Malcolm Clarke reports on our young players’ success in the Delancey Schools UK Chess Challenge, the world’s largest children’s chess tournament, plus his weekly roundup.

The Delancey Schools UK Chess Challenge saw the brother and sister combination of Manoj and Mansa Chandar both of whom play for Chandlers Ford qualify for the next stage.  Manoj scored five points of in his section which combined players in the under 13, under 14, under 15 and under 16 boys, while Mansa obtained five points out of six in the combined under 11, under 12, under 13 and under 14 girls.

Manoj’s best game in the Chess Challenge was his round 2 success when he got into a king and pawn ending a pawn up, but with both players having a passed pawn, with Manoj making sure that his passed pawn was protected and would be clear of the opponents king if it tried to attack his other king side pawns.  Mansa’s only defeat was at the hands of Melissa Hamilton from Portsmouth who is the eighth highest graded female player in the country for her age group.

Another Chandlers Ford player Keven Lamb won a prize for finishing second equal in the under 120 graded section at the Southend chess congress which was an excellent achievement as he was the 16th highest graded player out of the 22 in the section.  He went into the seventh and final round as the tournament leader, but was beaten by Nathan Weersing from Linton in Cambridgeshire.

Winchester C drew 2-2 with unbeaten champions Salisbury C in division 4 with Mike White and Graham Payne on the top two boards being their winners.  The result means they finish fourth in the final table being behind third placed Chandlers Ford B on game points.  Winchester D‘s match with Ringwood C was a bottom versus top encounter which they lost 2.5-1.5 with a win for Andrew Habbitts and a draw for Winchester.