The new year opens with our Schools tournament at Methodist College
We had some 30 young players. With some new faces,in particular we had the honor of having the Under 12 Chess Champion of Trinidad and Tobago, Kyan Muraladi. There was going to be a tough competition with plenty of exciting Chess.
With the assistance of karina Campbell, Geoff Hindley and player Caleb McClean we setup the rooms and placed the signs/arrows for the Chess Rooms and the toilets.
Players arrived and were registered. Having registered in advance means the computer draw is almost ready for the first round.
Many thanks to our sponsor for the trophies : LTS Recruitment Ltd. www.languagetrainingsolutions.co.uk About: LTS International Nurse Recruitment provides an end to end recruitment process to support nurses including accreditation and language training to the Care Home and Private Hospital sectors in the UK and ROI.
We give each player a puzzle sheet, one for Primary Pupils and one for Secondary Pupils. With pencils so that they can do the puzzles during the intervals between rounds. We also give hints and are happy if players help each other - its an opportunity to chat about chess.
These puzzle sheets are collected at about 3:00pm marked and certificates awarded - Gold / Silver / Bronze - everyone handing in a sheet receives a certificate. The top Secondary School and top Primary School pupils get a trophy for the Champion Puzzle Solver of the competition.
Primary Puzzle Solving
Champion : Alex McKeown
| Name | Year | Points | Cert |
| McKeown, Alex | P4 | 18 | Gold |
| Rippon, Lorcan | P7 | 13.5 | Gold |
| Loughrey, Matthew | P5 | 10 | Silver |
| Rippon, Torin | P3 | 9 | Silver |
| Davis, Alexander | P3 | 7 | Silver |
| Coakley, Jackson | P6 | 5 | Bronze |
Secondary Puzzle Solving
Champion : Kyan Muradali
| Name | Year | points | Cert |
| Muradali, Kyan | F1 | 16 | Gold |
| Murphy, Peter | F3 | 14 | Gold |
| Bendo, Jyuan Miguel | L6 | 14 | Gold |
| Crothers, Toby | F4 | 10 | Silver |
| Karpagavinayagam, Karthikeya | F3 | 9 | Silver |
| Banerjee, Aharshi | F2 | 8 | Bronze |
| Campbell, Andrew | L6 | 7 | Bronze |
| Hulpea, Alex | F2 | 6 | Bronze |
| Rainey, Benjamin | F2 | 6 | Bronze |
| Kirkland , Isaac | F4 | 6 | Bronze |
| Hunt, Alexander | F1 | 6 | Bronze |
| Corr, Freddie | F1 | 5 | Bronze |
| Corr, Jonah | F4 | 5 | Bronze |
| Davison, Eli | F4 | 3 | Bronze |
Here is the back of the puzzle sheets - with 10 puzzles. We leave a space for players to set their own puzzles and use this to adjudicate if there are two players sharing the top marks.
Try some of the puzzles - solutions at the end of the article.
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With everyone registered we did the draw and having 2 playing rooms split the players into the two rooms and play started.
My thanks to Karina Campbell and Geoff Hindley who looked after the second room.
Play started and silent focused concentration filled the two rooms. There is a third room for parents.
Scores from this tournament get included in our Grandprix for the Belfast Scholastic Shields which are awarded at a special ceremony at Stormont in June. I am collating the results and will publish the current standings after our two tournaments shortly on this site.
Round 1
Results
No Name Feder Total Result Name Feder Total 1 Andrew Campbell L6 [0] 1:0 Eli Davison F4 [0] 2 Isaac Kirkland F4 [0] 0:1 Caleb McClean F5 [0] 3 Jyuan Miguel Bendo L6 [0] 1:0 Jake Gourley F2 [0] 4 Alexander Hunt F1 [0] 0:1 Kyan Muradali F1 [0] 5 Jonah Corr F4 [0] .5:.5 Aharshi Banerjee F2 [0] 6 Jake Collins F1 [0] 0:1 Freddie Corr F1 [0] 7 Peter Murphy F3 [0] 1:0 Matthew Loughrey P5 [0] 8 Joshua Gourley P7 [0] 0:1 Lorcan Rippon P7 [0] 9 Toby Crothers F4 [0] 1:0 Sebastian Parsons P7 [0] 10 Maxim Likhodievskiy P6 [0] 0:1 Alex McKeown P4 [0] 11 Ryan Pettigrew F2 [0] 1:0 Henry McGrath P6 [0] 12 Isaac Ryan P5 [0] 1:0 Alex Hulpea F2 [0] 13 Karthikeya Karpagavinayagam F3 [0] 1:0 Alexander Davis P3 [0] 14 Jackson Coakley P6 [0] 0:1 Benjamin Rainey F2 [0] 15 Thomas Loughrey F3 [0] 1:0 Torin Rippon P3 [0]
by Swiss Perfect (TM) www.swissperfect.com
We allocate approx ratings - and the first round means the toughest for the lower rated players who play the higher rated players. You can see the pattern from board 1 where Andrew Campbell won and then Black on Board 2 would be the higher rated player, Caleb McClean who also won. So you would see 101010101010 down the left hand column if games went to rating. Two players broke the pattern. Aharshi Banerjee got a draw against Jonah Corr and Isaac Ryan won against Alex Hulpea.
