Childrens Chess continued on February 11th 2023 at Methodist College
Our 3rd Childrens Chess out of 5 we are over half way through the series of monthly tournaments. Each gives points to the Grandprix for our special May award ceremony to be held at Stormont. Look out for the standings in a future news item,
We had 29 players with several Ulster age group champions. We were in for some excellent chess and some brilliant battles.
As usual we had puzzle sheets with 24 challenging puzzles to solve.
The volunteer helps for the day were Geoff Hindley and Andrew Todd - many thanks as these events couldnt take place without them.
I will have to make these puzzles harder. We had two primary youngsters who scored full marks for the puzzles - absolutely brilliant. Ethan Cole and Lorcan Rippon.
There is an empty chess board for players to place there own problem. This is used in the case of a draw and Ethan's was more sophisticated than Lorcan's so Ethan Cole won the Primary Schools Champion Puzzle Solver for Feb 2023 followed by a whusper by Lorcan Rippon. Congratulations to the other puzzle solvers. One of the youngsters who was a little young to play handed in a puzzle sheet and got 8 points - well done Tanish.
| Name | Year | Points | Certificate |
| Cole, Ethan | P6 | 22 | Gold |
| Rippon, Lorcan | P6 | 22 | Gold |
| Loughrey, Matthew | P4 | 15 | Silver |
| Selkh-Burgess, Zachary | P7 | 15 | Silver |
| Guerrero, Ben | P7 | 9 | Bronze |
| Thoke, Shlok | P6 | 8 | Bronze |
| Tanish | 8 | Bronze | |
| Spence, Aidan | P7 | 5 | Bronze |
| Brown, Eli | P6 | 4 | Bronze |
For the Secondary School Puzzles the Champion was Aaditya Singh closely followed by James Huang. All the entrants get their marked puzzle sheets returned with a certificate - Gold, Silver ot Bronze. There are several excellent ways to improve your chess, one is to do chess puzzles, another is to loose to strong players, Studying your own games and Studying the games of the Masters.
| Name | Year | Points | Certificate |
| Singh, Aaditya | F2 | 21 | Gold |
| Huang, James | F4 | 20 | Gold |
| Subramanian, Ashwanth | U6 | 15 | Silver |
| Singh, Anjali | F4 | 14 | Silver |
| Rippon, Saoirse | F2 | 12 | Silver |
| Fuchs, Louison | F2 | 8 | Bronze |
| Loughrey, Thomas | F2 | 7 | Bronze |
| Campbell, Andrew | F5 | 7 | Bronze |
| Karpagavinayagam, Karthikeya | F2 | 6 | Bronze |
| McCreesh, Rory | F4 | 4.5 | Bronze |
Here are some examples from the puzzle sheets - try them - solutions given at the bottom of this page.
 |  |  |
|---|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
I noticed that the classroom we were using for registration and the top 8 boards had a large TV instead of a blackboard. So I found the connection to the screen and plugged it into my laptop. This meant the pairings could be displayed on the large screen and players could easily find their rooms and tables. We have 2 rooms for chess and one for parents.
The players sat and we did the usual briefing about touch move and shaking hands before and after the game. Always important to thank your opponent for a good game - even if you loose. Also the need for complete honesty in situations where you touch a piece. I remember seeing the Snooker Championships and a player admitting to fouling on a ball - which was almost missed! - showing true integrity.
The room fell to a hush as the play started.
Round 1
Results
No Name Feder Total Result Name Feder Total 1 Ethan Cole P6 [0] 1:0 Timothy Gouk F5 [0] 2 Harrison Brown F1 [0] 0:1 Andrew Campbell F5 [0] 3 Calvin Patterson F4 [0] 1:0 Daniel O'Neill F2 [0] 4 Cristiano Shek F2 [0] 0:1 James Huang F4 [0] 5 Anjali Singh F4 [0] 1:0 Matthew Loughrey P4 [0] 6 Shlok Thoke P6 [0] 0:1 Ashwanth Subramanian U6 [0] 7 Louison Fuchs F2 [0] 1:0 Ben Guerrero P7 [0] 8 Zachary Selkh-Burgess P7 [0] 0:1 Aaditya Singh F2 [0] 9 Saoirse Rippon F2 [0] 1:0 Aidan Spence P7 [0] 10 Peter Riddell P6 [0] 0:1 Skyla Finnegan F1 [0] 11 Karthikeya Karpagavinayagam F2 [0] 0:1 Eli Brown P6 [0] 12 Advait Chaudhari P4 [0] 0:1 Lorcan Rippon P6 [0] 13 Thomas Loughrey F2 [0] 1:0 Malachy Duffin P6 [0] 14 Conor Lowry P5 [0] 0:0 Mohammed Farhan Rakeeb L6 [0] 15 Aditya Chaudhari F5 [0] 1:0 Cillian O’Hara P6 [0] 16 Peter Wong P6 [0] 0:1 Rory McCreesh F4 [0] 17 Ryan Anderson F5 [0] 0:0 BYE
by Swiss Perfect (TM) www.swissperfect.com
I gave the players ratings and looking at the results the first round went to these. Apart from Eli Brown beat Karthikeya.
