October 8-10, 2004

report by Lynsey Shovlin

Prize winners 1st: Hugh Brechin 6/6, 2nd: Callum McQueen 5/6 3rd= William McIntosh 4.5/6 & Lynsey Shovlin (best girl prize on tiebreak)

U-650 Grading Prize: Danny McKinnon & Gail Rennie  (both Aberdeen 3/6)

651 - 1050 GP:  Daniel Wills (Aberdeen 4/6)

1051 & above GP: Liam Baldwin, Connor Woods and Lloyd Hughes (4/6)

Giant Killer: Chris Christie (4/6)

Late Starter: David Oswald (4/6)

Trophies were awarded for the "best in activity group" the following winners are from:

Queens: Natalie Donohue

Bishops: Samantha George (Aberdeen)

Pawns: Douglas Cameron

  

 

 

Dalguise Activity Chess Weekend 2004

Dalguise Activity Chess Weekend was held from Friday 8 th until Sunday 10 th October 2004 at Dalguise Activity Centre in Perthshire. The aim of the residential weekend was to mix physical activities with a mind sport as a “healthy mind, a healthy body” but more importantly for young players to have a fun, sociable relaxed weekend to take the serious image out of chess.

By Friday evening once all participants, parents and coaches had arrived most of the 39 strong group had already settled in to their scenic surroundings and had been roomed, grouped for activities, toured and ready to be fed. After a welcoming dinner the first round of the chess tournament started with a last minute entry from a member of staff at Dalguise called Michael, who kindly stepped in to make numbers even for the event at the last minute.

With a grade of 110 BCF he became the tournaments “unknown random” and wild card performing extremely well at short notice. The first round was followed by the second which ended with some unexpected results. After the players had finished everyone drifted back to each others dorms and discussed the day's events and activities to come, introduced themselves to others and began a search for the dorm with the most sweets. Eventually the sweets were found and people returned to their rooms for a good nights sleep.

Needless to say all were extremely dosey on Saturday morning although looking forward to the activities to come whilst we were led up to breakfast from our en-suit chalet accommodation. Once we had all had breakfast we were given free time but had to return by 9.30am for our activities which included an extremely muddy challenge course, climbing wall, archery and abseiling with a break in between activities and for lunch.

Our day's activities ended around 5pm which was shortly followed by dinner then the tournament where we excelled ourselves by playing 4 final rounds of chess. It was confirmed after all game were ended 5 minute blitz play offs would need to be player to determine prize and trophy winners. With that we once again returned to our dorms in preparation for our final day of activities and play offs.

I think it's fair to say most people were extremely sleepy on Sunday morning as it was exceptionally quiet whilst tracking up to the cafeteria. Our activities for Sunday were the Zip Wire, Fencing, Seqouia Scramble and Motor Sports which were all enjoyed along with breaks, lunch and 5 minute decider's against:

William McIntosh 1 v 0 Lynsey Shovlin for 3 rd place trophy

Connor Woods 1 v 0 Liam Baldwin for 1050 + GP

Lloyd Hughes ½ v ½ Connor Woods for 1050 + GP

Liam Baldwin 1 v 0 Lloyd Hughes for 1050 + GP

There were multiple activities which involved heights during the weekend with some of the favourites being Seqouia Scramble and the abseiling tower, congratulations to everyone who gave their best efforts and overcame fears of heights and speeds.

Fiona Donohue has to be merited for her exceptionally quick time on the climbing wall, being one of the few adults to take part in all activities including the challenge course where there were very few participants who managed to stay clean although David Oswald's efforts are to be commended.

A HUGE thank you goes to all the kind and cheery staff at Dalguise, the parents and coaches who supervised all those present, David Leslie for running the tournament swiftly and smoothly, all those who attended and played, the Vipond and Hughes families for their gifts to the supervisors, Tayside and Fife Chess Association and Scottish Junior Chess Association Educational Trust Fund for their generous donations and everybody else who has helped, encouraged and supported the event!

I sincerely hope everybody had a fantastic time and made new friends. Hopefully we can do this again next year and we would like to welcome you all back again next year.

Kind Regards

Lynsey Shovlin

Dalguise Activity Weekend Organiser

So overall we hope it was given the thumbs up!