Telford

Yorkshire U18 team to a stunning victory to win the National Title !

U18 Team manager's report:

The Yorkshire Under 18 chess team pulled off a stunning victory in the National Youth Chess Association Under 18 Championships yesterday by beating off the challenge of 7 other counties to take the title. We were certainly not favourites going into the competition and looking round at the quality of chess players in the room we felt it could be a tough day. However, the first round was amazing, with no losses, 6 wins and 2 draws to take a two point lead. The team consisted of Tom Whittaker, Louis Brijmohun, Ashley Littlewood, James Bowler, Evie Hollingworth, Amanda Hipshon, James Roberts and Peter Hornsby. They showed fantastic levels of concentration through the day. First defeats came in the second round, but only two to take another five points. Tom Whittaker, having dismissed Michael Rabbitte in the first round then beat Craig Whitfield in the second. A two and a half point lead had built up going into the third round and the team kept up the level of concentration to take another five and half points and open up a three and a half point cushion over Kent. Everyone was very focussed but we should mention Evie had been ill all week and had turned up bravely not to let the team down. She turned out a highly effective performance on board five. The last round was totally nail biting. Despite everyone playing well it was difficult to sustain the level after three gruelling games. Peter got a quick draw against a Kent player on board 8, and how crucial this turned out to be, as only three other wins followed. We were left to rely on Kent dropping one more point and thankfully that happened as their board two lost a tense game to hand the title to Yorkshire by half a point. No one should be in any doubt about the scale of this achievement and it was down to eight players concentrating and focussing on the day, giving everything for the team.

Final Team Standings - U18
1st Yorkshire 21
2nd Kent 20½
3rd Warwickshire 19½
4 Cheshire & North Wales 16½
5 South Wales 15½
6= Lancashire 12½
6= Berkshire 12½
8 Shropshire 10

Results of the U14 team - report . .

This squad was ravaged with illness and unavailability (with several top players Pierre Weller, Harry Li and Francesca Fozard out and James Bowler stepping up to play for the U18's). Also not available were Karim Ismail and Peter Hepworth. This gave several players a chance to play.

The team with anaverage age very young compared to our competition and out graded on most of the top half boards - it showed in the results - but many matches were close. Many of our top boards on the day ended up playing 3-4 boards higher than they would have had to. However, everyone battled hard as a team and we finished in the middle of the pack.

Final Team Standings - U14
1st Sussex 42½
2nd Kent 35
3rd Berkshire 32
4 Lancashire 30½
5 Yorkshire 18½
6= South Wales 17½
6= Cheshire & North Wales 17½
8 Staffordshire 14½
9 Manchester 8

We took a team of 14 - 10 players played 4 rounds and 4 players were involved in 2 rounds each.

The individuals points were ..

Results of the Reserves match - report . .

The bottom four boards played 2 matches each in the Reserve team tournament and won team medals finishing first.

Photos

U18 Team

U14 Team

Reserve Team (Cameron Blair had to leave early).