The following items were published before 1 February 2000. Links remain active

21st Barnet Schools Individual Championships, 30 January 2000

This established and well-supported event took place at Christ's College, Finchley with a good spronling of girls taking part as follows.
The U16/U19 (10 players) had just one girl, Meera Shah who scored 1/5 placed 9. There was also just one girl in the 19-player U14, this being Anneka Treon with 3/5 placed 4-7. The U12 (24 players) seems to have had no girls at all, but in the U11 (18 players) there were Meera Shah with 3½/5 placed 5-8, Preena Patel with 2½/5 placed 11-13, Natasha Black with 2/5 placed 14-15, Sajni Patani with 1½ placed 16-17 and Anjli Shah with 1 placed 18.
There were 3 girls among the 22 in the U10 section, with Katie Nightingale [Bedfordshire] the best scoring 3½/5 and placed 7-10, then came Natalie Wong with 3/6 placed 11-13 and Gabriella Bathgate with 2/5 placed 16-20.
The U9 section of 28 players produced oustanding results for girls with the top three places all going to girls. A real triumph for Claire Wu with 6/6 in clear first place with Katie Shall clear second with 5/6, these two closely followed by Susannah Bailey with 4½/6 placed 3-4. Not far behind was Rachel Jacobs with 4/6 placed 5-9, then came: Hannah Bowers, 3/6 placed 12-16; Tamsin Spelman, 2½/6 placed 17-19; Jessica Craske and Gabrielle Hoctor, each 2/6 placed 20-25; and Sarah Grabiner, 0/6 placed 28.
There was also a 16-player U8 section which had 6 girls, who, however, all came at the bottom end of the positions: Charlotte Evans, Nicole Kayode, Bansi Patani, and Georgina Prichard all shared the Best Girl prize with 2/5 placed 11-14, while Lydia Pattihis had 1½ placed 15 and Lucy Faulkner had ½ placed 16.

Middlesex v Hertfordshire, U14/U90, 29 January 2000

Hertfordshire inflicted another defeat on the crippled Middlesex side, winning by 17½-5½. The Middlesex side exceeded their previous record by defaulting FIVE boards out of 12, and this in a HOME match at Harrow. Now Harrow must be one of the easiest places in the Home Counties to get to. It is served by frequent Underground and British Rail trains to two main stations and lots of bus routes. The M1 passes within 2 miles, and even Heathrow Airport is not that far away!! If Middlesex Juniors (this, of course, is the OFFICIAL MIDDLESEX COUNTY CHESS ASSOCIATION, not the excellent Middlesex Girls Chess Association) can arrange disasters of this order, one has to seriously question the competence of the officials in charge. One has to remember that no less than five Hertfordshire juniors made the trip to Harrow but did not get a game. Sorry, MCCA, but it ain't good enough. Of the Hertfordshire juniors that did play, one was Yvette Cook who scored an excellent 2/2 on Board 7, whilst Catherine Wasilewski was also in Hertfordshire's team but did not get a game.

Oxfordshire v Berkshire, U14/U90, 29 January 2000

No less than SEVEN girls took part in this fixture over 12 boards and 2 rounds, which saw an overwhelming 20½-3½ win for Oxfordshire, who had five girls while Berkshire had two.
For Oxfordshire, there were: on Board 2, Claire Morris, who scored 1½/2 including a victory over Yasmin Ball; on Board 3, Maria Walker, who scored 2/2 including a win over Abigail Morbi; on Board 6, Judith Rawlings, who also had 2/2; on Board 9, Freya Holland who scored 1/2; and on Board 12, Poppy Maxwell who scored 2/2, thus the total score of the five Oxfordshire girls was 8½/10 or 85%.
The two Berkshire girls were Yasmin Ball on Board 1 and Abigail Morbi on Board 4, neither of whom was able to score.

4NCL Rounds 5 and 6, 22-23 January 2000

Melanie Buckley of Somerset did very well in the latest two rounds with two draws against Susan Lalic and Maria Yurenok respectively. Heather Richards of Kent had these two opponents the other way round: she drew against Maria, but lost to Susan. I still do not have the complete Division 2 results for Round 6, but in Round 5 there were wins for Elizabeth Roberts of Cheshire, and the three Surrey girls Anna Partington, Alex Kelly and Jessie Gilbert, but losses for Teresa Khoo [Surrey], Lowry Johnston [Wales], Suzie Blackburn [Staffordshire] and Marieanne Howard [Warwickshire].
The (incomplete) picture for Round 6 is: a draw for Jessie Gilbert [Surrey], while Suzie Blackburn, Sophie Tidman and Anna Partington all lost.
To see a summary of all girls' results in the 4NCL so far this season, Click Here.

