Bristol Juniors V Chepstow Juniors – Tuesday July 3rd, 7pm

It was the first friendly of the year, for our newly formed Bristol Juniors team. On this occasion it was a mixture of players from Downend & Fishponds chess club, North Bristol chess club and South Bristol Chess club. This is great opportunity for juniors from different clubs to play together and get to know each other a lot better

We had a team of nine players, and the match was formatted so each player got two games of 20 mins plus ten secs per move.

Our team:

Board one – Oliver Stubbs

Board two- Toby Kan

Board three- Jack Tye

Board four – Aron Saunders

Board five – Fedor Turetskiy

Board six – Maria Eze

Board seven – Kandara Acharya

Board eight – Dwiti Acharya

Board nine – Bilal Ahmed

In Game One we managed to take a strong lead with a very impressive 7-2 scoreline. There were wins from board one to five, and also boards seven and nine. However, the scoreline was a bit flattering, and not a true reflection of how close most of the matches were. Most results not being decided until the last few minute of each game, or in several instances, with just increments left to play with.

There was then a 30 mins break, and a fantastic buffet put on for the players, and parents, by Chepstow Junior organiser Julie Macintosh.

Then to Game Two, which was again very keenly contested. Chepstow fought back, and we narrowly edged it with a 5-4 scoreline, with wins on boards one, two, four and six, and draws on boards seven and nine.

The final score was 12 – 6 to us, and was great practice for the upcoming Midland and North Gigafinals that several of our players are going to play in. (more news on the Gigafinals next week, after the final Gigafinal in Manchester on July 22nd)

Chepstow were great hosts, the match was very friendly, yet competitive nonetheless, and we were pleased to have Tyson Mordue and Richard Livermore there to support the team.

There will be other friendlies arranged over the year, and for these we hope to welcome other juniors from other Bristol and District chess clubs, to come and play for the team.

John Stubbs (Bristol & District League Junior Officer)