This year’s Welsh Secondary Schools’ Chess Championships were held at the end of November at St.John’s College in Cardiff and proved to be a very happy hunting ground for both our A and B teams, who put in their best set of results in almost 4 years!
The competition was open to all schools in Wales and on this occasion three teams of four players travelled from Monmouth. The A team, captained by Nyasha, was unbeaten over seven rounds, seeing off the challenge of St.John’s & 2014 Champions Bishop of Llandaff, with Jamie, Max and Michael in fine form. The toughest challenge was Howell’s, who had a team comprised of four girls who had recently been selected to represent Wales at the World Youth Chess Championships in Greece. This nail-biting match was drawn 2-2, but the tie-break system of game points placed Howell’s a point ahead. Monmouth School thereby came 2nd.
Meanwhile the B team, captained by James, on his birthday, proved to be tough opponents all day – thanks to Edward and William and top scorer Jack. Overall the B team was placed 6th, one place ahead of the C team. Captained by Will the team included the considerable talents of Ben, George and Mattias.
Chess teacher Kevin Thomas said today: “This was the best day for Monmouth School chess since 2011, when we ended an era when we had won the trophy eight times in nine years. Until Saturday we had not come close to winning it again. The boys were a joy to be with & their standards of chess were incredibly high, especially considering that it is so long since several of them picked up a chess piece in anger. Special mention must be made for Nyasha who won all his games in buccaneering fashion on Board 1 & was without doubt the star individual performer in the competition.”
Well done to all.
