Chess

As most chess takes place in the first two school terms, only the tail-end of the 2019/20 season was impacted by Covid-19. Sadly, traditional ‘face-to-face’ chess then disappeared until September 2022, when the school chess league resumed.

2019/2020

In 2019/20 we continued to compete in the Briant Poulter Surrey Chess League, playing Whitgift, Langley Park (twice), Sutton Grammar (twice) and Wilson’s Grammar. Over this season Mackenzie (U6SPP) and Charles (9CMB) were our top players and featured in all matches, with both boys having excellent win/loss records. Our middle board players, Joe (U6PMM) and Zeeshan (10CDK), were also great assets to the team, both with very good records. On the lower boards, Sophie (L6JTB) continued to battle hard and should be applauded for being the only girl competing in the entire league. We were delighted to add two new Year 7 players to our squad, Gabriel (7HEB) and Karan (7CY), who both showed great promise for the future. Our final league player was Alex (U6PMM), who was also new to competitive chess.

There were also two House competitions, with Rodney and Howe tying first place in the senior event and Wellington winning the junior. Over the last two years Mackenzie (U6SPP) made a terrific contribution to Emanuel chess, and Joe (U6PMM) over the last season, which we are very grateful for; both Dr Dancy and I hope they continue to play chess whilst at university or online.

2020/2021

Covid-19 meant the 2020/21 season took a completely different complexion. All external school fixtures were cancelled and the bubble system meant we were not allowed to mix year groups, which made running our traditional chess clubs impossible. However, Dr Dancy moved chess online and pupils used the Lichess.org system for casual matches. Our most regular players were Karan (8PM), Gabriel (8LAB), Herbert (9REM), Charlie (10CMB) and Mr Lai of the Maths Department.

Between mass isolations and further lockdowns we also managed to get a face-to-face Year 7 Chess Club off the ground, which was met with great success and many committed players who never missed a session. Our regulars were Thomas (7HAB), Joshua (7MSH), Devin (7MM), Macsen (7MM), Rory (7AFK), Dougie (7MSH), Elsa (7AFK), Summer (7AFK), Corin (7AFK), Elgan (7MSH), and Jun (7MSH). Covid also made running House events complex as often large numbers of pupils were self-isolating, but we still managed to complete Year 7 and 8 events before Easter.

2021/2022

This was another season without competitive league chess, but this was replaced by a very wide range of House competitions, a Lower School Chess Club which met in the library, and a new Senior Chess Club. Overall there was a huge increase in the number of ‘casual’ players, particularly in Year 10 and 11 and we hope this will transfer to more serious players when we rejoin the league in September. Our top prospects amongst the junior players are Anand (8HV), Frederick (8SMR), Thomas (7AFH), Dougie (8MSH), Mia (7CJR), Titus (6USC), Thomas (6USC), Finlay (7AFH), Karan (9RCW), William (7AFH), Rory (8AFK) and Leonardo (7PM).The senior club kicked off later in the school year and we hope the likes of Miles (11JEH), Herbert (10REM), Verity (10HJC), Harry (11DGA), Konstantin (11RET), and Daniel (10SDG) make the jump to competitive chess next September.

Mr T Jones (Senior Librarian and Archivist)