Last Saturday, the Suffolk U11 chess team travelled to Aldgate in London for the Eastern Region Inter County Match.  As we are located in the strongest chess region in the country, this was always going to be a very tough event.  Our team played extremely well against very strong opposition and achieved some very good results.

I would like to thank all of the team for their performances.  We have some very tough opponents and all the players should feel very proud to have represented their county at this level and should remember that some of the very top players in the country were there.  Two of our players did the impossible and won 2 of their 3 matches - Amy John and Georgia Pommier.  To win 2/3 at this level is a performance that they should be very proud of.

I would also like to thank the team for their approach to the day.  They worked hard and concentrated, but above all enjoyed themselves - well done.

I would like to thank the following who represented their county so well: Alex Bujnowski, Amy John, Arthur Dannatt, Beatrice Boreham, Edison Lorejo, Freddie Dannatt, Georgia Pommier, Isaac Kim, Joe Ferdinand, Lade Laguda, Lanfranco Lawson, Luke Holmes, Matteo Barberini , Max Lewis, Mevin Biju, Raf Calumpiano, Rowan Kent, Ryan John, Theo Pommier, Tia Martin, William Davison, Zikora Varner.

The overall results can be found here.
Suffolk's results can be found here.
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Please note that there is an error on Round 3 boards 17 and 18, in which Beatrice Boreham and Alex Bujnowski actually played - I have asked for this error to be corrected.

The image below shows where we were playing - a very different environment to Suffolk's Schools!

Sunday 21st January saw the inaugural Martlesham Heath Chess Open, run by local International Master Dagne Ciuksyte.  In a mixed field including junior players and some of the top players from Suffolk's adult players there was good competition.  Woodbridge School's own International Master, Adam Hunt, won the event with a perfect 6 wins from 6 games, including wins against the 2nd and 3rd placed competitors, Peter Gemmel & Dagne Ciuksyte.  A position from their game is shown below with Dagne's thoughts on the game.

​There were some very good performances by Suffolk's Junior players.  Jenni Rochford gave a stand out performance in winning 4 from 6 games, including a loss against Dagne Ciuksyte.  Woodbridge School's Abhiram Durbakula also put in an extremely strong performance including a memorable win against 139 graded player, Cameron Little.  A loss against Adam Hunt will no doubt also be remembered for a long time.

​The next of Dagne's series of events is the Martlesham Heath Exchange Chess Tournament which is to be held on Sunday 25th February.  More information available on the tournaments page here.

​The full results can be downloaded here.

Congratulations to Dagne Ciuksyte on running the 1st Martlesham Heath Thematic Chess Tournament.  The tournament was a great success.

IM Adam Hunt won the Open Section with a perfect 5/5.
In the Minor Section, 8 year old Tommy Karpanos from Cambridge also won with a perfect 5/5.

The results were as follows:

Open Section
1st Adam Hunt 5/5
2nd equal Peter Gemmell 3.5/5
2nd equal Stephen Gregory 3.5/5

Minor Section (U75 grade)
1st Tommy Karpanos (Cambridge) 5/5
2nd equal Isaac Kim 4.5/5
2nd equal Jenni Rochford 4.5/5

The next two Martlesham Heath Thematic Chess tournaments are as follows:

Saturday 21st October:       2nd Martlesham Heath Thematic Chess Tournament
Nimzo-Indian Defence: 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4
Download the entry form here

Saturday 16th December:   3rd Martlesham Heath Thematic Chess Tournament
Scicilian Defence Scheveningen variation 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cd 4. Nd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e6
Download the entry form here