On Saturday 1st May, in an inaugural four way junior chess team battle, Dorset Juniors took on the might of fellow junior chess players from Hampshire, Devon and Berkshire. With an average team rating of 1475 and with only one player above the age of 12, the 13 Dorset players were the significant underdogs against Devon, which had an average team rating of 1775, and Berkshire and Hampshire which, with similar average ratings, had 19 and 21 players in their squads.
All Dorset players battled hard and the juniors should be proud of themselves. We may not have had the ‘big-hitters’ that the other county teams had, and the final score may seem a little disappointing but it was a great effort and shows that with a bit more experience, this very young team has lots of potential which augurs well for the future!
Dorset vs Berkshire vs Devon vs Hampshire Team Battle
To note: The top six scores per team contribute to the team’s overall score.
The full results are available here on the lichess site.
Dorset were placed third at half way point in a close battle
At around the halfway mark (with 1 hour and 2 minutes left of the designated 2 hours), Dorset were in third placeand only 6 points behind the leaders, in a very close battle. Plus at this point, Jamie was in second placein the leader board with 25 points, only one point behind the leader!
‘Average Scores’ order for the Entire Team
Overall, the team’s average performance was 1442, very close to their average rating and Dorset’s average score was a whopping 19 points, the second highest. Well done indeed!
Top Scorers
Top scorer for Dorset Juniors was Jamie Doyle who amassed a very commendable 33 points against some tough opposition; indeed, he had the highest average ‘opponents rating’ of all the 65 players in the team battle!
Coming just outside the top six scoring places, Harry, also with a score of 18 points, played a
phenomenal 28 games in the 2 hour tournament. Feedback after the match was that he really
enjoyed it and certainly went ‘berserk’!
For those not used to playing in this arena type team battle, the ‘berserk’ function, when enabled,
allows a player at the start of a game to choose to halve their time and forego increments in return
for extra points if they win.
Future events
We definitely plan for more of these team battles with other junior county teams in the near future,
along with other similar events, and encourage everyone to take part.
If you know of any other junior players who would like to play in these junior team battles and be
part of Dorset Junior Chess, please contact Nikki Forster on [email protected]
We welcome all junior chess players from across the Dorset and Bournemouth & District Chess
League catchment areas irrespective of your school or chess club affiliation
Games
Below are three good wins by Dorset team members, each expertly annotated by Martin Simons.