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Round 2
Results
No Name Feder Total Result Name Feder Total 1 Toby Crothers F4 [1] 0:1 Andrew Campbell L6 [1] 2 Caleb McClean F5 [1] 1:0 Ryan Pettigrew F2 [1] 3 Alex McKeown P4 [1] 0:1 Jyuan Miguel Bendo L6 [1] 4 Kyan Muradali F1 [1] 1:0 Karthikeya Karpagavinayagam F3 [1] 5 Freddie Corr F1 [1] 0:1 Thomas Loughrey F3 [1] 6 Benjamin Rainey F2 [1] 1:0 Peter Murphy F3 [1] 7 Lorcan Rippon P7 [1] 1:0 Isaac Ryan P5 [1] 8 Alex Hulpea F2 [0] 0:1 Jonah Corr F4 [.5] 9 Aharshi Banerjee F2 [.5] 1:0 Eli Davison F4 [0] 10 Sebastian Parsons P7 [0] 0:1 Isaac Kirkland F4 [0] 11 Jake Gourley F2 [0] 1:0 Maxim Likhodievskiy P6 [0] 12 Henry McGrath P6 [0] 0:1 Alexander Hunt F1 [0] 13 Alexander Davis P3 [0] 0:1 Jake Collins F1 [0] 14 Matthew Loughrey P5 [0] 0:1 Jackson Coakley P6 [0] 15 Torin Rippon P3 [0] 0:1 Joshua Gourley P7 [0]
No upsets on Round 2. and going into round 3 we start to see players beginning to be matched against their own strengths.
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Round 3
Results
No Name Feder Total Result Name Feder Total 1 Andrew Campbell L6 [2] 1:0 Kyan Muradali F1 [2] 2 Thomas Loughrey F3 [2] 0:1 Caleb McClean F5 [2] 3 Jyuan Miguel Bendo L6 [2] 1:0 Lorcan Rippon P7 [2] 4 Jonah Corr F4 [1.5] 0:1 Benjamin Rainey F2 [2] 5 Peter Murphy F3 [1] 0:1 Aharshi Banerjee F2 [1.5] 6 Alexander Hunt F1 [1] 0:1 Freddie Corr F1 [1] 7 Jake Collins F1 [1] 0:1 Toby Crothers F4 [1] 8 Joshua Gourley P7 [1] 0:1 Alex McKeown P4 [1] 9 Ryan Pettigrew F2 [1] 0:1 Jake Gourley F2 [1] 10 Karthikeya Karpagavinayagam F3 [1] 1:0 Isaac Ryan P5 [1] 11 Isaac Kirkland F4 [1] 1:0 Jackson Coakley P6 [1] 12 Sebastian Parsons P7 [0] 0:1 Alex Hulpea F2 [0] 13 Eli Davison F4 [0] 1:0 Alexander Davis P3 [0] 14 Maxim Likhodievskiy P6 [0] 1:0 Matthew Loughrey P5 [0] 15 Torin Rippon P3 [0] 1:0 BYE
Andrew Campbell and Kyan Muradali have a real battle with Kyan initially having an advantage and then loosing it to Andrew to have what look like a drawn position before loosing in time trouble. Andrew and Caleb McClean and Jyuan Migeul Bendo and Benjamin Rainey go into the fourth round on full points of 3.
