Date:08/09/2025 Record Entry For Club Championship!
First ladies champion?
The draw for tomorrow's first round of the Club Championship has been made. A record 44 entries this year! With Francis opting not to play this time, we have our most open competition in years (possibly ever). There are 3 sub-sections within the event. The overall winner is the club champion, but there will also be an Under 1400 rating winner, a Club Junior Champion and for the first time ever a Club Ladies Champion. Just like the main championship, all 3 sub-sections have plenty of contenders, everyone has something to play for apart from the chance to play more games and boost their standing within the club!
Newly returning Paul Douglass leads the entry list on rating, but Steve Rodgers, Mike Creaney and Aryan Nalawade all made significant climbs in the ratings last year to go over 1700 and will all likely be up there at the end. Another favourite for the title is my former nemesis Dominic Leigh. A former league winner with Darlington, he has joined the club over the Summer and is 2nd on rating. There are plenty of others who are further out in the ratings on paper, but heading the right way who will fancy their chances including Jonathan, Ajay, Tashil, Phil, Stephen and more.
The Under 1400 competition looks like it will be a youth vs experience affair. Our oldest member Alan is slightly below 1400 at 1396, but last years winner Sam and other top youngsters Josh and Jayden are all over 1350 as well. James and Malcolm have both had good Summer Series, while Sachin always performs well in our quick events. It's only a matter of time before he starts taking that game into longer ones.
Aryan starts as favourite for the junior title, but Ajay and Tashil will provide stiff competition. Sam, Faruk, Jayden, Eva and Josh are all well capable of finishing high up the list and it would be no surprise to see some of these challenge the big 3.
Eva is probably the one to beat in the ladies event. However, the younger players could certainly challenge. Shanaya is the current CCA Ladies champion and Isabelle was runner up to Tashil in the Teesside Junior Championships in June. Clair is getting better all the time and we expect to see wins from her this season, especially as she will be playing more in the league as well. Sarah is new to the club, but has been playing at Ingleby library for 2 years and could be a wild card.
The first 2 rounds will use the accelerated pairing system which means players on a 1400+ rating are drawn as if they already have 1 point. The first round draw is below:
ROUND 1
Ajay Selvan V Paul Douglass
Dominic Leigh V Jonathan Feasby
Stephen Ollis V Aryan Nalawade
Mike Creaney V Tashil Lankapura
Iain Mellis V Steve Rodgers
Phil Wales V Toefl Lankapura
James Mann V Joe McGinnis
Maurice Olum V Geoff Mann
Richard Stevenson V Alan Stockley
Faruk Serin V Nick Tadd
Andy Austen V Jayden Wang
Josh Clements V Henry Bishop
Isabelle Little V Sam Stevenson
James Tones V Clair Hartill
Joseph Hartill V Malcolm Goldspink
Neil Sotheby V Noah Mulloy
Oscar Youdale V Amit Chauhan
Eva Harris V Sarah Bishop
Wayne Mulloy V Sachin Saggar
George Butterworth V Shanaya Chauhan
Matthew Hartill V Alan Bayne
Reserve: Daniel Ayre
Half Point Bye: Andrew Salter
Chris
Date:06/09/2025 Library Return!
Library Return!
The Thornaby library sessions resumed this morning after our Summer break and it was a packed session. There were plenty of new faces, old faces and club faces! More than 20 players altogether with children aged between 6 and 16 and several adult players as well.
The sessions have been changed slightly so there are 3 groups:
Beginners/Novice 10am-11am
Intermediate 11am-12pm
Advanced 10am-12pm (drop in)
This worked well and we had some nice competitive games in all 3 groups. This week, the beginners group concentrated on mini-games to learn the piece moves, the intermediate group worked on opening principles and the advanced played a mini-competition.
if you would like to take part, please get in touch. Players from our club also run the Ingleby Barwick library sessions on Fridays from 4pm-6pm.
Date:04/09/2025 Sam becomes Junior Captain!
Junior Captain!
Following our AGM, the club committee have chosen Sam Stevenson to be our new junior captain. Our junior captain has a role in encouraging and developing our younger players both at the club and the library, helping with the smooth running of our junior teams and being a role model to our youngsters.
Sam was the unanimous choice of the committee. Feedback was all positive. A selection of comments: He is a good role model, friendly, very calm, takes his time in games, helps young players, set up a club in his old primary school, excellent choice, sensible, hardly misses a library or club session, takes his chess seriously, enters external competitions. In other words, the perfect choice!
