JUNIOR CLUB NEWS, JULY 2025

 

Key match dates this Autumn include 5-board junior jamboree (2 classical games at Maidenhead, Saturday 20 September), match v St Albans Early Knights (Monday evening, Monday 22 September) and first weekend of Junior 4NCL (26-27 November in Coventry, 5 classical games over the weekend)

Congratulations to the two Watford juniors (Advait, Jacob) selected to represent England in the Glorney Cup competitions (28-30 July) and commiserations to several others who narrowly missed out

Avy Dasgupta wins Kent FIDE Open 11-13 July with 4.5/5.  Separately, Avy is awarded the "National Master" title- by the English Chess Federation and, later, the CM title by FIDE.*

Watford Juniors 18-2 UK Parliamentary CC, 30 June

A huge thank-you to the UK Parliamentary Chess Club for welcoming our juniors to such a prestigious setting. We're grateful to Peter Hornsby for organising the match and inspiring tour—and to local MP Matt Turmaine for attending and supporting our players. A memorable day for Watford Chess Club Juniors!

 

 BUCKS COUNTRY SHOW

The Bucks Country Show, which took place on the Penn Estate near Amersham on 4-5 May, is a major event which attracts thousands of visitors - details are at https://www.buckscountryshow.co.uk/ - and is primarily agricultural although it has expanded into other areas to widen its appeal.

This year, Watford Chess Club was invited as a new exhibitor.  Club members, adults and juniors, led by club treasurer Sagar Patel, were there to talk about chess and take on allcomers in rapid/blitz games.   Afterwards, Sagar summarised as follows.

"We successfully participated in the Bucks Country Show even though the weather was far from ideal for an outdoor event. Despite the cold wind and the showers on Monday, we were able to attract multiple visitors to play games at our stand - see pics at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/141cOD98wERArXge1eKRWwzKoXwwwMlqX?usp=sharing from the show.
 
"Heartfelt thanks and gratitude for the incredible efforts and time from Pete, Amit, the Pang family (Jeffrey and Jeremy), the Saglik family (Akif) and the Tsai family (Harry and Marie). It would have been impossible to have any semblance of success at the show without their help with setting up, playing games, bearing with the cold, wind and rain and helping pack up and carry everything back to the car after finishing - incredible efforts. 
 
"The event in summary is that visitors were pleasantly surprised to see a chess club at the show. The younger show visitors were keen to play chess and gravitated to the playing boards wanting to sit and learn as well as play. The adults were happy to see their children so engaged at the chess boards and were eagerly conversing with us about the chess clubs at their school but they lacked information about their local chess clubs or access to them. The first day was virtually non-stop chess till late afternoon and the better weather helped. The second day although dampened by colder winds and some rain still proved a success with visitors dropping in throughout the day.
 
"Well done to all the volunteers that attended and a HUGE thank you for your support - I hope you also enjoyed your time at the show. Massive thanks to Ewan for lending us his gazebo without which we could not have participated and another HUGE thanks to Amit for the banner design work.
 
"Do engage with all the volunteers when you're next at the club - some nice insights to be shared from the show and how it all went.    Enjoy the pics.   Sagar"
 
    

Most Monday evening sessions start with group coaching (6.0 to 6.40) following which training games take place.  The length of playing sessions means that we can stage classical games (typically 45' + 15") as well as rapidplay.  Some evenings instead have matches against other clubs.  We aim to ensure that all rated training games at the club, whether rapidplay or classical, count towards juniors' ratings by the ECF within 7 days of being played. 

 

14 August 2023 (see above) saw a departure from normal club nights with WIM Natasha Regan and NI Matt Ball giving a presentation of "Zwischenzug - a comprehensive guide to intermediate moves" based on their Chessable course. Go to https://www.chessable.com/zwischenzug-a-comprehensive-guide-to-intermediate-moves/course/139623/ for an 18-minute preview video. The session was targeted at players in the 1200-1600 bracket as those below/above that range might find it too advanced/basic

Watford Juniors play over-the-board matches in the Hillingdon League and, together with adult members of the club, the main 4 Nations Chess League (4NCL) and the Hertfordshire League as well as online.  See details of these competitions below and past results by clicking 'Latest Results [OTB]' tab.

 

We strongly recommend juniors (under-18) join the English Chess Federation because ECF membership is mandatory for all competitive events..  Junior membership of the ECF is inexpensive - see https://www.englishchess.org.uk/ecf-membership-rates-and-joining-details/ for details - and sometimes free. 
 
Full junior membership (expiring 30 September 2025) of Watford Chess Club costs £85 and is subject, in the case of new members, to their already being able to play chess at a reasonable level, taking age into account.   New juniors may be offered an initial three-month membership (£25).   "Online only" membership will be £20.   Please use the "Contact Us" facility if wishing to enquire about joining the club.
 
Main competitive activities are described opposite with a fixture list on the separate 'Fixtures' page. 
 

Ramsey Dairi (below) became joint British u-12 champion (and sole English u-12 champion) with 6/7 at Leicester in July 2023                                                                                                                                             

 

 

 

 

4 NATIONS CHESS LEAGUE

Watford will be re-entering - details to follow and on 4NCL website.


JUNIOR 4 NATIONS CHESS LEAGUE 

The over-the-board Junior 4NCL has not operated since the 2021-22 season (when Watford Juniors finished sixth) but will do so once again in 2025-26, when there will be three weekends, all (29-30 November, 31 January - 1 February, 28-29 March) taking place at Holiday Inn, Coventry.  Teams of four plus one optional reserve, five rounds (3 on Saturday, 2 on Sunday), ECF-rated and FIDE-rated classical 50' + 10" games.  Fuller details on the 4NCL website.   The rules for this event are complicated but it's reasonably certain that anyone rated above ECF1200 will be eligible to take part.

 

Below - Advait Keerthi Kumar, London u-10 champion (+6 =1 -0, December 2022)       
                                                    

HILLINGDON & DISTRICT LEAGUE - JUNIOR DIVISION

 

Two Watford teams played in this competition in 2023-24, the second team aiming to give match experience to our newer and younger juniors  The "A" team finished as runners-up (+7 =0 -3) while the "B" team finished fifth of the six competing teams - Harrow and Uxbridge provided the opposition - with a record of +3 =0 -7..