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Chris Lyttle MLA invites top youngsters to Stormont Chess Award Ceremony

On friday 8th June 2018 Chris Lyttle MLA invited top young chess players to Stormont to receive awards for chess and to play in the Belfast Elite Competition.

Its the end of the School chess season. We have had a tournament every month over the year starting in October with the London Junior Chess Championship Qualifier.The last of these is the May Mega-Final for the Delancy Chess Challenge. The full timetable of events for this year has been:

October 7th London Junior Chess Championships Qualifier 9:30 – 5:00pm

November 4th Childrens Chess 12:30 – 5:00

December 9th Ulster Schools Championship 10:00 –5:00

January 13th Childrens Chess 12:30 – 5:00

February 10th Childrens Chess 12:30 – 5:00

March 10th Childrens Chess 12:30 – 5:00

April 14th Childrens Chess 12:30 – 5:00

May 12th UK Chess Challenge 9:45 – 5:00

Over the series of Childrens Chess events we calculate a Grandprix and the top 4 Children of the Primary Schools, Lower Secondary (F1-F3) and the Upper Secondary (F4-U6) are invited to receive awards together with the top 4 puzzle solvers, Primary and Secondary. We are fortunate to have Chris Lyttle MLA invite us to Stormont for the awards and an Elite Belfast Tournament. During the year an anonymous donar has provided us with trophies - many thanks go to them. Also thanks to our volunteers who run the tournaments. The results of the grandprix:

room1

Belfast Scholastic Shield 2018:

Primary School Championship

PlaceNameSchoolYearNovJanFebMarAprTotalBest 3
1 Dexter Harris Strandtown PS P5 10 5 10 10 5.5 40.5 30
2 Calvin Patterson Home Educated P6 6 5 8 10 29 24
3 Adam Fitzsimons Downshire PS P5 8 10 4.5 5.5 28 23.5
4 Aaditya Singh Forge Integrated PS P4 4 8 5 4.5 4 25.5 17.5

Lower Secondary School Championship

PlaceNameSchoolYearNovJanFebMarAprTotalBest 3
1 Calum Glendinning Holywood Steiner F2 8 9 10 10 8 45 29
2 Katy Thornton Clounagh Junior High F1 6 5 6 8 4 29 20
2 Louie McConkey Royal School Armagh F3 10 10 20 20
4 Minaahil Shahzad Rathmore Grammar F3 9 8 17 17

Upper Secondary School Championship

PlaceNameSchoolYearNovJanFebMarAprTotalBest 3
1 Adam Rushe Bangor Grammar F5 10 7 6 10 10 43 30
2 Samuel Todd Bangor Grammar L6 7 9 5.5 8 29.5 24
3 Olgierd Myszor Abbey CBS Grammar L6 10 5 8 23 23
4 James Wong Lagan College F5 7 9 5.5 21.5 21.5

The Belfast Scholastic Edward Whiteside Shield:

Primary Puzzle Solving Chess Champion

PlaceNameSchoolYearNovJanFebMarAprTotalBest 3
1 Anajli Singh Forge Integrated PS P6 10 10 7 9 8 44 29
2 Aaditya Singh Forge Integrated PS P4 4 6.3 7 9 5 31.3 22.3
2 Adam Fitzsimons Downshire PS P5 6 6.3 6 10 28.3 22.3
4 Dexter Harris Strandtown PS P5 4 6.3 3.5 5 18.8 16.3

The Belfast Scholastic Fergus O’Neill Shield:

Secondary Puzzle Solving Chess Champion

PlaceNameSchoolYearNovJanFebMarAprTotalBest 3
1. Samuel Todd Bangor Grammar L6 8
10 10 28 28
2 Calum Glendinning Holywood Steiner F2 4.5 10 8 8 30.5 26
3 Adam Rushe Bangor Grammar F5 10 5.5 15.5 15.5
3 Olgierd Myszor Abbey CBS Grammar L6 10 5.5 15.5 15.5

This years Henderson and Dawson Shield for the Exceptional Young Player of 2018 went to Blake Harris (P3) Greenwood Primary School.

The Parents and Youngsters and their Principals are invited. The event took place on Friday morning of June 8th. A beautiful day. I arrived with Geoff Hindley where I was met by Ross Harris and we setup the chess sets in the Long Room and placed the Trophies ready for the award ceremony.

Chris Lyttle welcomed us all to Stormont and the Long Room. Recognising the skills the youngster possessed to achieve being invited here and the qualities that Chess brings with it - the forward thinking and planning, the decision making and handling mistakes.He felt this was one of the best events that the Long Room holds and was pleased to invite everyone here. He had a local interest with Strandtown School being in his constituency. He thanked everyone and wished them well.

The group had their photo taken on the steps in the main hall of Stormont.

thegang

We continued with a tour of the building - we were lucky that one of the educational guides was giving a tour to a pupils school council, we joined them in the main chamber. The brilliant tour guide got us involved in a debate on the pros and cons of having a school uniform - we were allowed to groan loudly in disagreement and to say here, here in agreement but it was explained that it was against the rules to clap! - although one of the pupils suggestions was so good we did applause and were told lightly off by the tour guide acting as speaker of the house. Then we voted by voice which wasn't decisive and lead to a vote by walking through the relevant doors for the I's and the No's - the motion didn't pass and uniforms had to be warn - by only 1 vote. A brilliant lesson in the workings of the Parliament. Many thanks to the Stormont Events Office for organising this tour.

thetour

We proceeded back to the long room where coffee and juice and biscuits awaited us and we started the round 1 of the Elite tournaments.

