Suffolk Chess

One of the joys of running a junior chess club is finding a young player with an emerging talent that can almost take your breath away.   A couple of years ago, it was Anita Somton, who has since represented England and is in the Top 60 English women with a rating of nearly 1500.

Now, a new talent has emerged.

A year ago, 8-year old Adam John (pictured left) had a rating of 611 (the lowest rating is 600).   He played in the bottom division at the Bury Knights.   Now, he is regularly beating adults in the leagues.   He has improved his rating to 1110 and it's still going up in leaps and bounds.   His January ECF grade was 74.

On Sunday Adam played in the EACU Team Championships.   He loves to attack on the kingside and here he shows real tactical awareness.   This was the position after 31 moves with White (Adam) to play.

The game continued:

32.   Bg6+    Kg8
33.   Bf7+!!   I wonder how many adults would even consider this move.   The bishop can be taken by four different pieces!
         ... Kxf7   The only move.   If the bishop is taken by the queen, rook or bishop, mate is forced after Qh7+.
34.   Ng5+    Qxg5   Again, forced.
35.   Rxg5    Rh8
36.   Qg6+    Ke7
37.   Qxg7+    Bf7
38.   Qf6+    Kd7
39.   Qxf7+    Ne7
40.   Rg6    Rh2+
41.   Kg1    Rch8   hoping for a draw.
42.   Qxe6+    Kc7
43.   Qxe7+    Nd7
44.   Qd6+    Kd8
45.   Rg7   and after a few checks, the White king escaped to d5 and Black resigned.

Adam will celebrate his ninth birthday on Saturday...