21 May 2018

Twelve boys travelled to St Gabriel's School, Newbury, to play in the West Berkshire “Megafinal”, a county stage of the UK Chess Challenge. After six rounds of rapidplay, with 20 minutes on each clock plus a ten second increment, Abingdon had won five trophies as well as three second-place medals.

Thitipat Ditrungroj (5/6) won the U17 trophy and headed the combined U14-U18 section. James Ng (1/6), benefitting from the total absence of GCSE pupils, won the U16 trophy. Sebastian Watkins (3.5/6) finished ahead of Dashiell Hathaway (2/6) to win the U15 trophy, and Oliver Yau (4.5/6) finished ahead of Eric Huang (3.5/6) to win the U14 trophy. In the combined U12-U13 section, Harut Badalyan (4/6) finished ahead of Frederick Beneat (3/6) to win the U12 trophy. Abingdon's four U13s were William Riddell (2/6), Alfie Luo (1.5/6), Fran Trotter (1.5/6) and Shreyanshu Mohanty (1/6).

Section winners and players on more than 3 points qualified for the Southern “Gigafinal” in July. Ross Tselos had already qualified for the Southern Gigafinal by winning the U14 trophy at the Oxfordshire Megafinal in April, heading the combined U14-U18 section there, so all in all it has been a highly successful year for Abingdon School Chess Club in the UK Chess Challenge tournament.

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