The 1st English Women's Rapidplay

The 1^st English Women’s Rapidplay was held on Saturday 2^nd July 2011 at St. Paul’s Girls’ School in Hammersmith, London. This was the first event of its kind, but we hope that it is the start of many to come.

St. Paul's Girls' School

This year, we decided to clash the tournament with the National Girls’ Chess Championships Final, which seemed counterproductive but the idea was to enable the younger girls to be inspired by the great players at the top. The younger girls were so honoured to be playing on a stage next to our strongest women and so i think the idea worked. Next year, they will get the chance to take part in the tournament themselves.

View from the balcony of the top boards

Due to the short notice and announcements of the tournament, we did not expect the numbers for the event to be too high but I was still pleased with the turnout. Nineteen women of various strengths came together to battle it out in the fine venue that was St. Paul’s Girls’ School for the title of English Women’s Rapidplay Champion. 

EWR and the NGCC

The top seed was my fellow co-manager of women’s chess, Jovanka Houska with a rapidplay grade of 221 and our most active board 1 for the England Ladies Team. Other very strong competitiors were fellow England Ladies Teammates Dagne Ciuksyte, Meri Grigoryan, Natasha Regan and Kanwal Bhatia. To add to that we had WIM Sue Maroroa, fiancée of England No. 5 GM Gawain Jones and WFM Rasa Norinkevicuite, representing Lithiuania also playing, not in contention for the title, but for the prize money! This line-up felt stronger than our women’s Olympiad team!!

WFM Meri Grigoryan vs WGM/IM Dagne Ciuksyte

WGM/IM Jovanka Houska vs WFM Kanwal Bhatia

The first round saw two female prodigies – Maria and Anna Wang on the top two boards against our former England board one and board two. It was great to see two of our most talented players hold their own for a while against our country’s finest.  Most of the results went according to grade, despite a few near upsets with just WIM Natasha Regan denying Jovanka from the full point in round 2 and showing fine endgame technique to draw with black. 

Round four saw the big match ups on the top boards with our teammates all playing each other. This round saw WFM Meri Grigoryan conquer WGM/IM Dagne Ciuksyte and land on board 1 against Jovanka for round 5.

Credit has to be given to Zoe Varney, from Cumnor Chess Club, who, despite being the youngest and lowest graded player in the tournament gave WFM Kanwal Bhatia a scare in the first round. This made Zoe a girl to watch for the tournament and spectators looked on at her following games to see this girl in action. Another familiar name was Alicia Mason, a Wey Valley girl who made her name through Mike Basman’s tournaments and did well at his UK Chess Challenge. 

Zoe Varney sporting her UKCC attire

On the other end of the spectrum, we had the more experienced women who were very familiar with the chess scene and were back to support women’s chess. Lana Boztas, a regular at rapidplay tournaments and the mother of one of my former England Junior Teammates, Kenan Boztas was playing as well as Ayse Karel from Surbiton, another one from Mike Basman’s side of town. One lady was extremely happy to be playing in this tournament, not only because she could watch proudly as her daughter, Harriet, gave the extremely well received coaching for the day, but because she was a Paulina and used to go to the school many years ago! Caro Hunt was very overwhelmed being back in her old school and very much enjoyed being part of the tournament. 

Caro Hunt - former Paulina and mother of Harriet and Adam

The last two rounds were very tense at the top and going into round 5, Meri Grigoryan was the sole leader of the tournament and it was time to face Jovanka. Meanwhile, Anna Wang had just won three in a row to be on a board high enough to face Tash Regan. Whilst Jovanka got the better of Meri, Tash was surprised that such a small girl could play such good chess and gave Anna a good scalp! This left Jovanka on 4.5/5 and Meri, Sue, Anna and Dagne going into the last round. 

The tournament was fantastic to watch and I wish I had got a chance to play, but I was busy running the National Girls’ Final. I know that our current top female Harriet Hunt would have loved to have played if she wasn’t coaching, so hopefully we can get her in it next year. Other spectators such as Mike Basman stayed throughout and was fully supportive of women’s chess.

I had a fab time just hanging out with the girls as it has been such a long time since there has been this many at one tournament!

The prizewinners for the event were as follows:

1^st place and English Women’s Rapidplay Champion:    

Jovanka Houska                                            5.5/6      (£200 + Crystal Trophy and Championship Trophy)

2^nd place:             Meri Grigoryan                 5/6         (£120)

3^rd place:             Dagne Ciuksyte                 4/6         (£20)

                             Zivilie Sarakauskiene         4/6         (£20)

                             Sue Maroroa                     4/6         (£20)

                             Kanwal Bhatia                   4/6         (£20)

                             Alice Tissot                        4/6         (£20)

Zivile, Dagne and Alice collecting their prizes

Best Junior:        Anna Wang                         4/6         (£50)

(and 3^rd =)

Best Sport:          Zoe Varney         (Best Sport Trophy)

I would like to thank everyone for coming to support this tournament. In particular, those of the top players who actually PAID to enter this tournament. Most of them will not be used to doing this as they get invited everywhere, but it was much appreciated. We hope that if we can get sponsorship for the event, then the top players can get invited!

Thank you so much to WGM/IM Harriet Hunt who provided everyone with free coaching for the day and provided a lecture in the beautiful singing hall. St. Paul’s Girls’ School were fantastic hosts and we were really privileged for being in such a prestigious venue. We were even honoured enough to have the High Mistress, Claudia Farr and Deputy Head, Kate Clanchy to make the closing announcements and present the prizes.

