Daniil Terentiev, above, a Russian student who attends St Edwards College in Cottonera, is the Malta Open Chess champion 2011.

Terentiev, who is only 13 years old, showed his intent from the early stages of the competition when he defeated Philmore Pascua, John Richards and Jake Darmanin respectively to reach round four half a point ahead of the rest of the field notwithstanding the fact that his rivals were much older and hence more experienced chess players.

Terentiev kept up the pace and finished first with 6/7 points with five wins and two draws.

Clarence Psaila was second overall half a point behind Terentiev whilst Jake Darmanin, the current holder of the Under-16 national title was third.

Whereas for Psaila this result was somewhat expected, following his considerable improvements over the last few years, the same cannot be said of Jake Darmanin who is a newcomer to the local chess scene and was unrated until a few months ago.

Darmanin was seeded 13th and finished third, a remarkable achievement in chess.

The competition, organised by the Malta Chess Federation, was another success story for this relatively small organisation attracting twenty four participants from ten different countries including Malta.

The other countries represented were Serbia, Philippines, Sweden, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Mongolia, Russia and Romania.

Kenneth Borg was Tournament Director.

The final classification read as follows, in brackets the chess rating:-

1 Terentyev Daniil(2037) 6 pts; 2 Psaila Clarence (1969) 5½ pts; 3 Darmanin Jake (1508) 5 pts; 4-6 Beulertz Stefan (1941); Richards John (1870); Pettersson Alexander (2035) 4½ pts; 7-9 Stefanovic Bora (1847); Vella Duncan (2064); Cools Walter (1763) 4 pts; 10-16 Caruana George (1787); Psaila Mario (1984); Greevenbosch Kees (2050); Buena Leonell; Pulpan Oana (1862); Sammut Ron (1780); Desira Reno 3½ pts; 17-18 Azzopardi Alfred Sancio; Psaila Urna (1503) 3 pts; 19 Micallef Nigel  2½ pts; 20-21 Pascua Philmore (1616); Ancilleri Laurence (1478) 2 pts; 22 Nenad Jovic  1½ pts; 23 Kutlitze Zoran 1 pt; 24 Stefovic Vukadin ½ pt.