Jack Mizzi is Malta 2025 Chess Champion

Jack Mizzi – Champion 2025 

Jack Mizzi, who hails from Mosta won his second consecutive Championship by winning the 90th Chess Championship Finals. As last year, Mizzi who is 19-years-old, remained unbeaten throughout the tournament. His score of 9 out of 10 is one of the best results in the history of this tournament. Mizzi beat all opponents twice except against Robert Novak (two draws). Mizzi’s dominance showed not only in the superior positional play but also in his tactical ability to defend very difficult positions – often turning the game around to a win rather than a draw. 

Robert Novak ended in 2nd place – similar to last year. Novak started badly with 2 losses and 2 draws in the first 4 rounds. He recuperated well after this to win all his games except for a draw with Mizzi. Novak who is Malta’s national coach was very well prepared in the opening and easily took the runner-up position two points ahead of third place Matthew Portelli. 

Portelli played in his 2nd championship. It’s hard to believe that he is only 13-years old. He has already established himself as one of Malta’s top players and has also managed to make the senior team in the forthcoming ESNA Games in November. Portelli went one better than last year and took 3rd place. He lost his games against Mizzi and Novak, drew both games against Colin Pace and beat Jake Darmanin (2-0) and Matthias Gatt (1.5-0.5). 

The most experienced and successful player Colin Pace had a rather slow start. After 4 rounds, Pace collected 3 draws and a loss. He got his first win in round 5 against Darmanin but suffered  losses against Novak and Mizzi in rounds 6 and 7. His loss against Mizzi was harsh after being totally winning in the middlegame complications. Pace ended in 4th place with 4 points. 

Jake Darmanin had a great start with 2 wins but then lost track with 3 consecutive losses. Darmanin ended in 5th place on 3.5pts. 

Making his debut in this Championship was Matthias Gatt. Due to his participation in the European University Games, Gatt played all his 10 games in 10 days – which proved to be very difficult and tiresome. However, he managed to gain 2.5pts by beating Novak and drawing twice against Pace and against Portelli.  

Final Classification 



Full details:  https://s2.chess-results.com/tnr1235425.aspx