arrangement. The rooms look like working offices for coaches, and they go to their own rooms only to rest.

— Anand Verma