The first day of the final stage of the biggest chess tournament in the world - The UK Chess Challenge, started today at Loughborough School in Leicestershire.
52 children are taking part in the top section of this event from all over the country. Children as young as 7 years old are competing against 18 years old in this one of a kind competition.
Top seeds for the tournament include our latest International Master Yang Fan Zhou, last year's British U14 Champion Marcus Harvey, and local stars Brandon Clarke and Richard Weaving. Considering these four boys are in the top 5 juniors in the country, we know we are in for a VERY strong competition!
The girls competition is one of the strongest I have seen with the number of strong girls extremely high this year. The Wang sisters are probably strong favourite to battle for the title, Williams style in tennis, but Sheila Dines has more experience on them and has just had a great performance in the Championships in the British this year winning the British U18 Girls title. Most of the girls in the Terafinal have been chosen to represent England in this year's European and World Youth, including Chantelle Foster, U13 British Girls' Champion Katherine Shepherd and U10 British Champion Akshaya Kalaiyalahan. I can't wait to see how this tournament pans out as these girls can all challenge the boys at the top.
The UK Chess Challenge sports the football 3,1 scoring system and so those who draw are penalised, which encourages the games to be fully fought out. After the first day, three rounds have passed and the top four seeds are all on 100% as well as Anand Krishnan, 195, from Wilsons School and Jean-Luc Weller, 189, fresh from his good performance in the Major Open this year.
We will be seeing the big games tomorrow on the top boards so it should be an exciting watch. Commentary is being provided by former STRAT Ben Purton and last year's Top Girl Lateefah Messem-Sparks.
The top girl's score at the moment is 6 points, but they have only lost to the top players and gave them such a good game and the result does not reflect their play as I think that these girls deserve a lot more credit. Akshaya gave Brandon Clarke a good scare in the first round as we watched and worried for the 3rd seed. He also had another shaky round in round 3, but played some accurate moves to finish off top girl seed Maria Wang. Meanwhile, in round 2, her sister Anna found herself on top board against our top junior Yang Fan, whilst northern girl Rachel Cass faced 4th seed Richard Weaving. Both had drawable endgames but unfortunately the experience and ability of the top seeds shone through to lead them to perfect scores.
So going into round 3, the girls on 6 points include: Anna and Maria Wang, Anna York-Andersen, Rachel Cass and Chantelle Foster. Just behind is Emila Jewell on 5 points who faces local rival Anna York-Andersen tomorrow morning. Anna has already beaten a close competitior Akshaya Kalaiyalahan this evening and so got one of the way. Trailing behind but we can't rule her out is Sheila Dines. We predict she will storm back with some wins tomorrow which will really put the pressure on.
We will try to update as the day goes along!
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