Former Newport grammar school student eyes winner's trophy in BBC Two's Chess Masters: The Endgame finals

Thalia Holmes, formerly a pupil at Haberdashers’ Adams School in Newport and former member of Newport Chess Club, has reached the grand final of the BBC Two show Chess Masters: The Endgame series. 

Taking place at Cardiff’s former coal exchange, 12 rising stars from across the UK have been battling it out via a gauntlet of brain-bending puzzles and nail-biting eliminators to be crowned Britain’s Chess Master. Thalia performed particularly well in the memory challenge test last week, impressing the commentators by correctly remembering the exact position of all 24 pieces. 

The contestants had only 60 seconds to memorise the position, and then another minute to recreate it on the board. 

Thalia’s tactics have been razor sharp throughout the series, which has seen her easily advance through the preliminary rounds including some impressive piece sacrifices in the first-round blitz games. 

In the semi-finals Thalia was locked in a standoff with popular chess streamer Lula ‘The Chess Princess’ but Thalia was able to rely on her tactics again to open the lines, expose her opponent’s king and gain a decisive material advantage. 

The final challenges now lie ahead for Thalia as she goes head-to-head against the other three finalists to see who will be crowned champion. 

Thalia is currently on a gap year in Chester offering chess lessons both in-person and online. Find out if she will lift the winner’s trophy on BBC Two this upcoming Monday (April 28). 

Elsewhere in the county, division one of the Shropshire Chess League has been comfortably won by Telepost A who have been dominant for the past several seasons. 

In division two, the table was topped by Newport Juniors A. Playing only against other adult teams, the young Newport side won their last seven games in a row to clinch the title with a game in hand. 

They will be the first junior team to play in division one in decades and will be up against the very top teams in Shropshire. In a cruel twist of fate, the adult Newport A team must win their final match of the season against Shrewsbury to avoid relegation.

Christopher Lewis, team captain and head of Newport Junior Chess Club, said: “I never thought the junior team would do this well this quickly. 

“They are still quite a young team and yet they have been rolling over adult teams with decades of experience. At this stage there is no limit to what they can achieve.”

Earlier this month the annual Shropshire Junior Chess Championships was held at Charlton School. 

More than 100 young players entered including players from every corner of the county with some intense clashes and closely fought contests. T

Here are all of the winners from the event: 

• U8 Boys – Bagrat Tumanyan

• U8 Girls – Ada Etchells

• U10 Boys – Theo Wood (Shawbury Primary School)

• U10 Girls – Tanviha Rayini (Grange Park School)

• U12 Boys – Rudi Bedford (St George’s School)

• U14 Boys – Muhammad Qadri (Haberdasher’s Adams School)

• U18 Boys – Alex Loe (Ellesmere College) & Daniel Tumanyan

• U18 Girls – Izzy Heys

Meanwhile, Haberdasher’s Adams School chess team emerged as the victors of the inaugural Junior Team Chess Challenge qualifier at Ellesmere College. 

Teams consisted of four players in Year 7 or Year 8 and there were 10 teams entered from five different schools. After some really close games, the Adams team finished undefeated on 10/10 points. They will now travel to Nottingham in June for the national finals. 

Secondary schools across Shropshire will now be looking ahead to the Secondary School Chess Championships where they will look to be crowned county champions.

Additionally, in the Primary School Chess Championships the zonals stage is now complete and four schools have qualified for the grand final. 

Broseley Primary, St Laurence Primary, St George’s Primary and Newport Primary will face off next month to see who will be crowned Shropshire Primary Schools Chess Champion.