Southern Gigafinal 2018

Delancey UK Schools Chess Challenge – Southern Gigafinal, 30th June-1st July 2018, Orleans Park School, Twickenham

The Delancey UK Schools Chess Challenge journey started back in January in school chess clubs across the country with over 40,000 children entering nationwide.

In Sussex, nearly 80 Schools joined in the fun this year resulting in over 400 children taking up their qualifying places at the Sussex Megafinal held in May, of whom over 190 qualified for the Southern Gigafinal. Of those, 160 took up their places.

Younger boys (U7 – U10) compete on the Saturday, while all other age groups and all girl sections compete on the Sunday. Where entry numbers are large in an age-group the entry is split into parallel ‘A’ and ‘B’ sections designed to be of equal strength.

This year the rules for qualification to the final stage of the competition changed. Section winners earn the title Ultimo (boys), or Ultima (girls), and those finishing 1st, 2nd or 3rd qualify for the final stage of the competition – the national Terafinal in September. Places are subject to tie-break rules so some players scoring 5 out of 6 found themselves squeezed out. However, everyone scoring 4 points or more qualified for a new, separate, ‘Challengers’ tournament replacing the “Silver Plate” of previous years.

Well done to everyone who took part – the Gigafinal is a unique event which offers the opportunity to play against the very best in the South of England – and that will only strengthen your play. There were some excellent individual results and peronal bests; whatever your score, come back again next year determined to improve your performance.

Prizewinners and Qualifiers: