College academy yields national chess champions

Jamie Farrugia, of Birzebbuga Primary school 'A' and Miguel Sacco, of Kirkop Primary, both eight-year-old chess students of St Benedict's College Chess Academy, were declared national chess champions by the Malta Chess Federation in the under-10 and under-eight year categories respectively, following Junior Chess Championship's first session, which was held this month.

After five interesting rounds with games of one hour per player, Jamie was declared the outright victor of the under-10 competition, with four and a half points out of a possible five. This is a remarkable achievement for eight-year-old Jamie. She won four games and dropped only half a point.

Miguel, another gifted youngster from the chess academy, was declared under-eight champion and was sixth overall on three points.

In the under-10 category, Adrian Cutajar, another promising boy attending the academy, achieved second place with four points. Claude Spiteri Belcher took third place.

Other young members of the academy who performed fairly well in the competition were Leonnel Bonnici, Andre Mizzi and Kerstin Cassar, while Gabriel Farrugia was unlucky to miss the third place trophy when he had an inferior Bucholtz score to Spiteri Belcher.

The competition, sponsored by APS Bank, was held at St Elias' College, and attracted 32 participants who were split into two groups, one for under-12s and another for under-10s and under-eights.

Marilyn Sciortino, St Benedict's College co-ordinator, personally congratulated the young winners and said that this successful outcome in the 2007 National Junior Championship will undoubtedly provide a stimulus to all other students to emulate this success and slowly realise their full potential.