The spring term has been an exciting one for the chess players at Westbourne. We’ve had over forty children involved in the preliminary round of the Delancey UK Chess Challenge which is one of the largest junior chess tournaments in the world. The beauty of the event is that it welcomes all-comers from beginners to national champions and schools from all corners of the United Kingdom take part. Players can qualify for the Megafinal, the onto to the Gigafinals and ultimately the Terafina (which features the top 2% chess players in the UK).
The initial round is an intra-school event and is played over eight weeks. Players are given an introduction into a key learning skill and then play someone who is (more or less) at the same level. Players qualify for the next round (where they will play children from other schools) if they achieve a certain number of points. The standard of chess, which is sometimes reflected in the length of the games, improved over the term. In the end, around 12 or so children qualified for the Megafinal and the best of luck to those players.
We also hosted our chess fixture this term and the quartet of Alfie R, Charlie K, Natasha K and Marcus B-S faced tough competition from Windlesham and Seaford in the first round of the Butlers’ Cup. We managed a commendable three wins in our 12 games and pride of place goes to Charlie who chalked up two of them.
There will be plenty of matches next term in the two main chess competitions (Butlers' and Primary Cup) and the after-school chess club is going from strength to strength, so keep sharpening up those chess skills!