Sam has also won and placed in many junior events over the last few years. Amongst his best achievements, he was joint Teesside Champion for his age in 2024 and he is the current holder of the Thornaby Junior Chess Open title. He also won the club Under 1400 rating championship last season with 3 victories over 1400+ rated players.
Sam is only our second junior captain. The role has been filled by Joseph since we created it in 2022. Joseph is now a contender in all of our internal events (winning 1 in each of the last 2 seasons) and will continue to be a great role model and asset to the club. With him starting college now, it seemed like the right time to pass it on. Good luck to Sam, we're sure he'll be excellent in the role!
Date:02/09/2025 Paul marks his return!
Final!
Our Summer blitz competition took place yesterday with 24 players entering, initially split in 2 groups of 12. Blitz is not everyone's cup of tea and distressingly, I once again found myself as the oldest player in the event! While some (mostly older) players played more sedate chess in the bar area, the action was fast and furious in our main room.
He's not quite in the Mike Creaney category, but last week we had the very good news that former club legend Paul Douglass is returning to chess after 6 years. Paul was an original member of the club when it was founded in 2007 and has played 79 times for our A team (putting him 5th on our all time list). A very strong player, his last rating puts him straight in at 4th on our list. Incidentally, I did ask Paul about Mike and he said, "I've always thought that if Mike cuts himself his blood would come out in black and white squares!"
Despite all this, I was not sure how well Paul would do in a blitz competition after 6 years playing no over the board chess. The cobwebs were soon blown off however as he breezed through his group with 10.5/11, then beat me, Toefl and Jonathan in the knockout stages to win the title! Good to know that the old magic is still there!
Group A finished with Jonathan and Toefl on 10/11. Toefl won the group as he beat Jonathan in their game, his only defeat was to Joseph M. I was only on 1.5 after 4 games, but with the 3 hardest games out of the way, I won the next 7 to finish 3rd in the group with 8.5. Joseph M took the last qualifying place with 8. Jacob, Sam, Eva and Maurice were all there or there abouts on 5 and 6 at the end. A great first event for Jacob to take 5th place in the group.
Group B saw both Tashil and Paul win 10/10. Their last game decided the group winner. It was a draw, so Tashil won the group on ROB. The battle for the other 2 spots was very close. I thought Zhuoyi was out of the race after a surprise early loss to Grace. Zhuoyi has had a break over the Summer, but he soon found his form again to finish in 3rd with 8/11. The last spot was a 3 way tie between Sachin, Jayden and Josh, but Sachin took it on countback. Meanwhile, a good first event for Grace saw her finish in 7th with 3.5.
The Quarter Finals saw no big surprises with the group winners and runners up showing why they'd got there. Tashil, Jonathan, Toefl and Paul all won. There was still a possibility of an all Lankapura final going into the semis. They both won their groups, so had choice of colour. Toefl chose black, but found Paul too strong. Tashil chose white and looked to have a slight edge for most of the game before Jonathan crashed through to find a middle of the board checkmate. The final between Jonathan and Paul was a good competitive game with all the action on the queenside. Paul had castled that way and Jonathan threw his pawns forward in characteristic style. He missed a move and Paul captured one pawn and that changed the direction of the game. Shortly afterwards a knight fork on queen and rook followed by the capture of another pawn left the game well in Paul's favour. He marched his pawns forward and there was little Jonathan could do.
My favourite part of the night was not on the chess board. After 8 rounds of the groups, Tashil came over and asked me who was doing well in the other group. When I said, "your Dad is on 8/8", the look on his face and the subsequent "Whaaaaat!" was priceless! Slightly disappointingly, when I said, "he beat me," there was no reaction or surprise at all!
Full results:
FINAL
Jonathan 0-1 Paul
SEMI-FINAL
Tashil 0-1 Jonathan
Paul 1-0 Toefl
QUARTER-FINAL
Tashil 1-0 Joseph M
Jonathan 1-0 Zhuoyi
Toefl 1-0 Sachin
Paul 1-0 Chris
GROUP STAGE
GROUP A
Toefl 10
Jonathan 10
Chris 8.5
Joseph M 8
Jacob 6
Eva 6
Sam 6
Maurice 5
George 3
Joseph H 2.5
Clair 1
Shanaya 0
GROUP B
Tashil 10.5
Paul 10.5
Zhuoyi 8
Sachin 7
Jayden 7
Josh 7
Grace 3.5
Oscar 3
Andrew 3
Isabelle 3
Neil 2.5
Matthew 1
Chris
Date:31/08/2025 Thornaby Show!
