British Junior Championships Hull 2024 - Games and Report
Looking into Junior successes + interesting games from the 2024 British Junior Championships
Hull saw the British Chess Championships take place from the 25th of July to the 4th of August at the Hull City Hall and the Doubletree by Hilton.
Here I will go through how the Junior Standardplay Championships in each category unfolded as well as going through a few interesting games.
The study where all the puzzles and all all the full games from this blog can be found is -
A change from last year's schedule saw the Standardplay junior championships held over 7 days with 1 round every morning, compared to 2 double round days in last years event in Leicester. This meant that quite a few juniors decided to take the plunge (including myself..) of playing the Major Open and a Junior Championship section as they were not clashing.
This year's Championship saw 24!! juniors playing, a probable record. The Major Open also saw a hefty number of juniors, quite a few of whom bagged a top 10 and ties spot to qualify for next year's main Championship section!
Full results can be found here - https://www.britishchesschampionships.co.uk/results-and-pairings-2024/
Full prizewinner lists can be found here - https://www.britishchesschampionships.co.uk/prizewinners-2024/
All live games can be accessed from here - https://www.britishchesschampionships.co.uk/bcc-2024-where-to-follow-the-games/
Melinda Wilde and Dennis Dicen were official photographers for the event who took some spectacular photos.
These can be found here - https://www.britishchesschampionships.co.uk/bcc-2024-photography/
Melinda Wilde's website - https://melindawildephotos.com/british-chess-championship-2024
Brendan O'Gorman also took some photos - https://brendanogorman.smugmug.com/Chess/2024/British-Chess-Championship-2024
Hull City Hall (The Venue) - Credit - Wikipedia
First we kick off with the Under 8's:
https://chess-results.com/tnr971485.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=7&turdet=YES&flag=30
This section had 3 players around 1600! FIDE, with a large rating gap between them and the chasing pack. Round 4 saw the 2nd and 3rd seeds (Junyan Hu and Furion Kapitanski) play eachother, with the top seed Advik Saxena half a point behind with a round 1 draw. Furion was successful in this encounter and took the lead until round 6, when the 1000 ECF rated Artem Dodukh took down Furion converting a rook and pawn ending. Junyan came back after beating Advik in round 6 as well. In the last round both Artem and Junyan won, and shared first place with 6/7. Nuvee Konara won top girl with 4/7.
The quality of chess for 8 year olds (and much younger!) in this event was exceptional and the behaviour was mature. Below I have a selected a position from a first round game to take a look at.
In the round 1 game between Advik Saxena and Rishabh Iyer there was a common tactical motif that was found. Can you solve it?
Now we move onto the Under 10's:
This section had a much more even rating spread and was lead by the 1936!! FIDE 10 year old Junyi Zhang (Junyan's brother) . Junyi had a splendid event scoring a perfect 7/7 to complete the set of championships for the brothers. Round 4 saw 3 players on 3/3 (Lam Vy Le Nguyen, Ayan Pradhan and Junyi). Junyi proceeded to beat both and also won against Aarav Katukuri in round 6 to cement his victory. Ayan Pradhan took second with 5.5, and Aarav alongside Lam Vy Le (top girl) shared 3rd with 5/7.
There were a few interesting tactical ideas in the Under 10's.
Below are 2 I have picked out, some of which were missed by the top players in the section.
In the round 2 game between Ayan Pradhan and Sriram Gautam, by using pins there was a chance to win a piece that was missed by both players. Are you smart enough to find the winning continuation?
The round 7 game between Nguyen Lam Vy Le and Miheli Gunarathne had a nice tactical idea to win by use of an Alekhine's Gun. Using deflection and overworked pieces can you think ahead?
Under 12:
The winner of the Under 12's was unclear from the start and saw 4 different people in the last round with chances to win! Lion Lebedev took the lead in round 4 after beating the favourite George Zhao who won the rapid and blitz in a phenomenal attacking game which is shown below, but George made a comeback into the last round after winning 2 games in a row including against the extremely talented Rami Talab. The last round saw an action packed finale with Rezin Catabay turning a lost game against Lion into a completely winning one to clinch second, whilst George had a splendid attacking sacrifice against Mahin Rughani to cement his 6/7 victory. George won with 6/7, followed by Rezin on 5.5, with a 4 way tie for 3rd on 5/7 between Rami, Lion, Advait Keerthi Kumar and Yashwardan Shankar. Avyaana Singh picked up top girl with 3/7.
Lion's victory against George is analysed below. Are you able to spot the novelty sacrifice?
Advait Keerthi Kumar and Shaoting Shi had a tactical position fiesta in round 1, but a quiet positional sacrifice was missed which gave black a imposing position. Do you have the brains of Capablanca to win in the hardest puzzle in this blog?! Be warned, the correct moves are something even an engine would be shocked at!!
Under 14
The Under 14's was a highly contested affair with a plethora of tactical skirmishes. Rock Yu took an early lead after drawing rival Kameron Grose and ended up successful in a highly complicated game with favourite Pengxiao Zhu who won the rapid and blitz in round 6. Round 7 saw Rock play Sanjit Kumar converting a Queen vs Rook and Bishop inequality to win the event. Naavya Parikh secured the top girl with 4.5/7. Kameron took second with 5.5/7 and Hao Ran Leung alongside Pengxiao came 3rd with 5.
Rock Yu published a video on his keen victory and this can be found here with the ECF featurng his triumphant success - https://www.englishchess.org.uk/i-am-the-new-u14-british-chess-champion-video-by-rock-yu/
The round 3 clash between George Calvert and James Ratcliffe saw an interesting sacrifical idea. Are you the next Mikhail Tal!!
There was also a funky sacrifice in the final round game between Naavya and Kameron, however this was missed. Do you the attacking skills missed by the previous U12/U14 British champions?!
Under 16
The Under 16 section was the most competitive of the bunch, with a prized prestigious Championship section qualification spot for the winner! This led to strong young players as little as 10!! play in the section vying for the cherry on the cake. Max Pert took the lead after round 3 and solidfied into the 6th round after beating Zain Patel and Dildarav Lishoy Gengis Paratzham then drawing with Balahari Bharat Kumar. Max drew with his sister Nina, after a ferocious attacking game which is shown below and went into the final round only needing a draw to cement his title as Bohdan Terler, his nearest competitor had 4.5/6 compared to the 5 of Max ( a tie for first means both players win ). Bohdan needing a win played riskily and eventually crumbled to Zain Patel who grabbed second alongside Balahari on 5/7. Nina Pert won top girl with 4/7.
James Thomas had a phenomenal 2 endgame positions against Balahari and Bohdan. The one with Balahari is analysed below as an unfortunate blunder was made, highlighting the importance of endgame strategy.
The sibling rivalry between Max and Nina Pert culminated when both were paired against eachother in the Under 16 AND the Major Open on the SAME day.
Nina had a winning position in the Under 16's but a sacrificial idea was missed so a draw was agreed, the game is displayed below.
Thank you to the arbiters, Alex Holowczak, David Clayton, Jo Wildman, Hambel Willow, Matthew Carr and Harrison Marriot (apologies if I missed anyone) for a fantastic event.
Thanks for reading this blog, feedback is appreciated in the comments as it is my first in a while :-)
Playing Hall (From the back) - Taken before Round 1 Junior Blitz
