Ulster Juniors at the Irish Junior Championships
The Irish Junior Chess Championships took place in Ennis this weekend and our youngsters went and conquered
Ethan Cole - U10 Champion
In total we had three youngsters turn up for the competition, Aaditya & Anjali Singh, and Ethan Cole.
Anjali played well and finished runner up in Girls Under 16.
Aaditya played an excellent tournament and finished in 6th place in the Under 12 section on a score of 4/5! During the tournament, he claimed one of the longest games, playing 2hours45mins and winning impressively with only 20 seconds remaining on the clock!
Ethan and his mum, Eimear have recounted their experience at the tournament:
"After a long drive, we arrived in Ennis for a weekend of Chess. Saturday morning saw the start of the Under 10 Irish Junior Chess Championships, the time control was 60 +15. There was great excitement in the room with over 30 players eager to get started.
Ethan took his position at board 1, playing black; a solid game, winning by trapping his opponents rook leading to resignation. Round 2, again on board 1, this time playing white. Lasting 1hr 45
mins and 77 moves, resulting in Checkmate, this was Ethan’s longest game. Round 3, Ethan playing black. This was a tight and close game and at one point Ethan thought it was a draw. Only up a pawn he sacked a bishop and marched 3 of his pawns to victory. Round 4, playing white, Ethan chose to play the Pirc defence securing a win in 39 moves. Round 5 saw 2 players 4/4. Playing white in this round, Ethan won by resignation after cleverly pinning his opponents pawn to their queen, subsequently taking their knight.
Entering the final round on 5/5, it was all to play for. Ethan played white, after a strong opening a blunder in the middle game resulted in a loss which meant Ethan remained on 5 points - enough to secure him the Championship!
While the final presentations were awaited Ethan took the opportunity to brush up on his blitz skills with his new friends that he had made over the weekend. There was a great energy in the room,
with the children eagerly crowded round boards to both play and watch. Ethan was delighted to be crowned U10 Irish Junior Chess Champion."
Huge congratulations to all three youngsters who did the Ulster Chess Union proud this weekend at Ennis!
