SJC Awards 2023 – Suffolk Junior Chess

During last week’s online club evening, Suffolk Junior Chess handed out some awards for notable achievements throughout the past chess season (September 2022 – July 2023).

Best Newcomer
Club Player of the Year
Performance of the Year (new)
Most Improved Player
Player of the Year

As usual, it was very tough making these decisions. All juniors demonstrated fair play, good team comradery, and shared lots of chess knowledge over the course of the season.

Today there’s a lot of online learning material, but you can’t beat a good old-fashioned book. Therefore, this year winners were awarded one of a range of books for different abilities.

Best Newcomer

📚 Logical Chess – by Irving Chernev

This award was a tough one. Many newcomers were in with a shout:

Spotto joined in January and his blitz rating has already shot up from around 750 to 1050. Despite not being a member for that long, it seems a lot longer!
CinderaceSeb and SpeedySidh are both picking up the game really well and have contributed to Suffolk’s participation in the monthly Inter-county blitz events.

However, the award goes to:

Kenzood

Already a very capable player.
Played a very solid game against the club coach in a themed Ruy Lopez tournament!

Club Player of the Year

📚 Chess Player’s Bible – by James Eade

Two awards go out this year for Club Player:

TallLenny

Having only started playing chess for around 1 year, TallLenny is already playing in over-the-board tournaments.
He’s always got plenty of questions and looks like the type who’ll always strive to keep improving their game.

Oganesson123Nitrogen

Manages to turn up online no matter where in the world he is currently located!
Always keen to help out and offer advice and tips to other players.

Performance of the Year

📚 Logical Chess – by Irving Chernev

CallumChess

Another very capable player who’s only joined the club very recently.
Already testing some of the club’s strongest members.
Multiple online club night tournament wins.
Superb performance in Themed Ruy Lopez event with a more-than-double-the-points winning margin.

Most Improved Player

📚 Build up your Chess, The Fundamentals: 1 – by Artur Yusopov

CoolHandL1

A regular club member for around 1 year.
Always eager to learn and share chess knowledge.
Improving rapidly, especially at Rapid chess – his Elo is around 1500!

Player of the Year

📚 100 Endgames You Must Know – by Jesus de la Villa

AbleLopsidedGiraffe

Some of Able’s achievements over the past year include:

A regular since the online chess club started and has steadily improved month upon month.
Recently his rapid rating peaked over 1900.
Represented Suffolk Junior Chess in different team events throughout the year like the J4NCL online league and inter-county blitz events.
Playing more and more face-to-face chess.
Helped Anglian Avengers second team stay in division 3 in an exciting final weekend of the season.