22nd Yarm Chess Championships (2)

The 22nd Yarm Chess Championships took pace at Yarm Preparatory School yesterday.

The event was a huge success as we shattered our attendance records, making this the largest Teesside junior chess event in memory (even bigger than the 2015 Teesside Megafinal).

33 teams were in action yesterday, featuring 140 children. Yarm School's chess coordinator, Mr Grundmann, and I both knew from the start we were in for a particular busy day. Mr Grundmann is the only other person who has been to all 22 events in this series and he is the unsung hero of Teesside junior chess.

In addition to our standard Under-9 and Under-11 sections, we introduced a brand new section for players aged Over-11. This trial tournament brought together a number of specially invited players, split into teams from mixed schools. The teams were named after six famous world chess champions.

Results

Under-9s

Whale Hill A achieved their best-ever result when they defeated Yarm A in the last round. This enabled them to catch up with the leaders and they shared first place, alongside Yarm C.

Sacred Heart A had a fantastic day too, helped in no small part by Carlton's sensational 5/5 on board one.

=1st: Yarm A, Yarm C, Whale Hill A,  12.5 points

3rd: Sacred Heart A, 11.5 points

11 points: Yarm B

9: Throston

8.5: Yarm E

7: Yarm D, Whale Hill B

4: Brambles


Under-11s

Several teams were in the hunt for first place but Yarm A held their nerve to become champions again. Yarm B pushed them hard, as did Westgarth A and Whale Hill A.

1st: Yarm A, 18 points

2nd: Yarm B, 15 points

3rd: Westgarth A, 14 points

13.5 points: Whale Hill A

11: Wheatlands

10.5: Westgarth B

10: Sacred Heart, Yarm C

9.5: Yarm D, Hemlington Hall

9: Ings Farm A

8: Whale Hill B

7.5: Brambles

6.5: Ings Farm B, Broadway A

6: Broadway B

Over-11s

An exciting title race saw Team Karpov secure first place by the narrowest of margins.

1st: Karpov, 12.5 points

=2nd: Capablanca, Lasker, 12 points

10 points: Tal

8.5: Kasparov

5: Fischer

Team Karpov consisted of Tharun Suresh, Gautam Sathyamurthy, Tom Hall, Zoe Hill and Ashwin Amitharaj.

Special guest Nevil Chan provided extra prizes in the form of chess pens for everyone and travel chess sets for the top scorers from each team in the Over-11 section. These were awarded to Brandon Lockey (Lasker), Caitlin Anderson (Capablanca), Freddie Wiles (Tal), Luke Nargol (Fischer), Ashwin Amitharaj (Karpov) and Aniush Krishnan (Kasparov).

The new section was a great success and we are hoping to expand the Over-11 category next time to enable more of our older children to keep on playing competitive chess.

Many thanks to all of the Yarm School staff who gave up their Saturday morning to help at the event and to all of the parents, grandparents and teachers who all offered very valuable support.

A further report and a gallery will follow soon.