Jon Freeman

As a very small 12 year old playing in the final of the school chess cup against the 17 year old reigning champion, another sixth form boy came up and started talking to my opponent. When my opponenet pointed out that we were playing the chess cup final, the other boy pointed at me disdainfully and said, 'What, against him!' He seemed to think that small 12 year olds couldn't be good at chess. I won, and then remained undefeated in school chess competitions for the remainder of my school days. However, I received no coaching and often wonder how good I might have been if I had been coached in my growing years.

As a taller 18 year old, I went to university and was amazed by how good some of the players were and I lost a number of games heavily. Nevertheless, faced with stronger opposition, I improved quickly and was soon playing for the London University 1st team, helping them to win the British Universities Championship (BUCA). I also came 7th in the British under 21 Championships and, later, won 2 county individual championship titles (Berkshire and Hertfordshire). I was graded over 2000 for 15 years in a row, peaking at 2155.

I then gave up playing and concentrated on setting up a junior chess club in 2006, becoming an English Chess Federation Registered Coach, coaching 2 juniors from beginner standard to represent England at junior level, and coaching 10 other juniors from beginner standard to play for Hertfordshire juniors. Some of them were very small 12 year olds!

I now coach juniors at the Wyke Regis Library chess club in.Weymouth, and have returned to playing, helping Weymouth to win the Dorset League Division One title in 2023.