The UK Chess Challenge is an annual four-stage chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

 competition for school-age children from the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. Michael Basman

Michael Basman

Michael John Basman is an English chess player, chess author and International Master. He was awarded the International Master title in 1980...

is credited with creating the original challenge back in 1996 and is still closely connected with the competition. In the final 3 stages, most category winners and runners-up win prizes of a book or money, possibly with a certificate and rosette.

School

The first stage involves school chess clubs holding a qualifying competition to determine the strongest player for each gender-year combination, e.g. U-11 boys, U-12 girls. Each such player qualifies to enter the county Megafinal competition. For schools without chess clubs, there are alternative competitions within the county that will also enable qualification to the Megafinal.

Megafinal

A one-day Megafinal is held within each UK county to determine the strongest player from the county within each gender / year combination. Each such player is titled Supremo (boys) or Suprema (girls). The top player plus all those scoring 4/6 or better qualify for the Gigafinal.

Gigafinal

There are two one-day Gigafinals - one for Northern counties; one for Southern counties. As with the Megafinal, each Gigafinal is held to determine the strongest player for the qualifying region within each gender / year combination. Each such player is titled Ultimo (boys) or Ultima (girls). The Ultimo / Ultima players from each Gigafinal qualify to enter the Terafinal Champions competition. Until 2002, the two runners-up in each category qualified to enter the Terafinal Challengers competition. From 2003, each player scoring 5/6 or better qualifies for the Terafinal Challengers competition.

Terafinal

There are two two-day Terafinal competitions - the Terafinal Champions competition for the Ultimo / Ultima qualifiers from the Gigafinals, and the Terafinal Challengers competition for the runners-up. Over two days, the Champions competition identifies the strongest player in each category. Such players are titled Strat (boys or girls) and usually win a substantial prize.

External links

New 2011 Website

• http://www.delanceyukschoolschesschallenge.com/

Archive Site

• http://www.ukchesschallenge.com - UK Chess Challenge website