2023 Under 18 Female and Open Chess Champions

Hannah Wilson returned to her winning ways as she slammed the field to capture the female Under 18 chess championship over the last weekend.

Wilsons performance was even more impressive as the female and open section of the event were combined due to undersubscription in the female section and she still won all her matches to finish ahead of all in the 16-player field.

Wilson was out of the blocks early and by the end of round 3, she was the sole leader with 3 wins. Its then Wilson went into overdrive and in the next three matches she first defeated Alesha Lovell, the third seed, after which she took down Aaron Jaikaran, the reigning Under 13 champion.

In Wilson’s final game she face Chanon Reifer Belle, who has defeated Wilson recently and who was looking to repeat this victory to at least catch up to Wilson, who was now a point ahead. However, a determined Wilson played a classic game and allowed her opponent no chance of a successive victory. When the dust had cleared Wilson strove to victory to clinch the female championship.

Finishing in second was Alesha Lovell, who had a wonderful tournament, only losing to the eventual winner but drawing two games as well with the highly touted Jaikaran and Reifer-Belle. Reifer- Belle also finished on 4 points but finished third on the tie-break.

In the Open section, three players ended tied on four points. These were Jaikaran and the brother Loki and Noah Clarke. Noah’s performance was impressive as he won his last four games after missing the first two, and when he defeated the 4^th ranked player Derick Boyce in the last round, that would guarantee his progression to a playoff for the championship. The three top male players will meet in a playoff at a later date to determine the champion.