The Delancey UK Chess Challenge is a tree of tournaments making the "Largest Chess Competition in the World". Schools play mini tournaments, winners of these play in the regional Mega-finals, Qualifiers then play in one of three Giga-Finals and last is the Terra-final in London. Last year’s event  had 40,000 children entered from 1,280 schools and clubs took part, in the 22nd Chess Challenge.

The format of the Mega-final is 6 rounds in a day - not our usual afternoon chess focused. Its always a wonder as to how many players we would get. How many schools enter the Chess Challenge. Unfortunately not many this year - we must encourage school participation for next year.

We had 14 players - and what was interesting they were well spread across the age groups. The day was a sunny beautiful we decided to play each round immediately after the previous and end the day early.

With players completing rounds at different times - some finishing quicker - we decided to run a puzzle competition. An opportunity to talk chess and apply the mind to some elegant almost beautiful problems. A delicious feast for the mind.

Primary Puzzle competition - The Champion is Ali Shazhzad with 18 out of 22.

Secondary Puzzle competition - The Champion is Minaahil Shahzad ( Ali's sister - two champions from the same family) with 16 out of 22.

Here are some of those challenging and elegent problems - solutions at the bottom of this page....

Round 1

Results

No Name           Feder Total  Result   Name             Feder Total

 1 Maxim Dobrynin U12   [0]      1:0    Cormac ODonnell  U12   [0]  
 2 Adam Rushe     U17   [0]      1:0    Adam Fitzsimons  U9    [0]  
 3 Jasper Grady   U11   [0]      0:1    Rahul Shah       U11   [0]  
 4 Ali Shahzad    U10   [0]      1:0    Blake Harris     U7    [0]  
 5 Dexter Harris  U10   [0]      1:0    Minaahil Shahzad U14   [0]  
 6 Katy Thornton  U13   [0]      0:1    Taufik Kamal     U10   [0]  
 7 TJ McCartney   U12   [0]      0:1    James Wong       U16   [0]  

by Swiss Perfect (TM)  www.swissperfect.com

Round one goes to age group apart from Dexter Harris who beats Minaahil Shahzad and Taufik Kamal who wins against Katy Thornton. The favourite is Adam Rushe who wins against the top younger player Adam Fitzsimons.

Round 2

Results

No Name             Feder Total  Result   Name           Feder Total

 1 Rahul Shah       U11   [1]      0:1    Maxim Dobrynin U12   [1]  
 2 James Wong       U16   [1]     .5:.5   Dexter Harris  U10   [1]  
 3 Taufik Kamal     U10   [1]      0:1    Adam Rushe     U17   [1]  
 4 Adam Fitzsimons  U9    [0]      1:0    Ali Shahzad    U10   [1]  
 5 Cormac ODonnell  U12   [0]      1:0    Jasper Grady   U11   [0]  
 6 Blake Harris     U7    [0]      1:0    Katy Thornton  U13   [0]  
 7 Minaahil Shahzad U14   [0]      1:0    TJ McCartney   U12   [0]  

The quality of these games can be measured by how many have tough endgames. Just walking around its brilliant to see complicated endgames being played and played well.

Round 3

Results

No Name           Feder Total  Result   Name             Feder Total

 1 Maxim Dobrynin U12   [2]      0:1    Adam Rushe       U17   [2]  
 2 Dexter Harris  U10   [1.5]    1:0    Blake Harris     U7    [1]  
 3 Taufik Kamal   U10   [1]      0:1    James Wong       U16   [1.5]
 4 Rahul Shah     U11   [1]      0:1    Adam Fitzsimons  U9    [1]  
 5 Ali Shahzad    U10   [1]      1:0    Cormac ODonnell  U12   [1]  
 6 Jasper Grady   U11   [0]      0:1    Minaahil Shahzad U14   [1]  
 7 TJ McCartney   U12   [0]     .5:.5   Katy Thornton    U13   [0]  