I would also like to thank Sainbayar Tserendorj who was the arbiter for the day and ran the event extremely smoothly and there were no disputes or problems throughout the day! Must be a first! 

  

Thank you to IM Adam Hunt for his assistant arbiting throughout the day and also to my parents who supported me and helped do the catering for the event. 

A final big thanks to Jovanka Houska to has helped me plan and run this event and even more for winning it! Jovanka made the kindest gesture I have ever seen in women’s chess and she donated half of her prize money back to women’s chess to help this and the National Girls’ Chess Championships run again next year. I am so lucky to have a co-manager with this generosity.

Many thanks again to all those who came and I hope to see more of you next year when it won’t clash with the National Girls’ Chess Championships!

WFM Meri Grigoryan raises money for charity and Women's Chess!

Former ECF Manager of Women's Chess Meri Grigoryan and England Internation gave up her Sunday to play chess. Sound like a regular occurence? Maybe, but not like Meri did it! She played about 50 games in the same day and most of them at the same time!

Meri kindly organised a simultaneous display in Bournemouth to raise money for charity as well as women's chess. She got a big crowd, encouraged many to play and everyone enjoyed the display. Most importantly she beat most of the people :P

We would like to thank Meri for running this event and hope that many more people can follow in her footsteps at this great idea of raising money. Meri reports below:

Charity Simultaneous Chess Exhibition, Bournemouth Town Square, 10 July 2011

What could you be most worried about when having an outdoor event in England? I have always known that I'm the most luckiest girl when it comes to weather! And for my charity simultaneous chess exhibition the sun was just shining all day long and Bournemouth was welcoming tourists around the world.

The simul was a great way of promoting chess in Dorset area and fundraising for the cancer research and women's chess. I was playing on 15 boards and when a game was completed onlookers were able to join in, so it was more like a chess marathon for me. The crowd was just amazing during my five-hour exhibition. My opponents were from France, Germany, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Denmark, Italy, Norway, India and the rest mainly from Dorset. I managed to play over 50 games: 48 wins, 3 loses and 3 draws.

I lost against Bruce Jenks who won this year's Frome Open (ECF 187, Bournemouth), Ivan Wallis (ECF 141, Bournemouth) and Petra Burilova (ECF 142, Czech Rep.). It's worth to mention a few junior names such as local schoolboys Sam Kitson, Charlie Bowdler, James Learer and David Minasyan from Sutton, who put a great effort in their games. Also German schoolgirl Linda Liedel, who joined in at a later stage, showed a great fighting spirit and made a draw. I'm sure we will hear her name in the future.

I would like to thank Frank Hardman, the manager of Bournemouth International Hotel, for allowing me to borrow tables and chairs, special thanks to Martin Simons (Southbourne Chess Club) who provided the chess sets and helped with transporting the furniture, and also Leo from Bournemouth, Richard and Murray from Hastings (I promised to mention their names for their help!), my mother Mareta Grigoryan and my friend Lusine Vardanyan for their moral support and taking those great photos.

A big thanks to everyone who made this event happen. I have raised £135 online (plus gift aid of £26.23) and just over £100 during the exhibition. The event was by no means a success. I enjoyed it as much as the public did, so perhaps we should make it happen again next year :)

In-Tournament Training: British Chess Championships 2011

The British Chess Championships 2011 is being held at Ponds Forge, Sheffield and will be the strongest British Chess Championships seen in a long time with our top players, Michael Adams, Nigel Short, David Howell and Gawain Jones all fighting for the title. Our England International women are also playing: Jovanka Houska, Susan Lalic and Sarah Hegarty, fighting for the British Ladies Champion title.

England No.1
GM Michael Adams

England No. 4
GM David Howell

England No. 5
GM Gawain Jones

England No.2
Nigel Short

Alongside this main event there are several other evens being played including the Major Open, British Senior Championships and British U8-U16 age groups. Please see the official website here: http://britishchess2011.com/

The Chevannes Chess Academy will be providing training throughout the British Chess Championships for all juniors and women, with various levels of coaching available. We are very privileged to have GM Keith Arkell in our coaching team! The coaching will be professionally run with scheduled coaching slots for preparation and analysis after the games. Group sessions/lectures will also be available.

In order to secure your place, please email/phone me as soon as possible as there are very limited spaces for this coaching and they will get filled up very quickly. Please DO NOT make any payments when filling in the request form as your space will need to be confirmed before payment is made.

The levels of coaching are as follows:

A) GM Coaching – with the 2008 English Chess Champion, Keith Arkell                 (£120 per week/£200 per fortnight)

GM Keith Arkell with analyse your games after each round and give you tips on anything that you might be finding difficult throughout the tournament. Keith will only be available AFTER your rounds for analysis and help and will not be doing pre-game preparation

B) IM Coaching – with the current British and English Ladies Champion, Jovanka Houska (£100 per week/£180 per fortnight)

IM/WGM Jovanka Houska will prepare you for your games and analyse them after the round but will only have limited availability as she will be playing in the tournament herself. 

C) WFM Coaching – with England International and professional chess coach Sabrina Chevannes (£100 per week/£180 per fortnight)

WFM Sabrina Chevannes is available for FULL support. She is around for the two weeks and will be fully dedicated to her students. She guarantees preparation and at least 1 hour analysis each day. There will be group coaching sessions scheduled for her students and will be contactable throughout the tournament for any help needed.

To register your interest, please email the following details to sabrinachevannes@hotmail.co.uk

Name:

D.O.B:

Section(s) entered:

Dates required for coaching:

Level of coaching preferred:

Email:
Tel: