There were 7 rounds of matches played. Teams consisted of 6 players, two Under 11 players, with at least one girl selected and the remaining players under 18s with at least two girls.
Staffordshire entered a strong team and were seeded mid-table. Our heroes making up the team were: Sam Parry, Joe Hirst, Dylan Cooper, Amrissa Johal, Shriya Sastry, Aarav Sohi, Isaac Stanley and Amraya Johal. Sam and Joe have previously represented Staffordshire adult teams over the board.
Apart from being extremely proud to play for the county they gained invaluable experience playing serious competitive online chess. In these times serious games are hard to come by and tournaments like this give our young warriors the opportunity to show how much they have improved in the game they enjoy playing. For our young children sharing their screen while being on zoom as well as having to isolate a room in their house must feel initially a bit strange but as we know about juniors, they adapt quickly and impress us at times
The team finished joint 7th out of 12. We were no match for Warwickshire or Kent, but the other 5 matches were close battles.
The star performer was Joe Hirst with 6 wins.
The County Committee thanks Jonathon Blackburn for his coaching and organisation of the team.
