The Annual UCU Summer School at Ormeau Park
This event is always a brilliant way to end the Chess Season. With enthusiastic youngsters studying and playing chess over 3 days - its humbling and motivating to see players learning with enthusiasm and solving fun but challenging problems. Many thanks to the brilliant venue of Ormeau Park Bowling Hall - provided by the Council and thanks to Damien Cunningham for enabling this. Also many thanks to our brilliant volunteers Chris Kelly, Geoff Hindley and Michael Devine.
The Ulster Chess Summer School has been run for at least 15 years. It was started as a result of an afternoons coaching session at Methodist School for players going to the Delancey Chess Challenge in Manchester. It has been run in various locations, including Methodist College, Ballynafeigh Chess Club and finally at our current location in Ormeau Park in the Bowling Club hall. This little hidden gem of a location provides a perfect site for 18 players or more to enjoy chess.
This year we focused on Endgames. As usual we had team chess and battle chess and an individual rapidplay tournament.
An example timetable. I usually fit in more than we can cover and re-evaluate after each day.
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Time |
Desc |
Resources |
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Setup sets. Setup Room |
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10:00 |
Intros – |
setup and reg. Rules of behaviour, timetable location of toilets / fire exits etc |
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10:10 |
Mini-games |
Knight notes 262 |
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10:40 |
More mini games |
Knight notes 206 |
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11:00 |
Battle Chess |
Round 1. |
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11:20 |
Knight – mowers |
Knight Notes 263 |
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11:40 |
The Knight endgames 1 |
Knight Notes 248 |
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12:00 |
Bishop – mowers |
Knight Notes |
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12:20 |
The Bishop endgames 1 |
Knight Notes |
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12:40 |
Lunch - other board games |
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13:20
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group photo Rook mowers |
Knight Notes 209 |
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13:40 |
The Rook endgames |
Knight Notes |
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14:00 |
Opposition |
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14:20 |
Battle Chess Rd 2 |
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14:40 |
pair chess Rd1. |
teams of 2 playing talking your thoughts. write down moves |
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15:00 |
End |
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The room quietly waiting for the focus of minds and enthusiasm to learn....
The first day focused on pawn sweeps and endgames. Pawn sweeps are a great way of getting players to think some moves ahead, by allowing them to solve without touching/moving the pieces and then to prove their solution by moving the pieces. An excellent site for these problems can be found at :
https://ekoshapu.in/2022/01/09/puzzles-pawn-mower/ many thanks to GM Maurice Ashley.
One of the sweeps sheets :
Players could add their own sweep problems - and if they did and they were good they received a certificate.
