Return of over the board chess - save the dates!

We’re very excited to announce two over the board tournaments coming up in May and June, and a new venue - Edinburgh Academy Senior School, Henderson Row, Edinburgh!

The ever-popular UK Chess Challenge Megafinal will take place on Saturday May 28th. Pre-covid, qualification was required for Under 12s to enter via a school or club tournament. This has been waived for 2022 as many schools and clubs were not back in time to run the tournament.

On Saturday June 25th we will have the Lothian Junior Championships. As this tournament crowns the local champions in each section, it is only open to players who live in our area: The City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian, West Lothian and The Scottish Borders Council areas.

Further details and entry for both these events will be available soon.

Scottish Junior Tournament and Megafinals

Two of the most exciting junior tournaments that are taking place in June are the Delancey UK Chess Challenge (UKCC) Megafinals and the free to enter Edinburgh Chess Academy (ECA) Scottish Junior Tournament. If you’ve looked at the details, you may have noticed that some of the dates clash - eek! Helpfully UKCC have put on an extra Megafinal Weekend, so that everyone has an opportunity to do both, but with some of the UKCC entry options allowing players to take part in more than one Megafinal as long as they haven’t already qualified for the Gigafinal, we decided to put together the following chart so you can easily see where the clashes occur, and where they don’t. Remember, the categories for the UKCC are based on how old the player was on 31st August 2020. There is a handy chart on the UKCC website, but I find the easiest way to work out which age group someone is in is to think about how old they will be on 31st August THIS year, and they were under that age last August. This is meant as a guide. Please check the details on the tournament organisers website.

Exciting new Scottish tournament

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Edinburgh Chess Academy have recently announced a major new tournament for Scottish juniors, with sections based on current playing strength and big cash prizes - and it’s free to enter!

The Edinburgh Chess Academy Scottish Junior Tournament will begin with practice tournaments over the weekend of 5th and 6th of June followed by Qualifiers on 12th and 13th June. The Championship finals will take place on 26th and 27th June.

Andrew Green, founder of Edinburgh Chess Academy, said "I am delighted to announce our first sponsored online junior tournament. It is free to play in, for all levels and has a prize fund of £10,000 - generously sponsored by Gareth Williams (Co-founder of Skyscanner). To enter or to find out more information, please visit our website. This new event made it into the news, you can read about it in The Times and the Scottish Sun. 

The aim of the tournament is to get children playing chess. With prizes for all levels we hope this encourages children and parents to give chess a go! Please spread the word by telling your friends, liking and sharing etc. You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook for regular updates.  Finally, I would also ask that you enter your child right away - early entries will help generate interest and make it easier to organise."

Team Day 3

Team Day 3 took place online on Saturday 13th June with just over 100 players from 21 teams. Full details of the tournament and all the games below:

 

Secondary          https://lichess.org/tournament/nm10cl6U              17 players and 3 teams

P6/P7                 https://lichess.org/tournament/c2djZsO2              34 players and 8 teams

P5 and U            https://lichess.org/tournament/tcBm9Wfp              55 players and 10 teams

 

Scotland East Megafinal - Postponed

Late this afternoon the UK Government advised against unnecessary social contact to protect against Coronavirus. Therefore we have no option but to postpone the East of Scotland Megafinal on Sunday 29th March. UK Chess Challenge (UKCC) will contact those who have already registered for this event. We are hoping to reschedule the East of Scotland Megafinal when the situation allows.

Lothian Junior Championships 2020 results

Thanks to everyone who came along today for an exciting tournament

Here are the prizewinners

Secondary

1st: Oliver Whalley (5.5/6)

2nd: Frederick Gordon (5.5/6)

3rd: Matthew Willder (4/6)

4th: Callum Robertson (4/6)

5th: Murdo Mclaurin (3.5/6)

6th: Nivedita Suyal (3.5/6)

Grading Prize (Under 1000): Nahum Bradford (3.5/6)

Grading Prize (Under 700): Daniel Best-Solorzano (3/6)

Medals for scores of 3/6 or higher

Primary 6/7

1st: Morvin Gera (6/6)

2nd: Daniel Kitaev (5/6)

3rd: Gabriel Opat (4.5/6)

4th: Jamie Jackson (4.5/6)

5th: Archie Stewart (4/6)

6th: Jack Egan (4/6)

Grading Prize (Under 600): Anton Skornyakov (4/6)

Grading Prize (Under 400): Lachlan Cattanach (3.5/6)

Grading Prize (Under 200): Drisith Palaniswarmy (3/6)

Medals for scores of 3/6 or higher

Primary 5 & Under

1st: Raghav Palanivel (6/6)

2nd: Srinivas Rath (5.5/6)

3rd: Laksshana Deepak (5/6)

4th: Matthew Esser (5/6)

5th: Joseph Zhao (5/6)

6th: Sai Mallick (4.5/6)

Grading Prize (Under 400): Dandu Ayraman (4/6)

Grading Prize (Under 200): Vedanth Vikram (4/6)

Grading Prize (Ungraded): Ollie Merenduzzo (4/6)

Medals for scores of 3/6 or higher