The weekend of the 5th and 6th of September sees the final and toughest round of the prestigious UK Chess Challenge tournament, the Terafinal. Dorset Chess are very proud to have two of its juniors, Leo Camopy (U8 boys) and Larissa Cuthbert (U12 girls), taking part in this weekend’s final. Congratulations to both and good luck!

The Delancey UK Chess Challenge is the world’s largest chess competition and is open to children resident in the United Kingdom up to the age of 18 years old. It is a four stage event across five age groupings with points qualification required at each stage to progress to the next round.

The Challenge starts at school / local tournament qualifying level with some 30,000 juniors taking part across the UK. The 2020 Dorset Junior Chess Championships, held way back in February 2020 in pre-lockdown times, served as the Dorset qualifying event with many Dorset juniors successfully qualifying for the next round, the Megafinals, a national event.

Leo and Larissa are seen here with their trophies back in February; signs of the success to come!

Unfortunately Covid-19 disrupted the planned schedule but the UK Chess Challenge quickly moved from its usual over-the board tournament format to being entirely online in 2020, starting with the Megafinals, then the Gigafinals and finally on to the Terafinal, getting tougher with each round.
From the Megafinals, where over 2,000 UK juniors took part, a magnificent seven Dorset juniors qualified for the Gigafinals, a really fantastic achievement. In the Gigafinals, they were up against tough competition from some of the top junior chess players from across the UK.

The Dorset Gigafinal qualifiers were Leo, Larissa, Max Teverson (Boys U8), Jack Baskett (U10), Harry Mercer (U10), Matthew Butcher (U10) and Florence Spirling (U12). All played exceptionally well throughout the tournament and made Dorset Chess very proud of them.

Larissa and Leo both scored the required level of points in the Gigafinal to become worthy qualifiers for the Terafinal, reaching the last 250.

This is a hat trick for Larissa who has now qualified for the Terafinal an amazing three times, with this being the first time online. It is Leo’s first time in the competition and so reaching the Terafinal is a fantastic achievement.

Further details on the Terafinal can be found on https://www.delanceyukschoolschesschallenge.com/