Homefield Prep School – Success at the National Primary Schools Chess Championship

19 Feb 2016

Homefield took a large squad of 24 boys to compete in the first round of the National Primary Schools Chess Championships on Saturday 6th February.

The boys took part in the U9 and U11 divisions of the competition, held by the English Primary Schools Chess Association (EPSCA). The teams were divided up as follows:

U11 ‘A’: Josh, Atticus, Humayun, Aayush, Marcus, Josh H
U11’B’: Logan, Adam, Max, Simon, Pranav, Isaac
U9 ‘A’: Tarun, Keshav, Gavin, Kwame, Harry T, Justin H
U9 ‘B’: Sam, Idhant, Jijjith, Zavier, Sivan, Ben Hall

In what proved to be a hugely successful day for Homefield, all four teams qualified with relative ease for the EPSCA semi-finals. In the U11 age group, not only did the ‘A’ team take first place on the day by the narrowest of half points 0ver the hosting ‘A’ team, the ‘B’ team, which drew with the Homefield ‘A’ team, also scored enough points to qualify for the EPSCA semi-finals.

Not to be outdone by the older boys, the U9 teams incredibly finished 1st and 2nd, with the ‘B’ team in fact outshining their older school mates in the ‘A’ team, even though the individual match between the two was a draw. Both teams finished well ahead of Thames Ditton in 3rd and Yateley Manor ‘A’ in 4th as well as the other 10 teams after them.

With three out of the four teams entered returning home with medals and the other qualifying for the next stage of the tournament also, the day could not have gone much better for the Homefield boys. Well done to all of the boys who took part and a special thank you on all of their behalves to all the supportive parents, without whom these events would not run so smoothly.