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The first heats of Scotland’s newest tournaments, the SJC Novice Chess Championship, and SJC 600, took place at Northfield Academy, Aberdeen on Saturday Nov 11. The events have been generously sponsored by natural gas company BG Group. Novice chess players have not been too well catered for in recent years. Now, beginners and less experienced juniors can compete for their own magnificent annual trophies, the SJC Novice Cup and SJC 600 Trophy. The primary novice is restricted to Primary Schools pupils who are new, or fairly new to chess, and is designed to encourage young players to experience the fun of tournament chess at a level that is not too daunting to any participant. Clocks are not used, nor is there a draw for each round. Once a game has finished and the result logged, players are re-paired with new opponents who have a similar score. The final results table is determined by percentage scores – the ratio of games played/points scored. It is thought that this could develop into the biggest of all SJC tournaments. Taking place simultaneously is the SJC 600 Trophy. This tournament is restricted to P7 or Secondary students who have a Scottish grade of no more that 600. It has long been recognised that late starters to chess can find it really tough going, usually having to compete against very experience players, many of whom have played at international level. SJC’s objective is to encourage youth players to experience tournament chess at a level that is competetive, yet unlikely to be demoralizing.
60 players competed it the Aberdeen heats, 42 in the Novice, 18 in the SJC 600. It was great to see so many new faces, with quite a number playing in their first tournament. Winner of the Novice was Scott Thomson (Newmachar). The experience he gained playing in local tournaments last season helped him to score an excellent 93%. Scott, along with Ryan Hunter (Quarryhill, 87%); Mubin Islam (Gilcomstoun, 77%); and Alex Farquhar (Middlefield, 75%) all qualify for the final, set to take place in June at Scotland’s national rugby stadium, Murrayfield, in Edinburgh. The SJC 600 used the traditional ‘swiss’ scoring method, with time controls of 25 minutes per player. There was a close finish in this event with Steven Dunbar (Middlefield) and Lewis Manson (St Machar Academy) both scoring 5/6, closely followed by Emma McIntosh (Muirfield), who scored 4˝. These players qualify for the Murrayfield final of this event. SJC medals were presented to the top 10 players in the ‘Novice’, and top 6 in the SJC 600. Medal winners - Novice: Scott Thomson; Ryan Hunter; Mubin Islam; Alex Farquhar; Caroline Barbour (Tullos, 72%); James Southend (Kemnay, 71%); Josh Leslie (Tullos, 68%); Dillon Davidson (Tullos 66%); Charlie Roberts (Kemnay 62%); Adam Aitken (Kittybrewster 62%); Adam Bunton (Kemnay 60%); Robert McIntosh (Muirfiled 60%). Medal winners – SJC 600: Steven Dunbar; Lewis Manson; Emma McIntosh; Peter McEwan (St Machar Academy 4/6); Duncan Tait (St Machar Academy 4/6); Emma Grant (Newtonhill 3˝/6)
SJC 600 RESULTS TABLEPlayed at Northfield Academy on 11/11/2006
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