The u9 County Finals 2017

Set in the heart of Nottingham, it was fairly surprising to find the the below frame situated in a rear garden of the venue - Nottingham High School.

Apt as we were there alongside 17 other qualifying county and joint county teams for 3 rounds of intense chess in the under 9 county finals! Let battle commence...

We worked hard to get there and considering this was Warwickshire's first team for many years... well, we did a bit of all right, didn't we.

There's Silas in the above pic, seated at table three for what will be his last time in the under 9 section as he actually turns 9 in May. He'd let himself slip recently and it was starting to show in his results, so I managed to reinvigorate his passion for the game and got him practising again. He'd dropped over 100 points off his tactics and probably that off his elo rating too.

A few practise games later and he was right back in it - and his tactics rating rose just as considerably and as equally fast. So, by the time he went to the tournament, he was ready and boy did it show in his results. He was a little peeved to have two blacks and then a white. I think it was the two consecutive blacks that bothered him the most, but it did little to dampen his fighting spirit as he came away from the day with three very fine wins.

The three wins helped Warwickshire to a final position of joint third alongside Richmond - but we missed out on a trophy due to tie break rules. On paper we should have finished middle of the table, but, as I've said all along, it's clear that many of our kids are currently under rated. The July grades are going to show some huge swings for many of the kids playing for the Warwickshire team this year, I'm sure.

Silas will be back in action again in two weeks as he's also a part of the team playing in the u11 finals. Again, we have the potential to do better than expected.