Luca Buanne is the son of one of a long-lost member of the club who returned to the fold last year.
And already, Luca – having been introduced to us by his father Fabio – is showing big promise.
Over Christmas the 134-graded junior, another one of Battersea’s brilliant crop of youngsters, was crowned London and Southern Counties Chess Union (SCCU) Under 11 Champion.
It followed a grueling 9-round tournament played over three days in which Luca had to compete an age group up – but more than punched above his weight.
In the U12s, Luca finished an impressive fourth. It meant he was crowned U11 champion joining an illustrious list of previous winners including GM David Howell in 1999, IM Yang-Fan Zhou in 2004, and our own Koby Kalavannan in 2012.
Here’s Fabio, on his son’s performance: “Luca (an Under 11 boy) actually competed in the Under 12 section and was at some point leading the main tournament on 5.5/6 before finally placing 4th (out of 86 finalists) with an estimated grading performance of 160 ECF.
“His tournament highlights including a draw with the top seed James Merriman (grade 167) and inflicting the eventual winner of the tournament Edison Xu (grade 159) his only defeat (Edison won all his other matches and ended on a massive 8/9).”
