New grades

The new grades were published at the end of July.   Below is a full list of all Suffolk Juniors who are included on this list.   'R' stands for a Rapidplay grade; otherwise the grade shown is for standard-play chess.

Top Junior Alan Merry is also the highest-graded English Under 17.   The greatest increase in grade, across all players, male/female, adult and junior, is by 9-year old Anita Somton, who gained 50 points between January and July 2013.

>

Name	Boy/Girl	Grade	Club
Alan Merry	B	227	Bury St Edmunds
Adam Taylor	B	190	Manningtree
Silas Peck	B	162	Ipswich
Daniel Such	B	125	Woodbridge School
Emilia Jewell	G	124	Bury St Edmunds
Alex Sheerin	B	121	Ipswich
Anita Somton	G	109	Bury St Edmunds
Artem Emelyanov	B	101	Woodbridge School
Clement Wallace	B	101R	Bury Knights
George Horan	B	100	Bury St Edmunds
Sean Colliety	B	96	Bury St Edmunds
Mario Saenz de Villaverde	B	92	Bury Knights
Hugo Kelleway	B	91	Woodbridge School
Alba Saenz de Villaverde	G	83	Bury St Edmunds
Alan John	B	82R	Bury Knights
William Starling	B	68R	Bury Knights
Rufus Easdale	B	65R	Bury Knights
Patrick Gembis	B	64	Bury St Edmunds
Bethany Young	G	60R	Stowmarket
Sohan Gowda	B	53R	Stowmarket
Liya Baby	G	31	Bury Knights

In addition to those listed above, 16-year old Justin Tan, a Fide Master (FM) from Australia, will be joining Woodbridge School in September.   He played in the London Classic last December and has a current grade of 229!

Full Gigafinal results

There were 24 children who had qualified from the regional Megafinals for the Northern Gigafinal in Manchester last weekend.   12 of these qualifiers actually travelled north to take part.   As already reported, 9-year old Anita Somton won her section and qualifies for the Terafinal in August.

11-year old Alex Sheerin will also be going to the Terafinal, albeit in the Challengers Section.   He came second in his section, after drawing his first and last games whilst winning the other four, to finish in sole second place on 5 points.

Other scores were as follows (all scores out of 6):

Luc Wallace (Bury Knights JCC) u7B - 3 points
Luca Gonzalez-Janes (Ipswich Prep) u8B - 2
Peter Jardine (Creeting St Mary Primary) u8B - 2
Thomas Liddy (Abbey Prep, Woodbridge) u8B - 2
Alan John (Bury Knights JCC) u10B - 3½
Bethany Young (Bury Knights JCC) u11G - 2
Clement Wallace (Bury Knights JCC/St Louis Middle) u12B - 2½
William Sait (Bury Knights JCC) u13B - 4½ (equal 3rd)
Patrick Gembis (Bury Knights JCC) u14B - 3
Emilia Jewell (Bury Knights JCC) u15G - 3½ (3rd)

Nine of the 12 entrants attend the Bury Knights JCC.   It was disappointing that seven other Megafinal qualifiers, all who attend the Abbey Prep in Woodbridge, were unable to play.

Anita qualifies for the Terafinal!

9-year old Anita Somton from Bury St Edmunds is officially the best girl for her age in the northern half of the UK.   (The North/South line runs from the Bristol Channel to Harwich!)

At the Delancey UK Chess Challenge Northern Gigafinal in Manchester today, Anita won her first five games and only needed to draw her sixth and final game to win her Under 9 Girls section.

So for the second year in a row, Anita proceeds to the Terafinal, to be held in Loughborough on 17/18 August.

Also playing at the Gigafinal were Alan John (Under 10 Boys) who scored 3½ points and Luc Wallace (Under 7 Boys) on 3 points.

Gigafinal this weekend

The annual Delancey UK Chess Challenge is nearing its climax this weekend, when hundreds of children from around the country will be converging on Manchester for the Gigafinal of this amazing tournament.   Over 60,000 children participated in the initial local rounds, with some 10,000 progressing to the 41 Megafinals.   These are mainly County-based, and the Suffolk Megafinal took place at Woodbridge School in May.

From the Megafinal, 24 children from Suffolk have qualified for the Gigafinal.   See list here.   These include nine children who attend the Bury Knights Junior Chess Club and eight from Woodbridge School and The Abbey Prep.   One additional qualifier is Anita Somton (Bury Knights), who was unable to play in the Suffolk Megafinal as she was representing England in the World Schools Championships in Serbia at the time.   Instead, she qualified through the 'West Anglia' Megafinal, where she scored 5½ out of 6.

Results will be posted on this website as soon as they are known.   Section winners qualify for the Terafinal, the fourth and final stage of this competition, where about 250 children compete for the ultimate title of 'Strat' (they also win £2,000!).

Good luck to all Suffolk players!

A new website for Suffolk Juniors!

Starting today, this website will provide news and information about Junior Chess in Suffolk. Anyone interested in providing content should contact Bob Jones, the Secretary of the Suffolk County Chess Association.

Two of Suffolk's Juniors, Alex Sheerin and Anita Somton have been selected to represent England!   Go to the Suffolk Chess website here.

If you are running a school chess club in Suffolk, we'd like to hear from you!

The Suffolk County Chess Association is looking for someone to take on the role of Junior Chess Organiser.   This job requires someone who can provide the necessary enthusiasm to encourage more young people to take up the game of chess.   Ability at chess is not essential; what's more important is energy and ideas which will improve the quantity and quality of chess for children in Suffolk.