News from 2022-23 for Oxfordshire Chess

Oxfordshire Graders Report 2023

Kelly Riley (1945-2022)

Last year I posted that Kelly Riley had entered nursing care. News recently broke that Kelly died in December 2022. My thanks to Graham Willis and Phil Hayward for finding this sad news out, via Kelly's friend Harry Hudson.

As Phil aptly put it, Kelly was a big character on and off the board but also generous and good natured. Sometimes his competitive ways got the better of him but, usually, this merely resulted in yet another good story: stuff just seemed to happen around Kelly and most of the stories (including the time an IM allowed him mate in one!) are true.

Oxon Junior Chess Trials and Championship Results

The Oxon Junior Chess Trials and Championships were held at Cumnor 
Primary School on the weekend of 8/9 Jan 2023.  There were over 100 
entries across the four sections: U9, U11, U13, U15/18.  The tournament 
had a very positive feel to it, lots of enthusiasm from participants and 
organisers alike.

Congratulations to the 2023 champions:

U9: Aden Kennedy 
U11: Aden Kennedy 
U13: Elon Khoo 
U15: Yichen Han (also overall U15/18 section winner)
U18: Ewan Bridson
U18G: Tashika Arora

There will also be chess clock prizes for the top performing schools (to 
be announced soon).

Full cross-tables can be viewed using the link below.

Many thanks to the accommodating staff at Cumnor Primary School, Joe 
Conlon (U9, U11 chief arbiter), Keith Freshwater (U13, U15/18 chief 
arbiter), John Place, David Zakarian, Nigel Moyse (assistant arbiters), 
Andrew Varney (book stall and emergency manual pairer), Jules Kennedy 
(U9 team captain), Julie Gray (U11G team captain) and Hilary Greaves 
(all round help).

Those children who did well in the U9 and U11 sections will have the 
opportunity to represent Oxfordshire in the forthcoming EPSCA qualifiers 
and finals. The U11G final will be hosted at Cheney School in Oxford on 
25th March 2023.