The 5th Yorkshire Girls Open Championships produced the highest standards so far seen. This year’s entry of 33 was a little down on last year but as usual all the old rivals from Yorkshire and Lancashire lined up to chase the £100 first prize and the title of Yorkshire Girls Open Champion. Last Year’s winner Kiruthika Rajeswaran came to defend her title, but she knew it was going to be tough with Evie Hollingworth in good form, great friend and rival Amanda Hipshon fresh from her England Girls U18 joint title, Lancashire maestro Rachel Cass and the ever dangerous and also in hot form Jade Stirrup. There were also several dark horses snapping at their heels as well as the age group trophies to contest. For the first time this year a novice section was introduced for girls playing their first tournament and this proved very enjoyable for the little newcomers taking part.

There was some fantastic attacking play all round and the first of the heavy weight contests started in round 3 as Evie Hollingworth defeated Jade Stirrup. In round 4 Amanda scored her first ever victory over Rachel Cass and Evie defeated last year’s winner Kiruthika to set up a meeting with Amanda in round 5. Again, Amanda scored her first ever win over Evie to at least secure the trophy, and then went on to beat Jade in the final round to claim first place outright.

In the Novices little Hephzi Leatherbarrow put a marker down for the future with 5½/6. Runner-up in the championship was Evie with Kiruthika 3rd. The U18 trophy was awarded to Jade Stirrup, the U14 to Rachel Cass, the U12 to Isobel Cotogni, the U11 to Phoebe Price, the U10 to Lara Buckley, U9 to Lucy Towse and Under 8 to Hannah Harrison.

West Yorkshire County trophies were also awarded in three categories:

U18 Amanda Hipshon, U14 Amy Greenhough, U11 Eleanor Westwood

The best game prize was awarded to Natalie Cass and Yasmin Niksaz for their final round draw which had seen Yasmin attack with her usual ‘caution to the wind’ approach and Natalie hang on for grim death to almost grab the win at the end.

A very big well done to all girls for taking part in a great day of chess. Let’s hope we can try to attract even more new faces next year.

EPSCA Quickplay - Broad Green, Liverpool 19th January 2008

Here are some results provided by Phil Adams from the EPSCA Quickplay held on Saturday:

U11A: Phoebe Price  3.5 (Norm) - Lara Buckley 2 - Jacob Manton 3.5 (Norm) - Alan Truman 3 (Norm) - Lance Fox  3.5 (Norm) - Callum McEvilly  1.5 - Aaron Rogers 2.5 

U10A: Lewis Barlow 3 - Charlie Maslen 4 - Bradley Cruse 4 - Dominic Kerrison 3 - Harry Aaronson 4.5 - Vipram Srivastara 1 - Mark Williams 3. 

U9A: Leah Nuttall 5  - 2^{nd -} Lucy  Towse 3 - Daniel Manton 4 - Roshan Srivastava 1.5 - Dhamandra Pindsha 3.5 -

U8: Lucas Casey  3.5 - Zidane 4 - Arvind Sivashankar 3.5 - Matthew Downey 3.5 - Sam Clutton 4.5 - Lydia Entwistle 4.5 

U11 B: Jack Bottomley 5 - 2^nd place - Shelby Homan 3.5 - Clare Kertan 3 - Dominic Lowe 2.5

U10B: Becky Kerton 3 - Emma Butler 2.5 - Kyra Homan 3.

U9B: Courtney Tunnicliffe 3 - Shaquille Miah 2 - Bradley Doran 3 - Fraya Upton 1.5 - Sid Paul 3.5 - James Gartside 3.5 - Jason Lu 3.5 - Ben Knightly 2 - Cecilie Thompson 3 - Connor Webster - Green 3.5

Although no actual winners a good showing from our players in this strong annual junior tournament.

Heywood Rapidplay 2008 - 20th January 2008

Stephen Gordon IM Selected to play for England  in the Nordic Challenge

England ACCEPTS the Nordic Challenge! Ten of England's top chess players will represent the country against teams from Norway, Sweden and Latvia in a competition to take place in Oslo from 15th to 17th February.
The matches will take place over ten boards:- five men and five women. The event has been organised by the Norwegian Chess Federation as preparation for future international competitions, such as the Olympiad which will be played in Dresden in November.
The England team will be:
Men:
Gawain Jones Grandmaster 2562
David Howell Grandmaster 2528
Peter Wells Grandmaster 2520
Stephen Gordon International Master 2501
Stewart Haslinger Grandmaster 2495

Women:
Harriet Hunt Woman Grandmaster 2457
Sabrina Chevannes Woman FIDE Master 2074
Kanwal Bhatia 2054
Sarah Hegarty 1974
Amisha Parmar 1995

The event will see six players make their debuts for the full England team. The competition promises to be fierce with the teams very closely matched on paper. ECF International Director Peter Sowray said "I am delighted that so many of our top players have an opportunity to stake their claims for places in the Olympiad team. I am grateful to the Norwegian Federation for organising such an exciting event."

