Glorney and Faber Cups 2007
and Under 12 & 14 Four Nations Championships
24th-26th July

In 1948 a Dublin businessman created the Glorney Cup. It was joined twenty years later by the Faber Cup. These two events have been held annually and bring together national squads from across Europe for three days of intensive and extremely competitive chess. This year, under 12 and under 14 teams competed alongside their older compatriots. Held this year at Dublin City University and organised by the Irish Chess Union, the ECF were thrilled to be able to send four strong teams to play in this important junior tournament.

The English squad arrived in four separate pieces. My quarter flew in from Heathrow. Travelling so soon after the launch of the final Harry Potter book, everyone was on a different chapter, and those who had read at speed and already finished the book were banned from mentioning it:

A wise man likened accompanying a group of junior chess players through the airport to "herding cats". I have to agree!

Our coaching team of Grandmaster Mark Hebden and International Master Lawrence Cooper arrived with a group from East Midlands. They were soon firmly entrenched in what became our base camp and training room. I have never seen a harder working coaching team and offer heartfelt thanks for the huge amount of time and effort that they put into ensuring our squad came home victorious.

The tournament was opened by the Irish Minister for Education Mary Hanafin and attracted impressive TV and media coverage, primarily because of the inclusion of 5 year old Shane Melaugh, the youngest ever competitor in the event. Here is a selection of the newspaper and television coverage:

Belfast Telegraph
Independent
BBC - see if you can spot English coach Lawrence Cooper in the background.

After beating him in the Championships, England under 12 board 6 Thomas Mavin takes the time to play a friendly with Shane Melaugh.

Glorney Cup

We elected to take 6 players to the Glorney this year rather than the required 5, which allowed the rested player to receive some intensive individual coaching from either Mark or Lawrence. It was a tough tussle for victory, with great battles raging on the top boards. Our strength in depth proved the decisive factor, with our bottom boards of Philip Makepeace and Charles Fry scoring 100%. Congratulations to the entire team: Peter Poobalasingam, Thomas Pym, Chris Russell, Patrick Goldsworthy, Charles Fry and Philip Makepeace.

Final Positions:

Faber Cup

It was always going to be a close call between and English and Scottish Faber teams. A three round all play all championship meant any slip up would be hard to recover from and when Scotland beat us 2-1 in the 2nd round, there really was no way back. We finished tied on game points, but their match victory over us gave Scotland the title.

Final Standings:

Whilst the other teams still had two rounds to go, the Faber tournament was already over, so a swiss was organised for all the girls. Hannah Dale secured the tournament with a last round win over team mate Nicola Thomas. Lateefah came 2nd. Nicola was 3rd=. Well played: Nicola Thomas, Lateefah Messam-Sparks and Hannah Dale.

Under 14 Four Nations Championships

A brilliant performance by our under 14s, with only 2 draws conceded, the 23/24 score was impossible to fault. It was great to see steely determination from Ilya in the 1st round. Faced with a considerably worse position and the knowledge that every single other member of the 20 man squad had already won, the pressure was on. All credit to Ilya for keeping his nerve and turning it around to deliver a 100% score across all age groups in round 1. The boys played so well throughout the tournament that the championship was ours with a round to spare, which lead to the excited and quickly abandoned suggestion from one team member that we miss the final round and play football for 4 hours instead! Congratulations to: Akash Jain, Saravanan Sathyanandha, Victor Jones, Samuel Walker, Louis Graham and Ilya Iyengar.

Final Standings:

Under 12 Four Nations Championships

A tough section for our under 12s, who rose admirably to the challenge. The unusual four hour time control (2 hours per player for all moves) proved exciting across all sections, leading to some great time scrambles. It was excellent to see the younger competitors adjust to the time control and play slow thoughtful chess. Joseph Quinn played one of the longest under 12 games, sealing victory in just over 3 hours 47 minutes.

We needed to score well against Ireland A in the final round to secure 1st place and I don't think the fingernails of the watching under 12 parents were in a good state by the end of the match. It was tense but there was never any doubt in my mind that they would do it. Another four nations win for the under 12s. Congratulations to Jude Lenier, Brandon Clarke, Joseph Quinn, Marcus Harvey, James Abrams and Thomas Mavin.

Final Standings:

I would like to extend my thanks to the accompanying parents, who were incredibly supportive. I would also like to again say well done to the teams. We worked and played as a squad, with everyone pulling together for the duration. England host this event next year and I hope to continue our winning ways on home soil.

All games from the tournament can be seen on the Irish Chess Union website: http://www.icu.ie/

Claire Summerscale
English Chess Federation
Director of Junior Chess & Education