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Wales and West of England Junior Championships 2014 - U14 jamboree

Submitted by DrDave on

Photo and game notes attached

Dear Team

Well done! We won the Eustis U14 cup for the first time since 2006, and
did so with a thumping score.

The Welsh were very sporting to spread their considerable strength over
two teams (Glamorgan and Gwent) so we stood a much better chance this
year, but I was enormously pleased with the eventual score (23½/30) and
the style of our victory. I think our boards 2,3 and 4 were outgraded
in every game, and yet over 9 games the dropped just one point between
them - fantastic results!

Exeter Juniors 3-1 Torquay Boys Friday 2nd May 2014

Submitted by DrDave on

Exeter Juniors 3-1 Torquay Boys Friday 2nd May 2014

Edmund Kelly (B) 1-0 Yul Lee (W) Taylor Finch 1-0 Alex Lee Leif Hafstad 1-0 Ben Sturt Codie Finch 0-1 Jakub Kubiak

The home side scored a quick win when Taylor Finch picked up the black Queen using an ancient trap in the French Defence, but the visitors equalised soon after when Jakub Kubiak's threat to the enemy King was ignored.

Leif Hafstad was never in trouble with his own French Defence, and was happy to collect one pawn after another in a game where White never looked comfortable.

Games that are almost but not entirely unlike chess

Submitted by DrDave on

The replacement of pieces in Exchange Chess reminds me of the game of
Japanese Chess, properly called Shogi, the generals' game. The flat
pieces are marked with kanji characters that are confusing for most people
brought up with the Roman alphabet, but I do own a German-made version
of the game which uses pieces marked with their powers of movement.
http://exeterchessclub.org.uk/content/portable-shogi-set

Yes2Chess

Submitted by DrDave on

Players in secondary schools can struggle to practise. Your computer or smartphone can be a sparring partner, but that's not the same as playing real people. You can play online but the behaviour and language of some adults is pretty terrible.

But now...

Exchange Chess

The U14s were mad keen to play Exchange Chess all day, and lobbied for a competition...

DB Pritchard's Encyclopedia of Chess Variants calls this Tandem Chess or Double Bughouse Chess, but I've only ever heard it called Exchange Chess in the UK. The game is played with competing teams of two players, and captured pieces are recycled with 'drops', so the play remains in the middlegame.

A sample game:

U14 Training Day, 1st February 2014

U14 Training Day

Thanks to everyone who came to the U14 training day, and special thanks to Tim and Sally for their support.

Whether or not you were there, you might find it useful to have a look at the links below. I hope you will find everything we showed you on the day and a few more things that we didn't have time for. The page below has links to all the computer software I showed you, too.

Exeter Juniors 4-0 Newton Abbot Juniors 9th Jan 2014 (AWAY)

Submitted by DrDave on

A cracking start to the season, with Newton Abbot blooding some new talent. I hope this result doesn't discourage them! In fact, the opposition board 1 scored ahead of the entire Exeter team at the Devon Championships, so as is often the case, the result is more lop-sided than the games.

Reece Whittington 1-0 Jim Knott Taylor Finch 1-0 Ben Sanders-Wyatt Edmund Kelly 1-0 Toby Donaghue Leif Hafstad 1-0 Calum Germain

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