Live chess is back

In 2020 and 2021, the majority of chess has been played online. The Suffolk Junior Chess Club meets regularly online on Wednesdays and Sundays for different online events and these online events are definitely here to stay. However, it’s great to see more and more over-the-board games being played, some by people who have only previously played semi-competitively online.

Chess clubs, like the Bury Knights Junior Chess Club are running regular sessions again. The Bury Knights meet on Friday evenings at the Moreton Hall Community Centre.

The Suffolk Chess League and Bury Area Chess League are also back up-and-running.  These leagues are a great opportunity for juniors to play against experienced players with a longer time format.

In terms of recent tournaments, last month Suffolk’s prestigious Bury St Edmunds Congress (pictured above) took place again. The main ‘Open’ event was won by former Suffolk junior and now International Master, Alan Merry.  Two Suffolk juniors, Rowan Kent and Oliver Ferris, took part in the ‘Minor’ event, and both players were successful. Rowan Kent was awarded the best U15 junior prize scoring a very decent 3½/5. This was Oliver Ferris’s first ever live event, so just entering and playing was a success in itself. However, during the event Oliver also managed to obtain his first competitive long-play (50+ moves in ~3 hours!) victory against Bury St Edmund’s Craig Bradshaw, as annotated below. So congratulations to both Rowan and Oliver for a successful tournament!

The Bob Jones Trophy is awarded to the highest-scoring junior playing in the Bury League or Suffolk League from the highest section in which a score of 3 points is achieved. This year, the trophy was awarded to Arnav Srivastrava (Cambridge City), who achieved 3 points in the Open section. Hopefully in the up-and-coming years, some of Suffolk’s juniors will also be competing for this trophy.

Full results from the congress can be found on the chess results website.

This month there are two other events worth noting:

• 13th-14th November
  British Junior Rapidplay in Milton Keynes
• Sunday 28th November
  6th Annual Lowestoft Rapidplay (adult event)

Also, in December the London Chess Classic organisers have announced its return on their Twitter channel, which is closely linked to the national Chess In Schools and Communities charity.