Thornaby Show!
Earlier today, Thornaby Chess Club attended Thornaby Show. Chris S, Chris R, Rosie, Nick, Phil, Stephen and Joe McGinnis were on the stall at various times during the day. We had a great time and spoke to lots of different people and handed out leaflets about our club and library sessions.
Members of the public could win a box of chocolates by beating our experts. In previous years, we've only given out 1 and most of the chocolates have gone back home with me! This year we gave out 5, partly thank to a couple of ringers in attendance! Some people who follow this page may have heard of Ernie Lazenby! Ernie was a high level league player for many years at several clubs including Thornaby before he retired from chess. He won several games against Rosie and Nick, but generously told me to give his prize to a youngster who gave us a good game, but didn't actually win. We picked 2 children later on, including a young 8 year old girl from Thornaby Village school who I taught chess to recently who really made Nick work for a win.
We also had a former Elmwood Junior and former Elmwood club champion in Matthew Gee-Smith who managed to beat Stephen in a very good game. Matthew can't play in the league at the moment due to family commitments, but may well be returning at some point. Former club member Wasim managed to get a draw with Nick and we paid out in chocolate! Hopefully we may see a return to the club from him soon.
The only player to win or draw with no previous connection to chess in the area was someone I know very well. Les Harrison is the 5 times club champion at my bowls club and I knew he could also play a reasonable game of chess. I didn't think he would have much chance against Joe though, so very well done to him on a well fought victory! Shame he plays indoor bowls on Tuesdays!
It wasn't really about winning though. There was a wonderful mix of people at the show with a massive variation in interest and skill level at chess. They included 2 guys dressed as giant flower pots (see photo!). I always hear different excuses why people don't want to play our experts. "I haven't got any arms and I'm not clever enough anyway, why do you think I'm dressed as a flowerpot" does rank right up there as one of the best!
Chris
Date:28/08/2025 Library Return!
Library return!
We're pleased to announce that after our Summer break, the popular Saturday morning Thornaby library chess sessions will be returning on Saturday September 6th at 10am.
The sessions run with 3 groups:
Beginners/Novice 10am-11am
Intermediate 11am-12pm
Advanced 10am-12pm (drop in basis)
The Beginner and Intermediate sessions run as 10 week courses (new people can't join after week 2). The Beginners course covers the rules and the basics of how to think. The Intermediate course covers more about how to play well (tactics, opening principles, mating combinations etc) and thinking ahead 2+ moves. Advanced is for players who have mastered the first 2 and would include most club level players.
The first set of 10 week courses will run from September 6th to November 8th.
The second set of 10 week courses will run from November 15th to January 24th.
If you'd like to sign up for the first set of Beginner or Intermediate courses or for any further information, please contact the club via mail@ThornabyChessClub.co.uk.
Date:27/08/2025 Steve finishes Runner Up!
Runner Up!
Over the Summer, 5 Thornaby players have been taking part in the 8 round Vince Skillcorn Memorial event at Billingham club. The event that our own Summer Series is based on. All 5 have performed well over the last 14 weeks and several Thornaby players have been amongst the leaders throughout.
Steve had a fantastic tournament for 7 rounds, drawing with the top 2 Billingham players John Garnett and Steve Cole and winning his other 5 games. That left him half a point clear with only his great friend and rival Mike to play in the last round. Mike managed to win the game allowing last seasons A division top scorer John Garnett to overtake Steve. Steve still finished in outright 2nd place, an excellent performance given the quality of some of the players in the field. The win for Mike gave him a 3 way share of 3rd place with 5.5. Jonathan had another good tournament and finished in 6th place on 5 points. Meanwhile, Malcolm finished with 3 points from 8 in joint 16th.
Josh continues to improve and an excellent win over A division player Stuart McLauglin in the last round saw him finish in joint 10th with an even 4 across the 8 rounds. As the only under 18 player in the event, this is a great performance and he finished alongside some of Billingham's most experienced players in Paul Weightman, Bernie Callaghan, Brian Whitaker and Darren Donnison.
Well done to all 5 of our players, great preparation for the new season. The good news for Steve is that Mike is on the same team, so he won't have to play him in the league! Also, thank you to Paul Weightman for organising the event and inviting players from other clubs to take part.
Full results:
Pos Name Club Total
1st John S Garnett Billingham 6½
2nd Stephen Rodgers Thornaby 6
3rd Stephen Cole Billingham 5½
Michael J Creaney Thornaby 5½
Dave Elsdon Billingham 5½
6th Jonathan Feasby Thornaby 5
7th Michael Smalley Hartlepool 4½
Ashton Woodward Hartlepool 4½
Andrew Herrity Billingham 4½
10th Darren John Donnison Billingham 4
Bernie Callaghan Billingham 4
Josh Fisher Thornaby 4
Paul Weightman Billingham 4
Brian Whitaker Billingham 4
15th Gary Leighton Billingham 3½
16th Stuart McLaughlin Billingham 3
Graham E Edwards Billingham 3
Sean Ridgeway Billingham 3
Sean Cooke Billingham 3
Kevin M Waterman Hartlepool 3
Malcolm Goldspink Thornaby 3
22nd Graham Bartram Billingham 2
23rd Bill Wilson Hartlepool 1½
Keith Harrison Billingham 1½
Nicola Harrington Billingham 1½
26th Sean Cassidy Billingham ½
Date:26/08/2025 AGM and Awards Ceremony!
AGM!
A fantastic 40 players turned up for yesterday's AGM and Awards Ceremony. The mood of the meeting was very positive and upbeat after a great season for the club. We'll be fielding more teams than ever next season. Most of the committee has stayed the same for next year. Great news that all of our captains from last season will be returning and Eva will be a new captain of a new team.
The awards ceremony section saw our top player Chris Ross presenting the awards. The club championship winners and internal quick event winners collected their trophies. There were also medals for the players from our cup final teams and league teams that finished in the top 3. Our top scorers in each division were honoured with medals or trophies for the players who topped the whole division scorer list.
Aryan's rapid rise to 5th on our rating list made him the easy choice for our young player of the year. The most improved player award went to Jayden who finished 2nd in the D division scoring charts and went up over 170 rating points over the year. Newcomer of the year was a difficult choice, but Phil was the committee choice after a very consistent season in our internal events and in the league. Clubman of the year went to Neil for his determination, enthusiasm and humour and hardly missing a night at the club this year.
At the end of the meeting we took the opportunity to congratulate Joseph, Aryan and Eva on their exceptional GCSE results last week. 3 intelligent young people who are a credit to the club and themselves.
Full list of award winners:
Trophies were awarded to:
Club Champion : Francis
Club Junior Champion : Tashil
Club U1400 Champion : Sam Stevenson
C Division Top Scorer : Phil
D Division Top Scorer : Maurice
Young Player of the Year : Aryan
Most Improved Player : Jayden
Best Newcomer : Phil
Clubman of the Year : Neil
Xmas Rapidplay Winner : Francis
Spring Rapidplay Winner : Tashil
Spring Blitz Winner : Francis
Summer Rapidplay Winner : Joseph
Medals were awarded to:
Thornaby A Division Top Scorer : Francis
Thornaby B Division Top Scorer : Steve and Mike
Plate Winners : Aryan, Sagar, Steve, Mike and Phil
Knights Shield Winners : Malcolm, Bill, Alan, Maurice and Phil
Knights Shield Runners Up : Geoff M, James M, Tashil, Toefl and Sam S
C Division Runners Up : Malcolm, Maurice and Phil
D Division 3rd Place : Kaira, Jayden, Josh, Faruk, Tristan and Zhuoyi
Chris
Date:19/08/2025 Summer Series Joint Champions!
Joint Champion!
The Summer Series concluded yesterday and it was a very successful event with 44 players taking part over the 6 weeks! Full results and the final standings are here.
It was a very close race for the title all the way with 10 players finishing within 1 point of victory. Mike and Phil managed to negotiate their way through the chaos to finish on 4.5/6 and share the title. Well done to them! I played both in the last couple of rounds and couldn't find a way through against either.
Myself, Maurice and Joseph finished in joint 3rd with 4 points. Joseph only played the 5 rounds after his GCSE's, so a special well done to him. A further 5 players finished on 3.5 to round out the top 10, including a great start to competitive chess for James Tones. Joe, Stephen, Ajay would all expect to be there, but it was also a good tournament for Malcolm to finish in the top 10, he has definitely stepped up over the last few months.
