These News Items relate to February 2001

News from Warrington

As a follow-up to the recent item we carried about the Warrington and district Primary School championships, we can now report that the winner of the playoff between Mary Fortune and Kay Findlay was Mary, who won a closely-fought ending with rook and pawns against queen. Thus Mary wins the title of Warrington Best Girl.
The Vale Royal Champion girl was Susan Helsby.

Wiltshire and West of England Junior Championships, Swindon, 24-25 February 2001

Six girls competed in the Girls section, and a great many more in the open sections. The Girls' Section was run as an all-play-all, and it was won by Oxfordshire's Claire Morris. Playing logical, confident chess, Claire was right back on form, and showed her superiority with four straight wins in the first four rounds, thus needing only a draw in her last round encounter with Heather Burgess [Wiltshire] to secure first prize. Heather Burgess was second with 3½/5 and Heather Coupe [Yorkshire] third with 3. To see scores of all who played in this section, Click Here.
Top Girl in the U12 Section was Chantal Sirisena [Surrey] with 4/6,and scores of all girls playing in the other Sections can be found Here. I am indebted to Helena Thomas for collation and prompt transmission of these scores.

Essex Closed U11, Temple Sutton 22-23 February 2001

28 played including 4 girls: Best girl 10th Kimberley Hirst-Jones 4½/8, then 16th Melissa Hirst-Jones 4/8, 18th Rachel Cheung 4/8, 28th Lily Robins 1/8. All girls Essex.

Wey Valley Ramsay Cups Tournament, Effingham 18 February 2001

A large number of girls, all Suurey, took part in this event. To see all results, boys as well, Click Here.

BWCA National Girls Championships, York 17-18 February 2001

This was the first time this event has ventured so far north, and a very pleasant venue was made available, largely due to the good offices of Peter Cloudsdale, at the Elm Bank Hotel. Some 26 girls in all took part in the event, one of whom was in the U16 age range so played only in the, mainly adult, BWCA Rapidplay event on the Sunday.
The other girls were organised into three Sections as follows:
1. A U10 event which included the U9 and U8 players. 10 players. The joint winners were Victoria Crompton and Sarah Robinson [both Cheshire] and Katie Hale [Essex], all three scoring 6/7. Victoria and Sarah are in the W age group (U10s), but Katie is X year, thus took the U9 first prize all to herself. The U8 prize went to Bethany Halpin [Lancashire] with 3/7.
2. A U11 event (7 players, organised as an all-play-all). The clear winner was Naomi Miller [Oxfordshire] with 6/7, while joint second were Maria Walker [Oxfordshire] and Stephanie Barraclough each with 5½/7. It should be explained that all these scores include a one-point bye necessitated by the odd number of players.
3. A U14 event (8 players), also run as an all-play-all. The clear winner was Sarah Hegarty [Surrey] with 7/7, second being Colleen Halpin [Lancashire] with 5½/7, and third Karen Bradley, also of Lancashire, with 5/7.
To see full scores of all competitors (crosstables) click here for U14 U11 or U10.

Eastbourne Junior Championships, 17 February 2001

No less than 21 girls took part in this event, which was organised in three sections: U18, U11 Major, and U11 Minor. Best result by a girl was that of Rachael Peat [Surrey], clear winner of the Minor with 5½/6. To see all girls' results, Click Here.

Portsmouth Congress, 10-11 February 2001

Several girls played in this event with the following results:
In the U165 Section, Teresa Khoo scored 4½/6 placed joint second, even though she had to take a bye in one of the rounds to play in a lacrosse match. Anna Partington scored 3½/6
In the U135 Section, Poppy Aarons scored 3½/6, grading performance 125.
In the U110 Section, Selina Khoo was the outright winner with 5½/6.
The following report appears on the BCM website: "Elsewhere in the congress, the Khoo sisters from Weybridge were setting a hot pace, with 10-year-old Selina leading the Novices Tournament throughout. In the Major Tournament, 15-year-old Teresa was hampered by having to take a half-point bye in Round 3 to attend an appointment in London, but returned to score 2½ out of 3 to finish joint second. In the Novices, Selina's last round game against Dave Worsfold had a cracking ending in which Dave sacrificed 2 pieces to force a new Queen. However, he then found himself set enormous problems by his young adversary and he eventually succumbed to a mate."

Rolls Royce Congress, Crewe, 10-11 February 2001

Four girls took part in this event.
In the Intermediate, (U130) section, Molly Moruzzi [Staffordshire] had an excellent result scoring 3/5. Suzie Blackburn [Cheshire] was not far behind with 2½/5, while Katie A Martin [Lancashire] had 1½/5.
In the Minor (U90) was Emma Atkins [Staffordshire] with a good score of 3½/5.
Playing in adult weekend congresses, even at an early age, is a sure way to improve your chess strength.
The above results courtesy of Steve Lloyd.

