News from 2008

ODCL Fixtures for 2008-09

Peter Hemmings has now provided the fixtures for the Oxford and District Chess League for the coming season (and the first two rounds of the Frank Wood Shield) in both diary and grid format.

The majority of league matches are unchanged. Changes from the previous version, published 22 August:

• Fixtures for OxUni 4 (now in division 4) and Witney 2 (now in division 3) have been switched.
• Some OxUni 4 fixtures have been move into term time.
• Some Witney 2 fixtures have been moved out of university term time.
• Didcot 1 home night moved from Wednesday to Monday.
• One or two other fixtures have been moved to allow FWS matches.
• Two conditional FWS Round 2 ties have been moved out of the designated week.

Chiltern League under 100's

The first match, in the newly formed under 100's in the Chiltern 
League, took place on Saturday 20th September at High Wycombe, Bucks. 
All four Counties attended the fixture with Bucks playing Oxon and 
Hants playing Berks. There are twelve players in a side consisting of 
six adults and six juniors, with juniors playing against the adults.

The match was a great success. Both the junior and adult players 
enjoyed their matches against each other.

The results:     Bucks 9 Oxon 3 & Hants 4 Berks 8. 

Bucks adults vs Oxon juniors:
Fred Day 99           1-0  Ruby Marsden 90,
Andrew Challinger 94  ½-½  Piyal Matilal 56,
Chris Stothert 82     1-0  Ben Chen r35,
Paul Basham 75        1-0  Patrick McKenna r14,
Brian Hicks 64        1-0  Daniel D'souza 60,
Frank Rich 45         ½-½  Louis Hampden r30.

Bucks juniors vs Oxon adults:
Joshua Ye e80         1-0  Malcolm Brindley 95,
Chantelle Foster 70   1-0  Tony Heslop 94,
William Hansen e55    1-0  Liam Glenn 85,
Jamie Tilston 53      1-0  Tamal Matilal 84,
Kaushik Sadanand r31  0-1  Mark Creasey 83,
Default               0-1  Ray Cordon 78.
				

Didcot 1 ODCL home night now Monday

Following a decision at the club's recent AGM, Didcot 1's league matches in the forthcoming season will now take place on Mondays. Didcot 2's matches remain on Wednesdays.

News from Witney Chess club

Some news from Witney chess club. We will meet at Ducklington Village Hall until further notice. The link to our map and directions is http://www.3feet.co.uk/chess/location.htm or via the link on our website www.witneychess.org.uk. If you need transport from the centre of Witney for example if you are catching the 100 buses please let us know and we will do our best to ferry you both ways). Requests should be via email to our team captains. Please give a mobile number for drivers to reach you on the night. We will start start at 7.30pm rather than 7.15pm

We are planning to hold an under 18 beginners chess tournament on Saturday 11 October 10.00am to 5pm. Please tell your juniors. Numbers are limited to 50 and we allocated on a first come first served basis. Preference will be given to children living in Witney. The tournament will be held at the Kings School in Witney and entry forms are available from alan.kennedy@smithkennedy.co.uk. Juniors who have played in county under 11 teams and above are ineligible as we want to encourage beginners locally. Any help with arbitration etc gratefully received.

Keith Broome, who many of you will know, was given life membership of Witney chess club after over 38 years of attending the club. Please congratulate him when you next see him. He will play for Witney 2 or 3 next season

Under Grade 125 Team for 08-09

I am compiling a list of players who would like to play for the
Oxfordshire under grade 125 team in some of The Chiltern League matches
this year. I will include all of the players who played in any of the 
last year's matches  and are still under grade 125.

I will also include players whose names have been suggested to me by
club secretaries.

If you did not play in any of last years games but would like to be 
included in this years list please contact me on 01235 764264 or 
raycordon@mypostoffice.co.uk .

There are six matches per season, three at home (MCS) and three away. 
It is unusual for anyone to play in all six matches and some people 
only play in one or two. The away games involve travelling to 
Basingstoke, Holmer Green and  Crowthorne. 
  
