On Thursday 16th November, 12 members of the Chess Club travelled to Woodbridge for the first round of the English Schools Chess Championships. In order to progress to the next round the A Team, captained by Arthur Dannatt, and B Team, captained by Himash Amarawickrama, each had to win at least 2 out of 3 matches. The A Team got off to the perfect start with a 6-0 victory. Wins by Edward Lott, Joschka Molenaar and Ansh Thakur saw them progress to face a very strong Woodbridge Team in the second round. The Woodbridge team had just beaten our B Team comfortably, despite some stiff resistance from Himash on Board 1 and Merlin Perrow on Board 2, against players graded much higher themselves.
In the second match, Jay Ambadkar drew his game but the rest of the team lost out in tight battles, meaning they had to win their final match against Benjamin Britten to progress. The B’s beat Benjamin Britten 5-1, with good wins for George Tooley, Ahmed Mohammed and Luca Patacconi.
In the final round both teams had to win to progress. The A’s did so in style, winning 6-0, including second wins of the day from Daniel Windsor and Jay Ambadkar, making Jay our only undefeated player. The B’s were also victorious against Great Yarmouth and a win from Eugene Mak meant all our players won games and contributed to both teams qualifying for the next round in the New Year. Good Games all round.