With a couple of senior players having exams, James Wong and Olgierd Myszor, we were fortunate to be able to play Anjali Singh and Ali Shahzad in the Senior Section. Anjali played brilliantly and won the section.

Thanks go to David McAlister who controlled the Primary School Section. Geoff Hindley who looked after the lower secondary section and Ross Harris who took care of the Upper Secondary section.

The results of the tournament with photos.

Stormont Elite Chess Tournament – Primary 2018

Round 1.

White

 

 

Black

Dexter Harris

1

0

Adam Fitzsimons

Aaditya Singh

0

1

Calvin Patterson

prim1-1prim1-2


Round 2

White

 

 

Black

Dexter Harris

0

1

Aaditya Singh

Adam Fitzsimons

0

1

Calvin Patterson

 

prim2-1prim2-2

 

Round 3

White

 

 

Black

Calvin Patterson

1

0

Dexter Harris

Aaditya Singh

0

1

Adam Fitzsimons

 

prim3-1

 

Standings

Place

Name

Year

School

Points

1st

Calvin Patterson

P6

Home Educated

3

2nd

Dexter Harris

P5

Strandtown PS

1

2nd

Adam Fitzsimons

P5

Downshire PS

1

2nd

Aaditya Singh

P4

Forge Integrated PS

1


Stormont Elite Chess Tournament – Lower Secondary School 2018

Round 1.

White

 

 

Black

Calum Glendinning

1

0

Katy Thornton

Minaahil Shahzad

0

1

Louie McConkey

 

sec1-1sec2-2

 

Round 2

White

 

 

Black

Calum Glendinning

1

0

Minaahil Shahzad

Katy Thornton

0

1

Louie McConkey

 

sec2-1sec2-2

 

Round 3

White

 

 

Black

Louie McConkey

1

0

Calum Glendinning

Minaahil Shahzad

1

0

Katy Thornton

 

sec3-1sec3-2

 

Standings

Place

Name

Year

School

Points

1st

Louie McConkey

F3

Royal School Armagh

3

2nd

Calum Glendinning

F2

Holywood Steiner

2

3rd

Minaahil Shahzad

F3

Rathmore Grammar

1

4th

Katy Thornton

F1

Clounagh Junior High

0

 

Stormont Elite Chess Tournament – Secondary Upper 2018

Round 1.

White

 

 

Black

Adam Rushe

1

0

Ali Shahzad

Anjali Singh

½

½

Samuel Todd

 

upsec1-1upsec1-2a

 

Round 2

White

 

 

Black

Adam Rushe

0

1

Anjali Singh

Ali Shahzad

0

1

Samuel Todd

 

upsec2-1aupsec2-2

 

Round 3

White

 

 

Black

Samuel Todd

0

1

Adam Rushe

Anjali Singh

1

0

Ali Shahzad

 

upsec3-2largeset


Standings

Place

Name

Year

School

Points

1st

Anjali Singh

P6

Forge Integrated PS

2 ½

2nd

Adam Rushe

F5

Bangor Grammar

2

3rd

Samuel Todd

L6

Bangor Grammar

1 ½

4th

Ali Shahzad

P6

Fullerton House

0

After the tournament we had prize giving. Trophies and beautiful certificates for the Grandprix and certificates for the Elite tournament.

David McAlister (previous Chair of the Ulster Chess Union and the Irish Chess Union) was on hand to give out the prizes.

The shields are for the schools to place in their trophy cabinets and hopefully present to the youngsters in their assemblies.

We had a line of Honour made of Principals, Teachers and founder Dr Graham Murphy. Pupils came up collected their prizes and went down the line of Honour being congratulated by the Principals.

Many thanks to Stephen Kelso (Strandtown PS), Mr Knaggs (Downshire PS), Mrs Fiona Millar (Royal School Armagh), Elizabeth Johnston (Bangor Grammar), Mr Noel Mc Ilvenny (Rathmore Grammar) and Mrs Shirley O'Loughlin (Rathmore Grammar) for attending and supporting their talented youngsters. The pupils and parents really appreciate your presence.

honorline

The Winners with their trophies.

winners

David McAlister and Dr Graham Murphy together with Mark Newman founded the series of tournaments which have been running for since 2002.

David McAlister had been running chess tournaments and the chess board contributing considerably to the Ulster and Ireland chess scene. Whilst Dr Graham Murphy ran the Ulster School Chess Council and organised the Schools Chess Leagues and the School Chess Championships. When I came to Northern Ireland I learnt so much from these two bastions of chess. The three of us met at Methodist College and agreed to start running a monthly tournament for Children - to start with Primary and years F1-F3 to cover the transition from Primary to Secondary School and to offer chess for pupils who didnt have a chess club at school. Latter the competition was extended to all years.

For their foundation and development of this tournament each founder was given a small plaque of recognition.

founders

Below two brilliant volunteers - Geoff Hindley and James Fairley with the two winners, Anjali and Aaditya Singh.

hindley

Again thanks to Chris Lyttle MLA for such a brilliant event.

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