Matthew Portelli wins National Junior Chess Championship 2025

Impressive performances from young chess talents in this year’s Junior Championships

Matthew Portelli wins Junior Chess Championship

At 13 years of age, Matthew Portelli wins the National Chess Junior Championships 2025.

With an impressive result of 6.5 from a total of 7 games, Matthew Portelli’s only draw was

against current national champion Jack Mizzi, who also finished on the same score. Despite a

strong performance, Mizzi achieved second place due to tiebreaks. Leonardo Zangrilli

claimed third place with 4.5 points.

In the U16 category saw Isaac Grima Bongailas emerge as the U16 champion with 4 points.

Runner-up Gabriel Gauci and third place Gabriel Grech both finished on 3.5 points, with

tiebreaks determining their final rank.

Wang Yunlong is the U14 champion, after obtaining a better tie-break score against runner-up

Nick Calleja Urry, both scoring a total of 4 points from 7 games. Matthias Borda took third

place with 2 wins and 2 draws.

Keshav Reyansh wins U12 Title

The spotlight also shone on 9-year old Keshav Reyansh, whose perfect score of 7 wins earned

him the title of this year’s U12 Junior champion. In second place overall, John Refalo, with

5.5 points finished second overall, while Jiading Fan earned third overall with 4.5 points.

Elena Borg Mercieca emerged victorious in the U10 category, winning the title with a total of

4.5 points. Kate Shephard followed closely as the runner-up with 3 points and Ozsov Ozgun

rounding the top three, also finishing with 3 points.

The youngest participants in the competition, the U8 category, saw George Borg Mercieca

winning first place with a total of 4.5 points. Nikol Borg finished as the runner-up with 3 points.

These outstanding performances highlight the growing talent and competitive spirit of young

Maltese chess players, promising an exciting future for chess. The Malta Chess Federation

will participate in the forthcoming European Youth team chess championships in Slovenia in

July. Players shall be chosen based on the results of these championships.

Results can be found here:

http://chess-results.com/tnr1124650.aspx?lan=1
https://chess-results.com/tnr1124653.aspx?lan=1