SUSSEX	Grade	Score	ESSEX	Grade
1	A. Bradbury	124	0 - 1	D.G. Cannan	124
2	A. Pelling	121	½-½	W. Petchey	123
3	P. Benson	124	0 - 1	D. Bird	122
4	C. Dunn	119	1 - 0	C. Barrett	124
5	C. Harvey	120	½-½	M. Ashkettle	122
6	D. Chilvers	121	0 - 1	R. Joyce	120
7	M.A. Bryant	115	1 - 0	J. Figgins	118
8	P. Britton	122	½-½	B. Sheppard	115
9	H. Hughes	116	0 - 1	T. Allen	115
10	E. Hillier	121	1 - 0	M. Kingsley	114
11	M. Curtis	109	½-½	G. Benger	110
12	S. Deere	107	½-½	E. Lodge	110
13	T. Dunn	112	0 - 1	P. Pattison	96
14	K. Carter	91	1 - 0	C. Turner	91
15	C. Jefferies	107	0 - 1	D. Allen	70
16	default		0 - 0	default
			6½-8½

In their latest fixture the Essex under-125 team took one more step towards the National stages of the County Championships with an exciting away win against Sussex. Dave Cannan continues to impress as he maintained his 100% record over 5 matches, and Messrs Petchey and Bird are also unbeaten, on 4/5 and 5½/6 respectively. Tom Allen also has 5/6 and his son Dominic played a very good game to win in 19 moves against a higher graded opponent.

There was a satisfying symmetry to the results as, apart from top and bottom boards, which were wins for the away team, an Essex victory was matched exactly by a defeat on the board below. Essex were outgraded by the Sussex team by almost 4 points per board.

Essex have two remaining fixtures, away to Kent on 2nd March and the final match, which could be the decider for the right to play in the National stages, against Surrey on 16th March. The following table shows the relative positions of the teams. The only defeat suffered by Essex was at the hands of Oxfordshire, whose game-points total is distorted by a 16 - 0 win by default against Kent. Surrey's remaining match is against Oxfordshire.

	P	W	D	L	Pts	GP
Essex	6	5	0	1	5	53
Surrey	6	4	0	2	4	50½
Oxfordshire	6	3	0	3	3	56½
Sussex	7	2	0	5	2	52
Kent	7	2	0	5	2	46

Recent events have seen two Essex players win National Titles. Mike McDowell, of the Customs Club, Southend, became British Problem-solving Champion at the Finals held in London. Another Essex competitor, Neil Sutherland (Southend), also qualified for the finals.

Francesca Berlin (Ilford) won the British Women's Chess Association under-8 Championship in Stoke-on-Trent. There were near misses in other events in Stoke: Heather Walker (Southend) was placed 2nd in the under-10 section and Katie Bates was leading the under-11 with two rounds to go but failed to add to her score. She had the consolation of winning the Best Game award for her section.