The Munster Junior Chess Championships are being held on the weekend of the 17-18th of September in the West County Hotel, Ennis. Titles can only be won by Munster residents, but all other players are welcome to enter.
U8 and U10 sections are run over one day only whilst U12, U14, U16 and U18 sections are run on both days. We already have one player from Ulster registered to play and it would be great to see more local players travel down in what promises to be a great competition! Further details can be found on either the Irish Chess Union website or the Munster Chess Union website.
It was great to see some of our local junior talent competing in the Ulster Chess Championships this weekend and three of them even managed to come away with prizes!
16 year old Jonathon Peoples won the Intermediate Section with Dayna Ferguson picking up the grading prize.
Here is an excellent game from Dayna played in round 2 of the tournament.
The Junior section included the ever present members of the Todd family - Andrew, Samuel and Peter. Also competing in this section for the first time was Aisling Ni Laighleis. Year 9 student Peter came incredibly close to winning the Junior Section, only missing out when he drew his final game. Samuel had his best tournament to date scoring 3 points and winning a grading prize.
The 2016 / 2017 timetable for the Ulster Chess Union Children's Chess Events has now been released and details can be found in our tournaments section.
Last year proved to be hugely competitive in all sections, with large numbers attending the Saturday events. All junior players are welcome to these events regardless of their experience or playing strength.
The Ulster Chess Union will be running its annual summer chess school from the 3rd - 5th August in Ballynafeigh Bowing Club. This is a great opportunity for young players to improve and develop their game, guided by the excellent children's chess coach Mark Newman. Each fun filled day is comprised of tutorials, games, puzzles and mini competitions. Further details can be found on the UCU website.
Over the weekend 3 of Ulster Chess's finest kids were competing in the Delancey UK Schools Giga Finals. Each of these children had qualified by winning their section in the local Mega Finals.
Avrora Zelenchuk won the U7 Girls section with an outstanding score of 5/6. This qualifies her to compete in the Tera Finals, to be held later this year. Dexter Harris scored an excellent 4/6 in the U8 boys section winning a rosette for his efforts.
Daniil Zelenchuk was competing in the U13 boys section and scored a fantastic 3.5/6. This was enough to win him a rosette in a very difficult section.
Congratulations to all 3 of these players who performed amazingly well in such a competitive tournament.
Today was the annual end of year Children's Chess event held at the Parliament Buildings in Stormont Estate. The day consisted of a tour round Stormont, an elite chess competition, and the end of year prize giving ceremony.
Big thank you to Mark Newman for running the day and for organising all the Children's Chess events throughout the year. Also to Chris Lyttle for hosting the event at Stormont.
Today the Mega-finals were held at Methodist College Belfast, with the winners qualifying for the Giga-finals in Manchester in July. Each section was fiercely contested with some scintillating chess played throughout the day. A full report of the competition will appear soon on the Ulster Chess Union Website, however, the all the winners are pictured below. Congratulations to everyone who qualified for the next round!
