With the fourth in the series of 5 Childrens Chess tournaments we are getting closer to the Stormont Award ceremony in June. The best 3 Grandprix scores are added for each player and the top 4 in Primary, Lower Secondary, Upper Secondary and Primary Puzzle solving, Secondary Puzzle solving are invited by MLA Chris Lyttle to the award ceremony with their parents and School Principals. (Click here to see the report from last years event).

The Puzzles are an excellent way of improving your chess - it improves your position pattern recognition. So similar positions are more likely to be spotted in a real game and hey presto - a beautiful win!

This month we also asked any interested parent if they wished to solve puzzles with the opportunity of winning a trophy and certificates. The table where they sat became a hive of concentrated problem solving. and a battle of wits between Brian Fitzsimons and Ralph and Sheelagh Patterson and Clare McConkey.

Above lots of thought going into the puzzle solving - this months were quite hard - some beautiful solutions.

The Winner of the Primary Puzzle Solving was Dexter Harris with the brilliant score of 17.

The winner of the Secondary Puzzle Solving was Adam Rushe with a brilliant score of 14.

Ralph Patterson won the Parents Puzzle Solving competition - this may well become a regular competition with its on trophy. So parents be prepared to have fun solving problems.....

Here are some of the puzzles that were set - solutions at the bottom of the page.

From January the competitions will be UCU rated - giving pupils an official active rating. To make things easier for the input of names - I setup swiss perfect to input from the text file of last months tournament - so as players arrived it was easy to add them into the tournament.

We had a good number of players with Secondary Schools - Methodist College and Bangor Grammar being well represented.

James Fairley took the printed sheet of the pairings and organised players into their pairs for the first round - then players shook hands wished each other goodluck and the room was in a hush of concentrated thinking.

Round 1

Results

No Name            Feder Total  Result   Name             Feder Total

 1 Adam Rushe      L6    [0]      1:0    Zach Williamson  F2    [0]  
 2 Reuben Magill   P7    [0]      0:1    Ben Toogood      F2    [0]  
 3 Dexter Harris   P6    [0]      1:0    Mohammed Rakeeb  F2    [0]  
 4 Rishon Thomas   F3    [0]      0:1    Taufik Kamal     P7    [0]  
 5 Daniel Toogood  P6    [0]      1:0    William Zhang    F3    [0]  
 6 Skyla McConkey  P4    [0]      0:1    Calvin Patterson P7    [0]  
 7 Adam Fitzsimons P6    [0]      0:1    Blake Harris     P4    [0]  
 8 Cian Suitor     P5    [0]      0:1    Aayush Bhari     F3    [0]  

by Swiss Perfect (TM)  www.swissperfect.com

The first upset Blake Harris gets a good win against Adam Fitzsimons. The rest of the results go to rating.

Round 2

Results

No Name             Feder Total  Result   Name            Feder Total

 1 Calvin Patterson P7    [1]      0:1    Adam Rushe      L6    [1]  
 2 Ben Toogood      F2    [1]      1:0    Daniel Toogood  P6    [1]  
 3 Blake Harris     P4    [1]      0:1    Dexter Harris   P6    [1]  
 4 Taufik Kamal     P7    [1]      1:0    Cian Suitor     P5    [0]  
 5 William Zhang    F3    [0]      0:1    Adam Fitzsimons P6    [0]  
 6 Zach Williamson  F2    [0]      1:0    Rishon Thomas   F3    [0]  
 7 Aayush Bhari     F3    [1]      0:1    Reuben Magill   P7    [0]  
 8 Mohammed Rakeeb  F2    [0]      1:0    Skyla McConkey  P4    [0]  

A battle of brothers - Ben plays brother Daniel Toogood and Blake plays brother Dexter Harris. Its always good to see families of chess players - Brothers, Sisters, Parents and Grand-Parents... a friendly competitiveness can lead to improvements in play.

Round 3

Results

No Name            Feder Total  Result   Name             Feder Total

 1 Adam Rushe      L6    [2]      0:1    Taufik Kamal     P7    [2]  
 2 Dexter Harris   P6    [2]      0:1    Ben Toogood      F2    [2]  
 3 Daniel Toogood  P6    [1]      0:1    Blake Harris     P4    [1]  
 4 Reuben Magill   P7    [1]      1:0    Calvin Patterson P7    [1]  
 5 Adam Fitzsimons P6    [1]      1:0    Mohammed Rakeeb  F2    [1]  
 6 Cian Suitor     P5    [0]      1:0    Zach Williamson  F2    [1]  
 7 Rishon Thomas   F3    [0]      0:1    Aayush Bhari     F3    [1]  
 8 Skyla McConkey  P4    [0]      0:1    William Zhang    F3    [0]  

Another upset and Kamal Taufik beats Adam Rushe the favourite to win the competition. Reuben Magill gets a good result against Calvin Patterson. Ben Toogood continues his wins beating Dexter Harris.

Round 4

Results

No Name             Feder Total  Result   Name            Feder Total

 1 Ben Toogood      F2    [3]      1:0    Taufik Kamal    P7    [3]  
 2 Blake Harris     P4    [2]      0:1    Adam Rushe      L6    [2]  
 3 Reuben Magill    P7    [2]      0:1    Dexter Harris   P6    [2]  
 4 Cian Suitor      P5    [1]      0:1    Adam Fitzsimons P6    [2]  
 5 Mohammed Rakeeb  F2    [1]      1:0    Daniel Toogood  P6    [1]  
 6 Calvin Patterson P7    [1]      1:0    William Zhang   F3    [1]  
 7 Zach Williamson  F2    [1]      0:1    Aayush Bhari    F3    [2]  
 8 Skyla McConkey   P4    [0]      1:0    Rishon Thomas   F3    [0]  

Ben Toogood from Bangor Grammar goes into the lead with a full score of 4/4 beating Kamal Taufik. Its a very good tournament when theres a good battle for the lead.

