Jonathan Rowson Award

for the Scottish Boy chess player of 2007

December 9, 2007

Connor Woods – the 2007 winner

Chess Scotland is pleased to announce that this year's winner of the Jonathan Rowson Award for the Scottish Boy Player of the Year is Connor Woods.

At last years awards Connor just missed out despite being British Under 14 champion. Through hard work, study and commitment Connor kept his spirits up to become British Under 15 champion during the Award period (September 2006-August 2007). He also showed great improvement over the year.

Connor is also willing to share not only his time but also his knowledge with the younger juniors to help them improve.  He has even been coaching some on a one to one basis to help earn money to pay his expenses to attend the chess tournaments outside of Scotland.

He takes part in all levels of tournaments & does not restrict himself to Adult events; he still takes part in the junior events.  This proves he is a great role model that encourages other juniors & they benefit from playing someone with his strength at chess, communication, interaction, respectfulness & friendliness.

He also coaches at Airdie YMCA

Other commended nominees

The judges also gave serious consideration to the claims of three other nominees.

Calum MacQueen is British Under 16 champion and represented Scotland in the European Team championships in Subotica, Serbia.

Calum gives back to the chess society by publishing a highly successful opening column F.A.T chess in Scottish Chess Magazine

Calum has also been involved in Junior coaching and his pupils have shown a marked improvement. He also runs his school chess club.

Robbie Coleman has shown great playing improvement. He is also the youngest ever co-editor along with David Oswald working on Scottish Chess Magazine . Robbie's editing skill is of very high quality.

Andrew McClement has shown he has huge chess potential. If his criteria in the other areas required develop then he will certainly win this award in the near future.

 

Thank you

In the second year of this Award, the judges would like to extend special thanks to everyone who took time to nominate a player and provide a few thoughtful paragraphs on how each nominee met the playing performance, organisational achievement and wider profile Award criteria. We look forward keenly to next year!

Duncan Grassie, Graeme Kafka and IM Stephen Mannion

December 2007

2006 winner