     Ray Cordon.
				

More England Junior success

Georg Vikanis (aged 13) from the Banbury club has been selected for the National Junior Squad. Congratulations Georg.

Players Wanted

The Chiltern League has introduced a new tournament this year for players graded under 100. The team will consist of 12 players, six of which will be adults and the other six, juniors. Juniors will play adults. There are four Counties involved, Oxon, Bucks, Hants and Berks. There will be four matches in the tournament. The first match will take place on September 20th away to Bucks. The team for this match has been selected, with one junior space still to be filled. If there are any players who would like to play in any of the other three matches; also if there is a junior player who would like to play on Sept 20, then please let me know. The dates for these matches are: 17th January, away to Hants, 1st March home, at Cumnor Old School, Cumnor OX2, and on the 28th March away to Berks. Please contact Steven Bennett, 01865 862788 or email westfs@aol.com

British Championships news

James Foster of Cowley Chess Club became the British Under 15 Champion on Saturday by being the highest placed under 15 in the Under 16 Championship. James, who is actually still an under 14, finished clear second on 5½ / 7.

It was a remarkable performance considering that James, graded 139, was the 15th seed in the field of 24 players. In the penultimate round he drew with the eventual winner, and in the final round he soundly defeated a player rated 174. These games were shown live on the official British Championships site!

In the Under 9 Championships, Daniel D'Souza-Eva finished =3rd with 5 / 7.

Martin Bush of Wantage Chess Club came close to finishing equal first in the British Under 175 Championships, but lost in the last round.

Jon D'Souza-Eva

Gigafinal Results

The third stage of the UK Chess Challenge - the Gigafinal - took place on the 12th and 13th August. Of the Oxfordshire players who took part, three boys and three girls won their sections. Congratulations to them and to all the other children who took part.

Here are the results of all the Oxfordshire juniors. The full results can be found on the UK Chess Challenge site (the title of the results pages say "2007", but these are definitely the 2008 results!).

All the section winners (ultimi and ultimae) qualify for the Champions section at the Terafinal in August; 2nd and 3rd places qualify for the Challengers section of the Terafinal.

Jon D'Souza-Eva

MCS win U13 Schools League Final

Magdalen College School won the U13 league final 6-0, stunningly overturning their 4-2 league defeat by OHS as recently as April:

	MCS				Oxford High
1	Frederico Bastinelli	1	-	0	Maria Wang
2	Ewan Bowlby	1	-	0	Anna Wang
3	Clifford Carr	1	-	0	Rowan White
4	Eamon Devaney	1	-	0	Irene Mathias
5	Guy Dixon	1	-	0	Jemima Gasson
6	Thomas Hay	1	-	0	Zoe Vickers
		6	-	0

EPSCA U11 final (now with final team positions)

A sadly weakened Oxon U11 team, missing several top-ten players, travelled to the inter-counties final in Liverpool. Some determined performances against mostly higher-graded opposition produced few points early on (6½/20 and 7/20), but bore more fruit in the final round (11/20) as we moved up to 11th overall. Suffolk, Herts and Lincs qualified but didn't travel, and it appears from the official results (below) that Devon and Oldham fielded a combined team.

Update:

 1. Kent             43
 2. Wey Valley       39½
 3. Nottinghamshire  39½
 4. Richmond         36½
 5. Sussex           36
 6. Yorkshire        35½
 7. Barnet           35
 8. Berkshire        30½
 9. Essex            29
10. Lancashire       26½
11. Oxfordshire      24½
12. DevonOldham      24
13. Manchester       20
14. Somerset         15½
15. Liverpool 	     15

Thanks to everyone who went, and especially to those children who had to play on a higher board than usual: you all played a part. Individual results:

