Chess: King’s make their move into the next round

On 25 November, the King’s Chess team visited Bolton School for the first round of the National School’s U19 Chess competition.

There is an active Chess Club every Wednesday lunchtime at King’s and, in previous years, the team has enjoyed great success in this competition, travelling to the Uppingham final on two recent occasions.

Two years of Covid disruption means that the current team is relatively untested and they knew that tough opposition, such as Manchester Grammar School and Cheadle Hulme School, awaited them. However, the team, consisting of Captain Sam Burchett (4BRA), Harry Rafferty (3GLA), Tanmay Madhusudhan (SHGRO), Thomas Honey (RMRW), Lucas Potrykus (SHFOX) and Toby Jones (3DUT) faced the challenge with confidence.

The first game saw a closely fought loss for King’s but they came back in the second game to beat Gateacre School B team 6-0. After a nail-biting draw saw them face the much tougher Gateacre A team, King’s won again and qualified for the zone finals next year.

Sam Burchett, team captain, enjoyed playing competitively again and praised his teammates. 

He said: “It was a good experience for the younger players to win in a formal competition and we’re looking forward to the next round.”

Good luck to the team in the zone finals.