Official 2009 grades

Shropshire Junior grades 2009

Following some further amendments by ECF in late August these are now the official grades for the 2009-10 season.

Ieuan Fenton (Oswestry) 175
Louis Graham 166
Athar Mehmood (Newport) 133
Nathanael Paul (Coddon) 131
Peter Mellor (Coddon) 125
Francis Rooney (Shrewsbury/Church Stretton) 110
Christopher Lovejoy (Shrewsbury/Church Stretton) 104
Huw Davenport (Newport) 99
Mark Richards (Newport) 98
Jamie Allan (Newport) 97
Matthew Best (Shrewsbury) 95
Henry Graham (Shrewsbury) 90
Jonathan Newey (Shrewsbury) 91
Luke West (Newport) 80
Angelica Dean (Shrewsbury) 72
Joseph Mellor (Coddon) 64
Matthew Mellor (Coddon) 56
Katherine Lovejoy (Shrewsbury) 50

Full list of Shropshire grades here - http://rutterchess.741.com/Grades_2009.htm

New grades online

The 2009 grades are now online at http://grading.bcfservices.org.uk/

Quite a few have topped the 100-mark and there are large increases for some of our juniors as anticipated.(Remember that these grades also represent a major revision which has seen a lot of junior grades lifted.)

I'll put the full list of grades on here shortly.

HOWEVER, be warned that there could still be revisions to this list before it becomes official for the coming season. I don't see any Shropshire grades that I would consider out of order but there are some incidences across the country of significantly "overgraded" juniors that may mean there is further tinkering with the system of allocating these grades.

Shropshire juniors reach final stage of UK Chess Challenge

Two Shropshire Juniors have reached the final stage of the UK Chess Challenge with a place in the Challengers Tournament at the Terrafinal to be held next month in Warwick. Alex Taylor (Adams Grammar and Newport Chess Club) came equal third in the U18 Gigafinal last weekend with 4 points from 6 matches; and Athar Mehmood (Wrekin College and Newport Chess Club) came equal second in the U12 section with 5/6, only narrowly missing out on the top spot and qualification for the Terrafinal. This is a very impressive result for both players as these Gigafinal sections are very tough at the top with a number of junior internationals present!

In total, 12 Shropshire juniors took part in the Gigafinal in Manchester which was the Northern final of the competition which involves around 70,000 young chess players in its opening stages!

All of the Shropshire players performed well against tough opposition. The full results with club/school in brackets:

U7B Greg Jones (Shrewsbury) 2.5/6
U11B Joe Booth (St Georges Sch, Shrewsbury) 2/6
U12B Athar Mehmood (Newport) 5/6 - equal 2nd
U13B Matthew Best (Shrewsbury) 2/6
U13B Mark Richards (Newport) 4/6
U13G Angelica Dean (Shrewsbury) 3/6
U14B Francis Rooney (Shrewsbury) 3/6
U15B Peter Mellor (Coddon) 2.5/6
U16B Jamie Allan (Newport) 2.5/6
U16B Sam Eardley (Adams Grammar) 2/6
U17B Nathanael Paul (Coddon) 2.5/6
U18B Alex Taylor (Newport) 4/6 - equal 3rd

Shropshire chess AGM

The report submitted to the Shropshire Chess AGM summarising the highlights of the past season is available to download. Download AGM report

Chester congress report

Here's a brief report on the Chester congress which took place last weekend: Three Shropshire juniors competed in the event at the weekend. Nathanael Paul scored 3/5 in the Intermediate section, a very strong result in this section which is for players under 130 grade. Along the way he beat one player graded 128 and drew against a 129. In the Minor section (under 100 grade), Athar Mehmood scored 3.5/5 and Francis Rooney 2.5/5. Meanwhile among the adults playing, Chris Paul scored 3/5 in the Minor and Steve Rooney scored 2.5/5 in the Major - managing to draw every single game.

UK Chess Challenge Gigafinal

Just a reminder to all those who qualified for the Gigafinal, you should have received your entry forms by post during the past week. If for any reason you haven't, I suggest you speak to the organisers - see contact details on their website - www.ukchesschallenge.com/contactus.shtml

Junior Academy and Fun tournament 6 June

Just a reminder that the next Shropshire Junior Chess Academy takes place on Saturday with an opportunity for some of the regulars to get their Pawn or Knight qualification! Also in the afternoon we will run a fun tournament from 1pm to 4.30pm - with cash prizes! It should be a good opportunity for a refresher for those who haven't played for a few weeks and a warm-up for Gigafinal qualifiers in the UK Chess Challenge. Both events are at Trinity School, Ford and are open to junior players of all levels.