 |  |
|---|---|
 |
 |
Round 2
Results
No Name Feder Total Result Name Feder Total 1 Aaditya Singh F2 [1] 0:1 Ethan Cole P6 [1] 2 Andrew Campbell F5 [1] 1:0 Saoirse Rippon F2 [1] 3 Lorcan Rippon P6 [1] 0:1 Calvin Patterson F4 [1] 4 James Huang F4 [1] 1:0 Thomas Loughrey F2 [1] 5 Skyla Finnegan F1 [1] 0:1 Anjali Singh F4 [1] 6 Ashwanth Subramanian U6 [1] 1:0 Peter Wong P6 [0] 7 Eli Brown P6 [1] 0:1 Louison Fuchs F2 [1] 8 Ben Guerrero P7 [0] .5:.5 Karthikeya Karpagavinayagam F2 [0] 9 BYE 0:1 Shlok Thoke P6 [0] 10 Rory McCreesh F4 [1] 1:0 Zachary Selkh-Burgess P7 [0] 11 Timothy Gouk F5 [0] 0:1 Aidan Spence P7 [0] 12 Malachy Duffin P6 [0] 0:1 Harrison Brown F1 [0] 13 Daniel O'Neill F2 [0] .5:.5 Peter Riddell P6 [0] 14 Cillian O’Hara P6 [0] 0:1 Cristiano Shek F2 [0] 15 Matthew Loughrey P4 [0] 1:0 Advait Chaudhari P4 [0]
A tough game already Aaditya is a good player and is beaten by one of our favourites to win Ethan Cole a player who plays for Ireland. He is chased by Calvin Patterson the current Ulster Schools Champion. Two very young players go head to head - Matthew Loughrey plays Advait Chaudhari and Matthew wins.
 |  |
|---|---|
 |
 |
Round 3
Results
No Name Feder Total Result Name Feder Total 1 Ethan Cole P6 [2] 0:1 Ashwanth Subramanian U6 [2] 2 Anjali Singh F4 [2] 0:1 Andrew Campbell F5 [2] 3 Calvin Patterson F4 [2] 1:0 Rory McCreesh F4 [2] 4 Louison Fuchs F2 [2] 0:1 James Huang F4 [2] 5 Harrison Brown F1 [1] 0:1 Aaditya Singh F2 [1] 6 Saoirse Rippon F2 [1] 1:0 Matthew Loughrey P4 [1] 7 Cristiano Shek F2 [1] 0:1 Lorcan Rippon P6 [1] 8 Thomas Loughrey F2 [1] 1:0 Shlok Thoke P6 [1] 9 Aidan Spence P7 [1] 1:0 Skyla Finnegan F1 [1] 10 Peter Riddell P6 [.5] 0:1 Eli Brown P6 [1] 11 Karthikeya Karpagavinayagam F2 [.5] 1:0 Daniel O'Neill F2 [.5] 12 Timothy Gouk F5 [0] 0:1 Ben Guerrero P7 [.5] 13 Zachary Selkh-Burgess P7 [0] 1:0 Malachy Duffin P6 [0] 14 Advait Chaudhari P4 [0] 0:1 Cillian O’Hara P6 [0] 15 Peter Wong P6 [0] 1:0 BYE
With an odd number Geoff Hindley plays a friendly against the player with the Bye. Ashwanth Subramanian who has won previous tournaments faces Ethan and wins. We have 3 players on 3 points going into round 4 including Ashwanth,Andrew Campbell, Calvin Patterson and James Huang.
Round 4
Results
No Name Feder Total Result Name Feder Total 1 Andrew Campbell F5 [3] 1:0 James Huang F4 [3] 2 Ashwanth Subramanian U6 [3] .5:.5 Calvin Patterson F4 [3] 3 Lorcan Rippon P6 [2] 0:1 Ethan Cole P6 [2] 4 Rory McCreesh F4 [2] 0:1 Anjali Singh F4 [2] 5 Aidan Spence P7 [2] 0:1 Louison Fuchs F2 [2] 6 Aaditya Singh F2 [2] 1:0 Thomas Loughrey F2 [2] 7 Eli Brown P6 [2] 1:0 Saoirse Rippon F2 [2] 8 Skyla Finnegan F1 [1] 0:1 Karthikeya Karpagavinayagam F2 [1.5] 9 Ben Guerrero P7 [1.5] 1:0 Harrison Brown F1 [1] 10 Shlok Thoke P6 [1] .5:.5 Cristiano Shek F2 [1] 11 Matthew Loughrey P4 [1] 1:0 Zachary Selkh-Burgess P7 [1] 12 Cillian O’Hara P6 [1] 0:1 Peter Riddell P6 [.5] 13 Daniel O'Neill F2 [.5] .5:.5 Advait Chaudhari P4 [0] 14 Peter Wong P6 [1] .5:.5 Timothy Gouk F5 [0] 15 Malachy Duffin P6 [0] 1:0 BYE
With Ashwanth and Calvin drawing Andrew Campbell takes the sole lead unbeaten on 4 out of 4.
