Perhaps the only two major countries where chess as we know it has yet to establish itself are Japan and Korea. So Richmond Junior Chess Club were especially pleased to take on a team of five youngsters - three boys and two girls - from the Korea Internet Baduk (Go) and Chess Club who were staying in New Malden for 10 days in January. (We had no idea that New Malden has a larger Korean population than anywhere outside Korea.) Their chess teacher, Jin Woo Song, is a former student at Imperial College, and was active on the London chess circuit a few years ago.

They took part in the Barnet Congress and the 27th Richmond Rapidplay, where one of their girl players, Han Bit Sul, won a prize We also arranged a match with three evenly matched Richmond Junior teams, and visits to Richmond Junior Chess Club and two local schools:: Sheen Mount and Twickenham Prep.

Richmond Junior Chess Club v Korea 12/1/2000

Korean Krushers v Richmond Raiders
Jin Woo Song ½:½ Anton Chernikov
Tae Hun Kim 0:1 James Snowden
Han Bit Sul 0:1 James Porter
Byung Seo Kim 1:0 Jameel Aslam
Hyung Min Choi 1:0 Ralph Caldecott
Tae Woo Lee 0:1 Anuk Sirisena

Richmond Renegades v Richmond Rebels
Robert Heaton 1:0 Jamie Yardley
Kasim Khorasanee 0:1 Alexei Chernikov
David Watts 1:0 Chantal Sirisena
Alex Li 1:0 Erroll Wood
Robbie Parker 0:1 Reza Khorasanee
Umar Aslam 0:1 Joshua Hemmings

Richmond Renegades v Korean Krushers Robert Heaton 0:1 Jin Woo Song
Kasim Khorasanee 0:1 Tae Hun Kim
David Watts 1:0 Han Bit Sul
Alex Li 1:0 Byung Seo Kim
Robbie Parker ½:½ Hyung Min Choi
Umar Aslam 1:0 Tae Woo Lee

Richmond Raiders v Richmond Rebels
Anton Chernikov 0:1 Jamie Yardley
James Snowden 0:1 Alexei Chernikov
James Porter 1:0 Chantal Sirisena
Jameel Aslam 1:0 Erroll Wood
Ralph Caldecott 0:1 Reza Khorasanee
Anuk Sirisena 0:1 Joshua Hemmings

Richmond Rebels v Korea Krushers
Jamie Yardley 0:1 Jin Woo Song
Alexei Chernikov 1:0 Tae Hun Kim
Chantal Sirisena ½:½ Han Bit Sul
Erroll Wood 1:0 Byung Seo Kim
Reza Khorasanee 1:0 Hyung Min Choi
Joshua Hemmings ½:½ Tae Woo Lee

Richmond Raiders v Richmond Renegades
Anton Chernikov 0:1 Robert Heaton
James Snowden 1:0 Kasim Khorasanee
James Porter 1:0 David Watts
Jameel Aslam ½:½ Alex Li
Ralph Caldecott 0:1 Robbie Parker
Anuk Sirisena 0:1 Anuk Sirisena