 1. Chantelle Foster    2
 2. Sarah Garrett       0
 3. Alex Anderton       1
 4. Rowan White         ½
 5. Bryce Jones         1
 6. Gyu-Won Kim         2
 7. Sif Fugger          0
 8. Louis Hampden       1
 9. Zoe Vickers         0
10. Niall Devaney       0
11. Edward Noble        2
12. Ruth Friedlander    1
13. Patrick McKenna     2
14. Alicia Cordon       1
15. Hannah Vickers      1
16. Oliver Oughton      2½
17. Katherine Klemperer 2
18. Guy Fiennes         1½
19. Ben Wooding         2
20. Jonathan Allen      2

Reserves Tournament (Swiss)
    Andrew Convery      2
    Henry Phillips      2
    Tom Daggitt         1
    Jacob Coxon         1

Oxon Megafinal Results

Nearly 200 children took part in the Oxfordshire Megafinal of the UK Chess Challenge. Results are now posted at the Oxon Junior Congress website.

Chantelle for England

Following the weekend's trials in Liverpool, Chantelle Foster (Barley Hill School) has been picked to play in the England under-11 team. She follows brother James into the England set-up -- well done!

Witney 1 win Frank Wood Shield

Witney 1 enjoyed a convincing win in the final of the Frank Wood Shield. They beat their fellow division three team Cowley Workers 5-1, with four wins and two draws.

Witney's only truly close match in their cup run was the semi-final against Bicester 1 (division 2), when they scraped the required 2½ points to go through 2½-3½ on handicap. The cup win crowns an undefeated league season; I hope that they have enough mantelpiece space to display both the division three trophy and the Frank Wood Shield.

Roger Thetford

Chiltern Jamboree Report.

The 2008 Chitern Jamboree, which was hosted by Oxfordshire, was held
at Steventon village hall on Saturday 27th April. The players enjoyed  
the afternoon and in particular I have received a number of favourable
comments about the venue. On the down side the other counties did not
all send full teams, which led to difficulties and we put in some extra 
players. On the whole however I think that the event was a success.

My thanks to all those came early and/or stayed late to help set up
 or clear away.

The scores were Oxfordshire 14. (including 2 defaults).
                           Hampshire 11
                           Berkshire     8
                           Buckinghamshire  5.

The details of the games involving Oxfordshire players are as follows.
+ Denotes Oxfordshire player.

Ray Starkie   +         1  -  0         Roger de Coresley
F. McLeod               1  -  0         Jon Dsouza-Eva + 
D. J. Wager              ½ - ½          Graham Chapman +
Sean Terry  +           1  -  0         Ian Henderson 
Philip Neatherway +      ½ - ½          D. Hart
T. Rixon                0  -  1         Martin Bush +               
Mick Kimber +           1  -  0         EugeneBolduc
G. Moore                0  -  1         Matthew Daggitt +
M.F. Fredmond           1  -  0         Bernard Rawlins + 
David Sayers +          1  -  0         Default
Gary Reynolds  +        0  -  1         J. Symonds
F. Day                  0  -  1         John Taylor  +
Edward Down  +          0  -  1         Richard Keane
J. Young                1  -  0        Kevin Henbest  +
Default                 0  -  1        Bill Stanley +
Ian Spence  +           0  -  1        Andrew Adair
J.Brown                 0  -  1        Malcolm Brindley + 
Yi Ming Lai  +          1  -  0        A. Summers
I. Sayers               0  -  1        Simon Richards +
Tamil Matilal   +       0  -  1        A.J. Elbourne
Tim Jones               0  -  1        Steve Bennett +
Ruby Marsden  +         1  -  0        Claudia Marelli
Steve Thompson  +        ------        No opponent.

      Ray Cordon. 

				

EPSCA Under 9 Final

Our under 9 team finished in a very creditable =3rd place in the EPSCA Under 9 final in Kent on Saturday 26th April.

