Yarm School UK Chess Challenge

All photos © Mr Grundmann

Yarm School UK Chess Challenge

The UK Chess Challenge is played in hundreds of schools throughout the United Kingdom and is the world’s biggest chess tournament.

We held the the initial part of the tournament last week and attracted 63 entries - very nearly one for each square of the chess board.

Our very competitive children - all the way from Y2 to Y6 - were in action over the course of a very busy day as they challenged for titles and Megafinal qualification.

Our Y2s have been working hard on their chess every Monday since September and this was their first tournament. They all coped very well with the extra rules required for tournament play. Noah Coulman became the new Y2 champion and Natasha Pointon was the Best Girl.

Seth Holland was on tremendous form and won all of his games to win the Y3 section. Niamh Boddy and Isobel McGlade shared the Best Girl place.

Another maximum score was achieved in the Y4 section, with Ajay Selvan storming through to win every single one of his seven games. Grace Crawford kept up her remarkable run of tournament successes when she secured the Best Girl spot.

The combined Y5 and Y6 section featured our most experienced players and was very tough indeed. Henry Parker won the Y5 section and Eleanor Lamb was Best Girl. Meanwhile, Ammar Soni - who has already captained the school team to HMC success and his Arkwright team to the House Chess title - played to his usual high standard and won the Y6 section. Samantha Botterill and Keya Shah shared the Best Girl title. Indeed, they had to play each other in the final round and drew but it wasn’t a bloodless encounter; they fought on until just the two kings were left!

All of the above-named players have now qualified for the prestigious Megafinal, which will take place at the Yarm Senior School on Saturday 6 May.

Joining them will be Aryan Nalawade, Frankie Parker, Ben Meager, Yusuf Syed and Adhi Dinakaran, all whom reached the magic tally of 17 points or more to earn qualification for the Megafinal.

Congratulations to everyone who was there on the day. It was a magnificent day of chess.