Thames Valley Champion 2022

After five failed attempts starting from 2020, the first ever tournament to find the Thames Valley Chess Champion (Senior, Junior and Youth) took place in the Thames War Memorial Civic Centre on the 9th April from 9am to 5pm. It was a super successful event with 49 chess players taking part in what turned out to be a very close battle.

It was such a highlight to see so many children loving playing chess over the board for a change rather than on their online devices. Despite it being such a long day the kids and adults were even playing chess between rounds.

I would like to thank all the players who took part, the parents of players for making the commitment on the day, and our FIDE arbiter Bruce Pollard for providing an efficient platform for our tournament to run on. 

Here are the results 

Senior Chess Champion

The Thames Valley Senior Chess Champion  is Wade Wright (Thames Chess Club) who along with Xxavier Willoughby -Ansell (Counties Chess Club) scored 5 points out of 6 ,

Second equal on 4.5 points was Rangarajan Ganeshan and Ricki Wellington (Te Aroha Chess Club) and Ravinesh Singh (Counties Chess Club) 

Third equal on 4 points was Niwa Norman and Kotuiti Thompson (Te Aroha Chess Club), Hos Rance (Te Aroha) ,Tom Nicholson (Thames Chess Club) and Colin Lee (Counties Chess Club).

Junior Chess Champion

The Thames Valley Junior Chess Champion is Emma Thorburn (Thames Chess Club) who scored 5 points out of 6

Second on 4.5 points was Brandon Taylor (Counties Chess Club)

Third equal on 4 points was Immanuel Huwald (Thames Chess Club) and Jake Andersen (Counties Chess Club).

Youth Chess Champion

The Thames Valley Youth Chess Champion is Travis Nagel (Waihi) who scored 4 points out of 6

Prize Money winners on 5 points out of 6 was Vince Yap Tan and Isaac Fraser (Counties Chess Club)

And finally on 3 points out of 6 was Toby Xiong and Isaak Huwald (Thames Chess Club) and Te Whetu Murray (Thames South School).

We all look forward to another successful event in 2023.