 |  |
|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
 |
Round 5
Results
No Name Feder Total Result Name Feder Total 1 Calvin Patterson F4 [3.5] 0:1 Andrew Campbell F5 [4] 2 James Huang F4 [3] 0:1 Ashwanth Subramanian U6 [3.5] 3 Ethan Cole P6 [3] 1:0 Eli Brown P6 [3] 4 Anjali Singh F4 [3] 0:1 Aaditya Singh F2 [3] 5 Louison Fuchs F2 [3] 1:0 Karthikeya Karpagavinayagam F2 [2.5] 6 Saoirse Rippon F2 [2] 0:1 Ben Guerrero P7 [2.5] 7 Rory McCreesh F4 [2] 0:1 Lorcan Rippon P6 [2] 8 Thomas Loughrey F2 [2] .5:.5 Matthew Loughrey P4 [2] 9 Cristiano Shek F2 [1.5] .5:.5 Aidan Spence P7 [2] 10 Peter Riddell P6 [1.5] 0:1 Shlok Thoke P6 [1.5] 11 Malachy Duffin P6 [1] 0:1 Skyla Finnegan F1 [1] 12 Daniel O'Neill F2 [1] .5:.5 Cillian O’Hara P6 [1] 13 BYE 0:0 BYE 14 Zachary Selkh-Burgess P7 [1] 1:0 Peter Wong P6 [1.5] 15 Advait Chaudhari P4 [.5] 1:0 BYE
Round 5 and we collect the puzzle solving sheets and mark them. Awarding Gold, Silver, Bronze certs. Theres alot of marking to be done. With the organisation of the rounds it means I dont have time to also sign and fill in the certs, Round 5 see Andrew get a good win against Calvin and Ashwanth a win over James.With Ethan and Aaditya and Louison chasing.
 |  |
|---|---|
 |
 |
Round 6
Results
No Name Feder Total Result Name Feder Total 1 Andrew Campbell F5 [5] .5:.5 Ashwanth Subramanian U6 [4.5] 2 Aaditya Singh F2 [4] 1:0 Louison Fuchs F2 [4] 3 Ben Guerrero P7 [3.5] 0:1 Ethan Cole P6 [4] 4 Eli Brown P6 [3] 0:1 Calvin Patterson F4 [3.5] 5 James Huang F4 [3] 1:0 Anjali Singh F4 [3] 6 Lorcan Rippon P6 [3] 1:0 Thomas Loughrey F2 [2.5] 7 Karthikeya Karpagavinayagam F2 [2.5] 1:0 Shlok Thoke P6 [2.5] 8 Matthew Loughrey P4 [2.5] 0:1 Aidan Spence P7 [2.5] 9 Saoirse Rippon F2 [2] 1:0 Rory McCreesh F4 [2] 10 Skyla Finnegan F1 [2] 0:1 Zachary Selkh-Burgess P7 [2] 11 Cristiano Shek F2 [2] 1:0 Daniel O'Neill F2 [1.5] 12 Advait Chaudhari P4 [1.5] 1:0 Peter Riddell P6 [1.5] 13 Peter Wong P6 [1.5] 1:0 Malachy Duffin P6 [1] 14 Cillian O’Hara P6 [1.5] 0:1 BYE
We start each round as soon as the previous one ends. Andrew assists me with putting in the results. So this week sees the possibility of 7 rounds. Round 6 sees Ashwanth challenging the lead with a draw against Andrew Campbell. Aaditya gets a good win against Louison whilst Ethan continues his wins against Ben Guerrero a new player to the scene standing his own against some tough opposition.
