Juniors dominate Chess Candidates Tournament

18-year-old Junior Champion Jack Mizzi won the 2nd phase of the 89 th Malta Chess
Championships – the Candidates. Mizzi, a national team player who has represented Malta
in many junior tournaments and who soon shall be participating in the National Olympiad
team won 5 games and drew 2 to secure first place on 6 points. Mizzi is expected to gain 95
rating points.

The revelation of the tournament was 12-year-old Matthew Portelli. Portelli showed his
potential in the students Arena chess tournaments where he won all the games he played in
this year. Earlier in the Preliminaries, he didn’t place in the top 10 that would have
guaranteed participation in this tournament. However, due to fallouts from other players, he
managed to qualify. No one was ready for what happened. Portelli rushed into the lead by
winning the first 4 rounds – including against national player Robert Novak and 5-time Malta
Champion Robert Zerafa. In the last round, he beat another ex-Malta Champion Patrick
Zerafa and managed to secure 5.5pts out of 7 points and take second place. At 12 years of
age, Portelli will be one of the youngest ever participants of the Malta Championship Finals
in October. Portelli is expected to gain more than 150 rating points.

The tournament was a very exciting one. With Portelli disrupting the odds, it was evident that
some higher rated players would miss top 4 that would qualify them to the Finals. Novak Robert,
after the surprise loss against Portelli in round 1, recovered to beat Conrad Thake in round
2. However, he could only draw against Jacob Zammit – who earlier won the Preliminaries
tournament. However, Novak managed to recover by winning 3 games and drawing against
Mizzi in the last round to secure 5 points.

David Cilia Vincenti, who travelled from probably the furthest part of the world (New Zealand)
for this tournament played consistent chess. He drew against Mizzi and Patrick Zerafa and
beat Muthukumar and Pala in the first 4 rounds. A miscalculation in round 5 saw him lose in
only 13 moves to Robert Zerafa. He then secured 2 wins against Zammit and Joe Grech –
who returned to competitive chess after 20 years of inactivity. Cilia Vincenti also secured 5
points.

The final 2 qualifiers were only known after the very last game to end in the last round.
Robert Zerafa (on 4 points) was playing against Duncan Vella (3 pts). Having seen all the
other games end, Robert knew that only a win would give him a chance to qualify. Anything
else and Novak and Cilia Vincenti would qualify. Vella started well and gained an exchange
advantage for a pawn. Zerafa had less than one minute of time by move 24 but managed to
turn the tables by getting an endgame with 3 dangerous king-side pawns against one. As
both players’ time ran out, and as Zerafa pressed for the win, Vella opted to sacrifice back
the exchange to secure a simple draw which was immediately offered by Zerafa.

The participants of the Championship Finals to be held in October shall be Colin Pace
(Current Champion), Jake Darmanin (runner-up 2023), Jack Mizzi, Matthew Portelli, Robert
Novak and David Cilia Vincenti.

Final Classification:

6 pts: Mizzi J.
5.5 pts: Portelli M.
5 pts: Novak R., Cilia Vincenti D.

4.5pts: Zerafa R.
4pts: Zerafa P., Pala O.
3.5pts: Vella D., Zammit J., Grech J., Saliba K., Thake C., Saliba L.
3pts: Psaila M, Muthukumar K., Thornton F., Grima Bongailas I., Licari C.
2.5pts: Miceli-Farrugia E., Dobbin A.
2pts: Farrugia A.

Full details: https://chess-results.com/tnr958113.aspx