Malta Chess Federation

Jack Mizzi leads Junior Championships with 2 rounds to go

Mar 13, 2023

After the first 5 rounds of the Junior Championships , 16-year old Jack Mizzi, the current Junior Champion, is leading with 4.5 pts.
Jack, who is now in the men’s National team and is the clear
favourite, won his first 4 games and drew the fifth against Matthias Gatt.

Just half a point behind are Matthias, Noah Cauchi, Leonardo Zangrilli and Isaac Grima Bongailas. Matthias, who took a break from chess to pursue his University studies returned with a bang and is the only unbeaten player together with Jack. Matthias drew with Milena Stagno and beat Hayley Thornton, Nick Calleja Urry and Isaac Sacco.

Noah (U16), who recently qualified to play in the Candidates after his very good performance in the Preliminaries, won all his games against Keshav Reyansh, Elena Borg Mercieca, Leonardo Nils Kang Di Benedetto and Isaaco Sacco and lost against Jack. Leonardo (U14), an up and coming junior also won his games against Nick, Kyle Cassar, Gabriel and Chloe Azzopardi Frantz and only lost against Jack in a long and balanced game. Isaac Grima Bongailas (U14) who is very dedicated to the game won 4 games against Manuel Cutajar Lofaro, Kyle, Hayley and Leonardo Nils and lost against Jack.

All players of all age groups and sex play in one tournament which is organised as a 7-round swiss system format. The last 2 rounds on Friday and Saturday will determine who will win the various titles – U20 for both boys and girls, U18,U16,U14, U12 (boys and girls), U10 and U8.

The girl’s section is geared for a very exciting finish as the leading 4 girls all are on 3 points. Hayley (U12), who is the current girls junior champion leads on tie-breaks closely followed by Milena Stagno (U18), girls junior champion of 2021, and newcomers Yunlong Wang (U12) and Chloe Azzopardi Frantz (U10).

Standings after 5 rounds:

1: 4.5 pts: Jack Mizzi (U18)
2-5: 4 pts: Matthias Gatt (U20), Noah Cauchi (U16), Leonardo Zangrilli, Isaac Grima Bongailas(U14).

6: 3.5 pts: Andrei Dobbin (U18)

7-17: 3 pts: Hayley Thornton (U12), Milena Stagno (U18), Leonardo Nils Kang Di Benedetto, Gabriel Grech, Isaac Sacco (U14), Yunlong Wang (U12), Chloe Azzopardi Frantz (U10), Nick Calleja Urry (U12), Keshav Reyansh (U8), Luke Joseph Xerri, Luke Camilleri (U14)

18-28: 2pts: Kyle Cassar (U14), Manuel Cutajar Lofaro (U12), Elena Borg Mercieca, Alexander Falzon

(U8), Nicole Ellul (U16), Carl Thorne, Thomas Magri (U12), Lars Strojek, Jimmy Jay Chev Welsh, Andre Gauci, Elias Aquilina (U14)

29-36: 1pt: Terrence James Camilleri (U16), Julia Buttigieg (U12), Samuel Saliba (U14), Calista

Debrueres (U10), Thomas Cassar (U12), Nathan Buttigieg (U10), Nicholas England (U14), Meg Zammit (U10)

37-40: Sharlianne Borg, Eve Cordina, Raiden Attard, Lamar Said.