Patrick Zerafa, 19 years of Marsaxlokk, (photo) is the new Chess champion of the Maltese Islands.

Zerafa deservedly won the 72nd Chess Championship Finals that were held at the Malta Chess Federation headquarters in Sliema.

He scored seven and a half points out of a possible ten beating ex-Champions Harry Camilleri, Peter Sammut Briffa and Colin Pace in the process.

Zerafa, who comes from a chess playing family, learned to play the game at an early age from his father and later studied the game through modern technology. He started playing competitive chess in 2004 when he participated in the Championship Preliminaries placing third overall.

In 2005 he formed part of the school team that won the Inter-Schools Chess Challenge representing the Gian Frangisk Abela Junior College.

Last year Zerafa won the Championship Candidates and participated in the Chess Finals for the very first time.

He was also runner-up in the Junior Championship 2006 and third in the same competition this year.

Patrick Zerafa studied Physics and IT at A Level standard and plans to further his studies at the University of Malta.

The National Chess Championship cycle was kindly sponsored by Simonds Farsons Cisk.