Chess Update - December 2024
Last Tuesday, we hosted six schools for a qualifying event for the regional stage of the National School Chess Championships (NSCC). Our A and B team faced local rivals Trinity and Whitgift and one of our older and most formidable rivals, St Olave’s, in a rapid time format of 15+3. The A team consisted of Rahul, Shivam, Balahari, Arnav and Akshay, while the B team consisted of Raghav, Vedant, Michael, Antony, Fenu and Aahan.
With almost a full-strength line-up on both teams, we were confident going into the tournament and this was shown as both teams won the first round with a perfect 12-0, 12-0 score. In the next round, we prepared ourselves for tougher games as we were playing other teams who also won with a high margin in their first round. The A team played St Olave’s while the B team played Whitgift and both teams had strong players on the higher boards, some rated over 2000. Despite this, the A team scored a perfect 12-0 victory once again.
The B team had a very-close match with points on the table for both sides leaving the final games in time pressured positions. However, after maintaining the pressure and finding tactics at the right time, we won the match - edging Whitgift by just half a point. As the next round started almost immediately after the last game, we didn’t realise that both the A and B team crossed the qualification threshold and had qualified for the Regionals with a round to spare!
In the final round, the roles were reversed as the A team played Whitgift, while the B team played St Olave’s, bringing another series of close games. The A team, despite not being able to keep our winning streak, achieved a decisive victory over Whitgift, while following a series of back-and-forth games, the B team ended in a 6-6 draw against St Olave’s. The A and B team finished first and second overall, and we were very pleased with the final result and the Regionals qualification – we hope to maintain this consistent performance to qualify for the National Finals.
Special thanks to Mr Haleem and Mr Dixon for organising and running the event!
Report by Raghav (Year 12)