Jack Mizzi is Malta 2024 Chess Champion

Jack Mizzi – Malta Champion 2024

18-year old Jack Mizzi has won the 89th National Malta Championships held in October. Mizzi is also the current Junior Champion – having held the title for the past three years. The Finals was held in the usual double round robin format where each of the 6 finalists play each other twice – once with the white pieces and once with black. Mizzi was the only unbeaten player and collected 8 points out of a maximum of 10. Mizzi beat Matthew Portelli, Jake Darmanin and David Cilia Vincenti twice and drew his games against outgoing champion Colin Pace and Robert Novak. Mizzi is thus the 25th player to win the Malta Championship and one of the youngest players to do so.

Robert Novak – a national team player and National chess coach, who recently participated in the Chess Olympiads, ended in 2nd place and will thus automatically qualify for next years Final Championships. Novak beat Darmanin and Cilia Vincenti twice, lost and drew to both Portelli and Pace. The outgoing champion Colin Pace was trying to defend his title for a 10th time. However, two losses against Portelli and another to Cilia Vincenti made the task impossible. He managed to win 4 games against Cilia Vincenti, Darmanin (twice) and Novak.

Matthew Portelli who is only 12-years old was one of the youngest ever participants in such a championship. Portelli who appeared in the chess scene only 2 years ago, won the last edition of the Students Arena Grand Prix and was runner up in the Juniors Under 16 championship. Portelli won 4 games beating Darmanin, Pace (twice) and Novak, and drew one game against the same Novak. Portelli is expected to break the 2000 rating barrier and having achieved all this at such a tender age, is expected to have a fantastic chess career.

For Jake Darmanin and David Cilia Vincenti, this proved to be a difficult tournament. Darmanin achieved 3 wins against Cilia Vincenti (twice) and Portelli but lost the rest. Cilia Vincenti – now famous for travelling all the way from New Zealand to participate, beat Matthew (twice) and Colin.

With a performance of 2321, Jack Mizzi is expected increase by over 100 points making him one of the few Maltese to break the 2200 rating. Mizzi intends to take a sabbatical year from his studies to participate in International chess tournaments overseas.

Detailed results can be seen here:
https://chess-results.com/tnr1032149.aspx

Senior Championships – Thake and Psaila win

In the senior championships Mario Psaila retained the over 65 title and shared the over 50 title with Conrad Thake. Thake and Psaila drew both their hard-fought games while both drew against Ron Sammut. Stephen Busuttil Naudi drew his game against Sammut. 

Thus Psaila and Thake both ended on 4.5 points and since they both achieved identical results, they shared the title.

Detailed results can be seen here:
https://chess-results.com/tnr1025850.aspx

Elena Ghitza dominates Parallel Tournament

A tournament held in parallel to the Championship finals saw 9 players play a single round robin. Elena Ghitza, who recently represented Malta Women team on top board at the Olympiads won all her 8 games. In second place, young Isaac Grima Bongailas (current Under 16 champion) achieved 6.5 pts by beating all his opponents bar John Refalo (draw) and Ghitza (loss). John Refalo (under 12 Champion) took 3rd place by achieving 5 points.

Detailed results can be seen here:
https://chess-results.com/tnr1024277.as