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| Chris in thought with (Left to right) Hamit, Kieran, Mikey and Jacob pondering in the background. |
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| The victorious Aditya (behind Harry) |
The Simultaneous Exhibition lasted an astonishing four-and-a-half hours and did not finish until the early hours of Saturday morning at Petts Wood and Orpington Chess club.
One of the last games to finish was played by an eight-year-old who has only recently taken up the game. He fought off tiredness to take Chris to a (sadly-losing) king and pawn endgame. It would be improper to reveal the age of our most mature member, but it was especially impressive that his game length exceeded his age in years.
No fewer than seven of the line-up that faced Chris had international experience representing their country and it showed.
"There were no easy games," explained Chris as he rushed to the end of his Salsa session. At one point during the event he asked Aditya's younger brother, who just returned from the European Youth Championships with a fantastic 7/9, for help to overcome his sibling.
Unfortunately for Chris, "it got complicated and I was lucky", explained Aditya modestly.
Trevor Baldwin, who has been a member for as long as anyone can remember, also scored a draw against Chris. Apart from that, he defeated us all.
Nevertheless the strong showing from Kent Junior players and ex-Kent Juniors shows the strength of the Kent setup. The Chief Coach is none other than Chris Ward himself!
We are very grateful to Chris for taking part in this event, enthusing young people about chess and for his still formidable result. He is an inspiration to us all.
The full line-up of those who took part is below. The next event in Orpington will be the Orpington Junior Tournament and Training day, on the Friday of the half-term break (October 27th). One of the prizes for the best performance will be a place at next year's simul.
For more information and pictures, email conradchesscamp@gmail.com.
Aditya Verma 187
Harry Dixon 184
Jean-Baptiste Jugand 177
Hamit Soyel 171
Kiran Shiatis 168
Mikey Watson 168
Jacob Watson 167
Conrad Allison 154
Raunak Rao 151
John Cook 146
Trevor Baldwin 145
Shlok Verma 130
Martin Zissell 117
Michael Mc Naughton
116
Neil McQuillan 110
Ansh Batura 108
Huseyin Gueriane 92
David Fox 94
Lev Mann 75
Yifan Luo 75