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Round 4
Results
No Name Feder Total Result Name Feder Total 1 Benjamin Rainey F2 [3] 0:1 Andrew Campbell L6 [3] 2 Caleb McClean F5 [3] 1:0 Jyuan Miguel Bendo L6 [3] 3 Aharshi Banerjee F2 [2.5] 0:1 Kyan Muradali F1 [2] 4 Freddie Corr F1 [2] 0:1 Karthikeya Karpagavinayagam F3 [2] 5 Lorcan Rippon P7 [2] 0:1 Thomas Loughrey F3 [2] 6 Jake Gourley F2 [2] 1:0 Toby Crothers F4 [2] 7 Alex McKeown P4 [2] 0:1 Isaac Kirkland F4 [2] 8 Ryan Pettigrew F2 [1] 0:1 Jonah Corr F4 [1.5] 9 Joshua Gourley P7 [1] 0:1 Peter Murphy F3 [1] 10 Alex Hulpea F2 [1] 1:0 Maxim Likhodievskiy P6 [1] 11 Eli Davison F4 [1] 1:0 Torin Rippon P3 [1] 12 Isaac Ryan P5 [1] 1:0 Alexander Hunt F1 [1] 13 Jackson Coakley P6 [1] 1:0 Jake Collins F1 [1] 14 Matthew Loughrey P5 [0] 1:0 Sebastian Parsons P7 [0] 15 Alexander Davis P3 [0] 1:0 BYE
Andrew Campell wins against Benjamin Rainey whilst Caleb wins against Jyuan Miguel Bendo. So we have 2 leaders going into round 5 on 4 full points. Chased by a group on 3 points. Primary Pupils doing well are Lorcan Rippon, Alex McKeown and Issac Ryan all on 2 points.
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Round 5
Results
No Name Feder Total Result Name Feder Total 1 Andrew Campbell L6 [4] .5:.5 Caleb McClean F5 [4] 2 Jyuan Miguel Bendo L6 [3] 1:0 Benjamin Rainey F2 [3] 3 Kyan Muradali F1 [3] 1:0 Thomas Loughrey F3 [3] 4 Karthikeya Karpagavinayagam F3 [3] 0:1 Jake Gourley F2 [3] 5 Isaac Kirkland F4 [3] 1:0 Aharshi Banerjee F2 [2.5] 6 Jonah Corr F4 [2.5] .5:.5 Freddie Corr F1 [2] 7 Peter Murphy F3 [2] 1:0 Alex Hulpea F2 [2] 8 Lorcan Rippon P7 [2] 1:0 Eli Davison F4 [2] 9 Toby Crothers F4 [2] 1:0 Isaac Ryan P5 [2] 10 Jackson Coakley P6 [2] 0:1 Alex McKeown P4 [2] 11 Maxim Likhodievskiy P6 [1] 0:1 Ryan Pettigrew F2 [1] 12 Alexander Hunt F1 [1] 0:1 Joshua Gourley P7 [1] 13 Torin Rippon P3 [1] 0:1 Jake Collins F1 [1] 14 Alexander Davis P3 [1] 0:1 Matthew Loughrey P5 [1] 15 Sebastian Parsons P7 [0] 1:0 BYE
The top board we have a draw between Andrew and Caleb Potentially opening up the tournament. and meaning a tie break if they keep head to head on points. Chasing are Jyuan Miguel Bendo, Kyan Muradali, Jake gourley and Isaac Kirkland all on 4 points only 1/2 behind.
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Round 6
Results
No Name Feder Total Result Name Feder Total 1 Jyuan Miguel Bendo L6 [4] 0:1 Andrew Campbell L6 [4.5] 2 Caleb McClean F5 [4.5] 1:0 Jake Gourley F2 [4] 3 Kyan Muradali F1 [4] 1:0 Isaac Kirkland F4 [4] 4 Alex McKeown P4 [3] 0:1 Jonah Corr F4 [3] 5 Karthikeya Karpagavinayagam F3 [3] 0:1 Peter Murphy F3 [3] 6 Benjamin Rainey F2 [3] 0:1 Lorcan Rippon P7 [3] 7 Thomas Loughrey F3 [3] 0:1 Toby Crothers F4 [3] 8 Freddie Corr F1 [2.5] .5:.5 Aharshi Banerjee F2 [2.5] 9 Matthew Loughrey P5 [2] .5:.5 Ryan Pettigrew F2 [2] 10 Alex Hulpea F2 [2] 1:0 Joshua Gourley P7 [2] 11 Eli Davison F4 [2] 1:0 Jackson Coakley P6 [2] 12 Jake Collins F1 [2] 0:1 Isaac Ryan P5 [2] 13 Alexander Davis P3 [1] 0:1 Alexander Hunt F1 [1] 14 Sebastian Parsons P7 [1] .5:.5 Torin Rippon P3 [1] 15 Maxim Likhodievskiy P6 [1] 1:0 BYE
Round 6 and both Andrew and Caleb win their games and stay joint leaders. To run an extra round, it was close to 4:00pm and we could just fit in a round 7. So we did. Allowing the possibility for a clearer winner. Lorcan Rippon gets a win against Benjamin Rainey and goes into the last round with 4 points. Alex McKeown is doing well to be on board 4 but looses to Jonah Corr. Whilst other primary player Mathew Loughrey gets a draw against Ryan Pettigrew. We have 2 very young players in P3. Alexander Davis looses to Alexander Hunt whilst Torin RIppon (his first tournament) gets a draw against Sebastian Parsons. As we have an odd number of players Geoff Hindley and Karina Campbell offer to play a friendly game against the player with the bye. We had colllect the puzzle sheets and myself and David Corr marked them and wrote out the certificates.
