Last Friday, the Wilson’s chess team travelled up to Nottingham for a two-day event: the National Schools’ Chess Finals. The team comprised Rahul, Shivam, Shlok, Denis, Raghav, Balahari and me. This was by far the most prestigious competition we would take part in all year, as only the top 26 schools across England were able to qualify. However, we weren’t put off by this as we were confident we had a great opportunity to add to our silverware cabinet. Altogether, the competition consisted of five rounds, with each player having 50 minutes plus 10 seconds per move every round.

The first day started off with a very early 7.30am start, as the journey to Nottingham was roughly three hours long. After our arrival just after noon, the rounds began. We did very well in the first three rounds, where we beat the first two schools (Millfield school and RGS Guildford) 6-0 and 5-1 respectively, before just missing out on the match against Hampton where we lost 3.5-2.5. To conclude the first day, we had pizza for dinner, before we drove to our hotel.

After a good night’s sleep and a full English breakfast, we started off with the 4th round. We managed to beat Haberdasher’s 4-2, putting us in 4th place. However, we didn’t let that intimidate us as we pulled a massive 5-1 victory over Exeter maths school in the 5th round, and so just like Arsenal, we ended up in second place, winning us a shield to take home. Special mentions go to Shlok (5/5), Balahari (4/4) and Denis (4/4). But most of all, thank you to Mr Stobie-Jones and Mrs Higgs for accompanying the team.

All results and games can be found here.

Henry (Year 12)