\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSupplied photo<\/p>\n
The Manitoba Provincial Chess Championships was held on March 15 at the University of Manitoba. At the event, one player each from grades 1 to 12 was the winner in their respective grade categories, and they will now represent Manitoba at the upcoming national championships, which happen to be held in Winnipeg this year, in May.<\/p><\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n
Wolchock, who is studying mechanical engineering at the U of M, said spectators are allowed at the tournaments, although there are rules of etiquette to ensure crowd noise doesn’t disturb the players.<\/p>\n
The River Heights resident, who is also a Happy Math chess co-ordinator, said chess has many merits, not least because it gives one the opportunity for continued self-improvement.<\/p>\n
“It’s a problem-solving game … and once you start, you have these different things happening, such as patterns of play and end-game positions you can memorize,” Wolchock said.<\/p>\n
“Chess can be addicting, and you want to get better and better. There’s a constant will to play, and there’s also videos and books that are helpful.”<\/p>\n
He added that it’s not just about beating one’s opponent, but also as high a ranking as possible.<\/p>\n
Aiden Ling won the Grade 5 category — his fifth provincial win in five years.<\/p>\n
Ling said he’s looking forward to taking part in this year’s nationals on home soil.<\/p>\n
“Chess is a good way to exercise your brain, and a good way to calm down,” said Ling, 11, who lives in Bridgwater.<\/p>\n
“Sometimes, my way of calming down is to see other people’s games so I don’t have to stress as much about mine.”<\/p>\n
When it comes to his tactics during a game, Ling said it generally depends on his opponent, and he likes to mix it up, but he also does like to be on the offensive.<\/p>\n
Yuchen Li, the Grade 7 winner, said he was very happy with his performance at the provincials, and is looking forward to testing himself at nationals.<\/p>\n
“I’m a little bit nervous, as the players will be stronger, but I’m very excited to meet some stronger opponents,” said Li, 12, who lives in Fort Richmond.<\/p>\n
Li said he likes visualizing where his opponents are going to make their move and, depending on those moves, he likes to attack when he has the chance.<\/p>\n
He also has some good advice for chess players out there:<\/p>\n
“Never give up, not matter what kind of difficulty there is. There’s always hope.”<\/p>\n
Zelus Hui, who won in the Grade 8 category, is looking forward to demonstrating his chess skills on the national stage.<\/p>\n
“I am very excited for this tournament. I am not really nervous because the tournament is in Winnipeg this year, so I don’t have to go to another province,” said Hui, 13, who lives in Bridgwater, and now has three consecutive provincial wins under his belt.<\/p>\n
“I love playing chess because it makes me use my brain in a different way, and it helps with critical thinking. Chess is also really complicated; there is always something to learn after a game, whether you win or lose. And I also love to win in tournaments,” he added.<\/p>\n
Other winners in their respective age categories were:<\/p>\n
Grade 1 – Thomas Nguyen; Grade 2 – Isaac Goldschlager; Grade 3– Asher Jo; Grade 4: XiuWen (Elvis) Wang; Grade 6 – Bingqian (Matt) Feng; Grade 9 – Zixuan (Joe) Zhou; Grade 10 – Rhailey Dhiren Punay; Grade 11 – Cole Simpson; Grade 12 – Mason Bilugan.<\/p>\n
Visit www.scholasticchess.mb.ca for more information.<\/p>
It was a case of checkmate, in a positive sense, for a dozen young Manitobans at the recent provincial chess championships. The Manitoba Provincial Chess Championships were held March 15 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":600187134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_classifai_error":"","_classifai_text_to_speech_error":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,20],"tags":[],"education-subject":[],"media-literacy-topic":[],"post_topic":[],"content_type":[24],"class_list":["post-600187133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east","category-west"],"acf":{"short_title":"","seo_title":"","deck":"","story_tag":"","byline":"Simon Fuller STAFF REPORTER","updates":null},"apple_news_notices":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/east\/2026\/03\/25\/checkmate-2","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Checkmate!","url":"http:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/east\/2026\/03\/25\/checkmate-2","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/east\/2026\/03\/25\/checkmate-2"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/03\/4066491_web1_sf-provincial-chess-championship-supplied-march25.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/03\/4066491_web1_sf-provincial-chess-championship-supplied-march25.jpg"},"articleSection":"Free Press Community Review: East","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"laurieb"}],"creator":["laurieb"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Our Communities","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2026-03-25T07:01:11Z","datePublished":"2026-03-25T07:01:11Z","dateModified":"2026-03-25T19:17:11Z"},"rendered":"