ECGCF SouthEastern Region Jamboree, Burgess Hill 10 February 2001

Five Counties took part in this event which was a 3-round cross-paired jamboree for teams of six girls at U14 level.
After the first round, Kent were in the lead with 4½ just ahead of Middlesex and Surrey on 4 each, but Surrey came back strongly taking a full six points in each of the two remaining rounds to finish in first place with 16. Kent were second with 10, third Middlesex with 9½, fourth Sussex with 6½ and fifth the very young Essex team with 3, who had found it very hard uphill work against older girls, but who nevertheless played very competitively and were especially delighted with a win for five-year old Stephanie Hale.
To see the full results of this event, Click Here.

Wiltshire News

Helena Thomas, Wiltshire U11 Girls organiser, writes: On 21st January Wiltshire Junior Chess held a 'Girl's Fun Day' for U11 players. Twenty four girls enjoyed a day of coaching and a combined U9/U11 tournament. The U11 winner was Jenny Webb (6/6) with Runners Up Nicola Thomas, Shivani Jobanputra and Lucy Dams (5/6). The U9 winner was Charlotte Wood (4/6) with Marianne Hobbs (3/6) runner up. The event was covered in the local press with the headline "Girls Follow Madonna in bid to compete in Chess' (this was the week that Madonna announced she's employing a scottish chess coach to improve her skill at the mind game!).
The Wiltshire Junior Chess selection day for the county U9 & U11 teams was held on 27 January in Swindon. Five girls were selected as part of the 28 strong U11 squad, whilst the same number of girls were selected for the 20 strong U9 squad. The teams had their first outing on Saturday 10 February, when they competed in the 'South Wales & West of England' team competition, held in Somerset. This was a 3 round competition with three teams competing - Somerset, Devon and Wiltshire. The girls competed well in the U11 team with the following scores: Nicola Thomas Bd 3 3/3 Jenny Webb Bd 7 2/3 Sarah Fitch Bd 8 2/3 Shivani Jobanputra Bd 11 3/3 Sarah Thomas Bd 12 1/3 Wiltshire came second behind Somerset with Devon in third place. The Wiltshire U9 team found the going tough and ended up in third place. The Wiltshire girls' scores were: Charlotte Wood Bd 3 1½/3 Mallory Deaton Bd 8 0/3 Tara Edwards Bd 16 1½/3 (Marianne Hobbs and Tilly Gray are the other girls in the U9 squad who did not play in this competition).

Vale Royal [Cheshire] Championships, 4 February 2001

Full details, please Click Here.

Richmond Schools Teams Championships, 4 February 2001

Both the U16 and the U11 Sections were won by girls' teams, both from LEH which entered no less than 9 teams in all. The winning teams were: U16: Teresa Khoo, Kate Feld, Rachel Lambert and Fiona Smailes, and U11: Selina Khoo, Katie Houston, Antonia Round and Sophia Bosworth. This information courtesy of Bruce Birchall.

Yateley Manor International Open, 19 January-4 February 2001

Three girls took part in this very strong event, two from Surrey and one from Buckinghamshire. Best performance was the outstanding 5/9 by Anna Partington with performance grade 2060 against rated opponents. Lydia Goodwin also did very well with 4½ (2111) as did Jessie Gilbert with 4 (2128).

South of England Junior Championships, Yateley Manor 3-4 February 2001

For scores of all the girls taking part, please Click Here. These results courtesy of Neville Belinfante.

LPSCA U11 Girls Championships, Earlsfield, 3 February 2001

This event produced a tie for first place bewteen Chantal Sirisena [Surrey] and Rachel Jacobs [Middlesex]. The results table can be seen Here. It seems a pity that no girls from the Kent or Essex areas of London took part in this event.
Mixed U9 and U8 events also took place in which there were undoubtedly some girls, but the LPSCA website gives no indication of which these were, and these days it is no longer possible to distinguish them by first names. To see these tables, access the LPSCA website through our Links page.

Sussex v Surrey, U14/U90, Crawley 3 February 2001

Sussex were the winners by 13½-10½ of this double-round match over 12 boards. Both Counties had girls in their teams: Sussex had Eleanor Hayden on Board 8, scoring 1/2, and Katherine Rattle on Board 11, who scored ½/2, while Surrey had Fiona Smailes, Board 3 with 1/2 and Reyana Fayyaz, Board 8, 0/2.

Central London Rapidplay, 3 February 2001

In the U130 section, Sarah Hegarty was joint third with 4½/6, while Hannah Dale had 2½/6 which included a win over a 101-graded player.

Stanway Chess Challenge, 3 February 2001

Very capably organised by Kathy Vanucci, this new event attracted a very good entry of girls, indeed in the U10 section they outnumbered the boys. The U8 Section finished with four girls in the top four places, being won outright by our new star player Sheila Dines with 5/5.
To see the full results of this event, click here for U12, U10 or U8.

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