The English Schools Chess Championship Qualifier was held at King’s...

Flickr album: English Schools Chess Championship Qualifier - 9th November 2023 | Height: auto | Theme: Default | Skin: Default Skin

On Thursday 9^th November, we held a regional qualifier for the English Schools Chess Championship at King’s. Four teams took part: one from King’s, one from Millfield and two from Queen Elizabeth's Hospital School in Bristol. The six pupils from King’s were Ludo, Fred, Gabriel, Luke, Zak and Niko. It was great to see a mix of all ages represented by our pupils, from those who were playing for the School for the first time to those who are veterans of previous competitions.

In the first round, King’s were playing the QEH C Team (their A and B Teams took part in another competition) and managed to achieve a very creditable draw (3 of our players won their games, 3 of our players lost their games). In the second round King’s played the QEH D Team. Perhaps we let our guard down a little - this proved a more difficult round and we ended up losing: 4 games to 2. The final round saw us playing the favourites, Millfield. We lost this: 5 games to 1.

The outcome is that we narrowly missed out on an opportunity to qualify to the national round, but it was still a great experience for the players.

Men of the match: Zak and Niko with 2 wins each. Honourable mention must go to Gabriel who beat a Millfield player with an English Chess Federation ranking of 1592 - a very serious opponent. For comparison, the highest ECF ranking achieved by a King’s pupil to date is 1430 points by 5^th Former Robert.

Tomi Owens - Chess Master

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