A magnificent 9½/12 in the first round put us in clear first place, a point ahead of the favourites Richmond. However a more modest 6½ in round 2 allowed Richmond and Hertfordshire to move ahead of us and another 6½ in the final round allowed the hosts, Kent, to leapfrog us as well. Oxfordshire finished on the same number of points as Hertfordshire, but missed out on the 3rd place trophies on tie-break (total number of wins).

It was an excellent performance by the Oxfordshire team, who were missing two of their strongest players. Alex Anderton on board 3 and six year old Jin-Won Kim on board 12 won all three of their games. Daniel D'Souza-Eva (board 1), Jacob Coxon (board 4), Daniel Savage (board 7) and Tiyash Banerjee (board 8) were all also unbeaten on 2½.

The finishing positions (from memory, I'll correct this later): 
 1st Richmond      28½/36
 2nd Kent          25½
=3rd Hertfordshire 22½
=3rd Oxfordshire   22½
=5th Wey Valley
=5th Barnet

17 teams in total.

Many thanks to all the children for making this such an exciting and successful season for the under 9 team, and to their parents for spending their time transporting and staying with them at the matches.

Jon D'Souza-Eva, Oxfordshire Under 9 manager.

ODCL final standings

With nearly all the ODCL matches complete, the divisional champions have all been decided.

City 1 beat Cowley 1 4-2 in the end-of-season show-down to finish top of division one by three points. City 2 finished bottom, just behind University 2.

In division two, Wantage 1 swapped wins with Bicester 1 but were unbeaten in the rest of the season and finished as champions by four points. City 4, promoted last year to a division containing first and second teams from other clubs, found the going tough.

Witney 1 ran away with division three without losing a match. Cumnor, also promoted last year after an outstanding year in division four, were the bottom-markers.

Division four proved to be a tight struggle, with University 4's two wins (each by 3½-2½) over Banbury 2 proving decisive; the students finished top by a single point.

Provided that the final five matches pass without dramatic incident, none of the teams will have suffered a deduction of match points for four or more defaulted games. Congratulations to all of this year's champions.

Under 180 County team retain Chiltern Cup

The under 180 team retained the Chiltern Cup with a resounding 12½ - 4½ victory against Buckinghamshire on Saturday 12th April.

   Buckinghamshire                  Oxfordshire
 1 Paul McIntyre (175)      0-1     Jon D'Souza-Eva (173)
 2 Koichi Nicholas (175)    0-1     Will Burt (166)
 3 Roger De Coverly (174)   ½-½     Sean Terry (156)
 4 Brian Shipley (157)      0-1     Martin Bush (146)
 5 Nigel Livesey (149)      ½-½     Mike March (142)
 6 Dave Turner (136)        0-1     Mike Kimber (140)
 7 Kevin Hawkins (132)      1-0     Simon King (137)
 8 Tom Rixon (127)          1-0     George Spalding (133)
 9 Graham Brown (124)       0-1     Richard Beckett (132)
10 Eugene Bolduc (119)      0-1     Matthew Daggitt (131)
11 Greg Edmunds (114)       0-1     Karl Biswas (130)
12 Amdy Challenger (113)    0-1     Derek Edwards (129)
13 Ian Hall (110)           ½-½     Lucy Smith (121)
14 James Foster (104)       0-1     Geoff Rasell (119)
15 Fred Day (102)           0-1     John Yates (117)
16 Joan Gardner (98)        0-1     Ian Brooke (101)
17 Chris Stothart (96)      1-0     Default

Under 125s back to winning ways.

Our under grade 125 team won their last match of the season beating 
Hampshire by 9 ½ games to 6 ½ at MCS on Saturday 12th April.
The team have won five matches and lost one, and so win the under 125 
Chiltern League for the third year running. My thanks to everyone who
Has played for the under 125s this year.

We have up till now been playing for a non-existent cup, but a cup has
 now been purchased and will be engraved with the names of past winners.

  The details of Saturdays match are as follows. 
We are indebted to John Taylor who agreed to stand down just before the 
Match because Hampshire were a player short due to illness.
 
