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Essex Under 11 Team at the 2025 EPSCA Inter-Association Tournaments
This year, a combination of circumstances made putting together the Essex Under 11 Team extremely challenging.

The Zonal
There was real difficulty in finding a good venue for this year’s East Zonal. In the end the organisers, with help from Barnet, came up with the University of Westminster venue in central London which was confirmed with just over a week to spare on the designated date – Saturday 15th March. For many years this competition has been dominated by Barnet, Kent, and Richmond. This year Essex was the only other team in the East Zonal so I knew the team would be hard pressed to qualify. We were informed initially only the top two teams would go forward to the final; however, this was quickly amended to three teams – we had a chance at least! Since there were only four teams with three rounds a team swiss was possible and this was quickly agreed before play started.

The first round was against a strong Richmond team who out graded most our players. The team put up a good fight but in the end was easily beaten 5 to 15.

The second round was much closer against a young Barnet team of similar strength. At first Barnet pulled away into a commanding lead and at one point was leading by a 8.5 to 2.5 and then 9.5 to 4.5. However, the team then pulled off a remarkable fight back taking all the remaining points to win the head-to-head 10.5 to 9.5.

The final round was against a very strong Kent side – the team was even more heavily out graded and this was reflected in the result – losing 4 to 16 was not a disgrace and included a couple of outstanding wins.
Thanks to all the players who showed great determination against strong opposition – there were very few quick games, and many went well over the hour mark.
Although we had done well against Barnet, the rules state that game points count and unfortunately Barnet had scored one point more against both Kent and Richmond. This meant that by one point the Essex was fourth and I had to inform a disappointed team that we had not qualified for the final….
Results: from the ECF Rating Website: https://rating.englishchess.org.uk/v2/new/list_games_event.php?event_code=JWEPSCAU11EZONE25&section_no=1

Or so I thought… The decision to only have two weeks between the qualifier and final, plus the final location in Bolton, made getting a team there very difficult, especially for southern teams (not a complaint as recent venues have tended to favour the south). Three days later, Barnet had to withdraw, and it was quickly agreed that Essex was back in as a substitute team. Now I had just 10 days to find twenty players and parents prepared to travel over four hours each way, and were available with no notice.
I made the decision to only go if I could find 16 players. I had always expected getting a team together was going to be difficult – now I found that only 10 players from the zonal were available and two who were only available for the final were no longer available.

It took a lot of effort and a lot of help from coaches and parents to find the rest of the players -special thanks to Michael Catabay, Jerzy Dybowski, Ben Harte, Mark Murrell, Warren Pongchai, Krishna Rajah, Robin Slade, and Andrew Willoughby. By the following weekend, we had managed to get the required extra six players, and so I felt able to confirm attendance. Also, it was great to find some talented players that I knew nothing about. Normally, one or two drop out late on, but incredibly, this time we managed to get four more by Thursday. It is a huge honour and opportunity to play for your county, but I was still so incredibly impressed and grateful that people were prepared to make the commitment, and so a full Essex team made it to……

The Final
This was held at Bolton School, Bolton on Saturday 29th March. Most parents and children had sensibly travelled up the night before, though I was on the early trains which fortunately all ran to time (and no replacement bus services).
Round one. Unusually for this competition, there were no quick results at the start. A win for Ted in his first time for Essex after 20 minutes was the first result. Then at the half hour mark a flurry of finishes with a slightly disappointing 3.5 from 8 games. Another group of results came at the 40-minute mark, with a much better two draws and three wins. A draw and a loss came just after the hour mark, then the wait – a win for Hantin at the 80-minute mark, and then draws for top board Ashwin and board two Grace, and finally, in the last game in the round, a draw for Sarwayogan. This gave us a share of fourth place with Manchester and only one point behind Oxfordshire, though a long way behind Richmond and run-away leaders Kent (who had a perfect 20/20).

Round two. Again, no quick results, though this time four finishes at the 20 minutes mark with 2 points scored, including a good win for Vidwath. The same happened at the 40-minute mark with 2 from 4 and yet again at the 50-minute mark. Then after a good win for Jason, only 1.5 was scored from the rest of the games. A disappointing 8.5 points meant the team had dropped to fifth, two behind Manchester and only half a point ahead of Sussex.

Round three. First to finish was Hugo with a win after 25 minutes. Then another group around the half hour scoring 2.5/4. The theme of improved results continued with yet another flurry around the 40-minute mark with a score of 3.5/6. Again at 50 minutes 2.5/3, the best result being the draw for Veer. And this time the good results continued with three wins and three draws – again best was a draw for Maxwell. The best round score of 14 points had brought the team an overall score of 34 points and back up to a very creditable fourth place overall out of the 10 teams.
I was very proud of the children – they played with good spirit and certainly enjoyed the day. We even had a reserve (thanks, Eva!)

The winner was Kent (51), followed by Barnet (44.5) and Oxford (43).
Results: https://www.oxfordfusion.com/epsca/TeamsOverall.cfm?EventID=189

Overall, the Essex Under 11 team has done well this year in difficult circumstances – I am very grateful to the all the parents and supporters for their support for the team and myself at the zonal and final – a special thank you to our volunteer and “volunteer” board stewards.

Finally, thanks to EPSCA, especially Nigel Dennis who I believe is stepping down after this year, and the many other volunteers who make these events possible.
Mark McCallum
Essex Under 11 Team Manager

EPSCA Under 9 Finals

This was certainly one of the best performances by the team, a day full of fun, excitement, and learning.
A fantastic score from Joel, Jacob and Tudor, who never lost a game, and very well done to all the players who played skilfully on their respective boards. 
So many stories to share from the games our children have played like the one from Alexander’s game who managed to create a very good pawn structure after the exchanged, the almost kiss of death checkmate in Jacob’s game, the tactical abilities of different players to gain a material or positional advantage and so many more. But I hope players will remember the story of the boy who once didn’t know how to play but fell in love in the game and was triumphant because he studied hard and took his time to calculate the possibilities in the game. 
A big applause to Ishaan who captained the team. And for those who are older, next year I wish you all the best in the Under 11s. 
A massive thank you to each parent who volunteered to help out in different aspects of the day. 
Congratulations, Essex came 4th out of 12 teams that competed.

Best Wishes,
Michael Catabay 
Essex Under 9 Team Manager