Chess team win regional championship

The school chess team defeated St Olave's 3½–2½ in the last round of the regional championship of the Yateley Manor Cup (the foremost UK schools' Chess competition) and now move on as region winner to the next round.  To get past St Olave's on the age handicap system Eltham College had to score a minimum of 2 points. This was achieved even without Arul Gupta who had a previous engagement.

Young Harry Houillon from the Junior School was the first to declare a win after a relatively short match.  The remaining matches were far more intense and lasted for the best part of two hours.

Tom Morton had to concede after being out manoeuvred, unlike in the previous round where his victory was one of the two against Dulwich College which enabled Eltham to progress to this stage.

The encounters on the top two boards were fascinating with Alexei Davis and his opponent, a Sixth Former, not exchanging any pieces until well into the match.  Alexei finally used his two knights to brilliant effect on a tight board where knights were of more value the two bishops of his opponent.  In the end his opponent ran out of time and had to concede.

Conor Murphy was matched against another Sixth Former and was given a hard time by a very accomplished opponent.  After queens and several other pieces were exchanged in rapid succession, it came down to the kings and a single pawn and Conor finally accepted his opponent’s resignation.

In the remaining fixtures Sachin Balaji lost his match and Alexander Selway drew.

This was a commendable effort from the team as on 5 of the 6 board we were outranked.