Oxfordshire                                      Hampshire
                           Result
Gordon Brown             0   -   1               Dough Butcher
David Sayers             1   -   0               Paul Kenny
Chris Grice              0   -   1               Norhidayam Azman
Peter McIntosh           1   -   0               Keith Bateman
Maria Wang               1   -   0               John  Wiseman
Edward Down              1   -   0               Tim Chapman
Rod Langham              1   -   0               Rick Smith
Kelly Riley               ½  - ½                 Ahraf  Syed
Kevin Henbest            0   -   1               Jonathon Young
Bill Stanley             1   -   0               Sam Muphy
Steve Rumsby             0   -   1               David Fields
Julian Booker             ½  - ½                 Barry Diaper
Colin Cheesman           0   -   1               Tony Summers
Anna Wang                 ½  - ½                 Tony Burcham
Tamal Matilal            1   -   0               Tony Elbourn 
Players Available        1   -   0               Default        
               -----------------------------------
               Total     9 ½ - 6 ½ 

				

Foster, Kim and Mathias win at Oxon Congress

James Foster (Aylesbury Grammar and Cowley) won the U18 section at the Oxfordshire Junior Congress on 9-10 April. His score of 8/8 was particularly impressive in a section containing five other England internationals.

Gyu-Won Kim (still under-nine) decided to stay in the U11 section rather than transferring to the U9 for the second day. This proved to be a sound decision, and 9½/10 put him 2½ points clear of his nearest pursuer.

Irene Mathias won the U9 section with 6½/7, and Magdalen College School took the team prize.

End of winning run.

The Oxfordshire under grade 125 team lost their match against Hampshire at 
Basingstoke by ten games to six on Saturday 29 March. This ends our under
grade 125 teams three year winning run.
However, we still expect to retain the cup this year as we have beaten both
Berks and Bucks twice, and have to play Hants again.

We are indebted to Steve Thompson who travelled to Basingstoke at one hours 
notice for his first county match and won his game.

The match details are as follows.
Hampshire                       Oxfordshire
Bob Cleave         1  -  0      David Sayers
Doug Butcher       1  -  0      Maria Mate
Peter Dallas       1  -  0      Gary Reynolds
John Shaddick      ½  -  ½      John Taylor 
Peter Eales        ½  -  ½      Edward Down 
Lara Osiyemi       0  -  1      Kelly Riley 
John Wiseman       0  -  1      Bill Stanley 
Philip Gething     ½  -  ½      Steve Rumsby
Edward Davies      ½  -  ½      Julian Booke
Brian Grant        0  -  1      Ian Brooke
Rick Smith         1  -  0      Ian Spence
Ashraf Syed        1  -  0      Malcolm Brindley 
David Fields       1  -  0      Tamal Matilal
Barry Diaper       1  -  0      Ray Cordon 
Tony Burcham       1  -  0      Richard Barker
Tony Elbourn       0  -  1      Steve Thompson
              -----------------              
     Total        10  -  6

				

EPSCA U11 zone: Oxon =3rd

The Oxfordshire U11 team made the short trip to Thatcham on 15 March for a tough zonal inter-counties heat. After a good start (13/20, clear third place), the young team faded to 11½ and then 10½ in rounds two and three, enabling Berkshire (14/20 in round three) to catch up. The first two tie-breaks, namely total wins and eliminating board 20, failed to split the teams, but Berkshire took the bronze medals after elimination of board 19.

Especial congratulations to Anna Wang (board 1), Daniel d'Souza Eva (board 4) and Gyu-Won Kim (board 8), all still under-9, who along with Edward Noble all scored 3/3. Chantelle Foster, William Massam and Oliver Oughton were also unbeaten. Final Team Standings:

 1 Wey Valley        47 	
 2 Richmond          42 	
=3 Berkshire         35 	
=3 Oxfordshire       35 	
 5 Somerset          34 	
 6 Devon             24½ 	
 7 Hampshire         20½ 	
 8 Buckinghamshire   18 
 9 Wiltshire         14

Second place for Under 9s in Zonal

Oxfordshire's under 9 team finished in second place in the EPSCA Zonal last Saturday with 23½ / 36. The winners were Richmond. This was the strongest zonal by far and eight of the ten teams taking place qualified for the final, which will be in Kent on 26th April.