Round 4

Results

No Name             Feder Total  Result   Name           Feder Total

 1 Adam Rushe       U17   [3]     .5:.5   Dexter Harris  U10   [2.5]
 2 James Wong       U16   [2.5]    1:0    Maxim Dobrynin U12   [2]  
 3 Minaahil Shahzad U14   [2]      1:0    Ali Shahzad    U10   [2]  
 4 Adam Fitzsimons  U9    [2]      0:1    Taufik Kamal   U10   [1]  
 5 Blake Harris     U7    [1]      0:1    Rahul Shah     U11   [1]  
 6 Cormac ODonnell  U12   [1]      1:0    TJ McCartney   U12   [.5] 
 7 Katy Thornton    U13   [.5]     0:1    Jasper Grady   U11   [0]  

Dexter opens up the competition by taking 1/2 point off Adam. James goes into sharing the lead by winning against Maxim Dobrynin, a top player who travelled down from Derry.

Round 5

Results

No Name           Feder Total  Result   Name             Feder Total

 1 Adam Rushe     U17   [3.5]    0:1    James Wong       U16   [3.5]
 2 Maxim Dobrynin U12   [2]      1:0    Minaahil Shahzad U14   [3]  
 3 Dexter Harris  U10   [3]      1:0    Rahul Shah       U11   [2]  
 4 Taufik Kamal   U10   [2]      1:0    Cormac ODonnell  U12   [2]  
 5 Jasper Grady   U11   [1]      0:1    Adam Fitzsimons  U9    [2]  
 6 BYE                           0:1    Katy Thornton    U13   [.5] 
 7 TJ McCartney   U12   [.5]     0:1    Blake Harris     U7    [1]  

The leaders play and James goes into the lead.

Round 6

Results

No Name             Feder Total  Result   Name            Feder Total

 1 James Wong       U16   [4.5]    1:0    Adam Fitzsimons U9    [3]  
 2 Maxim Dobrynin   U12   [3]     .5:.5   Dexter Harris   U10   [4]  
 3 Minaahil Shahzad U14   [3]      1:0    Adam Rushe      U17   [3.5]
 4 Rahul Shah       U11   [2]      0:1    Taufik Kamal    U10   [3]  
 5 Cormac ODonnell  U12   [2]      1:0    Katy Thornton   U13   [1.5]
 6 Blake Harris     U7    [2]      0:1    Jasper Grady    U11   [1]  
 7 TJ McCartney     U12   [.5]     1:0    BYE            

The last round and in a tough competition James has done brilliantly to win and only having dropped 1/2 a point. With Dexter coming second on 4.5.

Standings

Place Name             Feder Score M-Buch. Buch. Progr.

  1   James Wong       U16   5.5      14.0  19.5   18.5
  2   Dexter Harris    U10   4.5      13.0  20.5   16.5
 3-4  Taufik Kamal     U10   4        11.5  18.0   12.0
      Minaahil Shahzad U14   4        11.5  17.0   13.0
 5-6  Adam Rushe       U17   3.5      16.0  24.5   16.5
      Maxim Dobrynin   U12   3.5      15.0  22.5   13.5
 7-8  Adam Fitzsimons  U9    3        12.0  19.5   11.0
      Cormac ODonnell  U12   3         9.0  14.0    9.0
9-12  Rahul Shah       U11   2        12.5  19.0    9.0
      Jasper Grady     U11   2        10.0  15.0    4.0
      Ali Shahzad      U10   2         8.0  13.0    8.0
      Blake Harris     U7    2         7.5  13.0    7.0
13-14 TJ McCartney     U12   1.5      12.0  18.5    3.0
      Katy Thornton    U13   1.5      10.0  15.0    4.0

The qualifiers for the next stage of the tournament are :

We wish them all good luck for the next stage of the tournament - the Giga-finals in Manchester on the 14th 15th July - watch our site and we will give you details of how they do.

https://www.delanceyukschoolschesschallenge.com/gigafinals-2018/

The puzzle solutions