Forty four players, most of them under the age of twelve, accepted the invitation by the Malta Chess Federation to play in the first U18 student chess competition for this year.
The venue was the spacious hall of St Ignatius College in Federico Maempel square Qormi, a place unheard of in the local chess community. Modern technology in the form of google-earth location finders and the will of the bold young Knights made up for this and the students that turned up came equipped with scores of traps and ideas for the unwary.
Beside the Maltese students there were two players from Slovakkia, a ten year old from Iceland and a Russian student. The female presence was five-fold and all the titled Junior Champions of 2010 were also in attendance.
Junior Champion of Malta Andre Xuereb and female FIDE Master Oana Pulpan were also present and mingled with the players in between rounds.
The winners by category were:
- U8 - Matthias Gatt;
- U10 - Jake Lee Vella;
- U12 - Isaac Portelli;
- U14 - Michal Tkac;
- U16 - Jean Pierre Xuereb;
- Best Female - Jamie Farrugia;
- 3rd Overall - Matthew Aquilina;
- 2nd Place - Luca Vassallo;
- 1st Place and Overall winner with full points - Jake Darmanin (see photo)
The MCF officials running the competition were C.Pace (National Champion), R.Azzopardi, N.Grima, J.Vella and R.De Sanctis.
St Ignatius principal Mr.Horace Caruana was invited to present the prizes to the winners and the token to all participants. In his short speech at the end of the event he congratulated the organisers for the excellent organisation and commented how much he enjoyed watching the kids playing their games. He said that chess is an educational tool that will help children develop a number of different skills and that it should be encouraged by all parents.