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Round 7
Results
No Name Feder Total Result Name Feder Total 1 Caleb McClean F5 [5.5] 1:0 Kyan Muradali F1 [5] 2 Andrew Campbell L6 [5.5] 1:0 Jonah Corr F4 [4] 3 Toby Crothers F4 [4] 1:0 Jyuan Miguel Bendo L6 [4] 4 Peter Murphy F3 [4] 1:0 Isaac Kirkland F4 [4] 5 Jake Gourley F2 [4] 1:0 Lorcan Rippon P7 [4] 6 Benjamin Rainey F2 [3] 0:1 Freddie Corr F1 [3] 7 Isaac Ryan P5 [3] .5:.5 Alex McKeown P4 [3] 8 Thomas Loughrey F3 [3] 1:0 Alex Hulpea F2 [3] 9 Aharshi Banerjee F2 [3] 1:0 Karthikeya Karpagavinayagam F3 [3] 10 Ryan Pettigrew F2 [2.5] 1:0 Eli Davison F4 [3] 11 Alexander Hunt F1 [2] 0:1 Matthew Loughrey P5 [2.5] 12 Joshua Gourley P7 [2] 1:0 Maxim Likhodievskiy P6 [2] 13 Jake Collins F1 [2] 0:1 Sebastian Parsons P7 [1.5] 14 Torin Rippon P3 [1.5] 0:1 Alexander Davis P3 [1] 15 Jackson Coakley P6 [2] 1:0 BYE
Caleb wins against Kyan and Andrew wins against Jonah. So they both end up on 6.6 points (unbeaten) out of a possible 7.
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Standings
Place Name Feder Score M-Buch. Buch. Progr.
1-2 Caleb McClean F5 6.5 22.0 32.0 26.5
Andrew Campbell L6 6.5 21.0 30.5 26.5
3-6 Kyan Muradali F1 5 21.5 30.0 22.0
Jake Gourley F2 5 19.5 27.5 19.0
Toby Crothers F4 5 18.5 27.0 18.0
Peter Murphy F3 5 16.5 23.5 17.0
7-13 Jyuan Miguel Bendo L6 4 24.0 33.5 21.0
Thomas Loughrey F3 4 21.0 28.5 18.0
Isaac Kirkland F4 4 20.0 28.5 18.0
Aharshi Banerjee F2 4 20.0 28.0 16.5
Jonah Corr F4 4 18.0 27.5 17.0
Lorcan Rippon P7 4 17.5 25.5 18.0
Freddie Corr F1 4 16.0 22.0 15.5
14-17 Ryan Pettigrew F2 3.5 18.0 26.0 12.0
Alex McKeown P4 3.5 17.0 22.5 15.5
Isaac Ryan P5 3.5 15.5 22.5 13.5
Matthew Loughrey P5 3.5 11.5 18.0 9.0
18-23 Karthikeya Karpagavinayagam F3 3 21.5 28.0 16.0
Benjamin Rainey F2 3 21.0 30.0 18.0
Alex Hulpea F2 3 16.5 23.0 11.0
Jackson Coakley P6 3 16.5 22.5 11.0
Eli Davison F4 3 15.5 23.0 11.0
Joshua Gourley P7 3 14.0 20.0 10.0
24 Sebastian Parsons P7 2.5 16.0 22.0 5.0
25-28 Maxim Likhodievskiy P6 2 17.0 25.0 7.0
Alexander Hunt F1 2 16.5 23.0 8.0
Jake Collins F1 2 13.5 19.5 9.0
Alexander Davis P3 2 13.5 18.0 5.0
29 Torin Rippon P3 1.5 13.5 19.0 6.0
30 Henry McGrath P6 0 5.5 5.5 0.0
On tie break
Champion : Caleb McClean
2nd: Andrew Campbell
3rd Kylan
Form 4 and above:
| Name | Feder | Score | |
| McClean, Caleb | F5 | 6.5 | 1st - 1st Trophy |
| Campbell, Andrew | L6 | 6.5 | 1st -2nd trophy |
| Crothers, Toby | F4 | 5 | 2nd |
| Bendo, Jyuan Miguel | L6 | 4 | 3rd |
| Corr, Jonah | F4 | 4 | 3rd |
Form 3:
| Name | Feder | Score | |
| F3 | |||
| Murphy, Peter | F3 | 5 | 1st |
| Loughrey, Thomas | F3 | 4 | 2nd |
| Karpagavinayagam, Karthikeya | F3 | 3 | 3rd |
