The Fifth Delancey UK Schools' Chess Challenge Teesside Megafinal: Results

The Fifth Delancey UK Schools' Chess Challenge Teesside Megafinal took place on Sunday 1 May and sold out all 150 places.

We had representatives from 26 different schools, clubs and home tutored pupils.

We were very fortunate indeed to be able to utilise Yarm School's famous Princess Alexandra Auditorium for our Megafinal. Take a look at their packed schedule to find out why!

This was, of course, our first Megafinal since 2019, when the world was a much simpler place (although it certainly didn't seem so at the time).

We were not sure what to expect after enduring a forced hiatus from Megafinal action. Initially, I was happy when the entries broke the halfway barrier, but we went on to sell out very quickly, as everyone seemed to relish the opportunity to return to over-the-board tournament action.

We had an excellent mixture of veterans from the last Megafinal and players who were playing in their first-ever inter-school event.

Of course, we presented lots of trophies, medals and certificates at the end of the tournament but as I keep on saying at our events, it doesn’t really matter how many games you win, draw or lose; the most important thing is that YOU are there.

I was particularly pleased to see all parents, teachers and coaches respect our own tournament ethos of keeping pressure off the players and allowing them to be children once they left the playing hall at the end of each round.

Our control team of Joannes Grundmann, Richard Harris, Catherine Lloyd, Mike Pointon and Katie Sidgwick rose to the challenge of an exceptionally busy day.

Thank you to everyone who helped to make the day such a great success.

Those who reached the Gigafinal qualification target received an information leaflet from me on the day and the entering details can also be found on the UKCC website.

The sections have been streamlined for this year, which enabled us to have big competitions with a fierce battle for the top places but also to accommodate a large range of abilities, giving everyone a very good chance of earning a significant number of points.

Here are the results from our very busy and enjoyable day.

Under-8s

6/6 Section winner and Boy Champion: Ryan Liu

5/6 Second Place: Fathe Chahal

4/6 and sharing the Best Girl place: Rosa Williams and Isabelle Little

Also on 4/6, Sharing Third Place: Alexander O'Kane, Harry Metcalfe, Arthur Cordry, Olly Rutter, Isaac Brette, Stanley Dugdale

3.5/6: Sylvie Brown, Tyler Hanson, Dax Cullingford, Evelyn Ward, Noel Adams, Rory Fitzgerald

All of the above have qualified for the Gigafinal.

3/6: Hugo Kelly, Edward Shim, Evie Bell

2.5/6: Faye Brown, Leo Smith, Wilfie Chatterje-Doody, Maddison Green, Dara Jafari, Edward Prescot-Burton, Isaac Hamilton-Bowen, Jude Cardwell, Halle Jefferson, Cooper Willis, Manha Abdullah

2/6: Felix Maredia

1.5/6: Agoston Major, Daisy Simpson, Aiden Smith

1/6: Ananbelle Hall

0/6: Harry Norton


Under-10s

5.5/6 Section winner and Boy Champion: Bertie Leatham

5/6 Equal Second and Girl Champion: Renee Liu

5/6 Equal Second: Ethan Ross, Can Sezen, Miles Page

4.5/6: Kavan Sidhu, Sam Stevenson

4/6: Dylan Broumley, Anwita Dara, Parsa Mohibi, Miguel Ramos Moreno

3.5/6: Sumedha Kumar, Griff Williams, Joseph Dodds, Henry Stanley, Kaira Nalawade, Marawan Saad, Sid Suryadevara, Jacob Bell, Udham Chahal, Benjamin Fulford, Rosajean Bowstead, Eric Pinedo Fuentes

All of the above have qualified for the Gigafinal.

3/6: Lawson Spencer, Samuel Isukapatia, Jay Greig, Zack Adamson, Dylan Carter, Luca Sidgwick, Ava Woodhouse

2.5/6: Tyler Beazley, Noah Field, Lacie Robson, Oscar Tindle, Alexander Thompson

2/6: Annabelle Lyver, Penny Boyes, Hope Vidgen, Victoria Tooke, Loui Nelson, John Mcelvaney

1.5/6: Alexandra Prideaux, Iris Chatterje-Doody, Phoebe Barznji, Eleanor Cordry

1/6: Imogen Canwell, Maria Madzou


Under-12s

6/6 Section winner and Boy Champion: Sagar Patil

5/6 and Girl Champion: Natasha Pointon

5/6 Second Place: Vinh Han

4.5/6 Jake Gray

4/6: Nethuki Mudduwa, Isaac Jones, Noah Coulman, Luke Palmer, Flynn Gorton

All of the above have qualified for the Gigafinal

3.5/6: Aditri Kulkarni, Olly Brice, Oliver Lavery (Aditri and Olly have also qualified for the Gigafinal, as Under-11 players required 3.5/6 or more).

3/6: Zane Barznji, Sophie Hall, Joshua Scott, Joshua Rudd

2.5/6: Isaac Pearson, Riley Filius, Felicia Jude, Edie Redhead-Sweeney

2/6: Sophie Hatton, Noah Dent, Avighna Arvind, Willow Thompson

1.5/6: Nicola Hatton, Alex Hutchinson

1/6: Lacey Perry

Under-18s/Under-14s (Combined Section)

5.5/6 Section winner and U-14 Boy Champion: Aryan Nalawade

5/6 Second Place: Avanish Batra

4/6 Equal Third Place: Ajay Selvan, Emma Salazar Eyre, Prachi Arora (Emma and Prachi shared the Best Girl place).

3.5/6 U-18 Girl Champion: Alice Sturman

3/6: Joseph Machin, Ella Field, Harris Wilson

2.5/6: Girvan Paisley

2/6 Under-18 Boy Champion: Samuel Turner

1.5/6: Calix Thompson

1/6: Josh Reynolds

A gallery of memorable moments will follow in the next blog post.