The standings are a little random further down as some players only played a few rounds and some late starting players (including Aryan and Pete) were given dummy scores for the purpose of pairings to make better matches for them and everyone else. The intention was always to try to give good matches for everyone rather than a totally fair competition and we had lots of new and young players getting valuable experience.
Thanks to everyone who took part!
Chris
Date:07/08/2025 Chess Returns to Thornaby Show!
Experts?
After a gap last year due to paperwork, chess returns to Thornaby Show this year! The show is on Sunday 31st August from 10:30am-4:30pm.
Thornaby Chess Club have a stall where you can find out more about chess, opportunities to play locally and bringing chess into schools. Of course you can also play chess against some of the members from our club.
Come along to visit, if you can beat one of our experts you do win a box of chocolates!
Chris
Date:06/08/2025 Summer Series Update!
Leader!
With 1 round to go, club legend Mike Creaney leads the way in our Summer Series tournament! Last night his opponent was late and with Eva's opponent having to withdraw on the day, Mike played her as an alternate. It was a tougher than expected game with Eva having some threats throughout the game and Mike ending up with only 1 minute left on his clock when he eventually forced a mate. The other 2 players going into the round on 3 (me and Phil) played out a draw. Phil had the better of the game overall and missed a couple of winning chances, but in the end it was a dead draw.
The format has worked reasonably well with anyone who is there getting a game every week even if it means switching opponents. It avoids the byes we often end up with in the Club Championship. Plenty of real game experience for everyone and some of our youngsters have had some good performances and results. New players Alan Bayne, James Tones, Oscar Youdale, Noah Mulloy, Wayne Mulloy and Isabelle Little have all made their standard game debuts in the event and all look ready for the league next season.
The last round will be fully drawn next week when people have had chance to register half point byes, but it will certainly have me vs Mike on board 1 with Mike just needing a draw to win the event.
Full details of the tournament can be found here.
Chris
Date:02/08/2025 AGM and Annual Awards Ceremony Date!
Reigning Clubman of the Year!
Our AGM will be on Tuesday 26th August. A draft agenda has been circulated to all members.
If anyone would like to stand for any position, please get in touch with Chris. We always needs willing captains!
There will be several awards given out in section 4 of the meeting including trophies for the winners of our quick events during the season, the club championship and our prestigious young player of the year award! Also, the most eagerly anticipated award of all, our now famous “Clubman of the year” award!
Date:15/07/2025 Joseph wins 2nd Rapidplay!
Champion!
Our traditional Summer rapidplay took place on Tuesday with 33 entrants. So many in fact that there was no room for me in the draw! This event is played under the same format as the football world cup and we had the full 8 groups with 4 players for the first time ever. As always, the first 90 minutes of the event contained 100 times more twists, turns, shocks and excitement than a typical England match!
Tashil and Jonathan were my 2 favourites to win at the start. I overlooked Joseph as he has been studying hard for his GCSE's this year and hasn't played as much chess as he normally does. The last couple of weeks it has been great to see him back to himself, enjoying chess again and playing well. He came through a tough draw throughout to take the title. This format definitely suits him and his win follows his Easter Rapidplay triumph last year!
In the final, he played Jonathan. It was an even game and both players agreed a draw with nothing much happening for either player. That meant a blitz play off and Jonathan had a slightly better position, but at the expense of being down by 2 minutes. He looked to find a way through, but in the end a mad scramble happened and Jonathan lost a rook to a fork and then ran out of time.
In the semi finals, Jonathan overcame "Mr Consistent" Phil after he dropped a piece. Phil always seems to finish in the top 5 of every competition we do! Joseph has had a hard time against Tashil recently, but had a much better looking pawn structure when they went into an endgame. He used his rook to control the position well and ended up queening a pawn.
The Quarter finals saw the end of the runs of the 2 surprises of the event. Nate lost to Phil after blundering his queen and Sachin lost to Jonathan. Ajay was eventually ground down in and endgame by Tashil and Joseph won on time against Joe.
The last 16 mostly went to form. Joseph defeated Teesside Megafinal Champion Josh while Maurice lost to Joe on time when 1 move away from checkmate! Clair's run came to an end at this stage at the hands of Ajay.
