Wellington National Schools Chess Champions Two years in a row!
The 2010 Final of the ECF National Schools Championship sponsored by Yateley Manor took place at Uppingham School over 2 days at the beginning of July. Wellington College won a hard fought tournament and repeated their success of 2009. On the way to their win they overcame strong opponents from RGS Guildford, Winchester College, Manchester Grammar School and The Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School.
Wellington qualified for the Finals by wining their division; however they were well tested in the divisional stages by schools with strong reputations in this tournament most notably RGS Guildford, past winners, who met Wellington in the second round of the division. The score line of 5-1 did not reflect how close the teams really were.
In the National stages Wellington first met Torquay Grammar School who very sportingly agreed to travel to Wellington. Torquay have an excellent history in this tournament and Wellington had to turn around a couple of bad positions to win the match 4.5 - 1.5.
The next match was the Quarter finals where Wellington travelled away to Winchester College. The team were on the best form of the year and won the fixture convincingly 5-1. This meant Wellington had now qualified for the Semi Finals, and hopefully the Finals, scheduled to take place in early July at Uppingham School.
This year external exams disrupted the team's preparation. All bar one of the students was involved in major exams. Last year the team prepared thoroughly for the finals with friendlies against Crowthorne and Local GMs. This year each player had to be responsible for their own preparation.
In the Semi-Finals Wellington faced Manchester Grammar. Although Manchester were without three of their first team they fielded a young side that meant that Wellington would have to score more points to win under the handicap rules. An early loss soon put the Wellington team under pressure in a match that should have been a straight forward win given the grade difference between the two sides. Adrian Archer Lock was the first to put points on the board for Wellington and he was soon followed up by Felix Ynojosa and Matthew Kim. At 3- 1 and needing just 0.5 of a point to secure the match; Akash Jain and Alex Galliano both offered draws to their opponents which meant that Wellington would win the match if they accepted. Given the position of both of their matches this was an understandable result and a sporting gesture of the Manchester players which allowed Akash and Alex to finish early.
Over night Wellington met to discuss the selection of their team. They were due to meet The Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School in the Final. Habs had a very strong board six in the shape of Ravi Haria and it was felt that both Matthew Kim and David Lee would find it difficult to gain a result. The team were unanimous in deciding to lower the team's average age so that they could complete on level terms. This brought David Lee in for the second time in the season.
In the final the match was hard fought all the way. Lateefah secured an early half point and was soon followed by wins from Felix Ynojosa and Alex Galliano. At 2.5 -0.5 Habs pulled one back through board six this meant that Wellington needed only half a point to win. Adrian Archer Lock was ahead both on the clock and on the board in a complicated position, but knowing he needed to secure the win as Akash was fighting in his game added extra pressure. In the end the Habs player ran out of time and the match was won. Akash made the score up to 4-2 with a draw in his game.
The top two performers were Adrian Archer Lock on board five and Felix Ynojosa on board one who both finished up with 2 out of 2. Felix has now played in the team for two years on Board 1 and has returned a 100% record! Many thanks go to both GM Nick Pert and IM Andrew Martin who coached the players in the team during the year.
Team: Felix Ynojosa, Alex Galliano, Akash Jain, Lateefah Messam Sparks, Adrian Archer Lock, Matthew Kim, David Lee.
