Surrey retain Grand Cup and Middlesex retain Petit Coup, Milton Keynes 28 June 2003

Details available here of: GRAND FINAL or MINOR FINAL

48th Richmond Rapidplay 22 June 2003

There were no girls in the Open (13 players). In the 22-player Major, two girls played: Sarah Hegarty won 3rd Prize with 4.5/6 and an excellent 163 grading performance. Aly Wilson was placed 4-6 with 4/6.
The only girl in the 33-player U120 Intermediate was Jessica Thilaganathan, who scored 2/6 placed 29.
And in the U80 Minor, of the 33 players, three were girls: Thilagini Anandajeyarajah and Kate Richards [Middlesex] each scored 3.5/6, placed 10-14, while Marissa Stenning had 2.5/6 placed 21-25.

Girls Make the Difference!

Ian Hughes writes:"Our school [Aughton St. Michael's, near Ormskirk] Under 9's played in the EPSCA semi-final yesterday [21 June 2003] at Prestatyn. The team of 5 contained 3 girls and each made a massive contribution to our school qualifying for the Final next week at Oakham. The three were:
Board 2 Chantale Belkhiri Year Four 3 out of 6
Board 4 Sophie Williams Year Four 5 out of 6
and Board 5 Rachel Cass Year Three 6 out of 6
Rachel and Joanna Smith (Year 6) later took part in a simultaneous display (34 boards) against IM Andrew Webster and won".

Wey Valley U10 and U8 Championships, Leatherhead 22 June 2003

To see all girls' results, please Click Here.

Surrey Win BCF Inter-County U18 Girls for Eighth Consecutive Time! Syston, Leics 21 June 2003

In a cliff-hanging finish and by the narrowest ½-point margin, Surrey defeated Staffordshire, Sussex and Leicestershire in this Final to retain the Trophy for the 8th year running. Of the Surrey team, only captain Kate Feld, now in her final year as a junior, was aged over 13! All the team played well and in the end the outcome depended on Chantal's ability to beat the strong Staffordshire player Charlotte Wilcox. A draw would not have sufficed, and Chantal, playing with the black pieces, obliged in fine style. Early in the game she showed aggression by adopting the active Fritz variation of the Two Knights Defence. She had Charlotte on the back foot from this point on, and quickly built up a ferociuos attack with her bishop-pair and a pawn on the seventh. We hope to publish this game soon.
To see the full scores in this memorable jamboree, please Click Here.

From Mega to Giga in the UK Chess Challenge

Here is our Megafinal Index Page where you can see exactly which girls have qualified for this year's Gigafinals.
Some of the pages contain the full Megafinal results, others just the girls who have qualified. However, some interesting facts have emerged:
1. In the Staffordshire Megafinals, the four Moruzzi sisters have each claimed a Suprema title, Mollie in the U13, Megan in the U11, Anne-Marie in the U 9 and Bernadette in the U 8. This feat of four Suprema titles in one family is not ever likely to be repeated.
2. In the Lancaster Megafinal, no less than five of the Suprema titles were won by girls from Aughton St Michaels School, near Ormskirk, Lancashire. The high standard achieved by girls at this school is having a beneficial effect on the whole region, and we have to thank their dedicated chess master Mr Ian Hughes for this excellent development.
3. Dorset is not a County that figures large in ECGCF affairs, probably because, until now, we had never heard of any girls from that County who can even play chess at all! But that has been put right, as this year two Suprema winners (U12 and U14) from Dorset have qualified for the Gigafinals. We wish them luck - who knows, in about 10 years, Dorset may win the Grand Cup!

English Chess Challenge, Coulsdon 7 June 2003

The winners of the various Girls sections of the Finals were:
U13, Marie Harman, Surrey
U11, Carolyn Barker, Surrey
U10, Sheila Dines, Surrey
U9, Yasmin Kasim, Surrey
U8, Caroline Foster, Surrey
U7, Angharad Lee, Essex.

Stanford Cup, Basildon 7 June 2003

This event was a 3-round 10-board invitation contest at U11 level between girls' teams from Essex (2), Kent, and Sussex, (although Sussex and Essex each used one overage girl - whose results did not count). The winners were Kent with 23½/30, while the Essex A team came in second.
It has been rather difficult to piece together what actually happened, but we think we now have the full and correct story. To see the players and their scores, please Click Here, and to see the results of the individual games, Click Here.
We welcome this new competition, which apparently has sponsorship from Basildon Rotary Club. It's quite a while since the 'official' Junior Organiser for Essex took much interest in girls, so whoever did organise this event deserves our congratulations. But I wonder why Surrey were not invited? Could it be they did not think we were strong enough...?

Double win for Angharad

Angharad Lee of Essex, who is the youngest member of ECGCF, was the winner of the U7 Suprema title at the UK Chess Challenge Essex Megafinal. And Angharad was also the U7 girl winner at the CCF English Chess Challenge.

Wales v SE and SW England, Monmouth, 31 May-1 June 2003

The Welsh U11 and U14 (mixed) teams both played 2-round matches against SE England on 31 May and SW England on 1 June. Appropriately the matches were played at Monmouth, which almost qualifies as neutral territory: Monmouthshire was a part of England until 1974, since when it has been regarded as part of Wales: in fact, about half of the County is Welsh and the other half English, as can be seen from the place-names on a map of the county. The Welsh teams were defeated in all of the matches. Several girls were involved in these matches, and their results are summarised Here. These results courtesy Neville Belinfante.
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