Alex Holowczak

Richard Buxton reports: The Warwickshire U1650 team took on Lincolnshire at St Hilda’s Church in Leicester on Saturday 30th November. There were 12 boards in a very competitive match with the lead changing hands throughout the event. Warwickshire taking the first win on board 12 after only 45 minutes.  This changed at 1 hour 15minutes with Lincolnshire breaking even on board 7 and then going into the lead at 2 hours on board 6. The lead then changed hands with both drawn and won games up to the 3 hour point with the score tied at 5 -5 with 2 games left to finish on boards 3 and 4. Peter Stiff on board 3 put up a fine defence in a very difficult end game which eventually ended in a draw. David Cotterell on board 4 was offered a draw by his opponent however Warwickshire needed the win to win the match, so he bravely declined the offer. Eventually however his opponent was able to take advantage of two linked past pawns on the g and h files which became too much to defend against, which gave Lincolnshire the match 6.5 to 5.5. The full match result can be found here. Thanks to everyone who took part in the event and we look forward to our next match against Worcestershire on Saturday 7th December.

The inaugural Midland Junior County Championship was held at Nottingham High School on Saturday, 16th November. Five Warwickshire teams entered into the Under 11, Under 9 and Girls sections. Each of our teams played five matches against other counties from across the Midlands. Under 11 Championship Warwickshire was represented by a team of Year 5 children (Under 10) and Year 6 children (Under 11). The Under 11 team was sadly depleted due to a clash with 11+ examinations. Both teams won 3 matches, drew 1 match and lost 1 match, finishing on 7 Matchpoints, and tied for second place. The Under 10 team finished ahead on tie-break. Oxfordshire won the tournament. Under 11 Results (3rd place) Won 7-1 v ShropshireWon 7-1 v Nottinghamshire BishopsLost 1-7 v OxfordshireWon 6-2 v LeicestershireDrew 4-4 v Nottinghamshire Knights George McCumiskey and Arnav Dasari top-scored with 4 points. Under 10 Results (2nd place) Drew 4-4 v Nottinghamshire KnightsWon 6-2 v ShropshireWon 7-1 v LeicestershireLost 1½-6½ v OxfordshireWon 7½-½ v Northamptonshire Handuo Cao, Yang Tan and James Palmer-Brown top-scored with 4 points. Under 9 Championship Warwickshire was represented by a team of Year 3 children (Under 8) and Year 4 children (Under 9). The Under 9 team performed creditably, winning 3 matches, drawing 1 match and losing 1 match, finishing on 7 Matchpoints. However, the Under 8 team won all five of their matches to win the tournament, finishing ahead of all of the other Under 9 teams, including a match win against Warwickshire’s Under 9 team! Under 9 Results (2nd place) Drew 4-4 v LeicestershireWon 8-0 v NorthamptonshireLost 3-5 v Warwickshire Under 8Won 4½-3½ v NottinghamshireWon 5-3 v Shropshire Anthony Tye and Lucas Sacramento Guillaume top-scored with 4 points. Under 8 Results (1st place) Won 8-0 v ShropshireWon 5-3 v OxfordshireWon 5-3 v Warwickshire Under 9Won 7-1 v LeicestershireWon 7-1 v Nottinghamshire James Tye and Arthur McCumiskey top-scored with 5 points. Under 11 Girls Championship (1st place) Warwickshire’s Girls team won 4 matches and drew 1, to finish on 9 Matchpoints and win the tournament. Won 4-0 v Nottinghamshire QueensWon 2½-1½ v LeicestershireWon 3-1 v NorthamptonshireWon 4-0 v ShropshireDrew 2-2 v Nottinghamshire Rooks Bani Heer and Aadya Balakrishnan top-scored with 5 points. Full Match Results Under 11 | Under 10 | Under 9 | Under 8 | Girls Final Standings Under 11 | Under 9 | Girls Warwickshire Chess Association would like to thank Nottinghamshire Primary Schools Chess Association for hosting the tournament; and Nottingham High School for hosting it. The school provided excellent facilities, including a cafe stocked with refreshments, waiting classrooms, and good playing conditions.

Paul Lam reports: The over-the-board Junior 4NCL made a very welcome return for the first time since 2022. Once more I took to the helm as team captain and coach of the Warwickshire Bears, heading a squad that was relatively inexperienced but full of potential. In division 1 the girls team were outrated on average in nearly every match and performed very creditably in the circumstances, finishing with an excellent win against Leicestershire with Siyuan Ou beating a 1829-rated opponent on top board. The Bears A team finished fourth, just narrowly missing out on bronze medals, with Preesh Gandhi playing some mature chess en route to an impressive 4/5 on board 3. The B team finished third in division 2, winning well-deserved bronze medals for their efforts. The team’s big hitter was Mark Tricoli who won all four games he played for the team and his reserve game to boot! It was an action-packed weekend full of excellent chess, some tragic reversals and a lot of fun. It was a great effort from the squad and everyone was keen to learn from their games, to the extent that a queue had to be formed for analysis afterwards! My thanks go to the players for all their efforts on behalf of the team and to the parents for all their support and encouragement. The Warwickshire Bears teams, with captain Paul Lam (background) The A team: Front to back – Akshath Shivakumar, Amitesh Purushothaman, Preesh Gandhi, Gregory Kornilovich The Girls team: Front to back – Siyuan Ou, Anvikkashri Prabhakaran, Diah Patel, Marijka Mykhnenko The B team: Back (left to right) – Mark Tricoli, Ayansh Mathur Front (left to right) – Krish Gandhi, Handuo Cao, Markas Mykhnenko