The Sheffield Junior Congress, the first of three Yorkshire Junior Grand Prix events, was an unqualified success, with 60 juniors taking part. With several players graded well over 100 and a number of ungraded youngsters the mixture was about perfect. The top boards of the competition were keenly contested, with some tough encounters particularly in the later rounds. Some highly rated juniors found the going much tougher than they expected and did not figure in the running at all.
In the end Tom Whittaker form Yorkshire and Mitchell Burke from 3C’s in Oldham were left to battle for the top prize in round 6. With both players showing each other a healthy respect the match was drawn so the prize money was shared, but it took two blitz play offs to decide the destination of the trophy, with Mitchell taking it. (Mitchell is in the red Man U shirt in the above photographs.)
Pictured above left is Isobel Cotogni of Worsley Chess Club who won the Girls U-12 National Final 2008, view website . On the right is Joseph MacPhillips who won the British Land U-9 Chess Challenge National Final. He is from Bolton and wearing the maroon jumper.
