Chess Scotland
Juniors
designed by kids,
for kids!
BWCA Tournament
Ali Roy
As
it was our mid-term break my mum and I decided to go to York for the British Woman’s National Girls
Tournament. It was a long journey but
as soon as we arrived and checked out the hotel (which was lovely) we dumped
our bags and headed into town. I decided
to spend, spend, and spend while my mum took pictures for my dad
(boring). Afterwards we decided to eat
at a posh Italian pizza restaurant………Pizza Hut!
In
the morning before the tournament started, the players were welcomed by the
mayor of the town, members of the Woman’s British Chess Association, arbiters
Lara and Alex and also the coaches for the weekend, WFM Heather Richards and
WGM Jovanka Houska who
were available between rounds to analyse our games unfortunately I didn’t get
the opportunity to use Jovanka as my mostly all my
games went down to the last few minutes!
My
first round was against a German girl, Lilli Hagn. Our game was
the last in the hall and I realised this when the fire alarm went and we had
to go out into the freezing cold.
Finally, we settled back down and ended the game. I had 2 minutes left and even though I was
a pawn up I offered a draw as there was too many pieces for me to play on and
she accepted.
My
second round was against Evie Hollingwood
who I shared first prize with at the Gigafinals in
Manchester so I new it would be tough but she fell for a trick which made me
the exchange up and I then went on to win the game.
My
last round of the day was against Polly Lambert. She won the Southern Gigafinals
at Manchester
so; again, I knew it would be tough.
It was roughly equal the whole way through but at the end I only had 2
minutes left so I offered a draw.
Afterwards I realised that I had a winning move but there was too many
moves to make accurately so I was happy with the result.
The
games were over that day and I had 2/3 being unbeaten which was pretty
good. The next day I was playing an
U14 girl from Lancashire, Abigail Pritchard
who was leading the U14 section so it was an important game for both of us
and she had been unbeaten as well. It
was a good game and she offered a draw in the end game but she didn’t know
that I always play on to the end unless I’m in time trouble. It was the right decision to make as I won
in the end with 15 minutes to spare!
The
5th round was against Apurva Desehabunde
who was ungraded but was one of the hardest games
as I was a piece up but she had 3 passed pawns in return. Eventually I managed to break through and
win.
The
last round I was in the lead, unbeaten, with 4/5. Polly was a point behind, so a draw was
good enough to win the title but I preferred to go in and try and win the
game. I battled on until move 28 where
she offered a draw. I looked at the
clock first, then the board and finally agreed on a draw. The British Women’s Chess Association U12
title was mine (along with the money).
Our
train was at 6 pm and the prize giving was delayed, so Lara and Jovanka kindly presented me the trophy as our taxi was
waiting.
The
tournament was a great success and I would recommend it to any girl who is
interested. It was well organised and
ran smoothly.
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