Malta Chess Federation crowns 2023 Blitz and Rapid champions

The Malta Chess Federation recently concluded its much-anticipated 2023 Blitz and Rapid Championships.

The two tournaments proved to be a success, attracting numerous participants to battle the challenges of restrictive time control, which led to this year’s Malta Blitz Champion and Malta Rapid Champion.  

The 2023 Blitz Championship was played on September 17, with a turnout of 33 players.  Participants battled their way through a time control of a mere three minutes, with only two seconds added on per move for the whole game.

The tournament delivered a series of interesting and exciting matches throughout the nine rounds played in this FIDE-rated tournament.

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The overall winner and champion for the Blitz was 17-year-old Jack Mizzi, making this his second year running as Malta Blitz Champion. This time round, Mizzi dominated the whole field by achieving a perfect score, winning all his 9 games.

Matthias Gatt also had an impressive tournament, ending in second place overall with 7.5 points, and Jake Darmanin took third place with seven points.

Gabriel Grech, fresh from his positive international European Youth Chess Championships (EYCC, won best U16 with 4.5 points.

All the results and information can be found here: https://chess-results.com/tnr806963.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=9

Malta Open Rapid Championship 2023

An even larger attendance was recorded for the 2023 Rapid Championship hosted by the Malta Chess Federation the following weekend, between September 23 and 24.

The FIDE-rated tournament was split into eight rounds, with a time control of 10 minutes, and a five-second addition per move for the whole game.

Robert Novak is the overall winner of the Malta Open Rapid Championship and also the Maltese Rapid Champion. Undefeated, Novak achieved six wins and two draws, winning the tournament with a total of 7 points. 

Tugay Colak, who hails from Turkey, ended runner-up on 6.5 points, while Jack Mizzi took third place on six points.

Also on six points were Conrad Thake, Onurcan Pala and Jake Darmanin, narrowly missing the top 3 classification due to tiebreaks.

The Best U16 was won by Thomas Falzon with five points, whilst Elena Ghitza won the Best Female player. All the results and information can be found here: https://chess-results.com/tnr806974.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=8&flag=30

This tournament was held in collaboration with SportMalta, as part of the BeActive sports week.