Cambridgeshire Girls’ Chess Challenge
The first Cambridge Junior Chess Challenge for Girls took place on the 8th of November in Sydney Sussex College, Cambridge. 36 participants were divided into three sections (Under 8, Under 11 and 11+). Five rounds, with 25 minutes each for a game.
Dagne Ciuksyte took her two girls, Charlotte (8) and Sofia (6) along to the tournament and this is her report. The photo above was taken back in August when the girls played in a tournament in Lithuania:
“A great event for the little girls like Charlotte (8) and Sofia (6) Ciuksyte.
Charlotte, playing in the Under 11 section had fun promoting the pawns into queens (in one of the games she had as many as three of them on the board!) then showing her excellent restriction technique but found it difficult to deliver the mate. Two stalemates rather than checkmates and the total result 1 point out of 5. Look out – we know now what to work on!
Sofia did well scoring 2½ out of 5 in the Under 8 section but she had a hard time as well. In one of her games she played a long Qc3-c8 check but then her opponent captured the queen with her king. When Sofia pointed that the queen was defended by the bishop on b7, her opponent captured the bishop as well! So here you go – Sofia was the queen and bishop down, looked puzzled about what happened but carried on playing without calling the arbiter. She didn’t give in and getting close to one of her opponent’s rooks and capturing it gave her an idea to sneak close to another rook which she did and succeeded in demolishing it as well. So now she was two extra passed pawns up in the minor pieces ending, but not knowing what she should be doing next offered a draw a few moves later. 🙂
A big thank you to the organisers for a very well-organised tournament, a great venue and nice experience for all the participants. And I’m pretty sure there’s been more of the girls coming back home and wanting to play more chess games on the same day like my Charlotte and Sofia did! Mum’s dream came true!”