We had one of our largest Childrens Chess tournaments in March 2023
New faces and a range of chess players. Each with their own unique style. Youngsters registered and took a problem sheet and either started solving problems or playing friendlies against other players - I was encouraging the playing of friendlies and meeting of new friends as it was more social and you could solve the puzzles latter.
With everyone registered we had a total of 45 players - brilliant. We play over two class rooms, we placed the boards to allow players movement and comfortable seating. Parents had their own room if they wished to stay.
The classrooms now have large digital screens and we used this to display the round pairings so allow the pupils to work out which of the two rooms they would be playing in - also the tables were numbered. I had brilliant help from Geoff Hindley and Karina Campbell our regular volunteers. The players were seated and the first round begun. With a hush of focused concentration in the two rooms.
Below are listed the full results with photos from the rounds. The final positions/standings are given at the end of the article.
Some briliant chess was played during the day and the atmosphere was one of friendly players enjoying an afternoon of chess.
Throughout the afternoon the youngsters are encouraged to solve puzzles. There are some 22 puzzles on the puzzle sheet. These are usually collected after wound 4. to allow us time to mark them.
The Secondary Puzzle Solving Champion : Karthikeya Karpagavinayagam.
| Name | Year | score | Cert |
| Karpagavinayagam, Karthikeya | F2 | 12 | Gold |
| Douglas, Justin | F3 | 10 | Silver |
| Murphy, Peter | F2 | 9 | Silver |
| Davison, Eli | F3 | 9 | Silver |
| Kirkland, Isaac | F3 | 9 | Siver |
| Singh, Anjali | F4 | 9 | Silver |
| Subramanian, Ashwanth | U6 | 8 | Silver |
| Hill, Daniel | U6 | 6 | Bronze |
| Rippon, Saoirse | F2 | 2 | Bronze |
| Campbell, Andrew | F5 | 2 | Bronze |
| Prentice, Jackson | F1 | 0 | Bronze |
| O'Neill, Daniell | F2 | 0 | Bronze |
The Primary puzzles are very similar to the Secondary schools - except they have a row of mate in 1's when the Secondary have a row of mate in 3's. So the scores for the primary pupils shows an excellent skill at puzzle solving.
The Primary Champion : Lorcan Rippon with 20 out of 22 - brilliant.
| Name | Year | score | Cert |
| Rippon, Lorcan | P6 | 20 | Gold |
| Cole, Ethan | P6 | 18 | Gold |
| Matthew Loughrey | P4 | 10 | Silver |
| McKeown, Alex | P3 | 7 | Silver |
| Peramangalath Felix, Diego Zaniel | P7 | 6 | Silver |
| Selkh-Burgess, Zachary | P7 | 5 | Silver |
| Guerrero, Ben | P7 | 5 | Silver |
| O'Hara, Cillian | P6 | 4 | Bronze |
| Coakley, Jackson | P5 | 4 | Bronze |
| Carrington, Reuben | P7 | 1 | Bronze |
| Carrington, Felix | P3 | 0 | Bronze |
To give you a feel for the puzzle solving - and to show how challenging these can be I include some examples below for you to try and solve. The solutions are at the bottom of the page.
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Round 1
Results
No Name Feder Total Result Name Feder Total 1 Ethan Cole P6 [0] 1:0 Isaac Kirkland F3 [0] 2 Mark Kyselov F3 [0] 0:1 Ashwanth Subramanian U6 [0] 3 Andrew Campbell F5 [0] 1:0 Alex McKeown P3 [0] 4 Peter Murphy F2 [0] 0:1 James Huang F4 [0] 5 Anjali Singh F4 [0] 1:0 Daniell O'Neill F2 [0] 6 Henry Riddell F3 [0] 0:1 Lorcan Rippon P6 [0] 7 Louison Fuchs F2 [0] 1:0 Matthew Loughrey P4 [0] 8 Skyla Finnegan F1 [0] 0:1 Daniel Hill U6 [0] 9 Caleb McClean F4 [0] 1:0 Davyd Lazarenko F2 [0] 10 Jackson Prentice F1 [0] 0:1 Ben Guerrero P7 [0] 11 Saoirse Rippon F2 [0] 1:0 Crystal Shek P7 [0] 12 Cristiano Shek F2 [0] 0:1 Karthikeya Karpagavinayagam F2 [0] 13 Thomas Loughrey F2 [0] 1:0 Jacob Doherty P7 [0] 14 Matthew Mulhern P7 [0] 0:1 Aidan Spence P7 [0] 15 Peter Gamble F5 [0] 1:0 Diego Zaniel Peramangalath Felix P7 [0] 16 Peter Riddell P6 [0] 0:1 Benjamin Lazarenko L6 [0] 17 Illya Prokopenko L6 [0] 1:0 Felix Carrington P3 [0] 18 Reuben Carrington P7 [0] 1:0 Zachary Selkh-Burgess P7 [0] 19 Ryan Anderson F5 [0] 1:0 Jackson Coakley P5 [0] 20 Christina Joan de Klerk P6 [0] 0:1 Eli Davison F3 [0] 21 Justin Douglas F3 [0] 1:0 Cillian O'Hara P6 [0] 22 Peter Wong P6 [0] 1:0 BYE
by Swiss Perfect (TM) www.swissperfect.com
I do give players approx ratings and or ratings calc to date. This allows the top players to only meet in the latter rounds. The first round goes mainly to rating.
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March Childrens Chess - Round 2
Results
No Name Feder Total Result Name Feder Total 1 Karthikeya Karpagavinayagam F2 [1] 0:1 Ethan Cole P6 [1] 2 Ashwanth Subramanian U6 [1] 1:0 Thomas Loughrey F2 [1] 3 Aidan Spence P7 [1] 0:1 Andrew Campbell F5 [1] 4 James Huang F4 [1] 1:0 Peter Gamble F5 [1] 5 Benjamin Lazarenko L6 [1] 0:1 Anjali Singh F4 [1] 6 Lorcan Rippon P6 [1] 1:0 Illya Prokopenko L6 [1] 7 Ryan Anderson F5 [1] .5:.5 Louison Fuchs F2 [1] 8 Daniel Hill U6 [1] 1:0 Justin Douglas F3 [1] 9 Eli Davison F3 [1] 0:1 Caleb McClean F4 [1] 10 Ben Guerrero P7 [1] 1:0 Reuben Carrington P7 [1] 11 Peter Wong P6 [1] 0:1 Saoirse Rippon F2 [1] 12 Zachary Selkh-Burgess P7 [0] 1:0 Jackson Prentice F1 [0] 13 Isaac Kirkland F3 [0] 1:0 Crystal Shek P7 [0] 14 Jacob Doherty P7 [0] 0:1 Mark Kyselov F3 [0] 15 Alex McKeown P3 [0] 0:1 Cristiano Shek F2 [0] 16 Diego Zaniel Peramangalath Felix P7 [0] 0:1 Peter Murphy F2 [0] 17 Daniell O'Neill F2 [0] 0:1 Matthew Mulhern P7 [0] 18 Felix Carrington P3 [0] 0:1 Henry Riddell F3 [0] 19 Matthew Loughrey P4 [0] 1:0 Peter Riddell P6 [0] 20 Jackson Coakley P5 [0] 0:1 Skyla Finnegan F1 [0] 21 Davyd Lazarenko F2 [0] 0:1 Christina Joan de Klerk P6 [0] 22 Cillian O'Hara P6 [0] 1:0 BYE
Ryan Anderson draws against Louison Fuchs.
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Round 3
Results
No Name Feder Total Result Name Feder Total 1 Ethan Cole P6 [2] 1:0 Lorcan Rippon P6 [2] 2 Caleb McClean F4 [2] 1:0 Ashwanth Subramanian U6 [2] 3 Andrew Campbell F5 [2] 1:0 Daniel Hill U6 [2] 4 Saoirse Rippon F2 [2] 0:1 James Huang F4 [2] 5 Anjali Singh F4 [2] 1:0 Ben Guerrero P7 [2] 6 Louison Fuchs F2 [1.5] 1:0 Karthikeya Karpagavinayagam F2 [1] 7 Thomas Loughrey F2 [1] 0:1 Ryan Anderson F5 [1.5] 8 Peter Murphy F2 [1] .5:.5 Aidan Spence P7 [1] 9 Peter Gamble F5 [1] 1:0 Henry Riddell F3 [1] 10 Skyla Finnegan F1 [1] 0:1 Benjamin Lazarenko L6 [1] 11 Illya Prokopenko L6 [1] 1:0 Matthew Loughrey P4 [1] 12 Cristiano Shek F2 [1] 1:0 Zachary Selkh-Burgess P7 [1] 13 Matthew Mulhern P7 [1] 0:1 Eli Davison F3 [1] 14 Justin Douglas F3 [1] 1:0 Reuben Carrington P7 [1] 15 Cillian O'Hara P6 [1] 0:1 Isaac Kirkland F3 [1] 16 Mark Kyselov F3 [1] 1:0 Peter Wong P6 [1] 17 Christina Joan de Klerk P6 [1] 0:1 Alex McKeown P3 [0] 18 Peter Riddell P6 [0] 0:1 Daniell O'Neill F2 [0] 19 Tom Woolsey-Jensen F3 [0] 0:1 Davyd Lazarenko F2 [0] 20 Jackson Prentice F1 [0] 1:0 Diego Zaniel Peramangalath Felix P7 [0] 21 Crystal Shek P7 [0] 1:0 Felix Carrington P3 [0] 22 Flynn Woolsey-Jensen P7 [0] .5:.5 Jacob Doherty P7 [0] 23 Jackson Coakley P5 [0] 1:0 BYE
With the addition of a couple of more players the tables went up to 23 - with Geoff Hindley and Katrina Campbell playing friendlys against the players with the bye.
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Round 4
Results
No Name Feder Total Result Name Feder Total 1 James Huang F4 [3] 0:1 Ethan Cole P6 [3] 2 Anjali Singh F4 [3] 0:1 Andrew Campbell F5 [3] 3 Louison Fuchs F2 [2.5] 0:1 Caleb McClean F4 [3] 4 Ashwanth Subramanian U6 [2] 1:0 Ryan Anderson F5 [2.5] 5 Lorcan Rippon P6 [2] 1:0 Justin Douglas F3 [2] 6 Daniel Hill U6 [2] 1:0 Illya Prokopenko L6 [2] 7 Ben Guerrero P7 [2] .5:.5 Mark Kyselov F3 [2] 8 Eli Davison F3 [2] 0:1 Saoirse Rippon F2 [2] 9 Isaac Kirkland F3 [2] 1:0 Peter Gamble F5 [2] 10 Benjamin Lazarenko L6 [2] 1:0 Cristiano Shek F2 [2] 11 Aidan Spence P7 [1.5] 0:1 Zachary Selkh-Burgess P7 [1] 12 Daniell O'Neill F2 [1] 0:1 Peter Murphy F2 [1.5] 13 Karthikeya Karpagavinayagam F2 [1] 1:0 Jackson Prentice F1 [1] 14 Crystal Shek P7 [1] 0:1 Thomas Loughrey F2 [1] 15 Alex McKeown P3 [1] 1:0 Matthew Mulhern P7 [1] 16 Henry Riddell F3 [1] 1:0 Jackson Coakley P5 [1] 17 Matthew Loughrey P4 [1] 0:1 Christina Joan de Klerk P6 [1] 18 Reuben Carrington P7 [1] 0:1 Skyla Finnegan F1 [1] 19 Davyd Lazarenko F2 [1] 1:0 Cillian O'Hara P6 [1] 20 Peter Wong P6 [1] 1:0 Flynn Woolsey-Jensen P7 [.5] 21 Jacob Doherty P7 [.5] .5:.5 Peter Riddell P6 [0] 22 Diego Zaniel Peramangalath Felix P7 [0] 0:1 Tom Woolsey-Jensen F3 [0] 23 Felix Carrington P3 [0] 1:0 BYE
Ethan continues to win - playing tought opponents. Alex McKeown one of our youngest players gets his second point winning against Matthew Mulhern.
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Round 5
Results
No Name Feder Total Result Name Feder Total 1 Ethan Cole P6 [4] 1:0 Caleb McClean F4 [4] 2 Andrew Campbell F5 [4] .5:.5 James Huang F4 [3] 3 Daniel Hill U6 [3] 0:1 Ashwanth Subramanian U6 [3] 4 Saoirse Rippon F2 [3] 0:1 Anjali Singh F4 [3] 5 Benjamin Lazarenko L6 [3] 1:0 Lorcan Rippon P6 [3] 6 Ryan Anderson F5 [2.5] 1:0 Isaac Kirkland F3 [3] 7 Mark Kyselov F3 [2.5] 0:1 Louison Fuchs F2 [2.5] 8 Peter Murphy F2 [2.5] 1:0 Ben Guerrero P7 [2.5] 9 Skyla Finnegan F1 [2] 1:0 Karthikeya Karpagavinayagam F2 [2] 10 Thomas Loughrey F2 [2] 1:0 Alex McKeown P3 [2] 11 Peter Gamble F5 [2] 1:0 Davyd Lazarenko F2 [2] 12 Illya Prokopenko L6 [2] 1:0 Henry Riddell F3 [2] 13 Zachary Selkh-Burgess P7 [2] 1:0 Christina Joan de Klerk P6 [2] 14 Cristiano Shek F2 [2] 0:1 Eli Davison F3 [2] 15 Justin Douglas F3 [2] 0:1 Peter Wong P6 [2] 16 Jackson Prentice F1 [1] 0:1 Aidan Spence P7 [1.5] 17 Felix Carrington P3 [1] 0:1 Daniell O'Neill F2 [1] 18 Jackson Coakley P5 [1] 0:1 Matthew Loughrey P4 [1] 19 Cillian O'Hara P6 [1] 1:0 Crystal Shek P7 [1] 20 Tom Woolsey-Jensen F3 [1] 0:1 Jacob Doherty P7 [1] 21 Matthew Mulhern P7 [1] 1:0 Reuben Carrington P7 [1] 22 Peter Riddell P6 [.5] 1:0 Flynn Woolsey-Jensen P7 [.5] 23 Diego Zaniel Peramangalath Felix P7 [0] 1:0 BYE
A very exciting and tight game on board 2 between Andew and James ended with a draw. Leaving Ethan Cole leading after winning against the tough player Caleb McLean.
Round 6
Results
No Name Feder Total Result Name Feder Total 1 Andrew Campbell F5 [4.5] 0:1 Ethan Cole P6 [5] 2 Ashwanth Subramanian U6 [4] 1:0 Benjamin Lazarenko L6 [4] 3 Caleb McClean F4 [4] 1:0 Anjali Singh F4 [4] 4 James Huang F4 [3.5] 1:0 Ryan Anderson F5 [3.5] 5 Louison Fuchs F2 [3.5] 0:1 Peter Murphy F2 [3.5] 6 Lorcan Rippon P6 [3] 1:0 Skyla Finnegan F1 [3] 7 Zachary Selkh-Burgess P7 [3] 0:1 Daniel Hill U6 [3] 8 Isaac Kirkland F3 [3] 0:1 Saoirse Rippon F2 [3] 9 Eli Davison F3 [3] 0:1 Thomas Loughrey F2 [3] 10 Peter Wong P6 [3] 1:0 Peter Gamble F5 [3] 11 Ben Guerrero P7 [2.5] .5:.5 Illya Prokopenko L6 [3] 12 Aidan Spence P7 [2.5] 1:0 Mark Kyselov F3 [2.5] 13 Karthikeya Karpagavinayagam F2 [2] 1:0 Davyd Lazarenko F2 [2] 14 Jacob Doherty P7 [2] 1:0 Justin Douglas F3 [2] 15 Alex McKeown P3 [2] 1:0 Cillian O'Hara P6 [2] 16 Daniell O'Neill F2 [2] 0:1 Cristiano Shek F2 [2] 17 Christina Joan de Klerk P6 [2] 1:0 Henry Riddell F3 [2] 18 Matthew Loughrey P4 [2] 0:1 Matthew Mulhern P7 [2] 19 Crystal Shek P7 [1] 0:1 Peter Riddell P6 [1.5] 20 Felix Carrington P3 [1] 0:1 Jackson Prentice F1 [1] 21 Jackson Coakley P5 [1] 1:0 Diego Zaniel Peramangalath Felix P7 [1] 22 Flynn Woolsey-Jensen P7 [.5] 0:1 Tom Woolsey-Jensen F3 [1] 23 Reuben Carrington P7 [1] 1:0 BYE
The two top players battle it out on board 1. Ethan wins the game and the tournament unbeaten with 6 out of 6.
Standings
Place Name Feder Score M-Buch. Buch. Progr.
1 Ethan Cole P6 6 16.0 24.0 21.0
2-3 Caleb McClean F4 5 15.5 23.5 19.0
Ashwanth Subramanian U6 5 15.5 23.0 17.0
4-6 James Huang F4 4.5 16.5 25.5 17.0
Andrew Campbell F5 4.5 16.0 25.0 19.0
Peter Murphy F2 4.5 12.0 17.0 13.0
7-13 Anjali Singh F4 4 15.5 22.5 17.0
Benjamin Lazarenko L6 4 14.0 21.5 15.0
Daniel Hill U6 4 14.0 21.0 15.0
Saoirse Rippon F2 4 13.5 19.0 15.0
Lorcan Rippon P6 4 12.5 20.5 15.0
Thomas Loughrey F2 4 12.5 18.5 12.0
Peter Wong P6 4 10.5 15.0 12.0
14-17 Ryan Anderson F5 3.5 15.0 21.5 14.5
Louison Fuchs F2 3.5 13.5 20.5 14.5
Aidan Spence P7 3.5 13.0 19.5 11.0
Illya Prokopenko L6 3.5 11.0 15.5 12.5
18-29 Eli Davison F3 3 14.0 22.0 12.0
Alex McKeown P3 3 13.0 19.0 8.0
Skyla Finnegan F1 3 12.5 18.0 10.0
Isaac Kirkland F3 3 12.0 19.0 12.0
Ben Guerrero P7 3 12.0 18.0 13.0
Cristiano Shek F2 3 12.0 18.0 10.0
Karthikeya Karpagavinayagam F2 3 11.5 19.5 10.0
Zachary Selkh-Burgess P7 3 11.5 17.0 10.0
Peter Gamble F5 3 10.5 15.5 12.0
Christina Joan de Klerk P6 3 10.0 15.0 9.0
Matthew Mulhern P7 3 10.0 15.0 8.0
Jacob Doherty P7 3 9.0 13.5 6.5
30-31 Mark Kyselov F3 2.5 13.5 21.5 10.5
Peter Riddell P6 2.5 8.0 12.5 4.5
32-41 Daniell O'Neill F2 2 12.5 17.5 6.0
Justin Douglas F3 2 12.0 17.5 10.0
Matthew Loughrey P4 2 12.0 17.0 7.0
Reuben Carrington P7 2 12.0 17.0 7.0
Davyd Lazarenko F2 2 11.0 17.5 7.0
Henry Riddell F3 2 11.0 15.5 8.0
Cillian O'Hara P6 2 10.0 14.0 7.0
Jackson Coakley P5 2 10.0 14.0 5.0
Jackson Prentice F1 2 9.5 13.5 5.0
Tom Woolsey-Jensen F3 2 8.5 12.0 4.0
42-44 Crystal Shek P7 1 11.0 15.5 4.0
Diego Zaniel Peramangalath Felix P7 1 10.0 16.0 2.0
Felix Carrington P3 1 9.0 13.5 3.0
45 Flynn Woolsey-Jensen P7 0.5 11.5 17.0 2.0
P5 and below Champion : Alex McKeowan
P5 and below 2nd: Matthew Loughrey
P5 and below 3rd: Felix Carrington
P6 Champion : Ethan Cole (and tournament Champion)
P6 2nd: Peter Wong
P6 3rd: Christina Joan de Klerk
P7 Champion: Aidan Spence
P7 2nd: Ben Guerrero, Zachary Selkh-Burgess, Matthew Mulhem, Jacob Doherty
P7 3rd: Reuben Carrington
F1 Champion: Skyla Finnegan
F2 2nd: Jackson Prentice
F3 Champion: Eli Davison, Isaac Kirkland
F3 2nd: Mark Kyselov
F3 3rd: Justin Douglas, Henry Riddell, Tom Woosley-Jensen
F4 and above Champion: Caleb McLean, Ashwanth Subramanian
F4 and above 2nd: James Huang, Andrew Campbell
F4 and above 3rd: Anjali Singh, Benjamin Larazenko, Daniel Hill
The puzzle solutions:
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13. White to move (1001W-739) 1. Qxg7+ Nxg7 2. Rxg7+ Kh8 3. Rg8+ Kxg8 4. Rg1+ Qg5 5. Rxg5# |
14. White move. (1001W-740) 1. Qg6 fxg6 2. Nxg6+ hxg6 3. Rh3# |
15. White to move (1001W-741) 1. Qxd7+ Kxd7 2. Rd1+ Kc8 3. Rf8+ Qe8 4. Rxe8+ Bd8 5. Rxd8# |
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16. White to move (1001W-742) 1. Qg6+Bxg6 2. Ng5+ hxg5 3. hxg6# |
17. White to move (1000CC-286) 1. Rf8+ Bxf8 2. d6+ Black resigned |
18. Black to move (1000CC-287) 1. … Bxf2+ 2. Kh1 Rxd1+ 3. Qxd1 Rc1! 4. Qxc1 Bd5+ 5. Nf3 Bxf3# |
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19. Black to move (1000CC-288) 1. …Nf3+ 2. Nxf3 e2+ 3. Nd4 exd1(Q)+ 4. Qxd1 Re1+ resigns |
20. White to move (1000CC-289) 1. Bh7 resigns as threat of Bxh6# |
21. White to move (1000CC-290) 1. Bxg6! as 1. … fxg6 2. Qxe6# or 1. … hxg6 2. Qh8 |
