School chess champion excels in national competition

A talented Liverpool pupil has wowed at a UK chess qualifier, and will now face the country’s top junior players in August.

David De La Morena, a pupil from St William of York School in Sefton travelled to Manchester last Sunday to compete in the UK chess challenge Northern Gigafinal.

David excelled on the day, scoring 3.5 points from his six games which was enough for him to qualify for the challenger’s event at the Terafinal which takes place in Loughborough in August.

The UK chess challenge begins in January each year when over 1,500 schools nationally compete in the qualifying stages.

The winners of the school events then qualify for one of 40 Megafinals which take place across the country, and from these events come the qualifiers for the Gigafinal. The remaining chess champions then battle it out to take home the trophy at the Terafinal.

St William of York School only began offering chess lessons in 2013, and David has been the school chess champion for the past two years. Most recently, he captained the St William of York team at the Merseyside Primary Schools Championships in Liverpool, organised by Chess in Schools and Communities (CSC).

This is a fantastic achievement for David and the whole school are excited to cheer him on at the event in August.