Report from Neil Milson
On the 21st and 22nd of August, three Lincolnshire players took part in the final stages of the UK Chess Challenge, the largest junior competition running. The tournament begins in schools and clubs with 68,000 children taking part in the early stages. After a series of knock out events the number is reduced to 200, these will play in the final round in either in the Challengers competition or the main competition called the Terafinal, which this year was held in Warwick.
Sailesh Sitaram a young under nine from Stamford was playing in the Challengers competition, up until this point he had been playing children of his own age group in each stage, but in the final had to face all age groups up to U18. This he did with great ability playing a 177 grade in round 1 and a 168 in round 3 and beating a player ECF grade 111 in round 5. This helped him finish on 3 wins from 6 matches and getting 9 points (3 points for a win) which gave him joint U9 winner in his section - a great achievement and one to watch in the future.
Amy Milson U14 girl was playing in the main event along with her brother Samuel. Amy started off with one of the toughest opponents, and eventual winner of the tournament Felix Ynojosa with an ECF grade of 215, out graded by nearly 90 points. This was the only game she would lose, with draws against a 166 and 159 and a win against a 144 finishing with a respectable 11 points, finishing joint 15th and 1 point off the top girls’ prize of £1000.
Samuel was seeded 10th in the competition with a grade of 176 this, however, did not mean he was in for any easy games. With wins in the first 2 rounds this gave him a tough draw on the top board against Yang-Fang Zhou with an ECF grade of 225, the game was very close with only a pawn in the end game which proved to be enough for Yang-Fang, Samuel then managed to win his next two games putting him back on the top boards where he played Craig Whitfied grade 191. A close game ensued with both players running low on time, with no chance of making the time control it was down to who made the first mistake. The game eventually going to Samuel on time with the game equal, this gave him 5 wins out of 6 and 15 points, and with the leader losing his last game this gave him joint first place with 3 others , losing out on the Strat title and £2000 by sum of progressives but still winning a cash sum.
All three players did exceedingly well against a very high level of competition, showing just how good the standard of Lincolnshire junior chess is.