News from 2006-07 for Oxfordshire Chess

UK Chess Challenge Gigafinal, 7th-8th July 2007

There were some fantastic performances from Oxfordshire juniors in this year's UK Chess Challenge Southern Gigafinal (open only to qualifiers from the County Megafinal stage of the event). All in all, Oxon juniors won six Ultimo/Ultima titles, more than any other County (Sussex, Surrey and Middlesex each won five; our Berkshire neighbours won three).

Henry Phillips won an U7 Boys' section with 6/6. This was probably Oxon's outstanding result of the day as Henry, who's been playing for less than a year, defeated the experienced Matthew Wadsworth - England's representative for the World U8 Championship. Annie Lloyd was a point clear after winning her first five games in the U7 Girls' section, and took the title on sum of progressive scores after finishing on 5/6.

Daniel D'Souza-Eva finished 1st= in an U8 Boys' section with 5.5/6, only missing out on the title in a play-off, after tie-breaks couldn't separate him from his fellow section winner. Anna Wang won this year's U8 Girls' title with 6/6, following on from her achievement of winning the U7 Girls' section two years running!

Maria Wang also won a section for the 3rd year running, coming 1st in the U11 Girls' event with 6/6. And Marcus Harvey won an U11 Boys' section, also with 6/6.

Ruby Marsden took the U13 Girls' title with 5/6, after losing her first game and working her way through the field until she hit the front with victories over the top seeds in the final two rounds.

Several other players also came in the top three of their sections and qualified for the Terafinal - Gyu-Won Kim, Oliver Hartley, Rowan White, Chantelle Foster, Jeffrey Levicki and Daniel Rey.

Here are the results of the winners and the other Oxon children who finished in the top ten of their sections. Results from the others who played can be found using the links below.

Result Summary: UK Chess Challenge Southern Gigafinal, 7th-8th July 2007
U7 Girls	1st= and ULTIMA	Annie Lloyd (Freeland Primary)	5/6
U7 Boys B	1st and ULTIMO	Henry Phillips (Oxford High)	6/6
	9th=	Steffan Allen (St Andrew's)	3.5/6
U8 Girls	1st and ULTIMA	Anna Wang (Oxford High / Cowley)	6/6
	5th=	Irene Mathias (Oxford High / Cowley)	4/6
	5th=	Tiyash Banerjee (Oxford High)	4/6
U8 Boys A	1st=	Daniel D'Souza-Eva (St Joseph's Primary)	5.5/6
	3rd=	Gyu-Won Kim (Emmanuel Christian School)	5/6
U8 Boys B	2nd=	Oliver Hartley (Harwell Primary)*	5/6
U9 Girls	2nd=	Rowan White (Oxford High)	5/6
	10th=	Hira Hasan (St Andrew's)	3.5/6
U10 Girls	2nd=	Chantelle Foster (Barley Hill / Cowley)	5/6
U11 Girls	1st and ULTIMA	Maria Wang (Oxford High / Cowley)	6/6
	8th=	Fernanda White (Oxford High)	3.5/6
U11 Boys B	1st and ULTIMO	Marcus Harvey (West Kidlington Primary / Bicester CC)	6/6
U11 Boys C	6th=	Barney Shekleton (Magdalen College School)	4/6
U13 Girls	1st and ULTIMA	Ruby Marsden (Oxford High / Cowley)	5/6
U14 Boys	5th=	Matthew Daggitt (Magdalen College School)	4.5/6
U15 Boys	2nd=	Jeffrey Levicki (Magdalen College School)	4.5/6
U16 Boys	2nd=	Daniel Rey (Magdalen College School / Wantage)	5/6

* - listed as Berks in the official results due to the old County boundaries employed for the competiton (even though Harwell counts as Oxfordshire for every other chess purpose).

• Full Saturday Southern Gigafinal results are available on the UK Chess Challenge website.
• Full Sunday Southern Gigafinal results are available on the UK Chess Challenge website.
Link: http://www.ukchesschallenge.com

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ECF All-England Girls' Gold Finals, 30th June 2007

The All-England Girls' Gold Finals are the ECF's National Individual Girls' Rapidplay Championships, open only to qualifiers.

Anna Wang and Irene Mathias came 1st= in the U8 section with 4.5/5, after drawing with each other and beating everyone else.

Hanako Takahashi-Johnson won the U7 girls' title by scoring 2/5 in the same section.

Maria Wang finished 2nd= in the U12 section, with an unbeaten 4/5.

Full results (including how the other Oxon girls got on) are available at the ECF Girls' and Women's Chess website

Result Summary: ECF All-England Girls Gold Finals, 30th June 2007
U8	1st=	Anna Wang (Oxford High / Cowley)	4.5/5
	1st=	Irene Mathias (Oxford High / Cowley)	4.5/5
	U7 title	Hanako Takahashi-Johnson (Oxford High)	2/5
U12	2nd=	Maria Wang (Oxford High / Cowley)	4/5

Oxfordshire Schools League U11 Final

After a close match, Oxford High School repeated last year's U9 and U11 league double.

	Magdalen College School A				Oxford High School A
1	Eamon Devaney-Dykes (49)	0	-	1	Maria Wang (98)
2	Nathan Sames (31)	0	-	1	Fernanda White (34)
3	Clifford Carr	0	-	1	Anna Wang (43)
4	Barney Shekleton (44)	½	-	½	Rowan White (27)
5	William Massam (12)	1	-	0	Irene Mathias (4)
6	Jack Possee	1	-	0	Tiyash Banerjee
		2½	-	3½
Match played on 2 July 2007.
Oxford High School won 3½-2½.

Oxfordshire Schools League U9 Final

It's a testament to the concentration of the players that all the games were still going after an hour, before OHS prevailed. The same two schools will meet again in the U11 final later this term.

	Oxford High School A				Magdalen College School
1	Anna Wang (43)	1	-	0	Alex Anderton (16)
2	Rowan White (27)	1	-	0	Charlie Cook
3	Irene Mathias (4)	1	-	0	Frankie Carr
4	Tiyash Banerjee	1	-	0	Jacob Coxon
5	Katherine Klemperer	1	-	0	Sam Costello
6	Wendy Yao	0	-	1	Richard Woods-Rogan
		5	-	1
Match played on 21 June 2007.
Oxford High School won 5-1.

Wantage New Year Quickplay Tournament

The traditional New Year Quickplay Tournament at Wantage
was held on Tuesday 2nd January 2007.

The total entry of 23 players was split into graded groups of
8, 8 and 7, and the winners were :

Group 1  : Csaba Koszta   6.5/7
Group 2  : Roger Thetford, Tony Carter, Derek Punter - all 5/7
Group 3  : Martin Thetford  6/6 

George Spalding