Wednesday 18 May 2022
Essex Under 9 Association Championship Finals 2022
A splendid performance by the Essex Under 9 Juniors in the Finals.
Having 3 apologies from the original squad in the Zonal, the team was very lucky to have 2 additional players in the main and 1 in the reserves.
In round 1, a creative tactic from Hugo delivering a fork capturing the opponents Queen and then followed by Rithul’s perilous attack to the opponent's King were the first players to give great advantage in the tournament for the team. Then came more winning points one after another from our Essex Juniors who earned 10 wins and came on top of the table after Round 1, which is probably one of the best moments that I ever had since managing the team.
The team tried to hold on to the top in round 2 with a wonderful positional play from Grace who managed to get a material advantage and the same thing happened to the game played by Hantin. Karthik and Vince also played with great coordination of pieces, exposing the opponent's King to very strong and tenacious attacks, securing the wins. But, unfortunately, we have suffered badly too, losing ineptly at some of the boards putting the teams in the 4th rank after this round.
The third round was very intense as we needed 9-11 points to be able to contest in the top three teams. And as the 1st phase of the last round went, the team collected 5 winning points leaving top 5 boards playing in the battlefield. Regrettably, the last 3 boards lost their games and only 2 players were able to convert the wins.
The team finished 4th in the ranking with 24 points.
- Kudos to the top 3 boards who were very brave to play and lead the team to get to the higher ranking.
- Very consistent and strategic play of players from board 4 to 9.
- Great determination from boards 10 to 12 including the reserve players.
A very well played by board 5 (Jason) in the last round, proving that a Queen is not as strong as the 2 Rooks playing in harmony as he crushed the opponents defense, delivering the checkmate with style using a Rook and a Bishop. And appears to be the same checkmate that the board 12 (George) has made in the last round.
In general, the day was very enjoyable and as beautiful as the games being played by our Essex Juniors.