Sixteen schools descended on the Maths Department at Imperial College on Wednesday, 19 April for this year’s national final of the ECF Team Chess Challenge. Teams came from across the country with players travelling from as far as Merseyside, Northumberland, Somerset and Bristol.

In the morning, GM Prof Jonathan Mestel of Imperial College gave a masterclass on Chess Problem Solving, not only illustrating the pitfalls but also some of the important endings to know for normal chess play.

The chess tournament started after lunch with five rounds being played at a rate of play of 10 minutes with a two-second increment. With this rate of play the arbiter, Chris Howell, was kept busy with time scrambles!

The winner of the tournament is determined by game points, rather than match points, and so, with every game counting, each was important. It also leads to the leading teams meeting early in the tournament, so in round 3 the top two seeds fought a close match, with Wilson’s beating Sevenoaks 2.5 to 1.5.

Round 4 saw the reigning champions, Wilson’s School, lose to last year’s runners up, Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH), Bristol. The final round therefore started with Wilson’s, QEH and Tiffin School all equal on 11.5 points with North Liverpool Academy only half a point behind.

This was the first year that North Liverpool Academy had entered the tournament, but they defeated QEH by 3 – 1 to ensure a top two finish. However, Wilson’s beat Tiffin by 3.5 – 0.5 and so we were delighted to retain the championship. Congratulations to all involved!

Leading results: