Delancey UK Schools' Chess Challenge - 2018 Gigafinals

On 14th/15th July 7 players from Ulster travelled to Manchester to compete in the Northern Gigafinal and test themselves against some of the top junior players in the United Kingdom. Each player had previously taken part in a local qualifier to reach this stage. Over 40,000 children took part in this years Chess Challenge across the UK and only the top 5% reached the Gigafinal.

It was an excellent event run by Sarah Longson. There was an incredible atmosphere in the playing hall and around the venue as all the children battled over the chess board, played during the breaks, made new friends, and ultimately became much better players because of the experience. For players, parents and coaches alike it was an experience to be remembered for the rest of their lives. 

Our local players all acquitted themselves very well in this incredibly tough tournament.

Blake Harris  - U7 Boys

Points Total - 3/6

Ali Shahzad - U10 Boys

Points Total - 2/6

Taufik Kamal - U10 Boys

Points Total - 3.5/6

Dexter Harris - U10 Boys

Points Total - 4/6

Maxim Dobrynin - U12 Boys

Points Total - 3/6

Minaahil Shahzad - U14 Girls

Points Total - 3/6

James Wong - U15-18 Boys

Points Total - 2.5/6

By scoring 4 points Dexter Harris progressed to the Challenger stage of the competition to be held in Liverpool in September. Well done all the players on an excellent weekend of chess!!

Daniil Zelenchuk stars at the Glorney Cup 2018!!

One of Ulster's brightest young talents, 15 year old Daniil Zelenchuk, was representing Ireland recently in the Glorney Cup. Daniil scored an incredible 5 points out of 5 games including wins against 3 much higher rated players - Natahn Weisman (2003), Ben Volland (1887) and Derk Kouwenhoven (1994). This performance saw him win a medal for best Irish player in the Glorney Cup.

Daniil has had a meteoric rise in Ulster Chess, gaining 750 rating points in 2 years. His recent results suggest it won't be too long before he breaks through the 2000 barrier!

Irish Junior Champs 2018 Report

6 players from Ulster traveled down to Shannon to compete in the recent Irish Junior Chess Championships and all acquitted themselves very well in this prestigious event.






Eoin and Conor Boyle traveled down from Donegal with Eoin scoring 3/6 in the U12's and Conor scoring 3/6 in the U14's. The two brothers have made considerable progress over the last year and it's great to see their energy and enthusiasm at these tournaments.













Adam Fitzsimons continued his fine run of form by scoring 4/6 in the U10 section. This meant he finished 9th overall and was the highest scoring player from Ulster! Dexter Harris, also playing in the U10's, scored 3/6 and managed to beat the highest rated player in the section!




Louie McConkey managed to score a very credible 2/6 in a very tough U14 section. Daniil Zelenchuk scored 3/6 in the U19 event and finished 9th overall.

Many thanks to John Cassidy and everyone involved for organising this thoroughly enjoyable tournament.

Irish Junior Chess Championships

The 2018 Irish Junior Chess Championships are being held in Treacy's Oakwood Hotel in Shannon on 6th - 8th April. This is a great opportunity for all aspiring local chess players to test themselves against the best in Ireland. Details of the event can be found on the Irish Chess Union website.

February UCU Children's Chess Event

Saturday saw another fantastic Ulster Chess Union Children's Chess Event run by Mark Newman. As usual the competition was fierce and the standard of play excellent. An excellent report and a list of the winners can be found on the UCU website.

Ulster School's Championships 2017

Congratulations to all the winners at the Ulster School's Championships at the weekend.

Samuel Todd - U19 Champion

 

Hannah Patterson - Girl's Champion



















Conor Boyle - U14 Champion
















Jasper Grady - U12 Champion


















Dexter Harris - U10 Champion


















Aaditya Singh - U8 Champion

Chess for Peace

On Wednesday 15th November two of our promising young players, Dexter Harris and Adam Fitzsimons, traveled across to Wales as Youth Ambassadors for the Ulster Chess Union, as part of the Chess for Peace initiative by FIDE. They met up with other young players from around the United Kingdom and spent time with some of the most senior figures within FIDE, including President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, Secretary of Chess in Schools Commission Sainbayar Tserendorj, and FIDE representative from Russia Berik Balgabaev.

It was a fantastic day that was excellently organised by Malola Prasath Thittanimuttam. It included a tour of the Welsh Assembly, a peace walk that took us to a statue of Mahatma Gandhi, a trip to Cardiff Chess Club, and a special meeting with the FIDE delegates that focused on how we can promote and develop chess locally.

This was a fantastic experience for the children who received an incredibly warm reception from their local hosts. Many thanks to everyone who made this such a memorable experience for all involved.

UCU Children's Chess Event

Saturday saw another children's chess event run by Mark Newman of the Ulster Chess Union. As usual it was a fun filled day of chess puzzles and games. Adam Rushe was the winner of the Secondary School section, whilst Dexter Harris won the Primary School section. Full results will appear on the Ulster Chess Union website.

Funday Sunday at St Andrews

A rapidplay tournament has been organised for Sunday 1st October in St Andrew's College, Dublin. It's a 6 round tournament with entry open to players of all ages and abilities. Further details can be found on the Irish Chess Union website. It's a great opportunity for all our youngsters to test their skills against some new players!

Robinson Cup Win

Daniil Zelenchuk continued his fine recent form by scoring 4/5 in the recent Robinson Cup. This fantastic effort helped the Irish team win the competition.

UCU Chess Summer School

Once again Mark Newman of the Ulster Chess Union staged a fantastic Summer Chess School! 3 days of puzzles, games, lectures and battle chess ensured that all the 12 young players came away with enhanced chess skills learnt in a fun and friendly environment. A full report and photos can be found on the UCU website. Hats off to Mark for his continued hard work in helping promote and develop children's chess locally.

Delancey Northern Giga Finals

Once again Wright Robinson College in Manchester was the host of the Delancey UK Schools Chess Challenge Northern Giga Final. The atmosphere in the venue was an incredible mixture of high tension and over excitement with approximately 1000 enthusiastic children (and their parents!) all chomping at the bit to start their games and earn a place in the much coveted Tera Finals in London.

12 of Northern Ireland's finest young chess players made the journey across to Manchester to test themselves against the top juniors in the UK. To attend the Giga Finals you must win a local qualifying tournament, so just reaching this stage is quite an achievement. All the players acquitted themselves very well against incredibly tough opposition - as an example there was a player rated over 2000 in the U9 boys section! Special mention must go to Daniil Zelenchuk (U14's) and Maxim Dobrynin (U11 boy's) who both scored a fantastic 4/6.

NAME	SECTION	SCORE
Adam Rushe	U16	3
Ciaran Rowan	U16	2
Daniil Zelenchuk	U14	4
Aditya Shah	U14	1.5
Calum Glendinning	U12 Boys	3
Maxim Dobrynin	U11 Boys	4
Rahul Shah	U10 Boys	2
Anjali Singh	U9 Girls	3
Dexter Harris	U9 Boys	3
Adam Fitzsimons	U8 Boys	3
Aaditya Singh	U7 Boys	3

Congratulations to all our local juniors who attended and many thanks to all at the Giga Finals for staging such a fantastic event!

End of Year Chess Awards

Once again the end of year children's chess awards were held at Parliament Buildings, Stormont. The day involves a mini tournament, tour of Stormont, and finally the prize giving. Many thanks to Mark Newman for organising the fantastic event and for all his efforts throughout the year in running the UCU children's chess events. The photo below shows all the winners.

Selection for Ireland

Huge congratulations to Jonathon Peoples and Daniil Zelenchuk who were both selected to represent Ireland in the upcoming Glorney Gilbert International.The event takes place in Wales from 23rd - 27th July. The Glorney Gilbert International is a team event that has been running continuously since 1949 in various formats. It currently consists of 5 teams (France, England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland) competing in 4 competitions -

Glorney Cup               -              U18's

Gilbert Cup                 -              Girls U18's

Robinson Cup             -              U14's

Stokes Cup                  -              U12's

We wish both players and all the Irish teams the best of luck!

Saint Petersburg Sponsorship

On 18th August 2017 a group of 13 players from Northern Ireland are travelling to Russia to play in a challenge match against Saint Petersburg. Four of these players are U18 - Daniil Zelenchuk (14), Edward Doak (17), Dexter Harris (8) and Adam Fitzpatrick (8). A series of successful fundraisers by Brendan Jamison raised £600 to help cover the travel costs for these children. Some additional private donations were also received and a very generous £150 business sponsorship from Language Training Solutions which went towards the visas for the children. 

Director of CHESS NI Brendan Jamison states that "we offer our sincere thanks to Daniel Roberts and Joanne Ritchie from Language Training Solutions who share our passion for the educational merits of a cross-cultural chess match in Saint Petersburg, interweaving the role of play and creativity with learning new language skills and improving communication techniques. When chess players from around the world move to Northern Ireland and have little grasp of the English language, many begin their integration process by joining our local chess community. We get extremely excited by players from overseas who join us at Belfast tournaments as they greatly enrich the cultural life of the city. In recent years, we have welcomed players from China, India, Egypt, Russia, Kazakhstan, Poland, Lithuania, Hungary and The Phillipines. Hopefully this trend will continue and expand over the next decade as Belfast enjoys a rebirth as a vibrant cosmopolitan city."

Judit Polgar Talk

On Thursday 25th May the Irish Chess Union has organised a talk with one of the world's leading female chess players, Judit Polgar. It is being held in University College Dublin and commences at 6.00pm. Online tickets are 5 euro with all proceeds going to charity. If you are interested in attending this fantastic event tickets can be purchased through the ICU website, however, you may need to hurry as numbers are limited!

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

Judit is the only woman to qualify for a World Championship tournament, having done so in 2005. She is the first, and to date, only woman to have surpassed the 2700 Elo rating barrier, reaching a career peak rating of 2735 and peak world ranking of No. 8, both achieved in 2005. She was the number 1 rated woman in the world from January 1989 up until the March 2015 rating list

Primary Schools Interprovincial Championships

On Saturday 22nd April two of Northern Ireland's top primary schools, Strandtown and Inchmarlo, were representing Ulster in the Irish Primary Schools Interprovincial Championships. The two teams of 4 players headed down to Gonzaga College in Dublin to play in this extremely competitive tournament.

This was an exciting day out for the children as they got to represent not only their schools, but also their province! The chess clubs in both these schools are in their infancy with Strandtown running for just over a year and Inchmarlo just under a year. Despite this, the clubs are thriving with over 20 members in each. They came up against some very tough and experienced opposition but acquitted themselves very well, playing with a tenacity, commitment, enthusiasm and never say die attitude that made myself and every parent incredibly proud of them. The experience gained from this tournament will be invaluable as they continue to progress and develop into the future stars of Ulster Chess.

Many thanks to all the parents for bringing their children down to Dublin and to Lukasz Goralski for organising an excellent event.