We welcomed 23 willing and keen chess juniors at the club on Saturday morning.

With the coaching team almost at full strength bar the absence of Eric the junior club resumed it’s usual format for the morning. 

The first session advanced group returned to solving the various chess puzzles posed by Tony as set up around the room. 

Paul went through an interesting chess game that he had played at the Weymouth Chess Congress full of dilemma’s and some difficult choices where Markas, Nirvan, Jacob and Rafan were often given the opportunity to consider what move they would have played. In the second session Paul continued with some one to one coaching on chess tactics with Nicolas. 

Steve continued with assisting the beginners to develop their chess game particularly with Kit in the first session and then Holly and Coco in the second session. 

Martin went through an internet 5 min game he played with the second session advanced group – https://xco.ysa.mybluehost.me/website_cb3a4304/games/

As for the chess ladder matches some interesting developments. 

Nathanial who was leading the chess ladder, surprisingly blundered his queen early on and it seemed like only minutes into the game that Peter stood up to declare the score and his great win ! This win for Peter also saw him overtake Nathanial on the chess ladder as the ladder leader so this was an important game. I wonder if Nathanial succumbed to the pressure of being at the top ?  

There was a similar early queen loss in the second session by Carlo to Andrew. 

Another triumph came from Tristan when he played Coach Tony. Although he was given an advantageous start like many before him but they had still gone onto lose to Coach Tony. Tristan managed to get a win and I was almost tempted to give him 2 points for that ( of course to keep the scoring fair I couldn’t ! ). 

I was surprised to learn that Neil had offered a draw to Nicolas which he accepted towards their end game where they both had a single queen each and if I recall correctly Neil may even have had an additional pawn or two. I may have taken my chances in Neil’s position but that is the fascination of chess that players can read the situation in different ways.

Jacob as one of the youngest and most recent members of the club who joined as a beginner has really established himself in the chess ladder with another win and is now only joint second to Pavina. 

The other game I became aware of was that being played by Alfie and Noah. Alfie was up on material towards the latter part of the game and then lost his great advantage by losing his rook but then managed to regain his pole position by recovering with a queen via a pawn promotion facing a solitary King. An easy victory at this point you might think ? Sadly, for Alfie the final result was a stalemate and the game ended up in a draw ! 

With so much excitement and fast pace activity concentrated in but a few hours, we at the Bournemouth Junior Chess Club can only manage these activities with the co-operation and support of parents and their children. To this extent, could I just add a few further words of “good house keeping” that will assist us and the other children in attendance at the club. 

There are some children who when they know that they might lose their chess ladder match they sometimes start to act up and will play illegal moves and try to frustrate the other player and try and put them off. I have at times been close to awarding a win to the other player because of such conduct. Please could parents remind their children that they should play fair and with consideration at all times. For children at the receiving end of this behaviour, they should alert the Coaches promptly and if we witness such unfair conduct then that junior that is misbehaving will automatically receive a nil score. 

Also , a polite reminder to all parents if you could attend on time and if you are late then please do ask your child to make themselves known to us that they are in attendance rather than just slipping into the room and blending in unseen ! As we have to pair the children in the ladder matches in advance it makes it difficult when we discover undeclared children who have no one arranged to play against when the club switches to the ladder matches. Thank you for your understanding and support in making the Bournemouth Junior Chess Club a success and a really enjoyable and fair experience for all the children. 

The Bournemouth Junior Chess Club will not be running next Saturday on the 22nd February 2025 but will return the Saturday after on the 1st March 2025 at the usual times of 10 am and 11.30 am. 

Report by Azhar Ghose