Glenrothes Junior Chess Congress 2007

No less than ninety school children took part in this year's Glenrothes Junior Chess Challenge, which took place recently at the Lomond Centre. While the majority of players came from the Glenrothes and Dunfermline areas, other areas of Scotland were well represented – particularly Edinburgh, whose schools entered around a dozen players.

In many respects, events developed as anticipated. When second-favourite Peter Devenny saw off the strongest local challenger (Carleton's Sam Turner Blyth) in round five, he set up a round six contest with pre-competition favourite Adam Shannon of Kinross – Peter and Adam being the only two players left on 5/5. In what turned out to be the decider, Adam continued his excellent debut season with a fine victory, which, after both players completed round 7 victories, left Adam in first place, one point ahead of Peter in second.

Two brothers –Ali and Chris Campbell of Woodmill – both shared the giant-killing prize having defeated the same player to achieve equal giant killer scores – we will spare his or her blushes by preserving anonymity.

Results

First: Adam Shannon (Kinross)

Second: Peter Devenny (St Marks, Barrhead)

Third: Ali Campbell (Woodmill HS, Dunfermline)

Under 500 Grading: Ben He (Sciennes PS, Edinburgh)

Under 300 Grading: Dean Sinclair (Newcastle PS, Glenrothes)

Ungraded: Anton Laptev (St. Leonards, St. Andrews)

Best Girl: Karolina Vyjidakova (Auchmuty HS, Glenrothes) and Shona McNab (Bonaly PS, Edinburgh)

Giant Killing Prize: Ali Campbell and Chris Campbell (both Woodmill HS, Dunfermline) - +743 grading points

Photograph of winners:

Left to Right: Chris Campbell, Anton Laptev, Shona McNab, Dean Sinclair, Adam Shannon, Ali Campbell, Peter Devenny, Karolina Vyjidakova, Ben He

This shows Adam and Peter's second round clash

 

report and photos by Stuart Blyth