CSC Teesside at the London Chess Classic (2)

As mentioned earlier, a party of CSC Teesside juniors and their parents travelled up to London at the end of December to participate in the 2015 London Chess Classic.

The expedition was made possible thanks to generous donations from the Michael John Norwood Memorial Trust, Chess in Schools and Communities, Ings Farm Primary School and Westgarth Primary School.

We now continue our coverage of the event, in the words of Tom, who won a silver medal following an outstanding performance at the tournament.

All photos included in this report are © Fay Anderson and are reproduced by kind permission.

Tom's Chess Blog

Day 1

I got up at 6:30 a.m., we had to go really fast to the train station or we were going be late. We got to the train station and the others were waiting for it to come, which was a relief that we weren't late.

Then when we got on the train Mr Marsh waved us off. 

Photo © Fay Anderson

On the train everyone was mostly playing on an electronic device. I was on an iPhone 3 which was not really that much fun because I had no games only some songs and the battery only lasted 11 minutes. When we got off the train, we were in London (specifically King's Cross Station). 

We then went to the hotel, to our rooms. When we got to our rooms a lot of us (me, Gracie and Fin) played tig/hide 'n' seek. When we were playing Fin and Gracie decided to team up on me (this situation always happens to me for some reason) so I hid behind one of the doors up in the hallways and they couldn't find me. 

Photo © Fay Anderson

Then we went out to T.G.I Friday's for tea and then we went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Me and Caitlin were talking about how Willy Wonka looked like a friend at school when she goes crazy. After that we went back and went to the hotel to sleep.

Day 2

We got up on the morning, we went down stairs to go and have breakfast. We went to get a croissant and there was Chloe burning one of them. Next we took the tube to the Chess Tournament. 

Photo © Fay Anderson

When we got there there was a tutor (former winner) who only taught us some tricks and I can't remember his name but I think he was Russian. 

Photo © Fay Anderson

So it was time to go into the tournament and we started playing games. But before we did any of that we had to tell them our school so we chose Westgarth and it took them a while to know we were Markse and Redcar schools together, then they finally knew. 

Photo © Fay Anderson

When we played our games I came across this dead cocky boy and he tried to show off that he is all good and I wrecked him. 

When we were all finished we met back up to compare our scores. I got 14/15. Then they called out the medals and I was second, (Silver medal). Then when I got my silver medal I got a picture with a pawn and a bishop chess pieces. 

We all went out for tea to Five Guys, which is the best burger place ever. Whilst we were eating were all at five guys Caitlin and her mam were still at the chess tournament, they stayed to watch all the Grand Masters play. Then we returned to King's Cross station and went home on the train.

Thank you, Tom!

More reports on the London experience will follow soon...