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Commonwealth Championships, 2-10 December, New Delhi

The English junior squad of Ravi Haria, Jude Lenier, Joseph Quinn, Samuel Walker, Anand Krishnan, Daniel Wells, Yaroslav Voropayev, Elliot Auckland, Matthew Daggitt, David Lawrence, Thilagini Anandajeyarajah, Roland Johnson, Sharan Soni, GM Gawain Jones along with Grandmaster Mark Hebden as coach and accompanying parents are now safely ensconced in their New Delhi hotel. I saw them all off from Heathrow and they were greeted with flowers by the Indian federation at Delhi airport. It's the tournament inauguration dinner this evening (Sunday) and the first round tomorrow. The best of luck to all. Reports and photos will be posted here as soon as we receive them.

Claire Summerscale

England Sqaud at the Delhi Chess Tournament

At very short notice the ECF, with the brilliant work and effort of Claire Summerscale, director of junior chess, have managed to put together a team of enthusiastic juniors to compete in the Commonwealth Tournament in Delhi from 2nd to 10th December 2007. GM Mark Hebden is the official coach in charge of the group.

Juniors Players:-

Accompanying Parents

James Anandejayarajah (Group Leader), Sonal Haria, Susan Lenier, Susan Quinn, Cally Auckland, Roger Wells, Sabina Soni

Report

The group met at Heathow on Saturday 1st December at 5:30 and after being presented with their official polo shirts, checked in quite quickly and smoothly for an overnight flight to Delhi. Everyone was in extremely good spirits and excited about the trip. At the departure gate, Mark Hebden was already quizzing some of the juniors about their opening strategies and promising them a very hard week of games and coaching! Mark will be looking after all 13 players for the duration of the tournament!

On arrival at Delhi, on Sunday morning, we were met by one of the organisers, Mr A K Verma and his team. After being presented with fresh flower garlands, we were taken by luxury coach to our hotel, in an old and built up part of Delhi, with lots of people, traffic and constant car horns!

After quickly settling into our rooms, we met at Lal Bagh Restaurant in the hotel, for lunch, which was delicious. After that some squad members disappeared off to play cards, snooze or chat.

We met up at 6:00 and were taken through the Delhi rush hour to the Russian Cultural Centre for the opening ceremony and official dinner for the Commonwealth Chess Centre, hosted by the Delhi Chess Association. Speeches were almost 2 hours long, followed by a delicious vegetarian dinner and music. We returned to our hotel at 10:30.

DAY ONE – Monday 3rd December

Everyone managed to wake up on time and after a delicious breakfast we set off at 8:30 for Round One, at 9:30. However, the driver of one of the cars did not know where the venue was so some of us were quite late. Luckily the chess organisers realised and waited for us before beginning the games. However, some of our players did not have clocks, as there were not enough! This was a shame.

Results from Round One