Eton

Hi all,

Yesterday KEGS sent a team and three reserves to the ECF Secondary School Rapidplay Chess Tournament at Eton College. Our team was composed entirely of Knight players and Robin came along as team captain. We were also accompanied by Mr Worrall, the Head of Music at KEGS, who has a keen interest in chess.

When we arrived we found out that to make the number of entries even we would have to produce a B Team. So our three reserves, along with Ben (who we made an honorary KEGS student) and two reserves from another team formed 'KEGS B'. Their results will be given as out of 4, because we did not pay attention to the scores of the reserves from the other team.

In the first round KEGS A were faced with the easiest match of the day, against Hampton School C from Surrey. Because our opponents were relatively weak, Elliot, who played as KEGS A Board 2 for the rest of the event, volunteered to join KEGS B, who had a much tougher match against Dulwich College from Kent. KEGS A won their match fairly easily 5-1, but unfortunately KEGS B lost 1-3, but it might have been 1.5-2.5 had Elliot's flag not fallen as he was about to agree a draw against a much higher rated opponent.

It was a reversal of opponents in the second round, as KEGS A faced Dulwich College (who seemed fairly surprised to be facing Elliot again) and KEGS B played Hampton School C. KEGS A narrowly won their match 3.5-2.5 after I just about managed to turn a completely lost position into a win on Board 1. It was a shame, however, that KEGS B lost 1-3 again.

In the third round KEGS A faced Mill Hill County High School from Middlesex and managed to win convincingly 4-2. KEGS B also did remarkably well, winning 4-0 against Bedales School, Hampshire.

Unfortunately KEGS A's winning streak was doomed to end in round four, when we were matched against last year's winners, Hampton School A. We were outgraded by over thirty points on every board and lost 1-5, with two draws from myself and Scott. However, it could have been 2.5-3.5 had Elliot's opponent not kept cool under huge time pressure and if I was able to convert my large advantage into a win. KEGS B, however, did well, scoring 2/4 against Wilson's School C from South London.

In the final round KEGS A came up against the Hall School from Central London, who were coached by none other than the reigning joint British Champion, IM Jonathan Hawkins. KEGS A did extremely well against reasonably strong opposition, scoring 4/6 and securing their fourth win out of five for the day. KEGS B also finished strongly, scoring 2/4 against Simon Langton Grammar School B from Kent.

Overall KEGS A scored 17.5/30, finishing joint 9th out of 37, a fantastic achievement. KEGS B also did well, scoring half points with 10/20 (counting the KEGS players).

The individual scores were:
Daniel (me): 4.5/5
Josh: 4/5
Scott: 3.5/5
Mernan: 3/5
Ben: 3/5
James: 2.5/5
Shagilan 2/5
Sharmen: 2/5
Elliot: 1.5/5
Samiran: 1.5/5

I would like to thank Robin for organising the trip, and Mr Worrall for accompanying us.

See you guys next Tuesday!

Daniel