Eight pupils from Rydal Penrhos senior and prep schools have qualified for the Gigafinal of the UK Chess Challenge, to be held in Manchester during the summer holidays.
This means out that of the 60,000 competitors who entered, they are in the final 1,500.
The UK Chess Challenge tournament begins every Spring term, and continues over four stages and eight months.
In the first stage children compete week by week in schools all over the UK (currently the number of schools taking part is over 2,000). The structure of the tournament is allows the most inexperienced players to compete in the early stages, yet tests the mettle of the finest towards the end.
We are delighted that the following pupils have qualified for the Gigafinal (the semi-final), and wish them all the very best for the next stage of the competition:
Amrit Bolina
Arjan Bolina
Ali Al-Rawi
Anton Petkov
Abhishek Bathula
Petko Petkov
Imogen Camp (Suprema)
At the Welsh Junior Championships in March, both Amrit and Arjan Bolina won their events, making Arjan the Welsh Under 10 Champion and Amrit Under 9 Champion (which is mainly for Year 4 pupils) – even though is only seven.
Imogen Camp will be competing in the 100th British Chess Championships in Torquay this summer, while Arjan, Amrit and Imogen have all been selected to play in the World Youth Chess Championships in the United Arab Emirates in December.
It is almost unheard of for one school to have three players worthy of selection to a World Championship event, and Rydal Penrhos is very proud of all of them.