Form 2:
| Name | Feder | Score | |
| F2 | |||
| Gourley, Jake | F2 | 5 | 1st |
| Banerjee, Aharshi | F2 | 4 | 2nd |
| Pettigrew, Ryan | F2 | 3.5 | 3rd |
Form 1:
| Name | Feder | Score | |
| F1 | |||
| Muradali, Kyan | F1 | 5 | 1st |
| Corr, Freddie | F1 | 4 | 2nd |
| Hunt, Alexander | F1 | 2 | 3rd |
| Collins, Jake | F1 | 2 | 3rd |
P7 :
| Name | Feder | Score | |
| p7 | |||
| Rippon, Lorcan | P7 | 4 | 1st |
| Gourley, Joshua | P7 | 3 | 2nd |
| Parsons, Sebastian | P7 | 2.5 | 3rd |
P6 :
| Name | Feder | Score | |
| p6 | |||
| Coakley, Jackson | P6 | 3 | 1st |
| Likhodievskiy, Maxim | P6 | 2 | 2nd |
| McGrath, Henry | P6 | 0 | 3rd |
P5 and Below :
| Name | Feder | Score | |
| p5 > | |||
| McKeown, Alex | P4 | 3.5 | 1st trophy |
| Ryan, Isaac | P5 | 3.5 | 1st 2nd trophy |
| Loughrey, Matthew | P5 | 3.5 | 1st cert |
| Davis, Alexander | P3 | 2 | 2nd |
| Rippon, Torin | P3 | 1.5 | 3rd |
Many thanks to all the players for making the event so enjoyable. Also thanks to the parents of players for supporting their young players. Also thanks to our sponsor LTS Recruitment Ltd and to Methodist College for the venue. A special thanks to our volunteers Karina Campbell, Geoff Hindley and David Corr.
Our next event is the same format as this on Sat 10th February at Methodist College 12:30 pm. to register please email mark.chris.newman@googlemail.com name/school/form and a contact no. More details on our events page : https://www.ulsterchess.org/Members/ucu02505/2023-2024-season/events/childrens-chess/calendar-events/newman-hindley-series-childrens-chess-2
The solutions to the problems:
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13. White to move (1001W-773) 1. Nxc6 Qxc6 2. Bf3 Nd5 3. Nxd5 exd5 4. Bxd5 winning the Rook |
14. White move. (1001W-774) 1. Qe8+ Kg5 2. f4+ Kf6 3. Qh8+ winning the Queen if 2. … Kg4 3. Qg6# |
15. Black to move (1001W-775) 1. …. Bg4 2. Q moves Bxd1 winning the exchange |
16. Black to move (1001W-776) 1. … Qxf1+ 2. Kxf1 Rd1+ 3. Ke2 Re1+ 4. K moves Rxe6 winning the Rook |
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17. Black to move (1001W-777) 1. … Nxc4 2. Qxc4 Be6 Winning the exchange |
18. Black to move (1001W-778) 1. … Re5+ if 2. Kc6 Bd7# or 2. Kc4 Be2 winning the Knight |
19. Black to move (1001W-779) 1. … Nxd5 2. Nxd5 Bxd5 3. Rxd5 Rxb2 4. Nd2 Rxa2 Black cant stop Ra1+ winning the Rook. |
20. White to move (1000CC-325) 1. Nf6+ gxf6 2. Qxe6+ fxe6 3. Bh5# |
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21. Black to move (1000CC-326) 1. Rxb4 Nxb4 2. Bh2+ Kf1 3. Qb6 winning |
22 The moves 1. Ng4 Bxg2 were played. Whites move. (1000CC-327) 1. Rg4 Bxg2 2. Qxe5+ dxe5 3. Bf6+ Kg8 4. Nh6# |
