Essex take Third in a cliff-hanger

EPSCA under 9 Zonal, 11/3/2000, Sutton, Surrey

The Essex under 9 team, playing in the EPSCA Championships southern zonal, challenged strongly for first place but were ultimately placed third, just half a point behind Wey Valley and level with Richmond, who pipped Essex on the tie break of more games won. This was the closest and most exciting under-9 event for many years as the lead changed hands after each of the three rounds and the top three teams were never more than 1½ points apart.

Whereas there was nothing unusual about Essex, Richmond and Wey Valley vying for first, the complete collapse of the Kent effort in which their team fell fully 5 points short of a qualifying place for the May 13th Finals was perhaps a disaster a long time in coming. Five years or so ago Kent were always The Team to Beat, but their dominance of English chess at all levels now appears to be a thing of the past. Grandmaster Chris Ward, who was himself part of the Kent Junior scene not all that many years ago, said "The interest just does not seem to be there these days. There was a time when our players would travel all over the south-east in order to get a game, but now they just turn up to weekend coaching and play each other."

The first round began well for Essex as points came in thick and fast. Eight games went the way of the Essex team with just one draw. Subin Sen's win againt the Richmond board 2 was splendid, Simon Payne made short work of his opponent and Joseph Bloomfield found a very fine checkmate when his own king was in great peril. Nathanael Lutton's Traxler opening was much too good for his Kent opponent, George O'Toole patiently won an opposite-coloured bishops' ending and Michel Baumgart won well after a struggle but Alex O'Toole played excellently to demonstrate his superiority on board 3. On top board, Dana Hawrami began what turned out to be a miserable day for Hertfordshire.

From a very good first round, after which Essex led Richmond by half a point, the second round was almost all gloom. There were three bright spots. Alex O'Toole was in control right from the start, and Ricky Martin this time castled early and won well. George O'Toole made it to 2/2, but that was it as far as wins were concerned. Essex managed 5 draws this round. Dana drew with Selina Khoo (Wey Valley) and Nathanael did well to persuade his opponent to share the point with him in what was for Nathanael a losing position. Ranita agreed a draw early, but Michel allowed an annoying stalemate. Matthew also agreed a draw from what had been a very difficult position, so although Essex drew a lot of games, in many cases our player stood worse when the draw was agreed. North West London had performed very well in the second round, scoring 9 points which overtook both Essex and Richmond. Wey valley had maintained a good scoring rate, with 6½ from each of the first two rounds. Essex were now third, a point behind Richmond and a point ahead of Wey Valley.

For the third round the Essex players were back on form. Once again Alex led the way with a very direct win, James Lacon came into board 9 and won well after a "touch-move" dispute which went in James' favour. Subin was too good for Kent, Ricky dealt with Sussex, Joseph won quickly, and Michel scored his best win yet. The result which almost won it for Essex was on board 6. Matthew, who had the toughest draw of all the Essex players, was playing a Richmond opponent and life was looking a little tricky as he had been a piece down and Black had some dangerous pawns on the queen side. However, Matthew didn't panic and the following position occurred:-

Matthew's (white) last move was Rc5, which makes sure that the black c-pawn is under control. Black (Richmond bd 6) played f6 (diagram), and after some careful thought Matthew played Rc7. Black now went badly wrong with g6?? (Rf7 is better) and Matthew now played the excellent Qd7!!, and Black has no defence. Black decided that f5 would allow the black queen to protect the danger square but this enabled Matthew to play Qxh7 mate.

There were now two games on which the whole tournament rested. The board 3 game between Richmond and Barnet was going Richmond's way but then Barnet won well after a queen blundering incident. The other was board 7 in which Simon Payne did his best and played really well to win a piece. Right at the end Simon's opponent played one of the best pieces of chess I saw all day and that forced a stalemate. Even if Simon had won, Essex would have been placed second on tie break to Wey Valley, who scored a splendid 9½ points, the most that any team had managed in any round.

How the teams finished:-

The top four teams qualify for the Finals in Basingstoke on 13th May.

In the Reserves' Tournament, Essex were ably represented by Jon Hockley, James Lacon, Adam Jellett and Hamish Hore. The reserves played twice as many games as the rest of the team, and Essex were placed third.

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