Tag: Juniors

Teaching chess in Oxfordshire schools with CSC

The charity Chess in Schools and Communities (CSC) is currently recruiting new tutors to teach chess to school children in the Oxford area. There has been a significant amount of interest from local schools in our classroom teaching in primary schools and in after school chess clubs recently and we expect this to expand further again next academic year.

You do not have to be a brilliant chess player as most of the lessons are at beginner level. If you enjoy teaching, have some knowledge of chess and are interested in committing to some hours in the afternoon on one or more days each week during school term time, we would be very interested to hear from you. Please take a look at the CSC website for further information about the charity and fill in the application form if you would like to apply.

We are planning a one-day initial training day in Oxford in April or May (I will post the date and details on here once it is confirmed). If you would like to know a bit more about what is involved in the training and other requirements, how the lessons themselves work, remittance and such like please also feel free to contact me (see contact pages).

Andrew Varney
Regional Organiser (Oxfordshire)
Chess in Schools and Communities

https://www.chessinschools.co.uk/we-need-you

Oxfordshire Easter holiday chess events for juniors

Monday 8 April – Thursday 11 April
Oxford New Generation chess & activity holiday club.
The February half term club was fully booked some time beforehand. The holiday club ethos is to keep groups small to allow quality coaching time, so it is recommended people book early to avoid disappointment. Please contact Yanling Cheng or Andrew Varney.

Thursday 11 April
St. Giles’ Church Junior Chess Club Under 12 tournament
It is intended that this will be an ECF graded Rapid Play tournament. Exact details to be clarified. Please contact Rod Nixon.

Saturday 13 April
Delancey UK Chess Challenge Oxon Last Chance Saloon
This is a 7-round Rapid Play (ungraded) open to all juniors who have not yet qualified for the Megafinal stage of the UK Chess Challenge competition. There will be an ECF graded Rapid Play running alongside it open to junior ECF members. Please contact Andrew Varney.

Andrew can be reached
AV.chess@outlook.com
01865 460279

Junior summer chess camp

Andrew VarneyTwo days of chess training and a one-day Rapid-Play tournament for juniors over the age of 8 with ECF grades between 50 and 150 is to be hosted by Oxford Spires Academy on 18 – 20 August 2015. The coaches are Andrew Varney and David Zakarian.

Further details can be found on the registration form. Places for the coaching days are limited to 24 total, but there is more capacity for the tournament day. Priority will be given to Oxfordshire juniors registering by 20 July.

Link: documents/summercamp_form.pdf

EPSCA Under 11 Southern Zonal qualifier

On Saturday 21 March, Oxfordshire took part in the EPSCA Under 11 Southern Zonal qualifier and won medals for the first time since the 2009/10 season.

Here is what Marc Ives, the team captain (and Cumnor player) had to say about it:
The Oxfordshire U11 are extremely pleased with their performance in the Southern Zone Qualifier for the EPSCA U11 Championship in Nottingham. There were notable wins for William Daniels-Dwyer and Benjamin Poole against Sussex players, whilst Andrew Niu and Movses Shirinyan got points against Wey Valley. At the top end of the scale, just so that we know what we are up against, the Number 1 board for Wey Valley has a Rapidplay Grade of 198, and the top ranked from Sussex 153. Our boards 1,2 and 3, whose grades were 102, 102 and 104 took a lot of the pressure off those below them. The standard of chess across all our boards was very high, and it is clear that there was a great desire to win and a strong team spirit. There were also excellent results from the reserves, with Edward Wallace scoring 3 out of 3 and coming joint first in a very keenly contested competition.

It was quite a trek down to the outskirts of Brighton, but the reward of coming 3rd for the first time in years and picking up the medals for that result were well worth it. It looks as though the 39 points scored is a record for the U11’s, so a pretty high bar has been set for Nottingham on 9th May.

Full results can be found at the link below.

Link: http://oxfordfusion.com/epsca/TeamsOverall.cfm?EventID=64

Witney 4 vs Cumnor 2 [Match Report]

On Monday night, a team of junior players from Cumnor Chess Club were given a chance to shine in an away game against Witney 4.

Witney 4 Cumnor 2
1 Truran, Joseph (120) 0 – 1 Varney, Zoe (114)
2 Holton, Jake (99) 1 – 0 Varney, Daniel (111)
3 Hauer, Isabel (94) 1 – 0 Sterrie, David (80)
4 Watkins, Seb (87) 0 – 1 Bennett Anton, Susana (11)
5 Manning, Andy (29) 1 – 0 Shakespear, Michaela (-)
6 Lloyd, Ben (-) 1 – 0 Ives, Leonora (-)
Match played: 22 Apr 2013 4 – 2

On the top board, Zoe Varney (114) played extremely well and managed to beat Joseph Truran (120), while Daniel Varney (111) had a long game on board two which he eventually lost.

David Sterrie (80) also lost on board three, but Susanna Bennett (11) stopped the rot on board four with a win.

The bottom two boards had Michaela Shakespear () and Lenora Ives ()– both of whom have only played once before for Cumnor. Although they both lost, they made a good game of it are likely to have learned something useful from the experience.