Last Thursday sixteen pupils and Mr Owens played chess against Grand Master, Matthew J Turner.

We were all seated at tables arranged in a square, while he walked in the middle, moving from table to table. As soon as he arrived at your table, you had to play your move, at which point he played almost immediately, then moved on to the next player. That meant that you had some time to plan your move while he played against the other players - but not long, as he went around the room at quite a speed.

There was a great sense of fun about the event - there wasn’t a deadly silence as you might expect but lots of laughter in the room. Some of us managed to hold out for a while, but one by one we lost our games.

Some quotes from pupils:

"Whatever I tried to do, it was as if he knew exactly what I was planning."

"He demolished me!"

"I learned that it’s a good idea to hold back from taking pieces."

"I thought I had managed a good defence, but he came around the other side and took all my pieces."

"He made a move that seemed ordinary enough, but as I was thinking about how to respond I realised that I had almost no options left."

Mr Turner teaches at Millfield School and we look forward to playing against their chess team in the near future.  

Thomas Owens - Teacher of Mathematics

Flickr album: Chess Grand Master Challenge - 6th February 2020 | Height: auto | Theme: Default