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Chess Scotland Juniors designed by kids, for kids! National Girls Team Championships Surrey 2005 By Amy Officer Back On the 7th of May 2005, Lynsey Shovlin, Rachel Curry, Ali Roy and myself played in the National Girl's Team Championships in Surrey, England (my mum chaperoning). Lynsey, Rachel and I played in the U/18 section and Ali played in the U/11 section. We were competing against girls from schools all over England. It was held at Claremont Fan School which is a very elite boarding school for girls. We all travelled from Edinburgh Airport to Gatwick Airport on the 6th of May. Our flight left at about 9.00pm so we arrived in Gatwick at about 10.00 pm. By the time we had got off of the aeroplane, found the place where my mum hired a car from, driven to our hotel in Dorking (about a 20 minute drive) and (thanks to Lynsey's navigational skills!) got to our hotel and checked in it was about 11.30pm (way past my mum's bed time!). We had to be at the school (about another 20minute drive) at 9.15am because I was receiving an award from the British Chess Federation so we had to leave the hotel at about 8.30am (we had doubts about how many times Lynsey and my mum would get lost!). However, they surprised us all and they didn't get lost once! Play started at 10.30, there were 25 minutes per person for all moves and there were five rounds. Lunch was only half an hour, there was food being served at the venue but a lot of the younger kids (including us) didn't really fancy it. Fiona Petrie (who was also down with her lot) decided to go into town and see what there was there. About 15 minutes after Fiona left my mum decided to do the same so we went from having no food to having enough food to feed an army! The weather looked decent so we decided to sit outside, however, as we got a bench and sat down the temperature rapidly went down as the sun was covered by clouds. As Lynsey said “English weather is so temperamental – at least in Scotland you know it's always going to be cold!!” In the last round we were paired against the Superteam which consisted totally of international players. On board 1, I had the pleasure of playing WFM Jessie Gilbert whose grading is 2148. Needless to say, I lost! Waiting for the prize-giving Lynsey and I played Tiddlywinks while Rachel did her Latin homework (Ali was still playing, she was the last person finished!). Lynsey won the game of Tiddlywinks and Rachel got bored of her homework so we decided to go back to the main playing hall. Ali received a prize for getting the highest amount of points in her team (she got 4 out of 5!!!). Our U/18 team finished in third place but we received nothing! We all received certificates of participation though, including Allan and Craig Petrie who had played in the relax tournament. There are not many males who can proudly say they played in the Girl's National Team Championships!! (See the photo) After the prize-giving had finished we said our good-byes and headed back to Gatwick Airport. We (eventually) touched down on Scottish soil where we headed our separate ways. All in all it was a great weekend and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! Oh yes, I almost forgot, WHAT did you leave on the plane Rachel?? Ali Roy Rachel, Lynsey and Amy Allan Petrie Lynsey, Amy, Rachel Morven, Craig, Ali On Saturday 7 May 2005, Amy Officer travelled to Surrey to receive an award from the British Chess Federation.  The awards were presented to the leading junior female chess players in Britain in recognition of their hard work and achievement.  Claire Summerscale, director of Women's Chess for BCF, organised the presentation with the intention of providing the less experienced players who attended the Championships with some role models for the future.  Most of the top junior female players attended including Jessie Gilbert (WFM), Selina Khoo, Amisha Parmar and Sheila Dines who, along with Amy, have been International players for a number of years. The award ceremony was held in the historic drawing room of the Mansion at Claremont Fan Court School and the trophies were presented by the Mayor of Elmbridge. The award ceremony took place before the commencement of the National Girl's Team Chess Championships in which Amy and a group of girls from Scotland competed.  Amy, Lynsey Shovlin and Rachel Curry played in the U18 Section and finished in third position.  Ali Roy played in the Under 11 Section and received a medal for obtaining the most points in her u/11 team. Morven Petrie also attended the event and scored 4 points in the Under 9 Section.