Sports Personality of the Year, Club of the Year and Changes to Officials

 The AGM was held on Wednesday November 29^th.

The Sports Personality of the year was awarded to the Staffordshire Chess Association’s Secretary for Junior Chess, Jonathon Blackburn for all the work he has undertaken after he was elected to the position two years ago. The increase in the number of entrants for the 2023 Junior Congress to 153 from 73 last year is only one of his achievements.

The Club of the Year was awarded to Meir Chess Club from Stoke-on-Trent. They were commended for their support of Staffordshire’s Under 1450 team in 2023 and the support of Meir’s members generally for Staffordshire Teams pre-2020. No less than 6 players out of 12 in the Staffordshire Under 100 Team that won the 2019 County Championship were Meir players.

The Election of Officers was completed with Robert Milner remaining as President and Jonathon retaining his Junior Secretary post. Ray Dolan is the new General Secretary replacing Peter Evans who has taken over as Treasurer.

New Website for Staffordshire Junior Chess and More Junior Congress Results

There is a new website for Staffordshire Junior Chess and it may be found at this site https://www.staffsjuniorchess.co.uk/

The results of the recent Junior Congress may be seen in more detail on the site.

Generation Game Result

 The results of September's MCCU Generation Game have been checked and sent for grading. There were two legs of the match played. In the first leg all the juniors had the white pieces and the adults the black. Twenty eight games were played with the seniors winning 16 - 12.  After lunch the colours were reversed, one less match was played and the adults were again victorious 15.5 to 11.5. Congratulations to all who played and the juniors made a good showing considering it was the first competitive long game for many of them.

Staffordshire Junior Championships Preliminary Results

 Congratulations to all the entrants to the Staffordshire Junior Championship. Thanks are owed to the organiser Jonathon Blackburn and his team on the day. When full reports and pictures are available they will be published here.

The Tournament made the BBC Website and the article may be read on this link

The results were logged on the chess-results.com and the progress of the players could be followed. For the site please check here. 

Good Results at the National Youth Championships

 Congratulations to Staffordshire's Juniors who under Jonathon Blackburn's guidance achieved third place in both the Under 18 and Under 14 sections at Oxford on Saturday 4th November. A young Under 12 team gained valuable experience for future seasons. For a full description of the event please see the Junior News Page. 

A big thanks to Jonathon for all his work and congratulations to the young people for their efforts. Please do not forget the Staffordshire Junior Championships. These are on Sunday 19th November, at The COOP Academy, Westport Road, Tunstall, Stoke-On-Trent ST6 4LD. An Entry form is available here. 

AGM Confirmed Wednesday 29th November

 The AGM of the Staffordshire Chess Association will be held on Wednesday 29th November at Stafford North End Community Centre, Holmcroft Road, Stafford ST16 1JB. Start time 7:30pm.  Nominations for the following awards should be sent the the Secretary.

Club of the Year

Personality of the Year

Candidates to be Life Vice Presidents of the Association

It is customary for the AGM to being with a moment of silence to remember local chess players who have passed away since the last AGM. Again please advice the Secretary if you have friends and team mates to be remembered in this way.

Half Term Newcastle-Under-Lyme Junior Tournament Results

The SCA Secretary for Junior Chess, Jonathon Blackburn ran a tournament for Juniors at Newcastle Bridge Club on Wednesday 1st November.

The results were as follows:

Under 18

5/5 Winner Rhys Morgan (Stafford)

4/5 2nd= Jayden Cheung & Dexter Harper (Newcastle-Under-Lyme)

Under 11

4.5/5 Winner Ben Juan

4/5 2nd Matthew Fish

Total players: 29

Jonathon would like to thank  Andrew Crosby & Richard Fish for helping him run the event