Latest Chess Blog March 2017 
The 2017 Lyonsdown chess club championship has ended with Anaya Pattni of Year 2 finishing as the outright winner. Anaya becomes by far the youngest winner to date, having won 6 of her 7 wins by checkmate, simply an outstanding accomplishment! The only person who managed to defeat Anaya was fellow Year 2 classmate Sianna Lakhani. Zahra Kafian had lead the tournament for half the term and at times looked unstoppable but soon gave way to Anaya. Riya Sri Ram of Year 5 finished in 2nd place following a late surge, and Mariella Poulloura of Year 2 in 3rd.
For the Junior trophy, it was a tight contest between Ebrahim Kafian and Shrina Sri Ram of Year 1. Ebrahim showed he has tonnes of potential, testing many experienced chess players but it was Shrina who ended up clinching this year’s junior title.
A ‘most improved player’ trophy has been introduced for a first time this term. Deciding the winner of this trophy was extremely difficult as everyone in the tournament managed to shine at certain points of the tournament. Sreya Joshi of Year 3 and Sianna Lakhani of Year 2 have noticeably become more confident which has had a very positive impact on their game play but the biggest turn around came from Aliki Kryiakou of Year 2. Aliki returned to chess club with a massive appetite to learn, hunger to win and a drive that was inspiring to see. She is this year’s winner.
Chess in 2017 has started off very positively at Lyonsdown. With several of our children participating in national tournaments, the new ECF (English Chess Federation) grades have been published. Among the children who have gained their first ECF Rapidplay grades are Mariella and Anaya of Year 2. Mariella is now officially ranked 29th nationally amongst the top U8 girls in the country whilst Anaya is 32nd. There isn’t an official list for U7 players but there are only 9 girls of the same age or younger than Mariella in the U8s list that have a higher grade than her (10 for Anaya) throughout the entire country!! Massive congratulations goes to both girls as well as others who took part in national tournaments last year.
We are currently holding our chess club championship tournament this term. We have already seen many surprising results. Former junior Lyonsdown champion Zahra (Year 4) is currently leading the tournament but current Lyonsdown junior champion Mariella ( Year 4 and Sreya (Year 3), Anaya and Sienna (Year 2) have also got off to a strong start.
Keshan Pattni (Chess Teacher)