Terafinal 2019

 

The 24th UK Chess Challenge has just concluded with the Terafinal taking place on 21-22 September at the Mercure Daventry Court Hotel. 185 players took part in the Terafinal competing across 5 age groups (U8, U10, U12, U14 and U18) for the chance to become the School Chess Champion of the UK.

The format of the weekend was quite different to what has gone before. Firstly the games were played at a rapid time control of 20 minutes plus 10 seconds per move whereas in previous years a slower time control was used. The reasoning for this was it allowed for more rounds and the chance to run a different format. The event is a 10 round swiss with the difference that after round 6 on Saturday the top 4 players in each group compete in a mini-knockout tournament to determine the top 4 standings. The remaining players continue to compete in the Swiss for the remaining prizes.

The format of the knockout matches was as follows: 2 games of rapid and, if necessary, an “Armageddon” game to break a tie after 2 games.

64 of the 93 boards were “live boards” with the moves broadcast through our partners chess24 and chess.com. GM David Howell and IM Adam Hunt provided live commentary at the venue which was also streamed live. The commentary proved very popular, particularly during the knockout matches.

Under 8s

34 players competed

1st – Aayush Dewangan
2nd – Soham Kumar
3rd – Elias Ruzhansky
4th – Patrick Damodaran
5th – Lion Lebedev
Top girl – Elis Denele Dicen

Semi Finals

Aayush Dewangan           2 – 0       Elias Ruzhansky
Soham Kumar                    2 – 1       Patrick Damodaran

Final

Aayush Dewangan           2 – 1       Soham Kumar

Under 8 results (Swiss Only)
Under 8 games

Under 10s

53 players competed

1st – Denis Dupuis
2nd – Shreyas Royal
3rd – Shlok Verma
4th – Jack Esiri
5th – Ethan Gardiner
Top girl – Eugenia Karas

Semi Finals

Denis Dupuis                      2 – 0       Jack Esiri
Shlok Verma                      1 – 2       Shreyas Royal

Final

Denis Dupuis                      1.5 – 0.5               Shreyas Royal

Under 10 results (Swiss Only)
Under 10 games

Under 12s

39 players competed

1st – Yichen Han
2nd – Rajat Makkar
3rd – Edison Xu
4th – Savin Dias
5th – Kennan Kesterson
Top girl – Hiya Ray

Semi Finals

Savin Dias                            0 – 2                       Yichen Han
Rajat Makkar                     1.5 – 0.5               Edison Xu

Final

Rajat Makkar                     1 – 2       Yichen Han

Under 12 results (Swiss Only)
Under 12 games

Under 14s

26 players competed

1st – Ranesh Ratnesan
2nd – Aaravamudhan Balaji
3rd – Toby Cox
4th – Chirag Hosdurga
5th – Connor Clarke
Top girl – Samia Zannat Sheikh

Semi Finals

Ranesh Ratnesan             1.5 – 0.5               Samia Zannat Sheikh
Toby Cox                             1 – 2                       Aaravamudhan Balaji

Final

Aaravamudhan Balaji      0.5 – 1.5               Ranesh Ratnesan

Under 14 results (Swiss Only)
Under 14 games

Under 18s

33 players competed

1st – Koby Kalavannan
2nd – Jonah Willow
3rd – Jacob Connor Boswell
4th – Dominic Klingher
5th – Alex Golding
Top girl – Nadia Jaufarally

Semi Finals

Koby Kalavannan              2 – 0                       Jacob Connor Boswell
Dominic Klingher              0.5 – 1.5               Jonah Willow

Final

Koby Kalavannan              2 – 1                       Jonah Willow

Under 18 results (Swiss Only)
Under 18 games