On Saturday 7th March 2020, White Rose Junior Chess Academy organised a very successful chess day in the Mulberry Hall of Wakefield Junior School. (See photographs by Michael Triffitt below.)

34 girls attended from all over Yorkshire. Teaching was led by Lateefah Messam-Sparks who travelled from Madrid where she now lives. Helpers were Olivia and Steve Westmoreland from Upperthong, and Noel Stewart, Peter Cloudsdale, and Bradley and Mike Triffitt, all from York.

Unfortunately the local MP did not appear although invited.

Lateefah opened proceedings by demonstrating on the display board the game Judith Polgar v. Ferenc Berkes (Budapest 2003), which was a French Defence. (Click here to play through the game on screen.)

The girls were then split into 2 sections, and a 5-round Swiss competition was held, also with tuition. All received a certificate and medal, and winners were as follows:

Section A

1st	Julia Smith	(Wakefield)
2nd	Alana Glennan	(Wakefield)
3rd	Isabella Bardsley	(Wakefield)

Merit awards: Lini Lara (York), Arushai Burau (Wakefield) and Eva Young.

Section B

1st	Elsie Luna
2nd	Samishka Yerabati	(Leeds)
3rd	Natasha Pointon	(Thirsk)

Merit awards: Nina Hitzeroth, Olivia Roebuck, Claudia Jozefowski,

Camilla De-Luca, Pippa Colver, Felicity Tinker, Rebecca Trout.

Thanks to Richard Ribeiro and the School for excellent facilities and good refreshments from the PTA.

We hope to hold another one in due course.

Peter Cloudsdale, Organiser

Lateefah Messam-Sparkes with Bradley Triffitt and Olivia Westmoreland

Play in progress

After the presentations