Congratulations should also go to Stewart Haslinger and ex 3Cs 4NCL player who will be joining Stephen in this event.

3Cs Oldham 4NCL - 12th August 2007

A consensus of the players in the 4NCL team came to a decision to withdraw our team from the 4NCL chess league. This was due to the moving of venues to the southern locations which caused major problems for the players in transport and having to take additional working days off to play.

If in the future changes are made then it may be that 3Cs will enter a team in the 4NCL league once more.

The players decided that alternative options for the players were entering more international tournaments where title norms could still be won and also FIDE ratings improved.

Some of the players who do not mind playing in the 4NCL will arrange to play for other teams but that is up to the individual players.

British Chess Championships 2007 - Great Yarmouth College, Great Yarmouth

Sunday 29th July - Saturday 11th August -

News of 3Cs players at the British championships:

British Championship 2007 - Stephen Gordon IM was our only entrant from the club tournament this year and was aiming to achieve his third GM Norm. This he failed to do after going into the final round on Board 1 against GM Tony Kosten Stephen required a win for the title and to get his rating above 2500. Stephen unfortunately was only able to manage a draw after coming so close to winning.

In the end he finished equal 2nd (the leading English player) with last years winner GM John Rowson whom he beat in a previous round, The British Championship title went to IM Jacob Aagaard whom Stephen also beat in the previous round. By finishing in equal 2nd place Stephen became the U21 and English Champion, let us hope he can gain his GM title in the coming months.

Stephen's results:

Round 11 - Gordon, Stephen 2487  (7½)  ½ - ½  Kosten, Anthony C. 2508   (7)
Round 10 - Aagaard, Jacob 2467  (7½)  0 - 1  Gordon, Stephen 2487  (6½)
  Round 9 - Haslinger, Stewart G. 2468  (6½)  ½ - ½  Gordon, Stephen 2487   (6)
  Round 8 -   Gordon, Stephen 2487 (5)  1 - 0  Rowson, Jonathan W. 2599   (5)
  Round 7 - Lalic, Susan 2350 (4)  0 - 1  Gordon, Stephen 2487   (4)
  Round 6 - Gordon, Stephen 2487 (3½)  ½ - ½  Ward, Chris G. 2439  (3½)
  Round 5 -  Oswald, Graeme 2147 (3)  ½ - ½  Gordon, Stephen 2487   (3)
Round 4 - Gordon, Stephen 2487 (2)  1 - 0  Buckley, Graeme 2379   (2)
Round 3 -  Barrett, Stephen J. 2219 (2)  1 - 0  Gordon, Stephen 2487   (2)
Round 2 - Gordon, Stephen 2487 (1)  1 - 0  Rendle, Thomas 2416   (1)
Round 1 -  Walker, Martin G. 2262 0 - 1  Gordon, Stephen 2487
 

3Cs 4NCL Players - Although 3Cs Oldham have withdrawn from 4NCL league two of our players from last season played in the tournament with Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant successully defending her British Women's title for the 4th time and Stewart Haslinger, who gave Stephen a run for his money in Round 9. Stewart gained his Grand Master title in the tournament when he succeeded in getting his rating above 2500.

Congratulations must go to both of them.

