EJCOA is the English Junior Chess Coaches and Organisers Association. It aims to promote chess for those under 18 years of age. It promotes between junior organisers, tournament organisers and coaches. It works with the ECF to raise standards of coaching and organisation in England. See the association website, https://ejcoa.co.uk/, for full details.
EJCOA National Youth Championship
EJCOA runs the EJCOA National Youth Championship, which is held as an annual series of Zonal tournaments and Finals.
Qualifying
You can qualify for the 2023 EJCOA Finals:
- By winning your age-limited section in a Zonal tournament. One boy and one girl will qualify from the Under 8, U10, U12, U14, U16, U18 & U20 categories in each Zonal. You can play in multiple Zonals tournaments to attempt to qualify. Richmond Juniors generally hosts one of the Zonals.
- By rating. Any player with an ECF or FIDE standard play rating above a specified age related threshold qualifies automatically. See the EJCOA website for details.
- Wild Card entries. These players will be invited by the EJCOA Selection Committee, based on:
- Performance in an EJCOA Zonal
- Performance in other recent events
- Again, details on the EJCOA website.
Richmond EJCOA Zonal 2023
Richmond Juniors hosted the EJCOA London regional Zonal on Sunday 15 January at Orleans Park School. The tournament had the following age limited sections:
- Under 8 – merged with Under 10 below, but prizes and qualifying separate
- Under 10 – see http://chess-results.com/tnr714296.aspx
- Under 12 – see http://chess-results.com/tnr714293.aspx
- Under 14 – see http://chess-results.com/tnr714292.aspx
- Under 16 – merged with Under 14 above, but prizes and qualifying separate
- Under 18 – merged with Under 14 above, but prizes and qualifying separate
- Under 20 – merged with Under 14 above, but prizes and qualifying separate.
The age limits are based on the FIDE international standard of calendar years (rather than academic years more often used for junior tournaments in England).
Each section was run as a 5 round Swiss, with games played using a time control of 15 minutes per player per game with 10 seconds added per move completed. The event was FIDE and ECF rapidplay rated.
Gold, silver and bronze medals were awarded to the winners in each combined age/gender category.
The top boy and top girl in each age category at the London Final qualifed for the EJCOA Youth Championships National Finals at Nottingham High School, Waverley Mount, Nottingham NG7 4ED Friday 7th to Sunday 9th July, 2023.
No tie-breaks were applicable in splitting qualifying prizes or in determining prizes.
| Gender | Place | Name | ECF Rating Id | Rating | Club/School | Score | Qualified? | |
| U20 | M | 1= | Tong Wu | 327312L | 1680 | Tiffin School | 3/5 | Y |
| U20 | M | 1= | Kai Rundall | 330606K | 1491 | 3/5 | Y | |
| U18 | M | 1 | Arjun Aditya Dharan | 313138F | 1392 | Barnet Knights | 3½/5 | Y |
| U16 | M | 1 | Elizaveta Rogalskaya | 347391A | Battersea | 2/5 | Y | |
| U16 | M | 1 | Isaac Lam | 313385A | 3½/5 | Y | ||
| U14 | F | 1 | Sophia Cioboturu | 310995B | Petts Wood & Orpington | 2/5 | Y | |
| U14 | M | 1 | Sebastian Mokhber-Garcia | 328501H | 1697 | Surrey Juniors | 4/5 | Y |
| 2 | Brian Tang | 308935G | Richmond Juniors | 3½/5 | ||||
| 3= | Jiakang Wang | 350619J | 1397 | 2/5 | ||||
| 3= | Robert Raguzin | 316600E | Richmond Juniors | 2/5 | ||||
| U12 | F | 1 | Lila O’Neill | 331014A | Richmond Juniors | 2½/5 | Y | |
| 2 | Lena Kiessling | 340634K | 872 | Hammersmith | 2/5 | |||
| U12 | M | 1 | Arthur Gold | 340084A | 1327 | Barnet Knights | 4½/5 | Y |
| 2= | Kameron Grose | 311725L | 1781 | Barnet Knights | 4/5 | |||
| 2= | Oleksii Pustnytsev | 350220L | Hampshire | 4/5 | ||||
| 2= | Dominic Czarnuch | 341535B | 1201 | Barnet Knights | 4/5 | |||
| U10 | F | 1= | Annie Jiang | 344065F | 690 | Middlesex | 3/6 | Y |
| 1= | Parisa Patel | 328603E | London | 3/6 | Y | |||
| U10 | M | 1 | Max Michener | 340439A | London | 4½/5 | Y | |
| 2= | Gabriel Bernard | 321503K | 1306 | Richmond Juniors | 3½/5 | |||
| 2= | Callum Hill | 340465B | 1257 | London | 3½/5 | |||
| 2= | George Fulljames-Gannon | 345363H | King’s House Sch. | 3½/5 | ||||
| 2= | Saiarya Arun | 342661A | 1010 | Cambridge City | 3½/5 | |||
| 2= | Jeremy Lin | 351726D | 940 | Newham | 3½/5 | |||
| 2= | Ian Molina | 344916G | 873 | Richmond Juniors | 3½/5 | |||
| U8 | F | 1 | Vicky Deng | 1½/5 | Y | |||
| U8 | M | 1= | Ravi Singh | 331560F | 921 | Richmond Juniors | 2½/5 | Y |
| 1= | Haocheng Yang | 348352G | 566 | 2½/5 | Y |
Entering the Richmond Zonal
Please see /entering-the-ejcoa-richmond-zonal for information about how to enter.
Richmond EJCOA Zonal 2022
The EJCOA National Youth Championship was a new event in 2022, but intended to run annually into the future. Full details of the event can be found at: https://ejcoa.co.uk/national-youth-championships/
RJCC held a zonal qualifying tournament as part of the first annual cycle, on Saturday 25 June 2022.
The tournament had the following age limited sections:
- Under 8 – see http://chess-results.com/tnr651107.aspx?lan=1
- Under 10 – see https://chess-results.com/Tnr651108.aspx?lan=1
- Under 12 – see https://chess-results.com/Tnr651109.aspx?lan=1
- Under 14 – see https://chess-results.com/Tnr651110.aspx?lan=1
- Under 16 – merged with Under 14 above, but prizes and qualifying separate
- Under 18 – merged with Under 14 above, but prizes and qualifying separate
- Under 20 – unfortunately no entries this year.
The age limits are based on the FIDE international standard of calendar years (rather than academic years more often used for junior tournaments in England).
Each sections was run as a 5 round Swiss, with games played using a time control of 15 minutes per player per game with 10 seconds added per move completed. The event was ECF rapidplay rated.
Gold, silver and bronze medals were awarded to the winners in each combined age/gender category. Shopping vouchers for £25 at Chess & Bridge Ltd. were also awarded for the winners in each category,
The top boy and top girl in each age category at the London Final qualifed for the EJCOA Youth Championships National Finals at Nottingham High School, Waverley Mount, Nottingham NG7 4ED on 8-10 July, 2022.
No tie-breaks were applicable in splitting qualifying prizes or in determining prizes.
If anyone did not get their prize on the day, please email richmond_junior_chess_club@hotmail.com, and we will be happy to post it to you, or arrange to hand it you personally at a meeting of the club.
| Gender | Place | Name | ECF Rating Id | Rapid Rating | Club/School | Score | Qualified? | |
| U18 | M | 1 | Yuan, David | 315545G | 1578 | Castles | 3 | Q |
| U16 | M | 1 | Ibn Saifullah, Anas | 342105D | ‾ | Cambridge City | 5 | Q |
| 2 | O’Neill, Kai | 315545G | 1511 | Richmond Juniors | 3½ | |||
| 3 | Koeung, Alexander | 316605D | 1545 | Richmond Juniors | 3 | |||
| U14 | F | 1 | Pitcher, Emilia | 315078B | 1177 | Bucks. Juniors | 2 | Q |
| 2 | Rogalskaya, Elizaveta | 347391A | ‾ | Battersea | 1½ | |||
| 3 | Sengupta, Sohana | 317894J | 1242 | Richmond Juniors | 1 | |||
| U14 | M | 1= | Clery, Liam | 340773B | 1608 | Richmond Juniors | 3½ | Q |
| 1= | Wu, Yichen | 316135D | 1084 | Richmond Juniors | 3½ | Q | ||
| 3 | Koppuravuri, Srihan | 307505K | 1674 | Bucks. Juniors | 3 | |||
| U12 | F | 1 | Scott, Jane | 305792G | 1222 | Barnet Knights | 3½ | Q |
| 2 | Sengupta, Arina | 324180E | 836 | 2½ | ||||
| U12 | M | 1 | Tang, Brian | 308935G | 1511 | Richmond Juniors | 5 | Q |
| 2= | Grose, Kameron | 311725L | 1697 | Richmond Juniors | 3½ | |||
| 2= | Ward, Cian | 314894E | 1645 | Richmond Juniors | 3½ | |||
| 2= | Lee, Yuk Hei | 331341E | 1471 | Richmond Juniors | 3½ | |||
| 2= | Singh, Hari | 308906L | 1406 | Richmond Juniors | 3½ | |||
| 2= | Welling, Zac | 322808D | 1294 | Richmond Juniors | 3½ | |||
| 2= | Kim, Ejun | 327913D | ‾ | CSC Hollymount PS | 3½ | |||
| U10 | F | 1= | de Boer, Lara | 346099L | 1029 | 3 | Q | |
| 1= | O’Neill, Lila | 331014A | 991 | Richmond Juniors | 3 | Q | ||
| U10 | M | 1 | Kendall, Arthur | 340504H | 1431 | Richmond Juniors | 5 | Q |
| 2 | Dalah, Jacob | 331672F | 1150 | 4½ | ||||
| 3= | Bernard, Gabriel | 321503K | 1312 | Richmond Juniors | 4 | |||
| 3= | Hazell, Peter | 328479H | 1182 | Wallace Chess | 4 | |||
| U8 | F | 1 | Zhang, Yichen | 342093A | 1220 | Richmond Juniors | 4½ | Q |
| 2 | Dixit, Myra | 348594J | ‾ | Edgeware Gambits | 2 | |||
| U8 | M | 1 | Lishoy Gengis Paratzham, Dildarev | 322893K | 1610 | Surrey Juniors | 5 | Q |
| 2 | Bogerd, Ethan | 331641F | 1089 | Richmond Juniors | 3½ | |||
| 3= | Singh, Ravi | 331560F | 905 | Richmond Juniors | 3 | |||
| 3= | Xiong, Yichen | 340506A | 880 | Richmond Juniors | 3 | |||
| 3= | Peddi, Sai Pranav | 345716D | ‾ | 3 |
The organisers would like to thank all the children who took part for their good behaviour and their fine chess play, and the parents who waited patiently whilst the children fought tenacious and long games, which broke the (perhaps) over-ambitious initial time-table. We would also like to thank our caterers, The Regal Cafe of 70 London Road, Twickenham, who provided their usual fine selection of sandwiches, drinks and sundries to all. We would also like to thank the Facilities Department of Orleans Park School, for the kind use of their venue.