Jack Mizzi wins Junior Chess Championship

16-year old Jack Mizzi won the National Chess Junior Championship for the second time in a row.
Mizzi won his last two games against Andrei Dobbin and Leonardo Nils Kang Di Benedetto to secure
the title. Mizzi will now be eligible to represent Malta in European and World Junior Championships
abroad.

The fight for second place was between Matthias Gatt and Noah Cauchi. The game between them in
the last round was the final game of the tournament. In a very interesting endgame, Gatt had a
knight for 2 pawns. The game ended in a draw so both players ended with 5.5pts, one point behind
Mizzi. Gatt had a better tie-break score and takes runner-up position while Cauchi won the Best U18
reward. 

Leonardo Zangrilli lost against Gatt in the 6th round but beat Andrei Dobbin in the last round to
collect 5 points. He had the highest tie-breaks and thus won the 3rd placed Overall. This confirms
Zangrilli’s improvement of late and has become one of Malta’s leading junior players.

Milena Stagno is the girl’s junior champion. It was a close call as 12-year old Hayley Thornton ended
with the same number of points (4) and only 1 point in the 3rd tie-break separated the players.
Thornton takes the Best U12 award.

The girls runner-up was Yunlong Wang while third place went to Nicole Ellul.

The rewards taken by the players were: