Portishead Junior Rapidplay - Tournament Report
- Iain Bourne
- May 4
- 2 min read
What a day! Over a hundred young people took part in the 4th Portishead Junior Rapidplay at Somerset House on Saturday 3rd May. The sun was shining and the faces smiling. Many thanks to all the children (and their parents/guardians) all of whom behaved impeccably and made it a real fun day. There were no losers only winners.
The full results can be found at https://chess-results.com/tnr1168350.aspx?lan=1
In the Under 7 section, 14 players took part, two of whom were under 5 (Leo Li, Bristol Grammar and Benjamin Wang, Elmlea Infants)!! Play was swift as the players rattled out their moves - perhaps a little too fast at times.
In the end, there was a clear tournament winner in Joe Othen who had travelled all the way from Pembrokeshire. In second place, was Akshara Mandadapu, from North Cardiff who is clearly following in her older sister's footsteps. All the players were fantastic and we will follow their progress with interest!
In the Under 9s (24 players) Dimitri Zografos from Westbourne went through the tournament undefeated, scoring 6/6. A fantastic result in a really tough section. Max Li, Bristol Grammar came second on 5/6, and Anish Iyengar from Bournemouth, came 3rd with 4.5/6. In fourth place, our own Otto Walker, performed admirably to score 4/6.
The under 11 section had 29 players and again was won outright by Joshua Flockhart-Prosser from Bath Junior Chess Club, on 6/6. In second and third place, Rohan Powell (North Cardiff Chess Club) and Benjamin Zhang (Bath Junior Chess Club) scored 4.5. Three of our players also demonstrated how far they have come on in scoring 3/6 - Lev Molokanov, Ben Gwinnell and Angus Dawson. All stars for the future!
There were 35 players competing in the U 18s with a very high level of chess played throughout. In fact most players were under 15 as many of our older players were revising for their GCSEs. The final result wasn't clear until the very late on on when three players came out on top with 5/6: Noah Taylor (Knights of Bristol), Rayyan Mussa (Knights of Bristol) and Sam Jackson (Stroud). In the end, first place went to Noah, who is actually U13, on tie-break.
A special mention should be made for Constantine Popov, who is U9, for scoring a fabulous 4/6. Four of our players competed: Hugo Surendranath came 4-6th with a very creditable 4.5/6, Elliot Lomas scored 3/6 and only just missed out on the U12 prize, Ibrahim Damghani, 2.5/6, Will Bachelor, 2.5/6 and Cinar Ersoy, 2/6.
In truth, there were too many stars to mention them all.
Preparations are already under way for the 5th Portishead Junior Rapidplay, most likely in the Autumn!
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