{"id":1913,"date":"2025-05-26T11:46:04","date_gmt":"2025-05-26T11:46:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bexhillchessclub.co.uk\/?page_id=1913"},"modified":"2025-05-26T11:46:04","modified_gmt":"2025-05-26T11:46:04","slug":"sams-england-debut","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/bexhillchessclub.co.uk\/index.php\/sams-england-debut\/","title":{"rendered":"SAM’S ENGLAND DEBUT"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

He\u2019s Joined the club!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have mentioned the strength in depth of our leading juniors:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here they are pictured preparing for the Grand Prix 9<\/strong> event on Friday 23 May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rose Burgess<\/strong> (featured recently) seated -L, and Sam Merchant<\/strong>, (featuring today) seated \u2013 R.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Against very strong all-club opposition (16 players of all grades) young Sam took joint second place, alongside Howard Tebbs<\/strong>, with 3\/4 points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is Sam now unstoppable?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See the Grand Prix section on this website for full details. This cannot be without a mention for Luke Chapman<\/strong>, recently featured, winning this round with 4\/4. \u00a0Luke remains the overall Grand Prix leader with 24 points, James Lumsden<\/strong> second with 19.5, and Sam<\/strong> currently in third place, \u00a0in close contest with 18.5 overall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sam \u2018s greatest recent achievement is making his debut for England in a match against Flanders for the u-12 category, earlier this month. There he played 2 classical games on the first day and won one, lost one. On the second day there was a mini blitz tournament, and Sam scored an impressive 4.5\/9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are photos from Sam\u2019s England debut:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And earlier in May, with the leading Bexhill contingent, he excelled in the Sussex Junior Grand Prix<\/strong>. Harry Morter <\/strong>won 1st<\/sup> place in the u-12, Luke took 2nd<\/sup> in the u-14s, and Harry, Rose and Sam were presented with loyalty medals. Sam had been moved up, at the end of last season, into the u-18 major section. He is competing against the best u-18s in the county.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 He has years ahead to climb upwards in this field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pictured here at the Sussex Junior Grand Prix with Back Row : L-R – Sebastian Merchant, Rose Burgess, Luke Chapman and Front Row : L- R Harry Morter and Sam Merchant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ISN\u2019T THAT JUST GRAND!!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He\u2019s Joined the club! We have mentioned the strength in depth of our leading juniors: Here they are pictured preparing for the Grand Prix 9 event on Friday 23 May. Rose Burgess (featured recently) seated -L, and Sam Merchant, (featuring today) seated \u2013 R. Against very strong all-club opposition (16 players of all grades) young […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1913","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bexhillchessclub.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bexhillchessclub.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bexhillchessclub.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bexhillchessclub.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bexhillchessclub.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bexhillchessclub.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1913\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bexhillchessclub.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}