College news

New success for Chess season

After a long summer break, the new season for all Oxfordshire Chess Leagues has started in earnest. After last year's success (2nd place in Division 4) St. Clare's chess team lost several key players for most of them finished their studies in our school and got offers from the top UK universities. Fortunately many enthusiastic chess-playing freshers have joined us this year and, in combination with our old guard, we have gathered an ambitious and talented squad that works very hard to improve their performance during our weekly training and club sessions.

We played the first match away against MCS Blackbirds 2, the last year's winners of Division 4. It was a tough match in which four of our six players made their debuts in the League. We lost the match with the minimal scores 3.5-2.5, David Genis, our new captain, and Niall Evans scoring, and Dean Celaj being unable to convert his great advantage into a full point.

In round two we hosted Wantage 2. Myriads of missed opportunities and our opponents' tough opposition did not allow us to celebrate our first win in the season. The match ended 3-3, with Arjaldo Karaj and Niall Evans winning their games, and David Genis and Ravil Shafiyev drawing theirs.

Our first win came last week in round 3 in the away match against Cumnor 2. It was a close match the outcome of which was not clear until the end. Convincing wins on boards 1 and 2 by David Genis and Mikita Kudlovich accompanied by Niall Evans' 73-move win on board 5 and Daniel Nazarenko's lucky escape on board 6 created our first win of the season.

Currently, we are in the 3rd place and our next match is a home match against Witney 4.

Below you may find all the results of our players. It is noteworthy that Niall Evans has a 100% score (!), and David Genis 2.5 points out of 3. All the tables are taken from the Oxfordshire Chess website (www.oca.oxfordfusion.com).

MCS/B2 St. Clare's
Horsley, Keith (108) 0 - 1 Genis, David (124)
McKnight, Liam (102) 1 - 0 Kudlovich, Mikita (-)
Phillips, David (81) 1 - 0 Shafiyev, Ravil (-)
Keane, Alex (-) 1 - 0 Karaj, Arjaldo (96)
Bossons, Fraser ( ) 0.5 - 0.5 Celaj, Dean (-)
Cassell, Jonathan ( ) 0 - 1 Evans, Niall (-)
3.5 - 2.5

St. Clare's Wantage 2
Genis, David (124) 0.5 - 0.5 Hemmings, Peter (128)
Kudlovich, Mikita (-) 0 - 1 Booker, Julian (114)
Shafiyev, Ravil (-) 0.5 - 0.5 Cordon, Ray (100)
Karaj, Arjaldo (96) 1 - 0 Mahon, Paul (57)
Celaj, Dean (-) 0 - 1 Rambach, Arran (-)
Evans, Niall (-) 1 - 0 Hockaday, Derek (-)
3 - 3

Cumnor 2 St. Clare's
Varney, Zoe (114) 0 - 1 Genis, David (124)
Varney, Daniel (109) 0 - 1 Kudlovich, Mikita (-)
Cluley, Graham ( ) 1 - 0 Shafiyev, Ravil (-)
Steel, Robert (88) 1 - 0 Celaj, Dean (-)
Sterrie, David (80) 0 - 1 Evans, Niall (-)
Bennett Anton, Susana (9) 0 - 1 Nazarenko, Daniel (-)
2 - 4

November