First Sussex Girls Congress, Hurstpierpoint 22 January 2000

This very successful and well organised event was run in two sections, an Open U18 and a Closed U11. The senior section was convincingly won by Alexandra 'Aly' Wilson of Surrey with a clean-sheet 5/5 score, while the U11 was won by the promising Sussex girl Katherine Rattle with 5½/6.
Full cross tables are available at the Sussex Junior website (through our Links page), or to see the scores of all girls taking part, Click Here.

Wey Valley U12 Championships and Lloyds Bank Most Promising Junior, West Ashtead 16 January 2000

This event was in two sections. In the U12, 59 played including 13 girls of whom three tied on 4/5 as Best Girls. The U9 Section had 48 players including 5 girls, and Best Girl was Stephanie Epperlein with 3½/5. To see results of all girls taking part, Click Here.

27th Richmond Rapidplay, 16 January 2000

Only three girls took part, the best being Jessie Gilbert's 3½/6 in the Major U160
To see full crosstables, Click Here.

Essex v Middlesex, U14/U90 15 January 2000

Essex scored an overwhelming victory by 23-1 in this match over 12 boards and 2 rounds. Essex had no girl players but Middlesex used three: Danielle Gross on Board 4, Jessica Beagelman on Board 7, and Kitty Stafford-Clark on Board 8, none of whom were able to score. The Middlesex team defaulted the bottom FOUR boards - not much fun for the four Essex juniors who were left without a game.

Kent Junior Congress, Beckenham 15 January 2000

Some 13 girls were among the 100+ juniors taking part in this event. In the U9 section, Karen Jones did especially well coming joint second with 5/6, while congratulations are also due to Heather Russell-Kay and Laura Weatherhead, Best Girls in the U11 and U14 respectively, each with 3/6.
For full crosstables of this event, Click Here.

Sussex Junior Championships, Hastings 8 January 2000

Surrey's new players, the Modali sisters, did very well at this event, with Vishali the best of the four girls in the U18, and Ranjitha equal first in the U11 Minor. In the latter event, Anni Gilbert won the U8 prize.
For full details of all girls' scores, Click Here, and the full crosstables can be found on the Sussex Junior Website, through our own Links page.

Chorley Junior Congress, 8 January 2000

Some 27 girls took part in this Lancashire event, thus showing there is plenty of potential for a future Lancashire girls' team.
There were no girls in the highest two sections (Kings and Queens), but in the Rooks, Victoria Crompton [Cheshire], who has recently joined the ECGCF, had 4/6. Sophie Mason had 3½, and Lynsey Miller and Latifa Patel had 3 each.
In the Bishops section, Heather Walmsley and Mariya Utyuzhinikova each had 4/7, while Helen Beck and Charlotte Paisley each had 3.
The only girl in the Knights section was Alexandra Kellet who scored 3½/8, while there were 18 more girls in the four Pawns sections - one winner and one runner-up. We will publish details of these as soon as possible.
Note, all girls presumed Lancashire unless stated otherwise.

Oxfordshire strengthen Girls' squad

Two strong girl players recently resident in Oxfordshire will prove formidable opposition for girls from other Counties: They are Agnes Antal (16) from Hungary, last summer placed third in the Hungarian Girls Championships, and Maria Walker (12), who has a German father and an English mother. Maria sometimes plays under her father's name. I am informed that in chess strength she is close to Oxfordshire's Claire Morris, who, however, did beat Maria is a long and difficult game recently.
Agnes is only resident for one year in Oxfordshire, but Maria is here long-term. Both girls are expected to be in Oxfordshire's team contesting the BCF Inter-County Girls this year.

Hastings International 29 December 1999 - 12 January 2000

The new Women's World Amateur champion is Elaine Rutherford of Scotland who scored 5/9 to become the highest-scoring female, thus taking the women's Gold Medal and the rank of WFM. Elaine, who is a 16 year old schoolgirl, finished ahead of the Latvian woman Rosa Norinkevinciute (silver) and Lucy Broomfield of Surrey, (bronze). All these were on the same 5/9 score and only the tie-break separated them.

In the Hastings Weekend event 7-9 January, two Surrey girls were the only females in the Major (U160) section: Alexandra 'Aly' Wilson scored 3/6, and Jessie Gilbert had 2½/6, while in the Minor (U130) Poppy Aarons [Middlesex] had 2½/6 - and she's still only a U10!

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