Round 5

Results

No Name            Feder Total  Result   Name             Feder Total

 1 Adam Rushe      L6    [3]      1:0    Ben Toogood      F2    [4]  
 2 Taufik Kamal    P7    [3]      0:1    Dexter Harris    P6    [3]  
 3 Adam Fitzsimons P6    [3]      0:1    Calvin Patterson P7    [2]  
 4 Blake Harris    P4    [2]      0:1    Reuben Magill    P7    [2]  
 5 Aayush Bhari    F3    [3]     .5:.5   Mohammed Rakeeb  F2    [2]  
 6 Rishon Thomas   F3    [0]      1:0    Cian Suitor      P5    [1]  
 7 Daniel Toogood  P6    [1]      1:0    Skyla McConkey   P4    [1]  
 8 William Zhang   F3    [1]      1:0    Zach Williamson  F2    [1] 

The battle for the lead Adam Rushe dents Ben Toogoods lead and we have 3 players leading on 4 points: Ben Toogood, Adam Rushe and Dexter Harris.

Round 6

Results

No Name             Feder Total  Result   Name            Feder Total

 1 Dexter Harris    P6    [4]      0:1    Adam Rushe      L6    [4]  
 2 Ben Toogood      F2    [4]      1:0    Adam Fitzsimons P6    [3]  
 3 Taufik Kamal     P7    [3]      1:0    Reuben Magill   P7    [3]  
 4 Calvin Patterson P7    [3]      1:0    Mohammed Rakeeb F2    [2.5]
 5 Aayush Bhari     F3    [3.5]    0:1    Daniel Toogood  P6    [2]  
 6 William Zhang    F3    [2]      0:1    Cian Suitor     P5    [1]  
 7 Rishon Thomas    F3    [1]      0:1    Blake Harris    P4    [2]  
 8 Zach Williamson  F2    [1]      1:0    Skyla McConkey  P4    [1]  

Dexter Harris plays Adam Rushe for the lead. Adam wins. Also keeping neck and neck is Ben Toogood winning against Adam Fitzsimons.

Round 7

Results

No Name             Feder Total  Result   Name            Feder Total

 1 Calvin Patterson P7    [4]     .5:.5   Ben Toogood     F2    [5]  
 2 Adam Rushe       L6    [5]      1:0    Aayush Bhari    F3    [3.5]
 3 Mohammed Rakeeb  F2    [2.5]    0:1    Taufik Kamal    P7    [4]  
 4 Cian Suitor      P5    [2]      0:1    Dexter Harris   P6    [4]  
 5 Daniel Toogood   P6    [3]      0:1    Zach Williamson F2    [2]  
 6 Reuben Magill    P7    [3]      1:0    William Zhang   F3    [2]  
 7 Adam Fitzsimons  P6    [3]      1:0    Rishon Thomas   F3    [1]  
 8 Skyla McConkey   P4    [1]      0:1    Blake Harris    P4    [3]  

The games this tournament have been exciting with some excellent endgames - a measure of quality chess. The top board drawn allows Adam Rushe to win beating Aayush Bhari and Ben Toogood coming a close second.

Standings

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

  1   Adam Rushe       L6    1263 6        22.0  30.5   23.0
  2   Ben Toogood      F2    1081 5.5      22.5  31.5   24.5
 3-4  Dexter Harris    P6    1034 5        21.0  29.0   21.0
      Taufik Kamal     P7    991  5        19.0  26.0   21.0
  5   Calvin Patterson P7    892  4.5      18.0  25.0   16.5
 6-8  Reuben Magill    P7    700  4        22.0  29.5   15.0
      Blake Harris     P4    448  4        17.0  24.0   15.0
      Adam Fitzsimons  P6    880  4        15.0  21.5   16.0
  9   Aayush Bhari     F3    700  3.5      14.5  21.5   17.5
10-11 Daniel Toogood   P6    916  3        15.0  21.5   12.0
      Zach Williamson  F2    771  3        11.5  18.5    9.0
 12   Mohammed Rakeeb  F2    700  2.5      20.0  26.0   11.5
13-14 Cian Suitor      P5    344  2        17.5  23.5    7.0
      William Zhang    F3    700  2        16.0  21.5    8.0
15-16 Rishon Thomas    F3    700  1        16.5  22.5    3.0
      Skyla McConkey   P4    535  1        14.5  20.0    4.0

From 4 and above Winner: Adam Rushe

Form 3 Winner: Aayush Bhari   Second: William Zhang

Form 2 Winner: Ben Toogood   Second: Zach Williamson

Primary 7 Winner: Taufik Kamal  Second: Calvin Patterson

Primary 6 Winner: Dexter Harris  Second: Adam Fitzsimons

Primary 5 Winner: Cian Suitor

Primary 4 and below Winner: Blake Harris  Second Skyla McConkey

An excellent day of good chess and fun problem solving.

Many thanks to the volunteers Ross Harris, James Fairley and Geoff Hindley and to the Methodist College.

Our next tournament is April 13th at Methodist College, registration 12:30pm. See you there and enjoy your chess.

Watch out for the article with our current grandprix standings....