School Represented at World Youth Chess Championships

Alex B of year 12 has recently returned from a 10 day trip to Halkidiki, Greece where he participated in the World Chess Championships.

The World Youth Chess Championship is a chess competition for girls and boys under the age of 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18, which started unofficially in 1974 in France. It was recognized in 1977 by FIDE (the Fédération Internationale des Échecs or World Chess Federation) as the World Championship for Cadets and represents the crème de la crème of international chess talent.

Finishing as top Welsh player out of the three to be chosen to represent the country, Alex played a total of 11 games against opponents from across Europe as well as from India, Sri Lanka, Egypt and Krygstan.

Seeded 127 in the tournament, Alex returns with a world ranking of 116 and comments:

“I played my toughest match against an opponent from India who was ranked 36 in the world. Frustratingly, I narrowly lost after playing for over 5 hours but had a fabulous trip and gained very valuable experience from the tournament overall. I am delighted to have scored a higher world ranking after playing such tough opponents.”

Alex was one of the members of the school team who were triumphant at last year’s Welsh schools chess finals (Alex is pictured far right below), bringing the trophy back to Cardiff after 7 years in the hands of Monmouth School. He has also more recently won the U18/Open category which was held at Cathedral School.

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