Round 7
Results
No Name Feder Total Result Name Feder Total 1 Ethan Cole P6 [5] 1:0 Andrew Campbell F5 [5.5] 2 Ashwanth Subramanian U6 [5] 1:0 Aaditya Singh F2 [5] 3 Calvin Patterson F4 [4.5] 1:0 James Huang F4 [4] 4 Louison Fuchs F2 [4] 0:1 Lorcan Rippon P6 [4] 5 Aidan Spence P7 [3.5] 0:1 Karthikeya Karpagavinayagam F2 [3.5] 6 Anjali Singh F4 [3] 1:0 Ben Guerrero P7 [3.5] 7 Skyla Finnegan F1 [2] 1:0 Saoirse Rippon F2 [3] 8 Shlok Thoke P6 [2.5] 0:1 Eli Brown P6 [3] 9 Thomas Loughrey F2 [2.5] 1:0 Advait Chaudhari P4 [2.5] 10 Daniel O'Neill F2 [1.5] 0:1 Matthew Loughrey P4 [2.5] 11 Zachary Selkh-Burgess P7 [3] 1:0 Cristiano Shek F2 [3] 12 Malachy Duffin P6 [1] 0:1 Rory McCreesh F4 [2] 13 Cillian O’Hara P6 [1.5] 0:1 Peter Wong P6 [2.5] 14 Peter Riddell P6 [1.5] 1:0 BYE
We play each round as soon as the previous round completes. This meant we had time for 7 rounds. Ethan plays the leading player Andrew and wins. Whilst the other 2 players on 5 play and Ashwanth wins against Aaditya. So we have two leaders on 6 points. With the tie breaks Ashwanth leads. What a brilliant end to a tough competition.
Standings
Place Name Feder Score
1-2 Ashwanth Subramanian U6 6
Ethan Cole P6 6
3-4 Andrew Campbell F5 5.5
Calvin Patterson F4 5.5
5-6 Aaditya Singh F2 5
Lorcan Rippon P6 5
7 Karthikeya Karpagavinayagam F2 4.5
8-12 James Huang F4 4
Louison Fuchs F2 4
Anjali Singh F4 4
Eli Brown P6 4
Zachary Selkh-Burgess P7 4
13-17 Ben Guerrero P7 3.5
Aidan Spence P7 3.5
Thomas Loughrey F2 3.5
Matthew Loughrey P4 3.5
Peter Wong P6 3.5
18-21 Rory McCreesh F4 3
Saoirse Rippon F2 3
Skyla Finnegan F1 3
Cristiano Shek F2 3
22-24 Shlok Thoke P6 2.5
Advait Chaudhari P4 2.5
Peter Riddell P6 2.5
25-26 Daniel O'Neill F2 1.5
Cillian O’Hara P6 1.5
27-29 Malachy Duffin P6 1
Harrison Brown F1 1
Aditya Chaudhari F5 1
30 Timothy Gouk F5 0.5
31-34 Mohammed Farhan Rakeeb L6 0
Conor Lowry P5 0
Ryan Anderson F5 0
Sonny Cowan P6 0
The award ceremony followed with trophies for 1st and 2nd place (based on tie breaks) but all players in the same age section on the same points get the same certificate. So we potentially have joint 1sts, 2nds, 3rds.
The overall winner Ethan Cole. Followed closely by James Huang and Caleb McClean.
P5 and under Champion: Matthew Loughrey
P5 and under Second: Advait Chaudhari
P6 Champion: Ethan Cole
P6 Second: Lorcan Rippon
P6 Third: Eli Brown
F1 Champion: Skyla Finnegan
F1 Second: Harrison Brown
F2: Champion: Aaditya Singh
F2 Second: Karthikeya Karpagavinayagam
F2 Third: Louison Fuchs
F4 and above Champion: Ashwanth Subramanian
F4 and above Second: Andrew Campbell, Calvin Patterson
F4 and above Third: James Huang, Anjali Singh
See you all at the next tournament on Saturday 11th March. Same time same place.
|
13. White to move (1001W-735) 1. Qxh7+ Kxh7 2. hxg5+ Kg8 3. Ne7# or 2. … Kg6 3. Ne7# |
14. White move. (1001W-736) 1. Qf7+ Rxf7 2. exf7# |
15. White to move (1001W-737) 1. Qxh7+ Kxh7 2. Rh1+ Bh3 3. Rxh3# |
|---|---|---|
|
16. White to move (1001W-738) 1. Qh6+ Kxh6 2. hg6+ Kg7 3. Rh7# |
17. Black to move (1000CC-280) 1…. Nd8 2. Rxf5 threatening 3. Bd4# |
18. Black to move (1000CC-281) 1. … Qd8 2. Re8+ Qxe8 3. Qxf6# or 2 .. Bxe8 3. Qf8# |
|
19. Black to move (1000CC-282) 1. …b5 2. Re8 Rxe8 3. Qxf6# |
20. White to move (1000CC-283) 1. Nb6+ axb6 2. Qxc6+ bxc6 3. Ba6# |
21. Black to move (1000CC-284) 1. … Bd4+ 2. Kh1 Re1+ 3. Qxe1 Qf3# |
