Christ Church was the defending champion and held high ambitions prior to the start of this year’s tournament, despite fielding a team comprised of comparatively young players. The boys representing Christ Church were Liam Kearney (Year 8), Matthew Wozniuk (Year 9), Christopher Doukakis (Year 9) and Bo An Lu (Year 12).

By the close of the first days' play, Christ Church were in a commanding lead, having played four other schools and beating Hale, the team who posed the greatest threat to the School last year. Confidence was high as the boys realised all they had to do was defeat Trinity and Scotch on the second day in order to record victory.

Unfortunately, complacency got the better of us as Trinity produced an outstanding result to defeat Christ Church three to one. This put Hale and Christ Church on 3.5 points each whereas Scotch had taken a surprising lead with 4.5 points going into the last round. Hale had a bye so the real contest was between Christ Church and Scotch. The reality of the situation was that a Christ Church win would level the competition on points, but a count back of individual results meant Scotch had the edge unless we could manage a four to nil clean sweep. The pressure was certainly on.

The Christ Church boys were up for the challenge and began well with Kearney and Doukakis recording quick wins. Wozniuk and Lu also had the upper hand in their games, though the margin was tight. Lu made an audacious bid in his game to sacrifice his bishop, but the plan backfired. Despite Wozniuk’s win, Scotch eased to victory by the tightest of margins. Individual results for our boys over both days of competition were:

• Kearney won five and lost one
• Lu won two, drew one and lost three
• Doukakis won five and lost one

• Wozniuk won two and lost four

The fact that finishing runners up behind Scotch serves to demonstrate that our boys are extremely capable and ambitious. With younger boys coming through the ranks the future for inter-school chess tournaments is certainly bright for Christ Church.

Dominic Hodnett
TEACHER IN CHARGE OF CHESS