Photos from each day of the tournament.
Day 1 :
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Day 2
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Day 3
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We ran two tournaments over the period of the three days one with Battlechess - each player played 2 games in each round 1 as White 1 as Black. The other tournament was a Rapidplay with 15mins each on the clock. Below are the results.
At the end of day 3 we had an award ceremony and everyone received a certificate of participation with their photo on the front and a group photo within a collage of photos on the back. They also took home all the worksheets in their own folders.
Battle Chess - Round 1
Results
No Name Total Result Name Total 1 Sohil Bande [0.0] 2.0:0.0 Jack Clark [0.0] 2 Abhiram Ganja [0.0] 0.0:2.0 Nathan Johnston [0.0] 3 Arthur Clarke, [0.0] 1.0:1.0 Shreyas Chandra Marrivada [0.0] 4 Finn McLaughlin [0.0] 2.0:0.0 Arjun Kadam [0.0] 5 Ayush Shambharkar [0.0] 1.5:.5 Senanya De Silva [0.0] 6 Corey Castillo [0.0] 1.0:1.0 Hunter Davis [0.0] 7 Alex McKeown [0.0] 2.0:0.0 Nila Jahandizi [0.0] 8 Jaishree Premkumer [0.0] 0.0:2.0 Kia Jahandizi [0.0] 9 Soundharya Premkumar [0.0] 2.0:0.0 Killian McKeown [0.0]
by Swiss Perfect (TM) www.swissperfect.com
Battle Chess - Round 2
Results
No Name Total Result Name Total 1 Kia Jahandizi [2.0] 2.0:0.0 Sohil Bande [2.0] 2 Nathan Johnston [2.0] 1.5:.5 Soundharya Premkumar [2.0] 3 Finn McLaughlin [2.0] 1.0:1.0 Alex McKeown [2.0] 4 Hunter Davis [1.0] 2.0:0.0 Ayush Shambharkar [1.5] 5 Shreyas Chandra Marrivada [1.0] 1.0:1.0 Corey Castillo [1.0] 6 Senanya De Silva [.5] 0.0:2.0 Arthur Clarke, [1.0] 7 Arjun Kadam [0.0] 2.0:0.0 Nila Jahandizi [0.0] 8 Jack Clark [0.0] 2.0:0.0 Jaishree Premkumer [0.0] 9 Killian McKeown [0.0] .5:1.5 Abhiram Ganja [0.0]
Battle Chess - Round 3
Results
No Name Total Result Name Total 1 Nathan Johnston [3.5] .5:1.5 Kia Jahandizi [4.0] 2 Arthur Clarke, [3.0] 2.0:0.0 Finn McLaughlin [3.0] 3 Alex McKeown [3.0] 2.0:0.0 Hunter Davis [3.0] 4 Soundharya Premkumar [2.5] .5:1.5 Arjun Kadam [2.0] 5 Sohil Bande [2.0] 1.5:.5 Shreyas Chandra Marrivada [2.0] 6 Corey Castillo [2.0] 2.0:0.0 Jack Clark [2.0] 7 Ayush Shambharkar [1.5] 0.0:2.0 Abhiram Ganja [1.5] 8 Killian McKeown [.5] 0.0:2.0 Senanya De Silva [.5] 9 Nila Jahandizi [0.0] 2.0:0.0 Jaishree Premkumer [0.0]
Battle Chess - Round 4
Results
No Name Total Result Name Total 1 Kia Jahandizi [5.5] 2.0:0.0 Arthur Clarke, [5.0] 2 Corey Castillo [4.0] 0.0:2.0 Alex McKeown [5.0] 3 Arjun Kadam [3.5] .5:1.5 Nathan Johnston [4.0] 4 Abhiram Ganja [3.5] 1.5:.5 Sohil Bande [3.5] 5 Hunter Davis [3.0] 1.0:1.0 Soundharya Premkumar [3.0] 6 Shreyas Chandra Marrivada [2.5] .5:1.5 Finn McLaughlin [3.0] 7 Jack Clark [2.0] 2.0:0.0 Nila Jahandizi [2.0] 8 Ayush Shambharkar [1.5] 2.0:0.0 Killian McKeown [.5] 9 Jaishree Premkumer [0.0] 2.0:0.0 BYE
Battle Chess - Round 5
Results
No Name Total Result Name Total 1 Alex McKeown [7.0] 1.5:.5 Kia Jahandizi [7.5] 2 Arthur Clarke, [5.0] 1.5:.5 Nathan Johnston [5.5] 3 Abhiram Ganja [5.0] 2.0:0.0 Hunter Davis [4.0] 4 Sohil Bande [4.0] .5:1.5 Arjun Kadam [4.0] 5 Soundharya Premkumar [4.0] 2.0:0.0 Jack Clark [4.0] 6 Nila Jahandizi [2.0] 0.0:2.0 Corey Castillo [4.0] 7 Shreyas Chandra Marrivada [3.0] 2.0:0.0 Ayush Shambharkar [3.5] 8 Jaishree Premkumer [2.0] .5:1.5 Senanya De Silva [2.5] 9 Killian McKeown [.5] 2.0:0.0 BYE
Battle Chess - Standings
Place Name Score M-Buch. Buch. Progr.
