The ICU database shows 405 juniors as compared to 390 last year, although some of these juniors are no longer active players. In general many junior players stop playing in the major rated competitions at around 14-16 years of age unless they continue improving.

The premier junior competition is the Irish Junior Championships which were held in Kilkenny in April. A total of 97 players took part (last year 117). Yet again the numbers in the U16 and U19 section were disappointing. Next years competition will be held in Ennis.

Earlier this year Brian Thorpe retired after 50 years organising Junior Chess. Michael Crowe made a presentation to Brian at the Irish Junior Championships to mark his retirement and his significant contribution to Irish Junior Chess. There is a lot of junior chess going on “under the ICU radar” Schools, Community Games, Rapidplays etc. For juniors (or their parents) to commit to all weekend for a congress is a big step up.

International Scene

The main event that Irish Juniors go to is the Glorney/Jessie Gilbert/U14/U12 competitions between Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales. This year it was held in Glasgow and was well organised by the Scots.

In the Boys U18 Glorney competition Ireland came agonisingly close, finishing up runners up to England. In the Girls competition Ireland came third. In both the U14 and U12 age groups Ireland came second. Considering the population differences and chess playing levels vis a vis England and Scotland these were good results. Many thanks to coaches Mark Quinn IM and Stephen Jessel FM Interest in the Europeans/Worlds is once again low with just one player going to the Europeans and one due to go to the Worlds in November.

In other competitions there was a good result for David Fitzsimons in the British Championships in July.

Traditionally Ireland play Sussex at Junior Chess every two years and Sussex were due to travel to Ireland in 2009. A date was provisionally set for June however, Sussex asked for this to be deferred and as yet no date has been set. There has been no Irish Under 16 team for the last few years. The is a competition in December in Liverpool for which the ICU have received an invitation. It is hoped that we will be in a position to send a team to this competition.

Coaching

It was hoped to provide coaching to juniors in early summer 2009, however, this had to be deferred due to illness.