2018 Teesside Megafinal (1)

Photo © Johannes Grundmann

Yesterday's Teesside Megafinal for the Delancey UK Chess Challenge was a big success.

Thank you all children, parents, grandparents, guardians and teachers who supported our event.

The beautiful Princess Alexandra Auditorium proved to be a very popular venue and the sun shone like it was going out of fashion.

The Yarm School staff worked very hard on the event and huge thanks are due to Mr Grundmann and the rest of the local team.

Thank you very much to Mr Harris, Mr Pointon and Mr Smith who helped to control some of the sections.

This is the first of several reports I will be presenting this week.

We will start with a full listing of the results.

The children in all sections from Under-7 to Under-11 had qualified via their own school and club competitions, plus the Last Chance Saloons. The children in the combined Over-11 section were exempt from the qualification stage.

Everyone was playing the titles (Suprema and Supremo), trophies, medals, pens and qualification for the Gigafinal stage, for which 3.5/6 was the required score. All competitors received a certificate for attendance.

As I explained at the start of the event and reiterated several times throughout the day, qualification for the Gigafinal was not the top reason for the children being at the Megafinal. It was to be seen and enjoyed as a reward for doing so well at the first stage of the event and here was a big opportunity to play new opponents, make new friends and to improve their own game - which they would all do, whether they scored 0/6, 6/6 or anything between.

As always at our events, I urge the parents and teachers to avoid putting any sort of pressure on the players and to let them just be children when they leave the playing hall. I am pleased to say this ethos is now almost universally adopted and enjoyed at our Teesside events.

Some of the Suprema and Supremo titles needed to be split via complicated tiebreakers but I will return to those in a later report as I believe the basic listings should celebrate, in equal measure, all successes without diluting the matter with segregation.

Photo © Johannes Grundmann

Under-7s 

=1st: 4.5/6 *Top Girl* Olivia Kennedy (Pennyman Primary School), Zane Barznji (Whale Hill Primary School), George Forshaw (Yarm School)

4: Oskar Rooney (Whale Hill Primary School)

3.5: Aisling Timmons (Yarm School), Olly Bruce (Throston Primary) Sophie Hall (Whale Hill Primary School)

3: Olly Fryer (Whale Hill Primary School), Louie Lambert (Whale Hill Primary School)

2.5: Frankie Peacock (Whale Hill Primary School)

2: Mason Summersgill (Whale Hill Primary School), Thomas Walker (Whale Hill Primary School)

1.5/6: Mischa Gordon (Throston Primary)

1/6: Willow Thompson (Whale Hill Primary School)

Absent: Ashton Sangha (Whale Hill Primary School)

Under-8s

=1st, 5/6: Noah Coulman (Yarm School), Zachary Green (Throston Primary)

3rd, 4.5: George Oliver (Pennyman Primary School)

4:  *Top Girl* Hannah Weid (Sacred Heart Primary School), Wyatt Girling (St Aidans Primary School)

3.5: Natasha Pointon (Yarm School), Minakshi Palat Meethale (Yarm School)

3: Caiden Day (Park End Primary School), Leon Ferguson (Pennyman Primary Academy), Oliver Clarke (Brambles Primary Academy), James Henderson (Saint Aidan's Primary School)

2.5: William Wang (St Aidan's Primary School), Katie Watson (Brambles Primary Academy)

2:  Lexi Williams (Brambles Primary Academy), Lola Fagan (Brambles Primary Academy) 

1:  Grace Matanatabu (St Aidan's Primary School)

0.5: Cameron Kidson (Sacred Heart; withdrew after three rounds)

Absent: Noah Todhunter (Throston Primary) due to illness.

Under-9s

1st, 6/6: Jack Tickle (The Avenue Primary)

2nd, 5: Aryan Nalawade (Yarm School)

3rd, 4.5: *Top Girl* Lily Tattersall (Whale Hill Primary School)

4: Aditya Paul (Yarm School)

3.5: Harry Charlton (Ings Farm Primary School), Cody Braithwaite (Billingham South Community Primary) Frankie Parker (Yarm Prep School) Edward Lamb (Yarm Preparatory School), Niamh Boddy (Yarm Prep School), Effie Poole (Westgarth Primary School), Marshall Lancaster (Ings Farm Primary School), William Hepples (Wheatlands), Wilf Thompson (Ings Farm Primary School), Ewan Flynn (Ings Farm Primary School)

3: Ellena Parkin (Ings Farm Primary School)

2.5: Isobel McGlade (Yarm School),  Oliver Lowery (Whale Hill Primary School), Albie Finn (Westgarth Primary School)

2: Rhylee Willans (Westgarth Primary School), Emily Robins (Billingham South Community Primary School), Holly Bailey (Westgarth Primary School), Cole Addison (Wheatlands Primary School), Lucas Adamson (Westgarth Primary School), Benjamin Binns (Westgarth Primary School)

1: Alfie Hopwood (Wheatlands Primary)

Absent: Olivia Brumpton (Westgarth Primary School) due to illness, Farrell Scott (Whale Hill Primary) due to a calendar clash, Daisy Faloona (Wheatlands Primary), Cade Atkinson (Ings Farm)

Under-10s

=1st, 5.5/6: Ajay Selvan (Yarm School), Alex Gray (Westgarth Primary School)

=3rd, 4: Liam Marshall (Hemlington Hall) Samuel Bolton (Throston Primary), Avanish Batra (Yarm School)

3.5: *=Top Girl* Ella Field (Billingham South School),*=Top Girl* Grace Crawford (Yarm School),*=Top Girl* Thalia Smith (Throston Primary), Harry Ward (Whale Hill Primary School), Ben Meager (Yarm School)

3: Hannah Thomas (Ings Farm Primary School),  Jacob Howie (Ings Farm Primary School), Freya Costello (Westgarth Primary School), Henry James (Hemlington Hall), Jake Rigg (The Links Primary School)

2.5: Isabel Kelly (Ings Farm), Benjamin Walker (Hemlington Hall), Grace Wilson (Westgarth Primary School)

2: Zak Marshall (Park End Primary), Grace Carne (Hemlington Hall), Rowan Garrett (Ings Farm)

1.5: Nathaniel Ormerod (Ings Farm Primary School), Amelia Pearson (Hambleton C of E Primary School)

0.5: Fynn Clasper (Hemlington Hall)

Absent: Alex Readmanbrunskill (Hemlington Hall)

Under-11s

1st, 5.5/6: Yusuf Syed (Yarm School)

2nd, 5:  Henry Parker (Yarm School)

3rd, 4.5: Saisparsh Sidaginamale (Yarm School)

4: *=Top Girl* Alice Sturman (Westgarth Primary School), Sebastian Chambers (The Links Primary School)

3.5: Ben Clayton (Westgarth Primary School)

3: Eleanor Lamb (Yarm Preparatory School), Eleanor Whitwell (Ings Farm Primary School), Oliver Cochrane (Yarm School), Max Brighton (Wheatlands Primary School), Ella Francis (Wheatlands Primary School), Evie Harbisher (Billingham South Primary School)

2.5: Lilia Doyle (Hemlington Hall)

2: LilliMae McMillan (Whale Hill Primary School), Millie Fawcett (Links Primary School)

1.5: Charlie Peirson (Ings Farm), Evie Spinga (Hemlington Hall)

Absent: Matthew Finn (Westgarth Primary School) calendar clash; Nathan Li (Whale Hill Primary School)

Over-11s (Combined Sections)

1st; 5:6: *Top U-14* Gautam Sathyamurthy (Yarm School)

2nd, 4: *Top Under-17* Crispin Roundtree (Yarm School)

=3rd, 3.5: *=Top U-13s* Ihsaan Mahmood (Yarm School/Middlesbrough Chess Club), Shrish Nair (Yarm School), *2nd, U-14s* Alfie McMonagle (Middlesbrough Library and Chess Club)

3: *Top Girl* Aishani Paul (Yarm School), *2nd U-17s* Michael Darcy (Yarm School)

2.5: *3rd, U-14s* Vignesh Janakiraman (Yarm School)

2: Benedict Francis (Yarm School)

0: Danny Scott Yarm Senior School

Absent: Edward Adams (Yarm School/Leeds Junior Chess Club)

Photo © Johannes Grundmann

Stay tuned for further reports and galleries over the next few days.