On Friday 11th May the Warwickshire Megafinal chess tournament took place and a number of Blue Coat children had entered and took part, with much success too. The tournament is an individual competition with a number of age groups, part of the UK Chess Challenge, with chances to qualify for the Gigafinal which takes place in July.
In the Under 7 section Avni Samra, Ethan Graves, Abhav Massey, Karam Gill, Wilf Crow-Marcetic and Arjun Gill competed, and played with good concentration and maturity beyond their years. Many congratulations to Avni, Arjun and Abhav who all scored enough points to progress to the Gigafinal. In the Under 8s, Jai Lewis played some fantastic games in the early rounds, racing away to 3/4. Unfortunately the half point he needed from the last two games didn’t quite materialise, but he can be very happy with an excellent performance in his first Megafinal. Harleena Grewal and Jia Samra played fantastically in the under 8 and 9 sections too, with Jia scoring 3.5 and qualifying for the gigafinal along with her sister. Well done! Adam Bashir and Oje Akhibi played in their first Megafinal too, and both scored a very respectable 2 points, gaining some valuable experience in the process. Aadi Grover also put in a good performance scoring 2 points. Our star in this section was Aarav Massey, who scored 3.5 and qualifies for the Gigafinal. Arya Vemuri faced stiff opposition in the Under 10 section, scoring a hard fought win in the last round. In the Under 11s, Sayuri Knox played in her first tournament, and won two good games. Well Done Sayuri! Tristan Wong, Ansh Agrawal, Josh Dhillon and Aryan Massey-Arora also competed in a very tough Under 11 section. Aryan played some great chess and scored 2 wins against experienced opposition. Josh and Ansh both progress to the Gigafinal scoring 3.5 and 4 respectively, while Tristan, with a very impressive 5/6 also qualifies, and becomes Warwickshire Supremo in the process. Congratulations Tristan!
Very well played to everyone who took part, and many thanks to all the parents for bringing our keen chess players along.
Mr Fallowfield