The leading scorers for Oxfordshire were Anna Wang (3/3 on board 1), Daniel D'Souza-Eva (2½/3 on board 2), Irene Mathias (3/3 on board 3) and Hugo Thessieu (3/3 in reserves tournament). Everyone in the team scored at least one point!

Final scores:

Richmond	26
Oxfordshire	23½
Wey Valley	22
Kent	21
Barnet	20½
Sussex	20
Buckinghamshire	19
Berkshire	16
Hampshire	7½
Wiltshire	3½

Congratulations to all our young players for an excellent performance. Let's see if we can go one better in the final!

Jon D'Souza-Eva

Oxfordshire Vs Berkshire under 125 result.

Oxfordshire won their under grade 125 match against Berkshire by nine 
games to seven at MCS on Saturday 1st March. The details are as follows.

Oxfordshire			   Berkshire
		     Result

Gordon Brown   	    0   -   1      Mark Wallace
Dave Robson         0   -   1      Gordon Birch               
Maria Mate          1   -   0      Andre Marley
Gary Reynolds       ½   -   ½      Roy Brown
Marcus Harvey       1   -   0      John Upham
John Taylor         1   -   0      Cyril Winter
Maria Wang          ½   -   ½      Gareth Ward
Zaid Marham         1   -   0      Colin Fell
Rod Langham         1   -   0      Default
Kelly Riley         1   -   0      Abishek Kumar Verma
Bill Stanley        1   -   0      Christophe Varma
Steve Rumsby        0   -   1      Ivor Kelly
John Rowlinson      0   -   1      Brian Cleaves
Malcolm Brindley    0   -   1      David Stallan
Tamal Matilal       1   -   0      Ivan Sayer
Richard Barker      0   -   1      Christine Coates
             __________________________
        Total       9   -   7

At fist it seemed that we were going to win by a big margin. I think we 
were winning 4-0 at one stage, but in the end it was very close with the
match result depending on the last game to finish. There were some very 
close fought games and I hope that, win or lose, everyone enjoyed the 
match.

We are indebted to Dave Robson who played at very short notice because 
another  player dropped out on Saturday morning due to illness.

  Ray Cordon.

				

Oxfordshire win EPSCA U11 Girls Championship

Oxfordshire have won the EPSCA U11 Girls' championship by half a point from Sussex, after an exciting day that saw the result in balance until the final game to finish. More details will follow.

Meanwhile, the individual results are at the link below.

Under 9 Team event: Oxon, Berks, Bucks, Barnet

The Oxfordshire under 9 team won a friendly event on the 9th February against three other counties, including last year's EPSCA national under 9 champions, Barnet.

In what turned out to be the most important match, Oxfordshire defeated the hosts, Berkshire, 8-4 in the first round. A 6-6 tie against Barnet in round two left us ½ point behind them going into the last round. In round three, while Oxfordshire were defeating Buckinghamshire 8½-3½, Barnet and Berkshire were engaged in a much closer affair which ended in a narrow 6½-5½ win for Berkshire.

Final scores:

Oxfordshire:     22½ / 36
Barnet:          20
Berkshire:       17½
Buckinghamshire: 12

Well done to the Oxfordshire team, particular congratulations to Daniel D'Souza-Eva (board 2), Gyu-Won Kim (3), Annie Lloyd (10) and Amy Muellbauer (15) who won all three of their games.

In the reserves tournament, Berkshire won comfortably with 8 / 12.

Many thanks to Jim Wadsworth and Nigel Dennis for organising this very enjoyable event.

