Thirteen-year old Christian Schembri from Kullegg San Benedittu emerged the clear winner of the U-16 Chess Tournament held recently at St Paul’s Missionary College, Rabat, in collaboration with the Malta Chess Federation.

In all, forty-four students from nine different Church, Independent and Government Schools took part in the tournament, which was held over five rounds. The biggest contingent of students – 15 – came from St Elias College, testimony of the hard work of Ray Azzopardi, who teaches Chess both at his College and at San Benedittu.

Schembri won all five rounds, attaining the maximum five points. In second and third place were Luca Vassallo and Jurgen Grima, both from St Elias and both with 4½ points each.

The Girls’ Category was won by 10-year old Jaime Farrugia, also from Kullegg San Benedittu, who managed to garner three points despite having to compete against her male counterparts. In second place, also with three points, was Clarissa Cremona from St Dorothy’s.

The other categories were won as follows: the U-10 was won by Benjamin Zammit from St Catherine’s High School with four points; the U-12 was won by Gabriel Farrugia from Kullegg San Benedittu with three points while the U-14 was won by Jean Pierre Xuereb from Stella Maris with four points.

The Arbiter of the tournament was Peter Sammut Briffa. Fr. Silvio Bezzina, Assistant Headmaster at St Paul’s Missionary College, distributed the trophies to the winners.