A cold start to the day for the January Congress held at Westholme School in Blackburn, with snowy showers and hail greeting over 70+ children arriving for the next Lancashire Junior Congress. Although the weather might have been cold, the welcome from the school was warm and cosy. A special thanks to our hosts for the warm welcome and support of our efforts to expand Junior Chess across the whole of Lancashire as we recover from the hiatus arising out of the Covid crisis. It was also nice to see some many children from the school enter the various sections. Our first visit to the East of Lancashire seeing a lot of new entries from schools in the area.

We ran six sections, and for the first time, results are available online at chess results. Helped by a team of 10 helpers on the day, the congress was a resounding success and we look forward to returning to Westholme in the future.

Most sections played 6 rounds, but the top section, Rooks, played 5. Natalie and Eyad won all their games except for a draw between themselves and both deserved winners. Lorenzo, the winner of the Red Pawns, took the honours of being 100% with 6/6/ Freddie, closely followed with a score of 5.5/6 in the Green Pawns.

Coaching was available on the day. King and Pawn endings being the topic of the day for the top sections, and a recap of K v K&Q for the pawns.

The winners of the day are:

SectionWinner(s)Score
Rooks Eyad / Natalie 4.5/5
Bishops Mihir 5/6
Knights Toby / John -Paul5/6
Red Pawns Lorenzo 6/6
Green Pawns Freddie 5.5/6
Tiny PawnsZakariya4.5/5 ?
Section Winners

Section Winners and Runners-Up

Rooks Section – 7 entries

Bishops Section – 15 entries

Knights Section – 18 entries

Red Pawns Section – 16 entries

Green Pawns Section – 15 entries

Tiny Pawns Section

Traditional pairing cards used, waiting for details

Special Thanks!

Mrs Hornby, Primary Head at Westholme for allowing us to use the fabulous venue

Ciprian for braving the nasty weather, including hail stones to welcome and direct from the car park. Lilian and Ghufran, for making the registration process so welcoming and seamless. Dolores for manning the front desk for the whole day and taking on so many jobs, including certificates.

Our fabulous coaches that ran the whole day so smoothly … Zan, Sam, Ravi, Mark, Peter and Simon running the sections so attentively which meant they ran so smoothly … Gordon for supporting Hambel in the playing hall … Hambel for running the whole tournament .. arranging over 200 games of chess to be played… Carl being MC and running great coaching sessions