1 Alex McKeown 8.5 15.5 25.5 25.5
2 Kia Jahandizi 8 17.0 27.0 27.0
3 Abhiram Ganja 7 12.0 19.5 17.0
4 Arthur Clarke, 6.5 16.5 28.5 20.5
5-7 Nathan Johnston 6 19.5 33.0 21.0
Soundharya Premkumar 6 13.5 21.0 17.5
Corey Castillo 6 13.0 23.5 17.0
8 Arjun Kadam 5.5 16.0 24.0 15.0
9 Shreyas Chandra Marrivada 5 16.0 26.0 13.5
10-11 Sohil Bande 4.5 17.5 29.5 16.0
Finn McLaughlin 4.5 12.0 25.5 12.5
12-14 Hunter Davis 4 19.0 31.0 15.0
Jack Clark 4 12.5 20.0 12.0
Senanya De Silva 4 10.0 18.0 10.0
15 Ayush Shambharkar 3.5 13.0 21.5 11.5
16-17 Killian McKeown 2.5 15.0 25.5 4.0
Jaishree Premkumer 2.5 13.0 23.0 4.5
18 Nila Jahandizi 2 15.5 25.5 6.0
Battleship Champion: Alex McKeown
Battleship 2nd: Kia Jahandizi
Battleship 3rd: Arthur Clarke
Rapidplay: Round 1
Results
No Name Total Result Name Total 1 Sohil Bande [0] 1:0 Soundharya Premkumar [0] 2 Jack Clark [0] 0:1 Arthur Clarke, [0] 3 Arjun Kadam [0] 0:1 Abhiram Ganja [0] 4 Shreyas Chandra Marrivada [0] 1:0 Ayush Shambharkar [0] 5 Nathan Johnston [0] 0:1 Finn McLaughlin [0] 6 Corey Castillo [0] 1:0 Hunter Davis [0] 7 Alex McKeown [0] 1:0 Nila Jahandizi [0] 8 Jaishree Premkumer [0] 0:1 Kia Jahandizi [0] 9 Killian McKeown [0] 1:0 BYE
Rapidplay: Round 2
Results
No Name Total Result Name Total 1 Abhiram Ganja [1] 0:1 Sohil Bande [1] 2 Arthur Clarke, [1] 1:0 Shreyas Chandra Marrivada [1] 3 Killian McKeown [1] 0:1 Alex McKeown [1] 4 Kia Jahandizi [1] 1:0 Corey Castillo [1] 5 Soundharya Premkumar [0] 1:0 Arjun Kadam [0] 6 Ayush Shambharkar [0] 1:0 Jack Clark [0] 7 Nila Jahandizi [0] 0:1 Nathan Johnston [0] 8 Hunter Davis [0] 1:0 Senanya De Silva [0] 9 Jaishree Premkumer [0] 1:0 BYE
Rapidplay: Round 3
Results
No Name Total Result Name Total 1 Sohil Bande [2] 0:1 Kia Jahandizi [2] 2 Alex McKeown [2] 1:0 Arthur Clarke, [2] 3 Corey Castillo [1] 1:0 Ayush Shambharkar [1] 4 Nathan Johnston [1] 1:0 Jaishree Premkumer [1] 5 Shreyas Chandra Marrivada [1] 1:0 Hunter Davis [1] 6 Soundharya Premkumar [1] 1:0 Killian McKeown [1] 7 Jack Clark [0] 0:1 Abhiram Ganja [1] 8 Senanya De Silva [0] 1:0 Arjun Kadam [0] 9 Nila Jahandizi [0] 1:0 BYE
Rapidplay: Standings
Place Name Loc Score M-Buch. Buch. Progr.
1 Alex McKeown 4 2.5 6.0 10.0
2-6 Sohil Bande 3 6.0 11.0 8.0
Kia Jahandizi 3 6.0 10.5 9.0
Abhiram Ganja 3 3.0 6.5 7.0
Corey Castillo 3 3.0 6.5 7.0
Soundharya Premkumar 3 3.0 6.5 6.0
7-11 Arthur Clarke, 2 5.0 9.5 7.0
Shreyas Chandra Marrivada 2 4.0 8.0 6.0
Hunter Davis 2 4.0 7.5 4.0
Nathan Johnston 1340 2 3.0 6.5 5.0
Senanya De Silva 2 3.0 6.0 3.0
12-18 Killian McKeown 1 5.0 10.0 4.0
Jaishree Premkumer 1 5.0 10.0 3.0
Arjun Kadam 1 5.0 8.5 1.0
Nila Jahandizi 1 4.0 10.0 2.0
Jack Clark 1 4.0 8.0 1.0
Ayush Shambharkar 1 4.0 7.5 3.0
Finn McLaughlin 1 2.0 2.0 1.0
Overall Champion : Alex McKeown
As so many players shared 3 points we had a playoff between them to determine 2nd and 3rd places.
Rapidplay: Playoffs
Results
No Name Total Result Name Total 1 Sohil Bande [3] 0:1 Kia Jahandizi [3] 2 Abhiram Ganja [3] 0:1 Corey Castillo [3] 3 Soundharya Premkumar [3] 1:0 Arthur Clarke, [2]
Only having a time for one round - used the below tie breaks
Standings
Place Name Loc Score M-Buch. Buch. Progr.
1-4 Kia Jahandizi 4 10.0 14.5 13.0
Corey Castillo 4 6.0 10.5 11.0
Soundharya Premkumar 4 5.0 8.5 10.0
Final Standings:
Champion: Alex McKeown
2nd: Kia Jahandizi
3rd: Soundharya Premkumar
The winners:
