Congratulations to all prize-winners and participants at one of the largest and strongest events I have attended. The Under-15s in particular was a real shark-tank, with last year's prize-winners struggling to make an impression on the field of 30.
In the spirit of 'the best way to learn anything is to try and teach it to someone else', here goes:
DGT XL Clocks
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Part 1: Loading and adjusting pre-set time controls
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1.1. Turn on using the switch underneath the clock. The buttons on the top of the clock are, from left to right:
[ < / S ] back/store
[ - / d ] less/sound
( ' ) start/pause
[ + / ? ] more/moves
[ > / @ ] next/adjust
Dave Regis took on all-comers on Tuesday and for once managed to extract a plus score. Congratulations to all those who took a point from him, and to last man standing John Guard.
Tim Paulden 0-1
Giles Body 1-0
Sean Pope 1-0
Will Marjoram 1/2
Charles Keen 1-0
Piet Dobber 1-0
Richard Scholes 0-1
John Guard 0-1
John Hoyle 0-1
Adel Salman 0-1
Louis Ten-Holter 0-1
Barry Page-Thomas 0-1
Tom Murray 0-1
On Tuesday 15 July, we were honoured to host a simultaneous display by 13-year-old Theo Slade, the region's most promising up-and-coming chess star. Theo is a key member of the England junior squad and has earned a grading of 179 in the recent ECF list, having been expertly coached by Dave Regis for many years.
Having won our other two matches, we went into our last game with league
victory assured, and so we ventured a younger team against Broadclyst
Primary School, who for so long have been the core of Devon's junior
squad.
When Ethan missed the start and Henry out-tricked himself, it looked as
though we were going to struggle for any sort of result. Oliver set up
a solid fortress while Redmond went fishing for chances against his
opponent's King. After Redmond hooked a mate and Oliver's castle was
breached, we went home with just one point.
As part of a chess program on television an extract from Kotov's book 'The White and the Black' was shown. The scene depicts Alekhin giving a simultaneous display against 30 German officers of the General staff in occupied Prague in 1943. The last game to finish is against Obersturbannfuhrer Spak. 'I resign', declares the German officer
The Devon U14 Team does battle each year against other teams from the West of England and South Wales. I have been providing a bit of feedback on their games over the while, and the collected comments are below. They're a sort of battle manual for junior chess, and I hope everyone will find something to help their chess here. There is a list of topics underneath and a list of tips at the back of most booklets. If you read a tip and don't understand it, look up the position in the booklet. Any questions?
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!
Please join me in heartily congratulating Dave Regis who won the Championship outright with an unbeaten 5/6!
Giles Body claims second with 4.5/6 - again unbeaten - a great result to add to his triumph in the club's Rapidplay Championship, which he "blitzed" with a jawdropping 8.5/9. Well done Giles!
Many congratulations also to Jonathan Waley who achieved a splendid joint third (with 3.5/6) despite having the third-lowest grade in the tournament - he is awarded this year's General title.
