These items were posted before 1 October 1999.

Maidstone Rapidplay, 26 September 1999

Another very fine result for Heather Richards [Kent], who scored 5½/6 placed 1-2 in this event alongside former British Champion Bernard Cafferty.

ECGCF South East Regional Jamboree, 25 September 1999

Five Counties, including for the first time Essex, took part in the first ECGCF event of the Season at Coulsdon Chess Club. The strong Surrey team, headed by English international Aly Wilson and including Irish international Sarah Hegarty, were clear winners with a near-perfect score of 17½/18. Middlesex were second. For full details with individual players' scores, Click Here.

Crowborough Junior Tournament, 18 September 1999

This popular tournament attracted a total of 85 players. There were three sections as follows:
In the U18, 30 players icluding 3 girls of whom Rebecca Tuck [Sussex and SGCL] did very well in a strong field, scoring 4/6 placed 5-9. Then came Deborah Margolis [Sussex] with 2 placed 21-25 and Suzanne Wall [Sussex] with 1½ placed 26-27.
There were 23 players in the U11 Major with only two girls, but both of these did very well with Hannah Dale [Surrey], who is only W year thus playing two years 'up', scoring 4½/6 placed 3-4, while Sussex's own star Stephanie Barraclough was hot on her heels with 4/6 placed 5-6.
The U11 Minor with 32 players had no less than 11 girls. Best was Katherine Rattle with 4/6 placed 5-9, then came: Hannah Adam, Sarah Linnett, and Elizabeth Hayden, all with 3½/6 placed 10-13; Louise Adam, Emily Bottle, Laura Penfold and Holly Chapman, all scoring 3/6 placed 14-19; Charlotte Adam with 2½ placed 20-24; Rosie Arscott with 2 placed 25-27; and Juliette Bottle with 1 placed 30-31.

2nd Kensington Congress, Imperial College 18-19 September 1999

A very pleasing total of eleven girls took part in this event. Playing in strong events of this kind is thoroughly recommended as a sure means of improving your play.
There were 27 players in the Open section and the only girl, Heather Richards [Kent], had an excellent 3½/6 placed 8-11. Heather is now the second strongest girl in Britain at BCF 184, after Melanie Buckley [Somerset] on BCF 190.
The Major section, U175 had 28 players with two girls of whom Alexandra 'Aly' Wilson [Surrey] scored a very fine 3/6 placed 10-15. Lydia Goodwin [Bucks] scored 2 placed 17-20.
Three girls out of a total of 34 players entered the U145 Minor: best was Jo Hart [Surrey] with 3/6 placed 13-19, then came Ivana Houska [Berkshire] with 2½ placed 20-27 and Poppy Aarons [Middlesex] with ½ placed 33-34.
The Amateur U115 section also had three girls. Naomi Miller [Oxfordshire] did very well indeed with 3/6 placed 12-15 out of 26 players. Fiona Smailes [Surrey] had 2 placed 20-22 and Danielle Gross [Middlesex] had 1½ placed 23-25.
And finally only 8 players were in the U75 Novice section, with Chantal Sirisena scoring 2½/6 placed 5-6 and Karla Houska [Berks] with 1 placed 8.

The New Grading List

After a long wait, the new BCF Grading List has been published. It contains several very important improvements over any previous list:
1. For the first time it is easy to identify female players, who have a letter F in the list.
2. Many more girls are now included - some ~225 as against about 150 last year.
3. The list is accompanied by a CD Rom, very easy to use.
A list of the top 150 girl players can be seen by clicking HERE, and it is immediately obvious from the amount of orange you can see, how many strong Surrey girls there are around. Jessie Gilbert is now Surrey's strongest girl at 137 and will be invited to represent us on Board 1 in this season's BCF Inter-County U18 girls.

Richmond Rapidplay, 12 September 1999

No girls played in the Open (11 players) or Major U160 (15 players) sections.
Three of the 35 players in the Intermediate U120 were girls as follows: Alex Kelly and Teresa Khoo each scored 3/6 placed 12-20, while Nicole Mangion had 2/6 (placed 26-30). All girls Surrey.
There were 7 girls in the Minor U80 (26 players) with an excellent result for Abigail Flint [Essex], placed 2-3 with 4½/6. Hot on her heels was Stephanie Barraclough [Sussex] with 4 placed 4-8, then came Danielle Gross [Middlesex] and Selina Khoo [Surrey] each with 3 placed 11-18; Fiona Smailes [Surrey] with 2½ placed 19; and Karen Jones [Kent] with 2 placed 20-22.

Coulsdon Weekend Congress, 4-5 September 1999

Nine girls played in this congress. To see their results, Click here.

European Youth Championships, Greece 3-11 September 1999

The two older England girls, Melanie Buckley and Rosalind Kieran, did especially well, each finishing on 5½/9, while Surrey's Jessie Gilbert also scored more than 50%. To view the final results and standings of all the 5 England, 4 Wales, 1 Scotland and 1 Ireland girls who took part in this event, Click here.

Thanet Congress, 30-31 August 1999

Jessie Gilbert [Surrey] had an excellent result with 4/5 unbeaten in the Major, placed joint second and with performance grade of 177.

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