DJCA events coming up

Click on Event for directions and entries

Sat 05-Jul-25

Plymouth College (Sports Hall), Ford Park Road, PL4 6RN

FREE ENTRY -- Open to students from all Plymouth Schools -- ENTRIES WILL BE RESTRICTED TO 100

Welcome

Welcome to Devon Junior Chess Association

About us

The Association is a small committee of volunteers who organise and promote junior chess in the county. It runs tournaments and coaching days for players of all abilities from those who are new to competitive chess right through to those who play at County level. Players from the age of 7 through to those in their teens take part in the events and come from the many schools and the junior clubs that exist in the county. The Association selects and runs Devon County teams at U18, U14, U11 and U9 levels.

There are also events for over 11s run on behalf of the Devon County Chess Association which includes the County Under-14 team.

We depend on volunteers to make our events run smoothly -- can you help us out one day?

Scholar's Mate

What counts as a good idea in chess?

A good idea in chess is any idea that your opponent doesn't now how to meet... and for some levels of chess Scholar’s Mate is a good idea.

In fact, Scholar’s Mate featured in the first game of chess I ever played in a chess club! Sadly I got checkmated…

If you don't know Scholar’s Mate (also known as the 'four-move checkmate'), it goes like this:

Meanwhile, way down South...

Results from the 6th Simon Bartlett Memorial Congress, Torquay 2025:

Minor: Our top U14 and U18 players showed well: Shreyas Pasupulety 4/5 (1st); Ben Darlington & Daniel Smith 3½/5 (tied for 2nd-4th with another player). Jack Amos from our U11 squad also played -- hope you enjoyed it!

Inter: Suhayl Abdalla 3½/5 (tie for 2nd-3rd); Mac Holland 3/5; Varnika Neralla 2/5

Major: Jack Wills 3/5

...while Ananya Nerella with awesome poise jumped into the deep end of the Open!

World Chess Championship Matches

Devon juniors' success at LJCC centenary

The London Junior Chess Championships were founded 100 years ago, and in their centenary event Devon juniors had some notable success.

Congratulations to Swetha Narayanan who scored a very creditable 5/7 in the huge U8 section, winning a prize.

And very well done to Pengxiao Zhu, who as an U13 player won the U16 trophy on tie-break with 5/6 and no losses, beating a 2100-rated player in the last round.