Heather Richards in Women's Olympiad team

It is very pleasant to report that Heather Richards, who is still a junior (and will be until 31 August 2001 for BCF purposes!) has been selected as Board 4 of England's team to contest the Women's Chess Olympiad in Turkey from 27 October to 13 November. Heather, of Whitstable, Kent will play alongside the three adult women Harriet Hunt, Susan Lalic and Jovanka Houska.

22nd Barnet Knights Tournament, Edgware 23 July 2000

Undoubted star of this event was Abigail Flint of Essex, who took clear first prize in the U10 section with a perfect 6/6 score! Many other girls played, and you can see their results HERE. We have included girls' counties where known to us, but one has had to be left blank, so if anyone knows what this should be, please email or telephone.

Smith and Williamson Young Masters, Witley

This annual tournament for very strong juniors is by invitation only, and this year a number of girls have taken part, including, in the Open, Humpy Koneru of India; in the FIDE section, Sophie Tidman, Agnes Antal, Anne Bekker-Jensen [DK] and Rosalind Kieran.
There were also two All-Play-All sections: In the first of these, Teresa Khoo maintained her fine form of this year by placing first with 6/7. In the same Section, Alexandra 'Aly' Wilson had 4/7.
We hope to publish results from the Open and Fide sections soon.

European and World Youth Championship squads announced

The Faber Cup, Dublin 23-28 July 2000

France scored a narrow victory over England on tiebreak to win this year's Faber Cup. The three girls who represented England were Melanie Buckley [Somerset], Sophie Tidman [Warwickshire], and Anna Partington [Surrey]. Sophie took the Board 2 best score prize. To see all the other scores, Click Here.

Coulsdon Rapidplay, 15 July 2000

Scott Freeman writes:
We had a super day with 57 players involved. The scores of all ladies present were as follows: Susan Lalic 4.5, Sarah Hegarty 4.0, Jessie Gilbert 3.5, Anna Partington 3.5, Alex Kelly 2.0, and Fiona Smailes 1.0 I made reference to the fact we had so many ladies at the start - it was really great. (We had quite a number of juniors generally). I must mention Sarah Hegarty's first round defeat of David Howell in that breath! The ladies themselves took up more than 10% of the entry, which was our 2nd highest ever entry for a rapidplay. I would also like to complement them all for the positive competitive spirit between them and the way they all got on so well with each other which really encompassed the spirit we like to see in our events at Coulsdon. Susan Lalic was 0.5 pts short of 2nd=. Sarah Hegarty would certainly have shared the U130 grading prize with C-J De Mooi on 4 pts; he had agreed a quick draw with Jessie in the last round thinking that 4 should be enough as Stuart Hamilton (98) was playing David Ledger (192). This plan was "laid by a mouse," though, as Stuart defied all the odds in a sensation 15 move walloping of his higher graded opponent! Graeme Buckley had beaten Andrew Ledger in the last round to take 1st on 5.5 and leave Ledger sharing 2nd= with James Sherwin, Marcus Osborne (also main share of U200 prize) on 5. Peter Taylor took the remainder of the U200 prize on 4.5. Jessie and Anna were a point short of their grading prize as Stephen Haws of Horsham took the U170 with 4.5 (and Stuart the U130). David Wallis of Coulsdon took the U90 with 3.5. It was a really good day - please thank all the girls who took part. It was a real pleasure to see them all and they really gave something extra to the event.

England and Germany in Close Finish, Canary Wharf 8-9 July 2000

The England v Germany International Girls match ended in an overall draw with 16 points each. The match was played over 4 rounds, Scheveningen System, with four U14 boards and 4 U12 boards. In the U14 section, England defeated Germany by 9 points to 7, whereas in the U12 section, the scores were exactly reversed.
Top scorers were, for England, U14 Teresa Khoo with 4/4, and for Germany, U12 Annett Hofmann with a similar score.
For full details of the match, Click Here. and all the games are now available in PGN format at the BCF website here.

England U11 Girls v Wales Girls, Chepstow 2 July 2000

There was a heavy defeat for Wales in this match, which was over eight boards and two rounds. The Welsh team was handicapped by the absence of some of its strongest players. The eight English girls were from six different Counties. For the full details of this match, Click Here.

Surrey Win ECGCF Grand Final on Board Count, Abingdon 1 July 2000

This has been the season of close finishes, and none more so than the ECGCF Grand Final, which went to the 'penalty shoot-out' stage of Board Count in which Surrey just defeated an excellent Staffordshire team to take the Grand Cup for the second time.
Middlesex were third, Norfolk fourth, and Bedfordshire fifth. To see the scores in detail, Click Here .

Ilford Congress

Playing in the Open section, Jessie Gilbert scored 2½/6 with performance grade 160, while in the Major section, Alexandra 'Aly' Wilson had 4/6 with performance grade 158. Both of these fine Surrey players will be representing England in the forthcoming International match at Canary Wharf on July 8/9, and Jessie will also be in action on Board 1 for her County in the ECGCF Grand Final on July 1 at Abingdon.

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