It’s been such a busy couple of weeks in the club! Colchester Junior Chess Club has been actively welcoming new members, settling into the in-person over-the-board sessions, and competing in tournaments - both online and over-the-board.
In Tuesday’s session, the beginners learned about the principles of chess openings. Coach Catabay had the players put the principles into practice on the board, moving the pieces while he went around to check on their understanding of the lesson. Mae and Rezin Catabay helped deliver the lesson to the intermediate and advanced players. They both chose a game that they played in the British Chess Championship Finals to analyse with the more advanced players. By the end of the session, we had all the chess club in on the discussion. The club also had the chance to play over-the-board chess with other members of their levels. We were also grateful to have John Duff Cole, Chairman of the North Essex Chess League and Colchester Adults Team, join us on the 28th of September. John was a great help to organise pairings while mentoring the beginners.
Mae Catabay (under 12s) along with Rezin Catabay and Rugayyah Rida (under 10s) qualified to
participate in the British Chess Championships Finals 2021 which was held on the weekend of
October 2-3rd in Milton Keynes. All three of them played impressive games and placed within the
top 16! We as a club are so proud of these three who were invited to take part in the Junior Finals
and qualified after playing for the BOCC2 online Standard Play or Rapid Play Finals that were
held in July and August. Fantastic achievements!
Mae and Ruqayyah have been invited to play for England in the European Youth Championships this October 14-21. We will be rooting both of them on while they continue to rock these chess tournaments. Well done, girls!
Another fantastic mention was the excellent performance of the Under 12s on Wednesday night. Just six of our club members represented Colchester Junior to play 17 teams in the Worldwide Tournament Group B. Colchester Junior Chess Club’s players, Mae, Huzaifa, Rezin, Ruqayyah, Alex, and Grace helped to deliver the club to an impressive 2nd place! The Worldwide U12 Center B Team Battle will be played again on the 20th of October and our club members are encouraged to join in for experience and to help the team. The tournament is played in Lichess and the link will be given in that week’s tournament email or can be accessed on the website on the 'groups' online tournaments page.
We would like to welcome Lily Moore as our newest member of the Colchester Junior Chess Club! Lily shows a lot of promise as she has been practicing during the week to improve since she has joined. Well done Lily and keep at it! We have been so happy to welcome a few other junior chess players for trials and are nearly at capacity with this term’s membership. Colchester seems to be a fabulous place for young chess players and we’re grateful to have this club to come to play at and improve!
Finally, a huge thank you to Coach Catabay, the Catabay family, Committee members, parents, and kids who work so hard to reach goals and make the efforts to improve. Please enjoy some of the photos taken at the past couple of Tuesday’s sessions! See you in a couple of weeks with more updates from Colchester Junior Chess Club!
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