News from 2024-25 for Oxfordshire Chess

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

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.

5th Oxford FIDE Rapidplay

Psyon Chess is running another Rapidplay event in Kennington on Saturday 18 January 2025. They plan to run FIVE events this year, including two weekend events. This is great for chess players keen to get some match practice, so pass on the word to all. For their website (for further information and entry form) see below.

John Yates

John Yates passed away at the John Radcliffe earlier this month.

A longstanding member of Oxford City, John made an enormous contribution to City as a regular team player and captain. He also served the club as an affably effective treasurer for many years. He played for the county, was a regular at the Kidlington and Witney tournaments and was known to many players throughout Oxfordshire.

There will be a service for John at the Oxford Crematorium, Headington in the small chapel on Friday 27 December at 15:30. All those who wish to pay their last respects are welcome. Further details will be available on the Oxford City Chess website in due course.

46th Kidlington Chess Congress 2025

The 46th Kidlington Chess Congress will take place on the 1st & 2nd of February 2025 at the usual venue Exeter Hall Kidlington. 4 sections, Open, Major(u2000), Intermediate(u1800, and Minor(u1600). 5 rounds of Standard play with a timing of 90 minutes plus 15 sec increment. This year the Open section is to be FIDE rated as well as ECF rated. All other sections are ECF rated only. The Bookstall is returning this year but, following changes at Exeter Hall, it will be in the main hall and not the analysis room. Prize fund of over £2,100 with a wide range of prizes to be won. Original ECF January 2025 ratings will be used at this event.

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.

Chris Evans

Chris recently and unexpectedly died. Chris started playing for Banbury 50 years ago and had played for the club for the majority of these years. Work and family led to him to move for periods of time to Bristol and Spain where he continued to play. In addition to club chess he played both OTB and online for Oxford in the 4NCL. Chris always played quickly and loved to attack. His games often featured the Vienna and Sicilian where he had a good knowledge of sharp lines. Often his team mates whilst still in their opening phases would find the team one nil up thanks to a very quick win from Chris (he accepted quite cheerfully that occasionally his style led to quick losses). Chris could on his day down significantly higher graded players. Our thoughts are with his family.

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.