Stewart's results:

Round 11 - Hebden, Mark 2540   (7)  ½ - ½  Haslinger, Stewart G. 2468   (7)
Round 10 - Kosten, Anthony C. 2508   (6)  1 - 0  Haslinger, Stewart G. 2468   (7)
  Round 9 - Haslinger, Stewart G. 2468  (6½)  ½ - ½  Gordon, Stephen 2487   (6)
  Round 8 - Aagaard, Jacob 2467  (6½)  0 - 1  Haslinger, Stewart G.2468  (5½)
  Round 7 - Haslinger, Stewart G. 2468  (4½)  1 - 0  Gormally, Daniel 2509  (4½)
  Round 6 - Conquest, Stuart 2546  (3½)  0 - 1  Haslinger, Stewart G. 2468  (3½)
  Round 5 - Haslinger, Stewart G. 2468  (2½)  1 - 0  White, Michael J R. 2246  (2½)
  Round 4 - Lyell, Mark 2187  (1½)  0 - 1  Haslinger, Stewart G. 2468  (1½)
  Round 3 - Haslinger, Stewart G. 2468   (1)  ½ - ½  Constantinou, Peter 2173   (1)
Round 2 - Pert, Nicholas 2536   (1)  1 - 0  Haslinger, Stewart G. 2468   (1)
Round 1 - Haslinger, Stewart G. 2468  1 - 0  Mason, Don 2251
 

Ketevan's results:

Round 11 - Fowler, Simon 2204   (6)  0 - 1  Arakhamia-Grant, Ketevan 2418   (6)
Round 10 - Arakhamia-Grant, Ketevan 2418  (5½)  ½ - ½  Lewis, Andrew P. 2284  (5½)
  Round 9 - Bellin, Robert 2403   (5)  ½ - ½  Arakhamia-Grant, Ketevan 2418   (5)
  Round 8 - Arakhamia-Grant, Ketevan 2418   (4)  1 - 0  Wu, Li 2314   (4)
  Round 7 - Howell, David W L. 2519   (4)  1 - 0  Arakhamia-Grant, Ketevan 2418   (4)
  Round 6 - Arakhamia-Grant, Ketevan 2418  (3½)  ½ - ½  Hebden, Mark 2540  (3½)
  Round 5 - Rendle, Thomas 2416  (2½)  ½ - ½  Arakhamia-Grant, Ketevan 2418   (3)
  Round 4 - Arakhamia-Grant, Ketevan 2418   (2)  1 - 0  Snape, Ian L. 2255   (2)
  Round 3 - Storey, Charles 2218   (1)  0 - 1  Arakhamia-Grant, Ketevan 2418   (1)
Round 2 - Arakhamia-Grant, Ketevan 2418   (½)  ½ - ½  Poobalasingam, Peter 2133   (1)
Round 1 - James, Russell 2238  ½ - ½  Arakhamia-Grant, Ketevan 2418

British U14 Championship 2007 - Mitchell Burke (Grade 118) was our only entrant in the U14's this year and finished the tournament with a score of 4/7 losing in Round three to the eventual Championship winner Akash Jan (Graded 162). Mitchell's tournament grade was 130.

Mitchell's opponents:
 
  Round 7 - Burke, Mitchell 118A  (3)  1 - 0  Sivakumar, Athman 116A (2½)
Round 6 -   3 Adair, James 150A  (3)  1 - 0  Burke, Mitchell 118A  (3)
Round 5 - Exton, Oliver 126A (2½)  ½ - ½  Burke, Mitchell 118A (2½)
Round 4 - Burke, Mitchell 118A (1½)  1 - 0  Tambini, Jasper 88D (1½)
Round 3 - Jain, Akash 162A (1½)  1 - 0  Burke, Mitchell 118A (1½)
Round 2 - Burke, Mitchell 118A  (1)  ½ - ½  Rabbitte, Michael J. 142A  (1)
Round 1 - McDonald, MaryAnn 44e 0 - 1  Burke, Mitchell 118A

British U13 Championship 2007 - Thomas Clements (Grade 100) was our only entrant in the U13's and finished the tournament with a score of 2.5/7. Thomas finished with a tournament grade was 85

Thomas's opponents:
 

Round 7 - Clements, Thomas 100B (2)  ½ - ½  Pritchard, Abigail 97A (2½)
Round 6 - Iyengar, Ilya  137A (2)  1 - 0  Clements, Thomas 100B (2)
Round 5 - Clements, Thomas 100B (1)  1 - 0  Slater, Benjamin 91A  (1)
Round 4 - Clements, Thomas 100B (1)  0 - 1  Schofield, Oliver 108A (1½)
Round 3 - Kanagaraj, Tharshan 45 (0)  0 - 1  Clements, Thomas 100B (0)
Round 2 - Clements, Thomas 100B (0)  0 - 1 McDonald, MaryAnn 40d (0)
Round 1 - Teng, Yinglun 144E 1 - 0  Clements, Thomas 100B