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