| Essex | Total | Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | ||||
| 1 | George O'Toole | 3 | 1 | Michael Boulton | 1 | Kaiser Malik | 1 | Robbie Carr |
| 2 | Simon Payne | 2 | 1 | Joseph Hutter | 1 | Christopher Linnet | 0 | Hugo King Oakley |
| 3 | Subin Sen | 3 | 1 | Jack Siebert | 1 | Jack Thompson | 1 | Varun Sudunegunta |
| 4 | Adam Jellett | 1 | 1 | James York | 0 | Thomas Maddin | 0 | Kajtek Skowronski |
| 5 | Katie Hale | 3 | 1 | Ludo Hashimi | 1 | Jena Kitley | 1 | Neeilan Ravindran |
| 6 | Jonathan Fallman | 2 | 1 | Owen Friedlander | 0 | James Rogers | 1 | Olivia Barber |
| 7 | Roly Fischer-Vousden | 3 | 1 | George Perz-Trunin | 1 | Daniel West | 1 | Bjorn Romeis |
| 8 | William Cheung | 2 | 0 | Gordon Parker | 1 | Elliott Parker | 1 | Rory Williams |
| 9 | Hamish Hore | 2 | 1 | Louisa Ellis | 0 | David Grant | 1 | Jack Hayball |
| 10 | Peter Hale | 2 | 1 | Barney Low | 0 | Daniel Matten | 1 | Atsushi Ichimura |
| 11 | Ruan Tremayne | 1 | 0 | Alexander Randall | 0 | Michael Dacomb | 1 | James Draper |
| 12 | Peter Neuhaus | 2 | 1 | Philip Chin | 1 | Georgiana Philippou | 0 | Alasdair Fraser |
| Pos | Team | Score | Rd1 | Rd2 | Rd3 | Bd1 | Bd2 | Bd3 | Bd4 | Bd5 | Bd6 | Bd7 | Bd8 | Bd9 | Bd10 | Bd11 | Bd12 | ||
| 1 | Richmond | 26½ | 8 | 8½ | 10 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 2½ | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | ||
| 2 | Essex | 26 | 10 | 7 | 9 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | ||
| 3 | Barnet | 22 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | ||
| 4 | Wey Valley | 20 | 4½ | 9 | 6½ | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2½ | 1½ | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1½ | 1½ | ||
| 5 | Herts | 17 | 5 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1½ | 1½ | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | ||
| 6 | Sussex | 16 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1½ | 1½ | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||
| 7 | S. London | 9½ | 4 | 2 | 3½ | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | ½ | ||
| 8 | Kent | 7 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 |
Essex began its defence of the English Primary Schools' Chess Association under 9 Championship when their team of 12 players and 4 reserves travelled to Burgess Hill, Sussex, to take part in the Southern Zonal competition against other teams from London and the south-east. The day began badly as one of our best players, Michel Baumgart, was unable to participate due to illness. However, resourceful as ever, a full complement of 16 Essex representatives sat down at the appropriate boards to do battle.
The round was only a few minutes old when the first Essex result was declared - a loss. This was something of a surprise as the standard of play amongst the Essex juniors is very high and early losses were not part of the plan. It was not very long, however, before the expected wins began to roll in. The Essex players had been warned to play slowly, and this they did, with three of the last five games to finish all involving Essex players, all of whom won. Jonathan Fallman played a very controlled game, breaking out of a central bind to win a pawn and playing with great skill to usher that pawn to the queening square with less than two minutes of the original 40 on his clock. The last game was George O'Toole's win over the Richmond board 1, a game in which George had been in the driving seat for much of the time but lapsed a little just before the rook and pawns ending. Once that phase of the game was reached, however, George went into overdrive and the Richmond player was blown away.
Essex achieved 10 / 12 in the first round, 1.5 points ahead of Richmond. All of the top 7 Essex players won their games.
The second round was a traditional one for Essex as much of the good work achieved in the first round was undone by a complacent attitude in the second. There were four quick losses and one or two fortuitous wins. Subin Sen, a remarkably strong player for a board 3, was in excellent form, clearly a class above all his opponents, and Peter Neuhaus, who had expected to play amongst the reserves, notched up his second point as board 12. This time, George was not so convincing on board 1 and his exchange sacrifice did not appear to gain him the necessary play. However, black's king was never completely safe and long after the exchange of queens George found a rook check which forced the black monarch to g8 whereupon George pinned black's rook with his bishop. Roly Fischer-Vousden also won a second game, but did not properly develop his pieces and made heavy weather of the position.
The seven points achieved in that round had allowed Richmond to narrow the gap to just half a point so an overwhelming effort was required to stay ahead of them. Essex had a good round, again with nine points coming. Ruan Tremayne, who had previously lost twice, won well but one of the earliest losses was on board 12. Peter Neuhaus had been winning but had let the position slip. Eventually it was reduced to K & R v K & R, a clear draw, but under 9s have a habit of confounding the chess books and Peter somehow lost. Given that his opponent was from Richmond, the full significance of this result did not become apparent until later.
Katie Hale had been in some difficulty against a Richmond opponent, but suddenly realised that she could sacrifice her rook (this had also been available to her a move earlier) and the only way to get out of check was to capture the rook with a pawn, clearing a line for her queen to deliver mate. (Broad smiles all round after that one). Jonathan Fallman had also been in some trouble, and should have lost a piece. Jonathan is a good listener, however, and one of the points stressed at the team talks was the importance of thinking your way out of trouble. His opponent did not find the correct line and once again Jonathan was battling against the clock to win the game. Finally, he did indeed mate his opponent, again with a minute or two left on his clock, but by that time the result was too late to affect the final standings. Richmond's 10 points had just overhauled Essex while Barnet were four points behind in third place.
Essex will therefore compete in the National Finals on 29th April from precisely the same standpoint as they did last year, that is having completed the zone just half a point behind the zone winners. That is an excellent platform from which to begin the final assault on the National Championship.