The group stages saw a clear group of death (Group C) with Tashil, Phil and Iain all drawn in the same group. Tashil topped it with 3 out of 3. Phil has become a bit of a nemesis to Iain and he claimed the 2nd spot. Group A was also a tough one with Joe, Rhys and Toefl all together. Joe and Toefl made it through. Eva beat Maurice earlier on and just missed out on qualifying from Group F after drawing with Noah in the last round. Group H proved to be the closest and saw all 4 players on 1 point after 2 games. Clair won her last match to top the group. Group G saw a great battle for 2nd place after Sachin topped the group, George and Joseph H both finish on 1.5. That meant a blitz playoff and they managed to draw 2 of these before George eventually won to sneak through to the last 16.
A great event and fantastic to see so many people at the club on a warm day in the middle of July! Well done to Joseph!
Chris
Full Results
FINAL
Joseph Machin 0.5-0.5 Jonathan Feasby (Joseph won blitz play off)
SEMI FINALS
Tashil Lankapura 0-1 Joseph Machin
Phil Wales 0-1 Jonathan Feasby
QUARTER FINALS
Tashil Lankapura 1-0 Ajay Selvan
Joe McGinnis 0-1 Joseph Machin
Nate Broadbent 0-1 Phil Wales
Jonathan Feasby 1-0 Sachin Saggar
LAST 16
Tashil Lankapura 1-0 George Butterworth
Clair Hartill 0-1 Ajay Selvan
Joe McGinnis 1-0 Maurice Olum
Josh Fisher 0-1 Joseph Machin
Nate Broadbent 1-0 Malcolm Goldspink
Andrew Salter 0-1 Phil Wales
Jonathan Feasby 1-0 Toefl Lankapura
Sachin Saggar 1-0 Nick Tadd
GROUP STAGES
GROUP A
1) Joe M
2) Toefl
3) Rhys
4) Joe V
GROUP B
1) Jonathan
2) Ajay
3) Neil
4) Alan B
GROUP C
1) Tashil
2) Phil
3) Iain
4) Andy A
GROUP D
1) Josh
2) Nick
3) Janos
4) Isaac
GROUP E
1) Nate
2) Joseph
3) Manuel
4) Avanish
GROUP F
1) Andrew
2) Maurice
3) Eva
4) Noah
GROUP G
1) Sachin
2) George
3) Joseph H
4) Matthew
GROUP H
1) Clair
2) Malcolm
3) Oscar
4) Wayne
Date:12/07/2025 Tashil qualifies from Gigafinal!
Qualifier!
Over the weekend, Tashil was one of several of our players who took part in the Northern Gigafinal. There are 3 Gigafinals across the UK and the top performers in each age group qualify for the national Challengers stage. Tashil scored an excellent 5 out of 7 to make it to finish in joint 5th and make it to the national stage. The first player from our club to do so since Sagar in 2022. A fantastic achievement which puts Tashil amongst some of the best players of his age in the country!
Henry Bishop (so good they named a chess piece after him) was the best of our other players. He missed out on the national stage by 1 point after finishing on 4/7 in the Under 8 Boys section. Shanaya finished in 12th place on 3 in the Under 8 girls section.
Meanwhile, Ajay finished on 3/7 in the Under 18 section. A great performance as this section had several players rated over 2000 including Fide Master Stanley Badacsonyi (2436) and Candidate Master Theo Khoury (2270). Eva found this section a step too far, but still acquitted herself well over 7 games. Josh struggled in a very strong Under 14 section and finished on 0.5. George finished on 2 in the Under 12's. Noah also finished on 2 in the Under 10's while our newest member Oscar finished on 3 in the same section.
Jayden was away on holiday, but did play in the Scottish version a few weeks ago. Jayden is at the young end of his age category this year, but still finished on 3.5. Alongside another top local player in Teesside Megafinal winner Dara Jafari. Henry and Shanaya played in the Scottish version as well and both finished on the same scores with Henry on 4 and Shanaya 3.
Well done to all of our players, the Gigafinals are pretty much a national level youth competitions with 2000+ players in most of the sections and plenty of other players who are heading there if they aren't already. To be at all competitive at this level is a great achievement.
Full Thornaby Results:
Under 18
Ajay Selvan 3
Eva Harris 0
Under 14
Josh Fisher 0.5
Under 12
George Butterworth 2
Under 10
Tashil Lankapura 5
Jayden Wang 3.5
Oscar Youdale 3
Noah Mulloy 2