Kidlington Congress, 2-3 February

Congratulations to 11-year-old Marcus Harvey (Bicester), who scored 5/5 to win the U125 section of the Kidlington Congress, and to Will Burt (Cowley) who shared first place in the U170 section with 4½/5. Many other local players were also in action.

Buckingshire Vs Oxfordshire under grade 125 result

Oxfordshire beat Buckinghamshire by 11 ½ games to 4 ½ in the under 
Grade 125 match played at Holmer Green on 19.1.08. 
The match details are as follows.

Buckinghamshire                    Oxfordshire.
                       Result.
Default               0  -  1      Gordon Brown 
Edward Basham         ½  -  ½      David Sayers
Eugene Bolduc         ½  -  ½      Lucy  Smith 
Greg Edmonds          0  -  1      Gary Reynolds       		
Andrew  Challinger    0  -  1      Daniel Rey          
Ian Hall              0  -  1      Marcus Harvey      
Fred Day              1  -  0      Zaid Marham         
Joe Yeomans           0  -  1      Rod Langham         
James Foster          1  -  0      A.K. Riley              
Chris Stothert        ½  -  ½      Steve Rumsby
Mike Porter           0  -  1      Julian Booker          
Default               0  -  1      Malcolm Brindley  
Default               0  -  1      Tony Heslop             
Claudio Mareli        1  -  0      Colin Cheesman      
Default               0  -  1      Tamal Matilal
Brian Hicks           0  -  1      Ray Cordon              
                ___________________

          Total      4 ½ - 11 ½ 

A clear win for Oxfordshire but the contest was marred
by four of the Bucks team failing to arrive. I don't yet 
know the reason for this but its not the sort of problem 
that I normally associate with Bucks. However, we scored 
7½ in the 11 games that were played, so it was a comfortable win.

I have, of course, apologised to our four players who 
travelled and did not get a game in the match.

We have now won all three of our matches played so far this season.
The match against Hampshire which was postponed from December
is now scheduled for April 12th.

  Ray Cordon. 

				

U9 County Trials 2008

Twenty eight children took part in the under 9 county trials, held at St. Andrew's School on 12th January.

Gyu-Won Kim from Emmanuel Christian School won in fine style with 6/6. Daniel Savage (also Emmanuel Christian) and Oliver Hartley (Harwell Primary) were =2nd with 5/6.

Full results and cross-tables are posted at the link below.

London Junior Champs, second weekend

More Oxfordshire honours in the under-12 sections of the London Juniors, held between Christmas and New Year. Chantelle Foster shared the leading girl's prize in the U12 Minor (=7th, 5½/9) and Marcus Harvey was runner-up in the U12 Major (again), with 7½/9.

Anna Wang (5/9 in the U12 Major) and James Foster (3½/6 in the Major U150) will also be feeling pleased with their performances. So will Ti Chen (formerly Magdalen College School and now Oxford University) who reached 5/5, a point clear, in the Major U150 and secured the title with a last-round draw.

New home for Cowley Chess Club

Cowley Chess Club is moving to a new home, so *from now on* all our matches will be at our new venue, Rose Hill Methodist Church. (The Christmas Blitz on 17 December was our last meeting at the Cowley Community Centre, which is scheduled for demolition in April.) At the new venue we shall have two rooms, one on the ground floor and the other on the first floor. The church is on the fairly steep section on the way up Rose Hill itself (or down the hill if you've come past the Rose Hill shops from the ring road), somewhat over 100 metres above the traffic lights where Henley Avenue becomes Rose Hill. Off-road parking is available, the entrance to which is at the top of the service road on the same side of the road as, and a very short way down from, the church itself. There should be no difficulty for those using public transport in Oxford. They can take a No. 3 bus (Stagecoach) or a No. 4 (Oxford Bus Company) from Queen Street in the very centre of town, ask the driver for the Westbury Crescent stop, and walk back down Rose Hill to the Church. We expect to be using the entrance round at the left hand side of the church as you view it from the road. You can see a picture of the church at the link below.