95 children registered for the recent Lancashire Junior Championships that took place on Sunday 7th June at the Westholme School in Blackburn. Three sections and 14 trophies to decide!
An earlier start than normal for our events, did not deter these eager junior players who turned up with an eye on one the prizes on offer today.
As always, we have to offer our thanks to Westholme School for hosting the event, and supporting Lancashire Chess. This year our prizes were sponsored by United Utilities. Not only were there 14 trophies to win, as a result of the sponsorship every player received a Junior Championship medal as a reminder of their participation in this event.
The Open section was run as a 5 round rapidplay with a 15+10 time control. This event would see us crown the Lancashire Junior Champion, the Lancashire Junior Girls Champion as well as the U16 and U14 champions.
The U12 section would crown the U12 Champion and the U12 Girls Champion. In the U9 section, we would crown our U9 and U7 champions, with trophies for best U8 and best U6. The U12 and U9 sections were run as a 6 round rapidplay with a 10+5 time control.
The winners? Well we will come to that shortly.
As always, these events could not take place without the support team behind the event. The organisation prior to the event, and then the smooth running on the day, is all down to the backroom team.
A special thank you therefore to …
Bill, Carl, Colin, Hambel, Jacqui, John, Ravi and Richard who ensured everything ran smoothly in the playing hall. Also, thank you to Jill, Ben, Maria and Cip who managed the other “unseen” aspects of the event such as registrations, tuck shop and car parking attendant!
A BIG THANK YOU TO THE TEAM
THE CHAMPIONS
Finally, I can hear you say! We only had one player with an 100% record on the day, and he deservedly became our Junior Champion. However, he was pushed to the wire. The 5th round match was an equal ending of K&4P v K&4P, but in the end Matthew succumbed to the pressure and Max (our Junior Champion) won and maintained his 100% score. Well done Max, the Lancashire Junior Champion 2026. Our Lancashire Junior Girl’s Champion was also a close affair, just half a point deciding it, and so we congratulate Saanvi as our Girls Champion for 2026.
The full results can be found on Chess Results at this Lancashire Junior Championship Results
THE FULL MONTY – well list of trophy winners
OPEN Section
Junior Champion – Max
Girls Champion – Saanvi
U16 Champion – Eyad
U14 Champion – Leon
U12 Section
U12 Champion – Nathan
U12 Runner Up – Rohan
U12 Girls Champion – Tetiana
U9 Section
U9 Champion – Aiden (after 4 player play-off)
U9 Girls Champion – Mia
U8 Best Result – Ramanathan
U7 Champion – Lucas
U7 Girls Champion – Connie
U6 Best Result – Edward
John’s Coach Award – Sayara
The Winners Gallery
Other Photos
A selection of other photos from the day, games underway, next round pairings call, analysing where we went wrong and the usual lunchtime football match.
