News from 2024-25 for Oxfordshire Chess

Junior Chess Jamboree - May 10th 2025

Maidenhead Junior Chess club has invited Oxfordshire to field a junior team in their upcoming jamboree on the afternoon of May 10th.

Any junior (under 18) players interested in playing ECF Standard (50+10) rated matches in a team event can see more information (and request to be in the team) through the following link.

There is no charge to play, and players of all ability levels will be needed.

First Oxford FIDE Congress on 26-27 April

The inaugural two-day FIDE Congress run by Psyon Chess starts on Saturday 26 April, so just a week to go!

Here are some details:

Location: Kennington Village Hall, Oxford OX1 5PG

Parking: There is limited car parking at the Kennington Village Hall, & plenty of off-street parking around the venue

Format: 5-Rounds Swiss, FIDE & ECF Rated

Eligibility: Minimum ECF Gold Membership required to avoid paying Pay-to-Play fee of £15 / £6

Sections: 3-Sections - U2300, U1900, U1500

Time Control: 60 Minutes + 30 Seconds Increment from Start

It would be great to see more players supporting this new event in Oxfordshire!
				

OCA Proposals/Discussion Forum

Dear All,

An email will have been sent to club secretaries to distribute information about the new forum for discussions which has been set up for the OCA. This will be useful for engagement with players and getting a wide set of opinions for future discussions that the committee will consider and assist the committee in forming their recommendations for the full OCA at AGM time.

You will need to sign up to make comments on the message boards/forum and I hope that is relatively easy to navigate. Any questions can be sent to me via email. I look forward to engagement over the coming months.

Additionally, if you wish to send in proposals, they can be done to me or via the new forum for overall discussion. If you prefer to send to me and I will then upload them, that is fine too e.g. specific rule changes or refinements.

OXFORDSHIRE INDIVIDUAL CHAMPION

Following the Kidlington Tournament, I can 
announce that the title of Oxfordshire 
Individual Champion goes to 
Kenneth Hobson. 
The title is awarded based on the sum of 
results from the Open sections of the 
Witney and Kidlington Congress's. Kenneth 
has a combined score of 7.5. 

Special mention must also go to Jan 
Murawski who was in the running but 
finished on 7 points.

Links to the Chess Results below 

Witney 
https://chess-results.com/tnr1047886.aspx? 
lan=1 

Kidlington https://chess-
results.com/tnr1096557.aspx? lan=1


				

Oxfordshire Junior Chess Tournament Results 4th / 5th Jan 2025

The Oxon Junior Chess Trials and Championships were held at Cumnor Primary School on the weekend of 4th /5th Jan 2025. There were approximately 100 entries across the four sections: U9, U11, U13, U15/18. This is one of the highlights of the Oxon County Chess calendar, welcoming over 30 newcomers to over-the-board chess as well as hosting the county's strongest junior talent.

Congratulations to our 2024-25 Oxfordshire junior champions:

U9: 1st Emmanuelle Li, 2nd Nicholas Tanuwidjaja, 3rd Oliver Schmidt

U11: 1st Aden Kennedy, 2nd Kadhir Cholan, 3rd Aashi Aggarwal

U13: 1st Artem Miller, 2nd Joshua Flugge, 3rd Harry Greaves

U15 champion: Jan Murawski

U18 champion: Kenneth Hobson

U18G: Shambavi Hariharan

Best performing primary school: Europa School UK*

Best performing secondary school: MCS*

*based on top four scores of players, no single school can win the prize twice in consecutive years.

Full cross-tables for the U9 and U11 sections can be found on UTU Swiss Results. Cross-tables for the U13 and U15/18 sections can be found on chess-results via the link below.

Special thanks to Cumnor Primary School for hosting and to:

- arbiters: Alex Conlon, Joe Conlon, Keith Freshwater

- assistant controllers: David Zakarian, John Place

- U9, U11, U11G captains: Dan Schmidt Valle, Julian Kennedy, Julie Gray

- front desk: Ola Murawska, Marianna Asatryan

- bookstall: Andrew Varney

- general help: Jeff Bryant, Craig Miller, Juliette Sherwood, family Tanuwidjaja

- game analysis and coaching: Yichen Han

- new Ojays coach: Joe Cossins-Smith.

Frank Wood Draw 2024-2025

The Frank Wood Draw was completed this evening and is viewable on youtube at the link below.

Apologies for my lack of tech savvyness and how I didn't realise pressing return would lead to a change after the 18 rotations, but I went back and made sure the draw is correct.

We start at the quarter-finals with:

Bicester Phoenix v Cumnor Six Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Witney Weavers v Wantage Alfredians
Wantage Poets v Banbury Bruisers
Oxford City 1 v bye to semi finals

This will be set up in the competitions area shortly with dates for when fixtures must be complete by.

Starred Players for 2024-2025 season

Thank you to all clubs for nominating their required set of starred players. The list can be found in the link below.

If there are any errors, do let me know asap.

Updated OCA Constitution and League Rules

Dear All,

As passed at the recent AGM, new documents have been uploaded which relate to minor changes to the OCA Constitution and League Rules. I would advise all captains and club officials to be familiar with these updated documents.
There has been no substantive changes to how the League operates - instead some dates have been amended for flexibility, and some clarity has been improved to the language of the operations.

Constitution links from below, while the League Rules are here.

Would you like to run / coach 'Ojays' - Oxfordshire's Junior Squad?

Oxfordshire Junior Chess would like to invite expressions of interest to 
run and coach 'Ojays', taking over from Andrew Varney as he stands down 
after many years hard work.

Ideally, this would involve regular (weekly? fortnightly?) in-person 
group coaching sessions suitable for children who are keen at chess and 
are county-level players, including at U9 or U11 level but also older 
players. Such players regularly emerge from the Oxon Junior Championship 
/ the London Junior qualifier and school chess clubs. Parents (and 
children) are keen for there to be a place where such children can 
continue to develop their chess, at a level which is higher and more 
competitive than school chess clubs, and we (Oxon Junior Chess) would 
like there to be a county-level coaching structure to which we can point 
parents so that their children can develop their love for chess and, if 
they have the desire and ability, become national-level players.

The precise structure of the coaching, and the venue/fees charged, would 
be largely up to the coach; such group coaching may also provide a 
natural conduit into private coaching of some of these county-level 
juniors, as they further progress and seek out more bespoke coaching.

Coaches should be able to inspire young players in the love of the game, 
should be strong enough as players to be able to provide effective 
coaching to county-level U9 and U11 players (the strongest U11s are ~ 
1800 ECF), and should hold an enhanced DBS check.

Expressions of interest to [email protected] by 31st August 
2024.